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HP MediaSmart EX485 Windows Home Server doesn't seem to finish booting

HP MediaSmart EX485 Windows Home Server doesn't seem to finish booting

I have an HP MediaSmart EX485 Windows Home Server with 2 extra drives and it has worked great up until yesterday. I tried to play a couple movies (MP4) from my Xbox360 and all failed to play, when I went to check the server, the little icon was red, I reset the server and thought nothing of it until today when I went to access the server and I noticed that the server's icon was blinking blue and none of the hard drive lights were on. I couldn't access the console or RDC in to it, I've tried resetting multiple times and it still didn't get past the blinking icon.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 241
Total answers/comments: 1
Guest [Entry]

"Solution:

Buy USB SATA disk enclosure (I bought this one).
Use TestDisk to recover partitions and/or copy files since Vista/XP/Win7/OSX didn't always see the partitions

Important: Actual files are located in the hidden /DE/ folder

Attempt Server Recovery (attempted many times, but failed at different times for each one)
Since Server Recovery failed, attempt Factory Reset

Result:

All 4 steps were painful and arduous. Especially #2 and #3. Factory Reset succeeded. I have all the files that I was able to recover off of the drives. I still have to reinsert the 2 remaining drives and begin the process of copying files back onto the server, but I thought I'd post this in the meantime.

Lesson:

Always have a backup for backups."