Windows Home Server FAQ

From reading over at wegotserved forums lately. Sometimes it is an issue with .Net 4 which I guess needs to be installed manually since the connector software installer doesn't install it even though it says it will.

You might look through those threads over there to try some of the various tricks people found that helped. No experience with 2011 yet so can't help directly.

Their subforum on connector software installs.
 
I've read through those and have done the windows update of .Net install then uninstall and then manual install. Everyone seems to be pointing back to the services.
 
How much of a hassle am I looking at by moving my drives to a new motherboard? I just want to get the thing up and running long enough to copy my data to externals. I have a good backup, but will not be going forward with WHS v1 anymore.
 
Well, I have successfully transplanted my complete WHSv1 install without even needing to reinstall the OS. I needed to re-activate, though.

Mind you, I was doing a rather "safe" transplant: from a 945G-based motherboard to a G31-based one. So, pretty much the same drivers all around. However, I believe WHSv1 is somewhat akin to the Vista and 7 installations. Not fully image-based, but something in between image and standard XP-era installation, which could be the reason I was able to migrate so easily.

If you're migrating from Intel to Intel, since most of the drivers are shared nowadays, you might be able to pull it off: make sure the VGA, chipset and storage drivers are updated (disregard this last one if you're using standard standard Windows IDE drivers) and simply plug everything to the new motherboard.

If that doesn't work, I believe you need to do a server reinstall with only the OS drive plugged in. It should then be able to seamlessly recognize all the drives and contents when you plug them in.

Do keep in mind, though, that WHSv1-formatted HDDs have standard NTFS partitions. You should be able to simply extract the files you want from the drive to a new place, basically bypassing the need for a server reinstall.

In any case, and depending on just how much data you have, be prepared for a LOOOONG wait, especially if you're doing it over Ethernet. SATA, eSATA or USB3 are your friends, ~60MBps average transfer speeds are rather lousy when you can get more than that from the HDDs themselves (btw, you can move files up to Gigabit speeds, or 100MBps+, but that's generally only when you hit the target machine's maximum RAM size, at which point transfer speed tanks until the cache is depleted).

Hope this helps.
 
Drive Bender hit RC1 this week. People participating in the beta get to purchase it for $20. I haven't tried the latest version but it should be a good alternative to Drive Extender under WHS 2011.
 
Ok, so I have WHS2011 installed (as yet unactivated) to check it out with all my hardware and have run some perf tests and burn-in, just to make sure it's all happy, and it is. I let it initialize all the raid 5 (two days!), loaded all the 64-bit drivers, yadda, yadda...

So in preparing to reload the OS for a fresh install, is there any up front concerns, actions to be taken, must have tweaks or software, etc. I need to know about before I put it online and active?

Here is the hardware:
GA-EP45T-USB3P Mobo
16gb G.Skill ripjaws DDR3-1333 CL7 (can only see 8 in OS? sux!)
2x 300gb WD Velociraptors in RAID 1 for OS
5x 2tb WD RE-4 in RAID 5 for Storage
2x 500gb WD IDE (just because I could)
LG BD Burner
Intel Pro dual port 1GigE NIC
XFX 5200 GT 256mb Video
Sabrent 1.44mb Floppy + Card reader

I have too many old computers lying around so will have to be judicious on which ones I put the client software on.

I plan to rip all my bluray, dvd and cd's to the storage and pull them off from home devices on my local network (cpu, htpc, networked TV w/DLNA, my ZuneHD, etc. and across the web to my smart phone, which will be a Bionic or Nexus.

So just as far as the server goes, anything I should be thinking about?

TIA
 
does 2011 install on 2003/2008? I have WHS1 backing up my 2008/2003 servers and home pcs :) i stop backup solution!
 
does 2011 install on 2003/2008? I have WHS1 backing up my 2008/2003 servers and home pcs i stop backup solution!

NO, only WHS1 will backup those server OS's, WHS2 will give an " unsupported sku " error.
 
Does WHS11 work with 4k drives? I saw the warning on the front page but hard to dig in.
 
I just tried to do a restore and it wouldn't boot the install.

128gb SD to a 640GB WD Black

I have no clue after going thru the restore why it wouldn't boot.
 
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