WHS Woes (Part 2)

compslckr

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So my trial of WHS is expiring in a few days, so I bought a copy of WHS from newegg with hopes of a simple reninstall from the dvd using the "reinstall" option.

Specs are in my Sig.

When I boot up the dvd, all my drives are listed (4 SATA and 1 ATA that acts as the system drive). I hit next and the only option that is offered is "New Installation: this will erase all data on all drives"

Problem is, I don't want to erase all data and I don't have a large enough secondaty storage array to back it all up.

Any ideas of how to get the "reinstall" option to work?

Thanks,
Zac
 
You don't have to reinstall at all. Run the activation wizard and supply the key from your new copy. Activate and enjoy!

The trial version is the same as the full thing but running without a key supplied. You can do the same thing (trial for 30 days) installing from your new install disks, but not supplying a key.
 
if you run the activation wizard (like you would from xp using %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a)

it says windows is already activated. Is there a way to "unactivate" it so I can use my new legit key?

Thanks,
Zac

Edit: The trial does run with a key that was supplied by MS. it was the 120 day trial.
 
Alright, I tried the two ideas above and neither worked (first one said must be used on windows xp) second one said "unexpected error"

Tried deleting wpa.dba and wpa.old

This deactivated windows and I got excited.

I typed in my new product key, clicked next and it said that it was already in use. so i called MS and they gave me the activation code. I rebooted and was prompted with "trial expires in 17 days, please purchase full version to continue use" or something like that.

I wish that "reinstall" would just show up when i boot off the dvd. what the heck.

My next step is to install WHS on a clean new drive with my storage pool disconnected, then connect the storage drives and try doing a "renistall" over the new installation.

This is frustrating, I loved WHS up until this point. I wish I just bought it when I decided to try it out :(
 
I cannot think of a reason why the reinstall option is not showing up.
In the installer does it see all of your drives?
 
This is what I do. Backup everything you can to external drives. I know you can't move everything off but do as much as you can.

Then I tell WHS to remove a drive from the pool. As many as I can without losing data. Then I manually copy and paste data from my shares to the drives that are "removed".

As those drives empty and remove them and transfer more data over and once that's done I just do a new installation on the new drive. Then I add a drive to the pool and copy data over from a drive not in the pool. Then I add it and so on.
 
This is what I do. Backup everything you can to external drives. I know you can't move everything off but do as much as you can.

Then I tell WHS to remove a drive from the pool. As many as I can without losing data. Then I manually copy and paste data from my shares to the drives that are "removed".

As those drives empty and remove them and transfer more data over and once that's done I just do a new installation on the new drive. Then I add a drive to the pool and copy data over from a drive not in the pool. Then I add it and so on.

Theres no point in doing that.

Remove all the drives you can
Disconnect all the drives except the drive you removed from the storage pool.
Install WHS to that drive
Reconnect the data drives and move data to the pool.
As one drive becomes empty add it to the pool
 
The problem with that is the data on the drives would be a mess. With no rhyme or reason. That is why the data must first be transferred off the drives.

If you simply unplugged the drives with data and connected them after WHS has been installed to another drive that data is unorganized. It would take forever to sort it out.
 
no its still orgranize

pull a live data drive out right now and go connect it to another windows machine. All the data will be in their respective folders. But only the data on that drive will be there so you wont see everything
 
no its still orgranize

pull a live data drive out right now and go connect it to another windows machine. All the data will be in their respective folders. But only the data on that drive will be there so you wont see everything

I have done it, the data is a mess.

I will have music on my music folder, sure, but there are several music folders across all the drives and each contains alittle bit more of my music. No one drive has all of the data.

My movies share is 1.6tb in size, the data alone is across multiple drives.
 
weird, changing the key should work. I've done it dozens of times on XP.
 
I guess xp uses different security scheme or something.

I ordered a 1tb drive, so I think I will try installing WHS on that drive with no other drives connected, then connect all the other drives and try a "reinstall" and see if that works.

If that fails I should be able to get all my data onto the 1tb drive and one of my 640gb drives. That way i can wipe the other disks and start clean with WHS installed on one of the 640gb drives and 3 other 640gb drives and a 1tb for storage.

The 80gb I have the OS on now seems to be dying slowly, it makes quite a bit of noise etc, so I don't want to risk using it again since I have to do a reinstall anyways I will just upgrade the OS drive to one of my 640gbs.

What a pain in the neck.
 
I am back up and running (and now have an additional 2tb in my storage pool...

Bought 2 1tb WD Black drives
Copied all files over to them
Formatted original storage pool
Fresh Install of WHS on one of the 640gb drives
Add 3 other 640gb drives to storage pool
copy files off the less full 1tb drive
add 1 1tb drive to storage pool
copy all files from other 1tb drive to storage pool
add other 1tb drive to storage pool
balance storage
...
profit


A complete time-waster and pain in the ass, but I really enjoy using WHS and there was no other solution that I could think of. And, on the plus side I got 2 extra Tb of storeage pool space out of the deal :)
 
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