I have Microsoft Windows Home Server (WHS) installed in the majority of my customers, both business and residential. WHS is great as a full image backup solution for these environments. Restoring a computer whose disk has crashed, or has been overrun with malware/viruses, is usually a piece of cake.
But there are certain steps required, especially if the workstation you are restoring is running a 64 bit version of Windows O/S (Win 7/64, Vista/64)
Pre-Requisites:
- Windows WHS Restore Computer Wizard CD
- Note: make sure you have the Computer Restore CD and not the Server Restore CD!
- If you cannot find your CD, you can download the latest here, and burn it to a CD.
- USB 2.0 Thumb Drive
- I suggest having two thumb drives, one for the WHS Restore Folder, and one for the vendor-specific NIC card driver
- Access to another workstation on the network that is also connected to the WHS server
- Knowledge of the make/model of the installed NIC card on the workstation, and access to the NIC card vendor’s website.
You can find out your NIC card device by accessing Device Manager.- Click Start –> Run –> and type in: mmc devmgmt.msc
- Click Device Manager, then drill down Network adapters
Process (Summary):
- Download the WHS Home Server Drivers for Restore to a USB thumb drive from a working computer
- If workstation is running Win 7/64 or Vista/64, download appropriate 32-bit NIC driver from vendor site onto a USB thumb drive
- Replace hard drive in the computer, if required
- Boot from the WHS Restore CD
- At the Detect Hardware screen, load in drivers from USB stick
- Follow the prompts to restore the computer
Process (Details):
Download Restore Folder to USB thumb drive:
- From another workstation, right click on the WHS icon on the lower right of the task bar, then click Windows Home Server Console.
- Click on Computers & Backup, locate the computer to be restored, right click on it and then click View Backups.
- Select the backup you want to restore from, and click Open from the ‘Restore or View Files from:’ section.
- Now copy or drag the entire contents of the folder named Windows Home Server Drivers for Restore to your USB thumb drive.
- We will call this USB Thumb Drive #1.
Obtain 32-bit NIC card drivers:
- Question: if I’m restoring a 64-bit workstation, why do I need to download a 32-bit driver for the NIC card.
- Answer: The WHS Restore CD itself is running in 32-bit mode. The 64-bit driver stored within the Windows Home Server Drivers for Restore folder is the 64 bit driver, and won’t work when doing the restore process.
Example:
- In my case, the workstation that needs to be restore has a Realtek PCIe Gigabit Family Controller network card installed.
- Go to the Realtek website, click on Downloads
- Click on Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller Series Drivers from the Quick Links section on the right.
- Locate and download the WinXP/Win Server 2003 Driver to your computer. I created a folder called Realtek Drivers for this purpose.
- Unzip the download file and copy it to a second USB thumb drive.
- We will call this USB Thumb Drive #2.
Perform the WHS Restore:
Boot from WHS Restore CD:
- Boot up the computer using the WHS Restore CD.
- You will be prompted to select the appropriate memory configuration.
- It will take a few minutes for the Restore CD to load and run.
- You will eventually be asked to confirm time format and keyboard.
- Click Continue.
Detect Hardware:
- Now we come to the all-important Detect Hardware screen.
- Click Details.
- Plug in USB Thumb Drive #1 into the computer, click Install Drivers and then click Scan.
- Once that is completed, repeat the process with USB Thumb Drive #2.
- Once drivers have been installed click OK.
Proceed with Restore:
- At this point, we should be ready to rock-n-rill.
- You will get the Welcome to the Restore Computer wizard.
- You will be prompted for the WHS server password.
- You will confirm which computer you are restoring, and which backup to use.
- If restoring because of virus or malware, you will want to select a backup dated prior to the infection.
Good luck!
Here’s a link to another web site showing the step-by-step screenshots of restoring a computer using WHS:
http://www.howtogeek.com/?post_type=post&p=12642