Do you have a PC that needs a Restore from Windows Home Server 2011 but the PC cannot find the network or the server? If you have another computer on the network, and a USB enclosure, you can perform the Restore and then put that drive in the PC that needed the new hard drive. Check out our video on the process!
Background
Fellow BYOB podcaster Michael Faucher called me a few weeks ago saying his new Sandy Bridge PC was not finding the network during a PC Restore. We had performed Restores before with the Client Restore Wizard in WHS v1, but he had backed up this PC to his Windows Home Server 2011. Since the motherboard was so new we figured there was an issue with drivers. Whatever the reason, it did not work. What’s a boy to do?
Again, Faucher and I had performed Client Restores before with WHS v1 but we had not done one with 2011. Since we could not locate the 2011 Wizard on the client we tried a Restore with the Dashboard. It failed. No System Reserved partition access. The disk was not bootable. Ugh.
As of 12-APR-2011, I have still not been able to create a bootable Restored disk with the 2011 Dashboard. If you have had the same results, a bug has been filed so vote it up!
Client Restore Wizard Location
With Windows Home Server v1 the Client Restore Wizard was on the actual client PC. With Windows Home Server 2011 the Wizard is hidden on the Server. Thank you to WHS MVP Grey Lancaster for telling me the folder location!
Mental Note: You must copy the entire folder to your PC so you can perform the Restore. You must also copy the folders to a PC that is already “connected” to the WHS 2011.
Check out the short video to see how easy the process is.
How Do I Connect A Hard Drive?
I have performed this type of Restore before with a Windows Home Server v1.
It is an easy Restore with either version and I would strongly suggest that anyone interested in doing a Restore this way buy an enclosure ahead of time BEFORE you really need it!
One of the easiest and cheapest 2.5” enclosures I found is at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816015
Of course you can perform a Restore with a SATA dock or even by connecting the new hard drive directly to your motherboard.
Windows Home Server 2011
The installation of Windows Home Server 2011 has only a few basic requirements.
Windows Home Server 2011 is a 64-bit only operating system.
You can install the server software either manually or unattended.
System Requirements
- 1.6 GHz (or higher) x64 processor
- 2 GB RAM
- At least one 160 GB (or larger) hard drive
- NTFS is the only supported file system
Supported networking configuration:
- Your server computer must be connected to a router via a network cable
- Windows Home Server works best with a UPnP certified device, but it is not required
- The router works best in the 192.168.x.x subnet, but it is not required
HI Timothy,
I’ve been looking for this in WHS11!!! This has been my preferred way of doing restores from the WHSv1 days and was going nuts trying to find it in WHS11. Thanks for the pointer.
fasthair
Yes thanks, as it is the only way I have done restores due to numerous failed attempts over the network in the past. I believe fasthair may have been the one I learned this from. I digress.
I have to get the network version working though because I have striped my OS drive using the MB chipset so I can no longer do the restore on another client as I have done in the past.
Thanks, Tim. Just tried this and found it works great. I think this now becomes my preferred method for partition recovery.
Thank you for this. I have tried the restore from several PC’s, Even plugging it into the same switch and nothing. I had done restores from V1 homeserver and done one something like this there as well for a netbook that could not find the server so I knew there was other options than just the CD which did not work.
Thank you!!!! This saved me a ton of hassle when switching from an ATA HD to a SSD on a very old Dell. I was being denied every time I tried to run the restore on the client computer. One thing that I don’t think was mentioned in the video and in retrospect is pretty obvious, but be sure to use the 64bit or the 32bit software based on the host computer, not the computer being restored. Once I figured that out, everything was so fast and seamless I don’t think I’ll mess with a client computer restore any other way (unless it’s a laptop with an inaccessible HD).