Windows 7 Upgrade and WHS
02. Nov, 2009 | by fasthair |
13 Comments
Over the past few days I’ve updated three PCs to Windows 7 Pro 64bit. Windows 7 rocks so say goodbye XP and Vista. But what does this have to do with Windows Home Server? Everything.
Everyone knows what a pain and time consuming deal it is to install a new operating system. Windows 7 has changed a lot of that pain. Since I always nuke and pave my hard drives when I install a new OS it takes a great bit of time to get everything setup the way I had it.
This is where WHS comes in to save the day. The first thing you do before you load Windows 7 is run a program on the 7 install DVD called Easy Transfer. This works slick. It takes all of your personal setting and files and puts then in a Easy Transfer file that you then move to your personal folder on your WHS. Since I keep all of my music, photos and other personal files on my WHS already I didn’t have to worry about loosing any files during a OS install. So now you have run the Easy Transfer setup and moved the file to your WHS, now what? Do one last backup of your system before you nuke the disk to install the new OS.
Once your new Windows 7 is up and running you run the Easy Transfer wizard again and restore all of your personal files and setting and in no time you have your PC setup just like you like it. The wizard even tells you what programs you need to reinstall. What about that last backup you did? If you are like me you forgot one critical file and it was not in the Easy Transfer file either. I forgot my company file for Quick Books. No problem. Open up the backup file on my WHS and drag it back to my new setup. Does WHS kick ass or what?!
As I said I’ve done three Windows 7 installs the past few days. The first system worked flawless using the Easy Transfer method and seeing how it worked so well I thought I would use it to do the other installs. Guess what? Life isn’t always that simple or easy. On the second install Easy Transfer couldn’t open or load the file. I tried everything I could to get it to run but it just wasn’t going to happen. Since I had done a last backup before nuking the hard drive all I had to do was open that last backup and grab all of my personal files. Yup WHS saved the day again! Does WHS kick ass or what?!
So gone are the days of hating installing a new OS. Windows 7 and WHS make it a pain free snap to do.
fasthair
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Good post, very helpful for me as I am about to upgrade two vista machines to win 7. Also have two XP machines I am considering on upgrading to win 7 and/or replacing with newer hardware. By the way, I also just installed a WHS system with backup and print share running on it. Awesome system, answers my data storage needs.
I don’t drive Harley’s, but do push my Can-Am 800 ATV pretty hard.
Thanks for the info.
HI Norman,
Glad you found the post helpful. The Vista PCs should run Windows 7 just fine. Depending on the XP hardware you maybe be better off just replacing them. But if they meet system requirement I can’t see any harm in at least installing 7 and seeing if will run ok on them. Since you now have a WHS it is no big deal to go back to the XP setup that was on those PCs. One little tip when testing these XP machines. During the install do not put in the serial numbers of 7 and just let the install finish. This way in case 7 doesn’t run good on these machines you don’t burn your good 7 serial number. 7 will run just fine for 30 days before you have to activate it. About the only thing you can’t do is get some critical updates because of this. But you will know if 7 is going to work on these PCs by that time. Just remember to run one last backup to the WHS before you blow out your systems. Do this of course in case you do have to go back to the other OS and like I said you can not count on Easy Transfer to work perfect.
Good luck and let us know how the installs go,
fasthair
fasthair,
I did not upgrade to Win 7, but rather purchased a new machine with Win 7 Pro. Hey, my laptop is 4 years old and isn’t beefy enough.
I’ve had an HP MSS EX475 for almost 2 years now – running PP2 with 2GB ram.
I tried to install the Connector on my new Win 7 64bit Pro machine. It’s not supported! Is there no way to have the connector on this? Sure would like to be able to use the console on my new (rather than keep my old XP) machine.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Oh man, now I feel Stupid.
There’s a 64bit .msi in the Connector folder on the server. Installed just fine. I see now how one must install first with a 32bit machine – the disc doesn’t support a 64bit install.
Musta been your guidance – thanks for the assistance!
I guess I need to learn to type faster : ) As I was typing the responce below you figured it out. Good job! No need to feel stupid. i’ve seen more then one person do this.
fasthair
I haven’t had any trouble installing the connector on any of my Win7 64 machines but I know some have. All I can do is give you some general advice.
First if you are using the Setup Disk that came with your HP MSS it is outdated and will not work on 64 bit PCs. Download the Connector install from http://YourHomeServerName:55000/ and save the file to your desktop. Then run the setup file and it should download from WHS the correct Connector and install it. If that doesn’t work then browse your network to \\YourHomeServerName\Software\Home Server Connector Software and double click on the WHSConnectorInstall_64 setup file and run it. Again this should install the connector for you.
If none of this works run Windows Update on your WHS to see if there are any new updates that might be needed and try this again. If this fails run the Windows Home Server Tool Kit on the 55000 page and see if that doesn’t help you find and fix the problem.
If all of that fails I would head over to Microsoft Windows Home Server Forums and search for or post your problem and see if you can’t find an answer to your problem.
MS WHS Forum link: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whssoftware/threads
Let us know how you make out please,
fasthair
I have a question that may or may not relate to PP3…
) I get up early and begin my digital day around 6am, so I’ve had backups set to run betw 5 and 6. My XP machine couldn’t be put back to sleep after a WHS wakeup/backup and it wasn’t resumed long after the backup before I started my day. So no big deal.
I’ve had my Windows 7 workstation for about 3 weeks, now. I installed the WHS Connector a couple days after I got it and started backing it up (see stupidity comment above
At first, I was pleased to see my Win 7 box awakened shortly after 5, backed up, then put back to sleep. I was even thinking about adjusting the backup time to be earlier in the night.
But now (and I cannot correlate whether this started with PP3 or not), my Win 7 box is still being awakened and backed up, but it is no longer put back to sleep.
Any setting that would cause that? Reasons? Anyone else notice this?
Thanks for any advice.
I have an upgrade question. When I upgraded from Vista to 7 I know have my computer listed twice in WHS. Is there a way to save the backups from the Vista OS and delete Vista OS from WHS. I would like to keep the backups but eliminate it from the WHS console
HI ImThetypeOfGuy,
Short answer, no.
The only way I know of to keep the old Vista backups would be to use BDBB to backup the backup database to a drive that is not part of the pool. There are a few things that make this less than desirable for your case. First you will be backing up your Windows 7 PC at the same time to the drive. Next is the fact I don’t think there is a way to open the backup database like you can using WHS. These backups are for restoring the backups to the storage pool in the event of a WHS meltdown. Other than that there is no way these files are of any use.
What I would do is open the last backup of the Vista machine and drag any files you want to keep to your 7 PC. Then delete the Vista machine and be done with it. If you are wanting to do this because you are running up against the 10 PC limit if WHS than this is probably the best solution for you. Also remember because WHS uses “single instants” file copies you will not be recovering much space as you might think since the base OS files are very much the same. Unless you have a bunch of personal files in the Vista backups that are not on the 7 install then you will see virtually no space recovered. That begs the question that if these files are that important why have you not recovered them out of the Vista backups and moved them to the 7 machine?
WHS was never designed to be an archive storage of OS images forever. It is meant for easy restoring of a PC that has suffered hardware or software failures to the last known good working state. There really is no reason good for keeping old images that you will most likely never use to recover a machine again.
fasthair
I just wanted to save a couple of backups in case I wanted (or needed) to go back to Vista. I transferred my files and settings during the upgrade so no issues with that. Thanks for the response.
ok – here is a doozy – my HP MMS EX470 crash – I do a recovery (with original disk ver 1)- all good so far then server reboots – software now says it cannot install the software (todo the initial server setup) i gather because i am running the recovery dvd from a windows 7 box – is there anyway to get an updated version maybe , of the disk? or am i doing something – (ps tried running in xp mode on windows 7 – no go
HI tunzer,
I’m sorry I’m not going to be able to help you with your server recovery since both of my WHS are home builts. I just don’t know anything about how the HP recovery works. As far as using Windows 7 to do it I’m not sure but I think I’ve read you have to have a 32bit version of 7 to do the recovery. But again I really don’t know because I have never worked with the HP units.
Sorry I couldn’t help,
fasthair
say tunzer,
if your running whs on it just use the whs recovery cd or have the system make you 1 but if if is win 7 make sure that you let win 7 format the whole in setup and the 100mb sys at the front of the disk thats where win 7 uses the recovery files and can recover from the whs if it backed it up. if whs just use the recovery cd or download it.