Ask Matt: your questions answered

Mailbag 8th March 2011

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Remote Access Problem?

Martin Asks:

When I use the remote access website for my Windows Home Server 2011, under the heading ’computers’ the server itself is not listed. Every other computer on the network is and works perfectly.
What is causing this and how can it be fixed?

When you access Windows Home Server 2011, there is no ability to remotely connect via Remote Desktop Connection into the server itself. You can on the other hand connect to the WHS Console to control your WHS.

Media Centre on WHS

Antoine Asks:

I want more precisions about media center. I have only one computer near my TV. This is my home server.

I want to:

– host my file

– backup my pcs during night

– stream media to my WP7

– Watch TV show and movie directly in my TV.

So I want to install a media center program (like XBMC or Boxee) directly in Windows Home Server. Is it possible? Some users use this solution with Windows Server 2008 R2 with appropriate GPU drivers.

Note that I don’t want to install WHS 2011 as a virtual machine because i want to use LightsOut (most popular power management add-in for Windows Home Server).

This is certainly possible but obviously only if the Windows Home Server is a headed server and has compatible graphics drivers whether that be for integrated or independent graphics.

It is always easier to find working graphics drivers for Windows Server 2008 R2 because most of the drivers for Windows 7 will usually work without issue, this is not always the case with Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Hardware Failure

Phillip Asks:

I had a hardware failure on my WHS v1 machine which required the moving of my data to a new WHS build. Copying the data from each drive worked perfectly except when it came to the system drive.

Windows 7 saw all the files as existing, i.e. 4Tb of files on a 200GB drive. Fortunately there were very few files on the system drive of importance so I just formatted it.

The question is how do you isolate those files that are really stored on the system drive from those which I assume are just pointers to the Drive Extender pool?

Unfortunately there is no way of isolating any data on particular drives as Drive Extender specifies how and where the data is stored on the drive.

The one good thing with Microsoft dropping Drive Extender from Windows Home Server 2011 we will have far more control over the way and how our data is stored our data drives.

The Backup service is not running

Anonymous Asks:

I have an HP Server with WHS software. I have received an error ”Backup service is not running” error. I followed all corrective steps except for ”repairing the backup database”, with no effect.

Before I take this last step, I have a question. One of my 3 hard drives’ status is listed as ”not added”. I believe my WHS software is installed on that drive. Could this drive be my problem? I’m not allowed a choice to repair it, although it’s connected. Do you have any advice?

This problem is actually very easy to resolve. Firstly Remote Desktop into your WHS >> press Windows Key + R >> type “services.msc” >> go down to “Windows Home Server Backup Service” >> right click and select start. Once the service has started you should find that this has resolved the error message being reported by the console.

I know I haven’t been able to answer everyone’s questions, so those that haven’t been answered why not post them in the forum.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

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