48 replies to this topic

[GaMeR]

This is the discussion topic for the wiki article: Migrate Shares and Backups to New System

[Aaron K]

I just went through this process and one thing that I got hung up on was reconnecting my client PC's to the Home Server. If you do not run Windows Update over and over on the server until you no longer see any new Windows Home Server updates, your connector software will keep saying that the clients are out of date and need an update installed.

[garm]

I don't know if this is the "right" place for a reply but I'll give it a shot.

I have a new HP system which I am transferring to from a TraquilPC. I did "set up" the HP by connecting to it the first time with a Windows PC. I didn't back up that system but I notice that when I go to the whs.reg file, there is information between the "Clients" and the "Server" lines which is specifically about that system I initially connected through (meaning I installed the WHS Connection service on). Should all that information stay there when I delete everything else? Also what do I do with the line right after the server one: "Name"={self}"...?

Thanks!

[jfigura]

I believe that I am in this situation now where I need to attempt this. See this thread - http://forum.wegotse...?showtopic=6997

However, moderators on the Microsoft boards are saying copying files directly into the system circumvents it?

According to what I read in this article, I will be dumping every drive into the "D" or system data partition? Is that really correct?

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

D:\Shares and D:\Folders are both "DE" folders. They are just tombstones and when you copy a file there or create it, it creates a tombstone and puts the actual file on one of the other drives.

[Dave Marchant (WGS)]

I tried a new 'slant' on moving my data from my long standing production server to a new one today. I don't think I have seen this discussed anywhere else.

I backed up all my shared folders to a shiny new 1Tb USB Drive using the Server backup function. I then removed the backup drive from the old server and connected it to the new one. I had created all the base shares and users on the new one ready.

I was going to drag and drop the data from the USB drive into the shares, but I found the new server detected the USB drive as a backup drive, and I could read the backups. I then just chose to restore the data. I wasn't brave enough to see if it would actually create the shares for me though, having done that bit by hand.

I have about 730Gb being transferred as I type.

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

Yup, this is a perfectly good working method.

[Rumblepak]

Thank You Drashna, this post has saved my sanity. WHS console flagged that there was a critical disc problem and recommended to run "Disc Repair". After running this, my shared folders had disappeared leaving only "Recorded TV" (the only folder where I didn't have any data) visible in the WHS console. I re-installed WHS but installation failed "Restoring the Archiver Data failed; cannot complete this function, error code 0x800703eb" (according to MS knowledge base, this error code relates to calender issues in Exchange Server...). So after the failed re-install, I have WHS running but cannot launch WHS console nor is WHS accessible from any other computer over the network.
Of course I've been worried about the data on the server but this post has shown me how to access and rescue the data.
On of the reasons for building a home server was data security and accessibility. I wanted to be able to access documents, photos, music and video from all computers on the home network. I put 2 1TB Samsung drives in the server and enabled duplication and thought if one disc fails I've still got the same data on the other disc. I didn't realise that a hard drive replacement wouldn't work the simple way if the failing disc contains the OS, which really makes me re-think my strategy. Maybe one should be using the Server back-up function as mentioned by Dave Merchant but that is exactly what I wanted to get away from by using a server with file duplication.

Anyway, Thank You, I know my data is recoverable and can sleep again...

[warrend313]

Thanks for execellent article Drashna. My Server recently failed (PSU that wrecked alot of stuff) and this worked great to get my data back. (I was lucky it did not damage my data drives)

Quick question: I had 3 data drives in my server with duplication turned on for all the shares. Because of the way WHS does the duplication I now have 3 files that need to be folded back together into one.

For example...I copied files from the "DE" folder of all 3 drives (shared music for example). I named them "music 1", "music 2", and "music 3" just so I would know what came from each drive.
Music 1 might have the album folder and art, but no songs. Music 2 might have the songs. Music 3 might have nothing for that album but have other albums that are not on music 1 or 2.

I noticed the same thing for all of my other shares.

Is there an easy way to fold the files back together....a merge program or is this something I will have to do manually?

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

There might be... SyncToy would likely get the job done more efficiently, but I just dragged and dropped. Overwrote all files, just to be sure. Should be the same files, so no harm, no foul.

[mediadogg]

I need to do this soon. A few questions:
(1) Does any of this change with a Power Pack 2 System?
(2) Can the process be automated? If so, what kind of script is recommended? If it hasn;t been done, could this be a community project, so that we have a "migration script" that is relatively bug-free and tacitly santioned by Microsoft?
(3) If a drive attached via USB or eSata is added to the pool, can that drive be later re-attached internally and preserve the data (in orther words, transparently changing the way the drive is connected to the system)? (I see somewhat an answer to this - new to this format, so I hadn't seen the other replies before I wrote this).

[mediadogg]

I tried a new 'slant' on moving my data from my long standing production server to a new one today. I don't think I have seen this discussed anywhere else.
...

Dave, this seems like a safer approach than messing with registry entries and such, so I'lll probably use this method for my imminent migration to a new platform. Is there a similarly "safe" and "easy" way to migrate the backups this way, or must you start from ground zero with those?

[Dave Marchant (WGS)]

I started again with the backups, but only because I seemed to have a corruption. There are details of a coying process in the Backup Tech Document - go to the FAQ Wiki and follow the link in the WHS Documentation section. It is a more or less a manual version of the way the Backup Duplication add-in copies the backup database to an external drive and then restores it.

[mediadogg]

I started again with the backups, but only because I seemed to have a corruption. There are details of a coying process in the Backup Tech Document - go to the FAQ Wiki and follow the link in the WHS Documentation section. It is a more or less a manual version of the way the Backup Duplication add-in copies the backup database to an external drive and then restores it.

Ahhh ... it is slowly coming together for me now. Thanks.

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

The backup database add-in more or less does the same thing here with the backup database only. And more or less automatically.

As for changes in PP2, no that would not effect this what-so-ever. And I'm sure it *could* be automated, and technically it is, that is what the 'reinstallation" process does. But this is meant for when the worst happens, and reinstall isn't an option (figuratively and/or literally).

[Shidoshi]

This...uhhh...hasn't worked for me. The registry merge managed to reassign the computers to the Console (which Discovery served to actually get the server to recognize the connection to the subnet), but after three attempts to migrate the backup database and repair it, only to fail (until the Server and clients discover each other via Discovery), I'm almost ready to give up and just scrub the backups and start backups anew with completed systems. Effff it. I'm tired of fighting with this thing.

How many subfolders are there supposed to be in the D:\DE\folders directory? Two or three? I originally had to two {00008086- which held the actual backup clusters and {378AE094- which has the registry key. After copying the contents of the first folder, a third one was created {1618D36B- which has its own set of subfolders ( \folders\{00008086- ) which has the actual backup clusters.

My D:\DE\folders\{00008086- now only has one file, Commit.dat and the Console doesn't recognize any of the previous backups, nor does the pie chart in the Server Storage tab show the 91GBs of all my previous backups in the PC Backups slice (which only lists 15KB). The System slice shows 111-112GBs (combined 20GB C: drive and 91GB backups on the D: drive).

I suppose it's possible that there's some file I missed in the backups that have rendered everything useless, but now I'm not even sure where to go from here: even if I wanted to delete the invalid backups, I'm not even confident on which files or directories to delete or clear out so I can regain some space on my system drive. I have more than one drive ready to add to the pool, but wanted to get things setup before DriveExtender got involved.

Any help in this situation would be appreciated; I still have the old disks from my old server and the "old" DE folders to try again, I suppose. I have PP2 installed --- had PP2 installed prior to the old system disk failure and BDBB Add-in installed, if that helps.

[RodSpina]

I just started copying the content of 1 of 3 additional drives I have but I am not sure if overall the new C: drive (that is also getting everything copied to its D:share) will have enough space to absorb everything from the other 3 drives. I put it a 1T new C:, but I am thinking the other 3 ones combined may or may not exceed that. I don't need the back-ups that were there, just music, movies, MY PICTURES, .etc..

So this method assumed your new C: will have enough space for all the data? Ouch, it might be true in some (or most cases) but over the years, I don't know.

How do I select how to prioritize what I really really need, versus what I would like, but can't afford fue to lack of space? Also, am I not copying the duplicated folders, or are those in other drives under back-up?

I don;t know man, I appreciate the help and the effort but I just trying to prepare for worse. We'll see. Glad we have really helpful and engaged guys in the community., BIG KUDOS to you all,

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

No, I didn't take in account drive sizes. But basically, if you copy the contents of one of the old storage drives to another, and then to the system, (or to another blank HDD), you should be fine. Basically, its a case of "musical chairs".

However, if all your other drives are full, you'll probably have to end up dumping something.

I can add more clarification/scenarios to the tutorial, but for the most part, it covers the basics of what needs to be done.

[Scoob]

Thanks for the great instructions, but what about this scenareo?

My system drive just failed. There was 400GB of data on the system drive, which was also duplicated on a second data drive in the storage pool.

How do a find the duplicated data on the second data drive, and how to I ensure that I only copy the files I need?

[Evaders99]

There isn't an easy way to deal with duplicates. The easy way is to copy over everything, allow it to overwrite... wait for it to finish and load the next drive, repeat. Yes you possibly spend more time copying things over, but its easier than trying to juggle exactly which files you need to copy.