Replacing the System Drive on the HP MediaSmart EX47x Series and Performing the 3.0 Software Update

27. Feb, 2010 | by Andrew Edney | 20 Comments

Now that the HP MediaSmart 3.0 software update is out, a lot of people want to know if you can replace the system drive at the same time. I decided to find out.

A few people have also asked if this was possible, including Diehard:

Andrew, old buddy, old friend, yeah I’m sucking up. Would it be to much to ask how to do the upgrade by replacing the system drive ?

With the EX470 at a 500 gig system drive, this looks like a good opportunity to replace the system drive with a 1TB or more.

So how could I refuse that challenge? I only had a 750GB drive spare but I figured that would be enough to prove it would work.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

So before I went any further, I needed to make sure that all my shared folders had duplication enabled and that the storage pool had finished balancing.

For those of you who are interested, here is what my server looked liked:

EX475 before upgrade 2

EX475 before upgrade

I wasn’t really concerned about keeping my backups, but if I was I would have used BDBB, which is a great tool from Alex Kuretz. If you don’t have this add-in you should go get it now. Tim has written about BDBB in the past: Backing up Windows Home Server on a Friday night

REPLACING THE SYSTEM DRIVE

Open the front of the EX475 and using a screwdriver, turn the dial to the unlock position.

IMG_2171

The slide out the bottom tray (this is the one containing the system drive), remove the drive, swap it for the new one and then slide the tray back in. Then dial the dial to the lock position.

IMG_2172

After replacing the drive, you need to use a paperclip to start the recovery process.

IMG_2173

Switch on the server and the use the paperclip to press the recessed mode button to the left of the USB port.

IMG_2174

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Similar posts you might be interested in:

  1. Experiences and Issues Upgrading to the HP MediaSmart Server 3.0 Software Release
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  3. HP MediaSmart Software Version 3.0 Update – Update
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20 Responses to “Replacing the System Drive on the HP MediaSmart EX47x Series and Performing the 3.0 Software Update”

  1. Jon Reply 27. Feb, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    Thanks for the great write up ! i just got a new 2TB drive to replace mine with , just waiting for my HP disc to ship

  2. Timothy Daleo Reply 27. Feb, 2010 at 5:00 pm

    Why was your System file so large before?

    • Andrew Edney Reply 27. Feb, 2010 at 8:32 pm

      thats a very good question and one I cant answer!

      that machine hasnt been my production box for quite a while and its been switch off, so maybe it just needs to balance and clean itself up?

      Andrew

  3. diehard Reply 28. Feb, 2010 at 4:24 am

    Thanks for taking the challenge, Andrew.

    One tip I have is for those that are nervous and mess up the timing on using the reset pin. Just pull the system drive out 1″ so it doesn’t make contack with the back plate, this will trigger the system to boot from the hidden internal USB flash to boot into Recovery Mode. After about 10 seconds push the drive back in. This works every time.

    • Andrew Edney Reply 28. Feb, 2010 at 8:15 am

      thanks John, that is a really great tip! I have done the reset many many times and even I get the timing wrong on occasion. It took a few goes to get the EX487 going :-)

      Andrew

  4. NaticeCanadian Reply 01. Mar, 2010 at 5:02 am

    Doesn’t the home server keep some data on the second partition (the non system partition) – so once you pull the drive, isn’t that gone?

    • Andrew Edney Reply 01. Mar, 2010 at 7:40 am

      Yes there are, but that is why you enabled duplication on all of your shared folders first and then let the storage pool balance. Once that happens you should have a copy of all the data on another drive, then you can pull the drive and swap it over.

      Thats what I did and it worked – and I had a lot of data on there!

      And the worse case is that you still have your original drive in tact and could copy over any missing data.

      Andrew

  5. Travis Illig Reply 01. Mar, 2010 at 4:47 pm

    I am looking to do exactly this – swap out my system drive at the same time I upgrade. (I get occasional health errors on my system drive so I have a feeling it’s on its way out.) I am so glad you posted this so I know it can be done. Thanks!

    • Andrew Edney Reply 01. Mar, 2010 at 10:50 pm

      thanks Travis – glad I could provide something useful :-)

      Just remember to enable duplication on all folders and give it time to balance first.

      Andrew

      • Travis Illig Reply 02. Mar, 2010 at 1:53 am

        One question – can you look at your Device Manager and tell me what version the Marvell RAID controller driver is? I’m trying to see if they updated the drivers at the same time as they updated the rest of the system.

        (And on duplication – I have a huge DVD library, terabytes, so I don’t have duplication on that. I’m expecting to lose some data and have to re-rip, but I guess them’s the breaks.)

        • Andrew Edney Reply 02. Mar, 2010 at 8:32 am

          Travis

          The driver in question is version 1.2.0.46 dated 14/06/2007.

          As for your DVDs, if you are missing any after the upgrade you could just connect the old drive up and copy the missing ones back over rather than re-ripping :-)

          Andrew

          • Travis Illig Reply 02. Mar, 2010 at 3:54 pm

            Well, doesn’t look like they updated the drivers, which is a shame. Guess I’ll have to take that on myself.

            Thanks for the tip on connecting up the old drive – I didn’t think of that.

  6. Jon Reply 26. Mar, 2010 at 11:40 pm

    I am Currently doing this but i have 4 USB external hard drives attached .. it will not let me get to the paperclip thing unless i unplug them .. i am worried after all said and done it will try to reformat them .. has anyone ran into this issue

    • Andrew Edney Reply 26. Mar, 2010 at 11:44 pm

      Jon,

      The paperclip thing is at the front of the server, to the left of the USB port on the front. Why cant you access it with drives connected?

      Andrew

      • Jon Reply 26. Mar, 2010 at 11:48 pm

        No i can but if i press it with USB attached it does not blick Purple/red ..it just stays solid red and will not find the server.. i tried it like 10+ times .. but if i take the drives out it goes to the server no problem ..

  7. Bill Stebbins Reply 27. Mar, 2010 at 3:33 am

    I tried this with my EX485 but apparently it doesn’t work the same way. The server recovery completed, but it got stuck with a flashing blue health light. I called HP and they advised me that the process was different for the EX485 in that I needed to do a factory reset.

    I pull my extra drives and did the factory reset with just the new system drive. It completed and seems to be fine. I’m going to add my existing drives back into the pool now.

    • Will Reply 31. Mar, 2010 at 2:11 am

      I have the same problem. Got the flashing blue heath light. How did your recovery go when you added the drives back? Any data loss?

    • Bill Reply 05. May, 2010 at 9:19 pm

      Can you perform a factory reset on one drive, i.e. the system drive, then add in drives to the pool which contain data, without losing the data?