Last Tuesday I had an issue with the Restore of a 64-bit Dell Inspiron 15. After starting the Restore, and loading the proper Dell 64-bit network drivers, the process stopped when the WHS was not found. I have done about a dozen Restore (32-bit) with WHS but this was the first one to hang up on me. Why?
A special thanks to fasthair and Seth for confirming that this error happens in similar scenarios.
Equipment Used
For this Restore I was using the Power Pack 3 CD image and the latest and greatest 64-bit drivers from Dell on my USB stick. Everything should have been working as it has the past 12 times. It was not. Ugh (Insert Google rejected curse word here)!
–
Restore Does Not Work – Server Not Found
I downloaded the 32-bit Windows 7 drivers and started again. The video has been updated. Here it is:
–
Server Not Found
I tried for a few hours to get past the Server not found error and finally decided I would start looking around for a solution. I knew the issue was with the drivers because this laptop could not get on the network. How could I tell? I connected to the router from another PC and saw that it was NOT connected even though this laptop was hard wired. Crap.
When I went to download the Microsoft Technical Brief to verify the process I came across the following warning:
“If you are restoring from a 64-bit computer the drivers that are stored in the backup will be 64-bit. These will not function with the 32-bit restore CD. Therefore it is may be necessary to obtain 32-bit versions of the network driver and storage-device drivers for your 64-bit computer, while doing a restore of your home computer.”
The full brief can be found at:
–
The driver issue with WHS Restore is part of the reason I put together the XFiles Edition Restore disk. Integrated a bunch of drivers.
and it works great! I use it all the time to restore my Windows 7 netbook that has a RealTek NIC. As you know it is one of the NICs that gives people fits. It works everytime without any extra steps.
So again I want to thank you for all of your hard work on the X:files. Truely a slick piece of software.
fasthair
I have a new capture device on the way so I will run the Restore on my Dell 15 next week with all three scenarios. I will then publish the videos with a quick write up.
1.) PP3 Restore CD with Win7 drivers
2.) PP3 Restore CD with Vista 32-bit drivers
3.) Your Restore CD
You ok with that?
Tim
HI Timothy,
Am I ready? Yup got a bottle of Crown Royal queued up for the task! Besides is the middle of winter so I can't ride so I might as well try to break something 🙂
I've been running through my head all of the different ways of doing this and I "think" I've got it all worked out. I've got three or four different Restore setups that I'm going to be working on. Should be fun!
fasthair
Hey thanks for giving me some credit!! =)
I really really really wish you weren't able to do so. LOL
Man, i struggled and struggled, i cried screamed and yelled at my computer.
All the while searching for possible reasons why the restore program wasn't finding my server.
I finally got it fixed. And Now, i have a backup copy of the 32bit drivers saved on my server, just in case i have to restore again.
And once again… thank you for having such a thorough how-to.
Seth
p.s yes it made me very cranky as well. lol
I had a similar problem restoring my 64-bit win7 on my HP Envy-15. I put 32bit drivers on a flash drive and they were recognized, but according to my router, the computer still was not connecting. After many hours of research, it dawned on my that WHS is running Win2003. I found older Win2003 x32 drivers for the same network card (Atheros 8131) and I was finally able to find the home server!