Restoring a Win7 PC with WHS (old version)

[Perryg114]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with restoring a Win 7 PC using Windows Home Server (the old version) restore utility. I copied the drivers from the backup directory to a thumb drive and it finds that just fine but it does not seem to be loading the drivers properly for the ethernet port. I don't know of any other way to load the backup other than downloading it through the network. None of the activity lights come on, on the switch so the drivers are not loaded.

Perry

 

[Towermax]

Are you using 32-bit or 64-bit drivers? Had the same problem as you when I tried to use the 64-bit drivers.

WHS (old version) is 32-bit software and can only use 32-bit drivers. When I restore my Win 7 computers, I have to download the 32-bit drivers and put them on the thumb drive. Then everything works fine.

 

[Perryg114]

I guess the question here is how do you download the drivers from the WHS boot disk? How do you get the drivers you need and how do you load them?

Perry

 

[ControlD]

I guess the question here is how do you download the drivers from the WHS boot disk? How do you get the drivers you need and how do you load them?

Perry

You don't download them from the WHS boot disk. You have to scour the web and find the 32-bit drivers drivers for your Ethernet chipset. I always found the Vista 32-bit versions were a pretty safe bet. Then, you put them on a USB stick. When you boot with the WHS recovery disk there is an option to load custom drivers. Choose this, point to your USB stick (actually, it might automatically scan attached USB storage, can't remember) and it will find the drivers. If you get Ethernet working your work is done. If not, time to try another set of drivers until you get something that works.

 

[Perryg114]

I can copy the drivers off the lapotop drive. You mean I can't load 64 bit drivers during boot? They have to be 32 bit drivers? Why does it care? If it loads into memory the why does it matter?

Perry

 

[ControlD]

I can copy the drivers off the lapotop drive. You mean I can't load 64 bit drivers during boot? They have to be 32 bit drivers? Why does it care? If it loads into memory the why does it matter?

Perry

The recovery boot CD is booting you into a 32 bit operating system so 64 bit drivers won't work.

 

[Perryg114]

Ok here is my problem. If I hook a USB hard drive to the laptop and boot off the WHS recovery CD it does not see the USB drive. There is no way to load the files if it can't see the external drive. Am I doing something wrong here?

Perry

 

[Perryg114]

Ok I have been trying to find 32 bit drivers to put on a USB drive of some sort. Well all of them are executables that want to install the files to the machine that the drive is plugged into. There is no way to get just the driver file. It wants to install it in your OS.

The chipset for the Ethernet port is

intel 82579lm

This is assuming I can get it to recognize and external drive of some sort.

Perry

 

[Binky]

Are you plugging the USB drive into a USB3 port? Try a different port - definitely use a USB2 port.

I never had issues getting the boot disk to see the USB ports. I did have various issues getting the drivers loaded. As stated above, you must put the 32 bit drivers for your ethernet on the usb drive.

You could try the "xfiles edition" boot CD. Just google WHS xfiles. I have no idea if this will do anything, so be sure to read up on what is different on the xfiles boot disc.

 

[Binky]

Ok I have been trying to find 32 bit drivers to put on a USB drive of some sort. Well all of them are executables that want to install the files to the machine that the drive is plugged into. There is no way to get just the driver file. It wants to install it in your OS.

The chipset for the Ethernet port is

intel 82579lm

This is assuming I can get it to recognize and external drive of some sort.

Perry

Try extracting the EXE file. 7zip (freeware) should be able to extract it without installing. Then you can select just the folder with the drivers to copy to the USB drive.

I just downloaded the vista32 version of your drivers and I found a folder that should work under PROWin32\PRO1000\Win32\NDIS61. I'm not sure if the old WHS [boot disc] was based on XP or Vista. It looks like XP, but it might have been vista-based. Try both driver types if you can get the USB drive recognized.

 

[Perryg114]

It is based on XP as far as I can tell.

Perry

 

[Perryg114]

Ok I think I am getting it now. Will the 32 bit Vista drivers work with XP 32 bit or is 32 bit good enough? I am not finding XP 32 bit drivers.

Ok I am finally figureing out that the path

PROWin32\PRO1000\Win32\NDIS61\e1k6032.inf

Is the path to the correct inf file in the sub folders of all the stuff that was extracted from the PROWin32.exe file. So if I put this in the root of a USB stick it should find it.

Perry

 

[Binky]

XP64 was a somewhat rare beast, so most drivers that you find for XP will be 32 bit.

I can find XP and all other drivers here:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Se...duct=Intel®+82579+Gigabit+Ethernet+Controller

You can try XP, Vista, and Windows Server 2003 drivers. One of them should work.

 

[Perryg114]

Ok the Vista Driver Worked. The 64 bit drivers might have worked but half my problem was it was a USB 3.0 port which I thought was supposed to be backwards compatible. If it is not backwards compatible, why not call it NUSB instead of USB 3.0. I have some hard drives that are less than a year old and they won't run on that port either. So what does run on these ports? Is this the next firewire.

Perry

 

[Binky]

Ok the Vista Driver Worked. The 64 bit drivers might have worked but half my problem was it was a USB 3.0 port which I thought was supposed to be backwards compatible. If it is not backwards compatible, why not call it NUSB instead of USB 3.0. I have some hard drives that are less than a year old and they won't run on that port either. So what does run on these ports? Is this the next firewire.

Perry

The WHS disc boots a stripped down version of Vista or XP. It's never seen a USB3 port and it doesn't have the drivers for it. I'm sure you could load the USB drivers, but there's really no point if you have usable USB or USB2 ports (which it can talk to just fine).

Glad you got it sorted. WHS is still a good OS, even with its quirks. WHS2011 is even better. I'm sad that there isn't a WHS2012+.

 

[notposting]

WHS v1 is basically Server 2003 (aka XP era codebase).

It has saved my butt several times, can be interesting getting the drivers to work but after that is done, piece of cake.

 

[ViRGE]

The WHS disc boots a stripped down version of Vista or XP.

Funny enough it's basically a stripped down version of Vista, despite the fact that WHS itself is a modified version of Server 2003. Specifically, the WHS recovery disc is based on WinPE 2.0, which is a godsend since it means you can load drivers off of USB drives and not just floppy drives. But that's also why you need Vista (Win6.x) drivers rather than XP drivers.

It does make WHS v1 a bit of a franken-OS, but it's the results that matter.

 

[Binky]

That's what I was remembering but I was too lazy to find some source.

Fraken...is that a typo, or intended. I think it works either way.