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Restore from WHS backup - can't see Server

boomerang

boomerang

Lifer
I'm a little confused on this one. I'm moving to a larger HD on a laptop. I backed up the old drive to WHS. The drive has been replaced and I boot from the Restore CD.

It goes through its gyrations and the onboard LAN is recognized, but the WHS cannot be found. So, I downloaded the LAN drivers for the laptop and copied them to a flash drive. The flash drive is recognized, the drivers are found and processed. The process continues and the WHS still cannot be found.

From another PC, I mount the backup and copy the folders from the Windows Home Server Drivers for Restore folder to the flash drive and the process repeats identically. The LAN hardware is always recognized, drivers are always found and processed but the WHS can never be found.

This is a one year old Toshiba laptop and I was actually surprised that the WHS restore CD recognizes the LAN hardware. Thinking that it perhaps was not recognized correctly, or with incorrect drivers, I install current drivers, but the WHS is still not seen.

What am I overlooking?
 
I had that happen on one of my systems when I tried a test run of WHS recovery. The onboard LAN was recognized but the server still couldn't be found. I tried the drivers from WHS's stash, no difference.

I ended up using a different NIC, and had to provide drivers from Intel's site (use the .ZIP version, not .EXE), but it did work.
 
In my experience, the WHS restore routines work quite well. But there have been occasional reports of network hardware or driver issues.

One workaround mentioned occasionally is to insert the hard drive targeted for the restore process INTO ANOTHER COMPUTER. Boot that computer to the WHS Client Restore CD, install the drivers appropriate for the NIC and disk controller that are in this new PC, and do the restore to the hard drive.

When the restore is finished, remove the hard drive and insert it back into the original PC before booting. All the appropriate drivers will already be loaded onto the hard drive from the Restore process, so the restored disk will work fine even though the restore was done in another PC.
 
RebateMonger said:
In my experience, the WHS restore routines work quite well. But there have been occasional reports of network hardware or driver issues.

One workaround mentioned occasionally is to insert the hard drive targeted for the restore process INTO ANOTHER COMPUTER. Boot that computer to the WHS Client Restore CD, install the drivers appropriate for the NIC and disk controller that are in this new PC, and do the restore to the hard drive.

When the restore is finished, remove the hard drive and insert it back into the original PC before booting. All the appropriate drivers will already be loaded onto the hard drive from the Restore process, so the restored disk will work fine even though the restore was done in another PC.
Click to expand...
I may be able to pull this off if the interface is the same on the HD on my other laptop. I'll report back for informational purposes.
 
I had a problem recently doing a restore and found there was an updated restore.iso. Once I used the newer restore, it worked liked it was supposed to. It is a dual boot restore for those machines with more or less than 512 megs of memory.
 
I have had the same problem. I believe it was the Realtek NICs giving me problems, it would find the hardware and claim to have a driver but it wouldn't work. Had to download an older driver I think. I think the gigabit NDIS one was the problematic one.

Another problem is that it uses NetBIOS, try typing the IP in or connecting through a switch.
 
I used RebateMonger's method and it worked very well. Curiously, the NIC was identified identically on the laptop I installed the drive in temporarily but I did not install additional drivers and the Server was found immediately.

I'm not going to try to decipher the root of the problem, I'm just going to run with the results I've gotten. I'm too busy right now.

Thanks to everyone for the great advice and suggestions. Every post contained good stuff.
 
Glad you got your system restored.

I've got a TON of Realtek-NIC-bearing motherboards and I haven't run across the "Server Not Found" error. But you aren't the first person who's had this problem with Realtek NICs.
 
The thing to remember is that you need to load the Vista 32bit version of your NIC driver. Which is what the WHS restore disc application is based on.

I've also had the issue with a Realtek onboard NIC. It looks like it detects it but you really need to load the new driver. Stick the Vista drivers on a USB thumb drive and have it search for drivers and should work fine at that point.

I'm not sure but it could possibly be related to naming your WHS something other than Server (like in my case).
 
I've had that happen, and it was because I was using an incorrect (non-current) version of the restore CD. I also use Vista drivers for Windows 7 stuff. Doesn't seem to like Win7 drivers for some reason.
 
Fullmetal Chocobo said:
I've had that happen, and it was because I was using an incorrect (non-current) version of the restore CD. I also use Vista drivers for Windows 7 stuff. Doesn't seem to like Win7 drivers for some reason.
Click to expand...

I too have had to grab the latest restore CD for a restore to work.
 
I used the latest restore CD .ISO from Microsoft myself. It would be interesting to try the IP-address approach. If I do, I'll post what the result was.
 
mechBgon said:
I used the latest restore CD .ISO from Microsoft myself. It would be interesting to try the IP-address approach. If I do, I'll post what the result was.
Click to expand...
Judging by those who've reported "Can't Find Server" errors in the past, it doesn't seem like name resolution is the usual problem. But, heck, let us know what you find.
 
I too just had this issue with a realtek on my new p55a-ud3 board I just rebuilt. I did the driver search told the server where to find it and it still did not work. Made a new iso from the software folder on the server and still did not work.

Got frustrated about it taking longer to trouble shoot this then to reinstall and reconfigure everything, so ended up reinstalling as I never got it to find the server. Very disappointing a targeted consumer level device is so unfriendly.
 
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