My DX 4000 Sentinel served me faithfully for 3 - 4 yrs. It was 16Tb model with 4 4Tb HGST drives. After a failure one day with message cannot find OS and a very long story with WD tech testing a box of other HGST drives I had which were all no good I was advised by level II tech to copy/paste all the files from the Server Folder over to another device across the Network. When my new Sentinel came “simply” copy/paste back over to the new device was the “advice” I received… yeah RIGHT!!! I’ve worked with Windows far too long to know it is NEVER the case: permissions errors, Certificates, Active Directory, yada yadi it goes. After 2 weeks across my Network for 6-7Tb and 2 weeks back to the new Sentinel I now have a hodgepodge of .dat files. They gave me the latest ISO which I also don’t thing was the right thing to use but THAT can be rectified.
Gramps, you are already seriously underpaid but can this deck be reshuffled and anything made of it OR is it bye bye backups. WD now tells me it is over their heads and I should contact Microsoft!!! Original tech probably hiding under his desk and MS at $240 an hour THIS was an option I thought I would try before drop back 2 and punt!!! Any help would be great. I DO have a .17 ISO as well as the newest .21
I am confused, if your box went belly up how did you copy server folders? dat files sounds like the client backup.
How did you get where you are now and where are you exactly?
I think MS is actually $500 an incident now except they may not take your call as the OEM is supposed to ask MS …
I tried to give you the Readers Digest version!!! Basically it just couldn’t find the OS ……OR more aptly put it threw THAT message as obviously it WAS running. To WD’s credit they DID send me a completely new box when we couldn’t sort things out by replacing the drive that was showing as “bad
So anyway I WAS able to Remote Desktop in and SEE all those files and, YES, they would be all the backups. Besides a bunch of Data.4096. x.dat files as they were all cut into 4Gb chunks there are things like Commit.dat, ConsistencyInfo.cc, and gobs of S-1-5-22-xxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxx-1012.d.boot.dat and various other items that I am sure tell it about the RAID as well as which computer stuff belongs to. I’m sure if you use Windows Explorer on the “Server Folder à Client Computer Backups folder” you will see what I am talking about. But once I fire up the new Sentinel and join the first machine it does NOT recognize it, well……of course I guess. New SID, not joined to a my Domain(can’t find where to do it on .21 ISO), it’s a mess BUT if there is anyone on the planet that can figure it out it would be YOU!!! You seem to know more than MS!!! The data is all there it just needs a serious massage!!! I don’t understand the Essentials AT ALL!!! I have always used full blown Server and then R2 the minute it came out since 2003 days. MS was SO ■■■■■ to get someone using their Hyper-V when It first came out they GAVE me a FREE exam voucher and a retake so they could say they had “somebody” at least Certified on it!!! But it is like trying to work on the non-Pro versions of the Desktop OSes, they don’t even have Remote Desktop for crying out loud!!! I used to get on a standard Vista or Win7 HOME version and it was like trying to do Apple!!!
So again, the short version: RDPed into the broke Sentinel, copy/pasted ALL files from the Server Folder on D: drive off to another 2 drives across the Network, reversed the copy/paste operation BACK to the new box once I got it, thumb drive installed, NO NO WD had it in running condition when I got it a fresh 16Tb Sentinel which after going through setup THEN did the reverse copy/paste as need D: drive to be built, and now sit here with a wad of nothing maybe???
IF you had ANY insights at all for me I would be thrilled, you seem to be the Worldwide Expert on this OS!!!
THANK YOU, Sir………… and for everything you do in general!!!
So do you want your client backups? As in if all your PC’s are still online you can just join them to the new box and start fresh backups
That said to properly restore (copy) all those funky files back to a “new” server, you are supposed to stop a couple of services, delete the files that are in the client backup folder, and copy your files. I would have thought you would have gotten a couple errors when trying to copy yours without said steps.
For now though, look closely at the computers tab in the dashboard. It says server and computers and hopefully you will find and archived with a dropdown that will show all your old backups.
OF COURSE you have some secrets up your sleeve but NO LUCK!!! Just for fun thought I’d send a screenshot of the muck. Adding the old computers back in is NO problem, however, I was sure hoping to sync up to the old back ups as there are files in there, mostly pictures, that go to my wife’s “My Documents” folder even thought I created a mapped drive for her to the Sentinel it just does NOT register to her like most users HOW to save to it!! SO, they all go to My docs and as you know back 6mos.
It just amazes me that YOU are the Worldwide Expert on this thing and you do it for fun. I do too on other topics but not to the degree YOU do!!! These computers I joined WERE there before but the machine just does NOT recognize them, treats them as new joins… I apologize for the potty mouth I have no clue how to go private here and almost sent you some things I didn’t want on the forum as this came to my private mail. At the last minute I realized it was going to be public so I pulled it out of the dialogue. Nothing bad just some back room info on WD for your eyes only!!
You DO realize don’t you Gramps it is just not fair someone knows all this stuff and hasn’t written a book or something!!! Of course who would buy it right?? It wasn’t a + sign but you could see from my screenshot I AM and DO use Resource Monitor all the time and it was the same as their down pointing arrow!! I have purposely moved the screen a bit left to obfuscate
the names of my computers BUT you can see your magic WORKED!! I AM getting the error message but am quite sure that can be worked through somehow. At least all the computers showed up. I got this error when trying to restore a file, some services WERE not started but starting them didn’t help so probably just not the right one yet OR maybe a reboot of the Sentinel OR you have some insight on which services it is whining about??
I might as well say it again: YOU are the BEST!!! THANKS 10 million times. Anyone who has lost pictures of their kids from when they were a year old can relate(EVERYONE?)!!!
I said plus sign cause my snip above has a plus sign, though if I had typed without looking I would have said down arrow. Not real sure why mine has a plus. You do know that resource monitor takes a lot of resources. Just sayin LOL Also if you will click start and type SNIP it will bring up snipping tool which will allow you to just “snip” the portion of the screen you desire.
It is possible you may not have copied all of the files out you needed but more likely you did not copy them back properly. As I said above to bring them back you stop all windows server essentials services (you actually do not have to stop all but I am too lazy to look up which ones) delete all the file from client backups and copy your files in. And I actually think when done right, when you reconnect a PC it will find itself. That part does not matter if I am wrong. Just to the right of that arrow we have been talking about is additional tasks. In there is tools, repair, warning may erase all backups
Since your data is on the server and you still have a copy on your network if it gets messed up, I think I would try repair.
If that fails (client backup service will not start) then I think I would delete the computers you have added, stop the services, copy the data back and reboot
If you really only have pictures in the backups that was foolish. But there is a tool out there that may mount the backups and copy out what you need.
Oh, you said some services were not started, but restarting did not help. They probably did not stay started. When you hit start, and it says started, hit refresh to see if it really is started
MMMMMMmmmm, no I’m pretty good with THAT stuff, ONE of them started then went to sleep again, don’t remember which one. “Windows Server Server Backup Service” WAS disabled and after turning it’s properties to “Automatic” and starting the service it stayed started BUT returned to disabled. I think it is by design because even though you would think you need that service I believe it is to backup the server itself which I also think is a no-no rule therefore got turned back to “Disabled” immediately but stayed running. Everything you said about turning off services before bringing stuff back AND redoing it all per your instructions will probably end up being what I need to do. Also you are probably right about some of the missing files. You cannot move
.dat or .ntdat profile files of the currently logged on user but I was SO desperate to get my stuff OFF before another drive failed that I probably did a few zigs when I should have zagged. I am extremely pleased YOU were able to show me that there is huge hope here that we can get things sorted out!!! Would you like another 10 million “THANKS” because you sure get them!!! THANK YOU SIR!!!
