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.
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