Good catch.  You are correct.  You should keep your second drive in place, and do a server recovery, not a factory reset.

 I have informed our WW Support manager of the advice you received.  We will track down the source of the erroneous info and make sure that the tech is re-educated.

 If you can send me a private message with any support ticket info you have, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Cindy

Disclaimer: Any opinions I might express are my own, and in no way represent HP.

MediaMonkey said: I am also having constant issues with 1 (or more) drives "failing" including the system drive. This thing is less than 3 months old, and the 2 drives are brand new. What is going on with this product? I've tested the other 2 drives and they are in perfect working order. I would test the system drive but since the other 2 are fine I doubt it's bad...

In the interest of addressing things a single time, I have replied to this in your other thread:

http://www.mediasmarthome.com/forum/thread/10173/Bad-Sys-Drive-Continued/

...JohnBick

@ Cindy
I purchased my EX470 in January 2009 and recently experienced a failure of my system disk. HP sent me a replacement drive and told me to remove MSS Console on my desktop, remove all drives in the server, insert the new blank disk and install the software as per the original installation using the Software Install Disc.

I halted the process after I read the caution in the setup poster and realised that if I inserted my data disks both will be formatted and I will lose all the data. Can you please remind the support team to provide the right information.

In future, I will commit to using this site as the primary source for problems, issues and and general advice for all things MSS.

@ JohnBick & other members
I share a desk at the moment and during my conversation with HP left my disks in a line on the desk only to return to find them in a stack. I can identify the systems disk (.5tb) but my data drives (each 1tb) is another issue. HP informed me that putting them in the wrong bay will result in a loss of data.  However, I am convinced that I might be able to recover relevant bay/disk identification information from the failing systems disk (I can access the disk for about 5 minutes before it locks me out). The question I have for you is what directory/file would contain this information? Can you suggest another approach to solving this problem?

Valuable lesson learnt = clearly mark/number eack tray (and disk)

Should I post this as a separate thread?

Regards,

K7

Thanks John.

I was able solve the problem after spending two days going through several Windows Home Server Technical Briefing papers for the Drive Extender, Media Sharing, Computer backup and Restore, etc.

Reading the briefing papers was a BIG help and gave me a useful insight to the working of my MSS - in particular the drive extender. In fact, after reading the drive extender briefing paper I was able to fix the original system disk (the one that kept failing causing the system to shut down a few minutes into booting) which has now been working smoothly for the past three or four days. I'm going to hang on to the replacerment drive HP sent me or I might just install it to practice replacing the system disk.

Yes, I need to know this too. I have been living with this issue since I first received my server.

JohnBick said: Care to share how you were "able to fix the original system disk (the one that kept failing causing the system to shut down a few minutes into booting)"? Thanks in advance!

Hi John et al,

I apologise for the lengthy delay in getting back to you - I've been on a two month trip into the Amazon. 

It seems that my effort (to fix the failed system disk) was all in vain as two weeks into the trip I could not access my server remotely. The system disk failed again.

Now that I am back, I'll have to go over all the research I did and scan key sites again to get up to speed as I've forgotten most of what I learnt.  In the meantime, I'll start by installing the replacement disk HP sent a few months ago.

Regards,

K7

The failure I experienced with the System Disk prevented the server from loading. I'd switch the system on only to see it shut down a few minutes into booting-up. HP sent me a replacement disk. However, rather than install it I decide to see if I might fix the problem hence my foray through several Windows Home Server Technical Briefing papers for the Drive Extender, Media Sharing, Computer backup and Restore, etc.

After reading the briefing papers and reviewing several logs, I thought the problem boiled down to corrupt file structures - you see, I had created and deleted several folders and files through the server's console, XP explorer and another tool. I seem to remember that the latter methods was a "no no" with the Drive Extender.

My solution was to remove all my drives and have all my files on one disk. I figured out that the Drive Extender would throw up any anomalies as it tried reconcile tomb stones to actual data, and it did. There were a few error messages indicating that files could not be located and will be lost. I then inserted my data disks one at a time and let DE balance my data store. Surprisingly, the system worked and I was able to switch on the server and get past the boot stage.

Now, I am experiencing similar problems to what you have just outlined - the system shuts down after two or three days . I'll follow your steps and see if that works while eliminating all problem areas (hardware, software, firmware, etc.

Thanks for the help.