I figured I'd post this here as the other WHS refers to this thread & its Ooold

Anyone still interestred in some WHS testing for MS?

Beta - Home Computer Restore CD (Dual Boot)

The Windows Home Server team would like to invite you to download a beta version of the "Windows Home Server - Home Computer Restore CD (Dual Boot)" from Microsoft Connect at http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer. If you have not previously registered for the Windows Home Server connect site, then you will need a Windows Live ID and need to follow the instructions on the Windows Home Server Connect home page.

There have been a few reports that the original Home Computer Restore CD did not work properly when trying to do full restore of a home computer. The Home Computer Restore CD (Dual Boot) is a new version of the Home Computer Restore CD that provides two options for you, depending on the amount of RAM in the home computer you are trying to restore. The final version of the Home Computer Restore CD (Dual Boot) will be part of the Power Pack 1 media refresh later this year, and will also be made available via the Microsoft Download Center to existing home server customers.

Please download and take the time to read the Release Documentation for the Dual Boot Restore CD. It would be great for people to download this beta version and test its functionality. You will need to be able to burn an ISO file to a CD to test the Windows Home Server - Home Computer Restore CD (Dual Boot). Thanks in advance.

The Windows Home Server Team

Last weekend I was having a problem restoring the new Intel PC & after 6 attempts I posted for help over @ the WHS support site.

A suggestion I try the above Beta - Home Computer Restore CD (Dual Boot) was made also a tip on restoring a complete failed dual boot drive from WHS instead of from the client which is the normal way.

Now I am a tad excited to try this out as previously I had several failed attempts restoring my OS to a different PC/drive. That would be great to have the 2 test rigs w/ the same activated OS's on both w/o having to install & activate, load drivers & apps separately

I wonder if one can restore several OS's at the same time w/ WHS.

I am having problems with SLOW boot time due to WHS on my Vista SP1...

Jeff that sure would take the fun out of running WHS

I usually leave my WHS rig turned off until I want to back-up or restore something, I dont need the wabpage to be up all the time so I dont need WHS to be on 24x7.

I took Ken Warren's advice & tried a restore using the Dual Boot Restore CD (Beta) from Connect, It worked but not flawlessly like the one that came w/ WHS does. It did restore tho

I tried restoring Vista & XP at the same time, it took 35 minutes & looked like it worked until I tried booting to the restored Vista, I had to do a startup repair & dump the old entry using VistaBootPRO, so the 2 Vista OS's are good.
On to XP, the restored XP is missing the boot.ini for the second one

I gotta read a few posts to figure out what I need to add to fix it now

fun, fun, fun

Edit: That wasn't so bad, I am now in XP Pro Test1, its activated & updated,
Vista restored activated too.

After another dual OS restore & having the same problem w/ the bcdedit & boot.ini entries I filed a bug report @ Connect.

They could not reproduce it, last night a MS tester emailed me about this & requested more info (copy of my bcdedit using the bcdedit.txt command & a copy of my boot.ini).

SOooo i copied the before of each then did another 2 OS (XP & Vista) restore together.

This has got to be a Murphy's Law as naturally both of the restored OS's booted fine & the bcdedit & boot.ini were good

I don't think WHS healed its self, but sheesh... what happened

I suppose a 4th dual OS restore is in line now

Ok I was able to break the WHS restore again.

One just needs to format the partition(s) they plan on doing their restore to before starting the restore.

I even changed the boot.ini & bcdedit (w/ VBP 3.3) to get them correct for the 2- OS's i had installed still.

Sure enough after the restore of XP & Vista neither of the new OS's would boot until I tweaked the boot.ini for XP & the bcdedit for Vista.



Oh ya BTW my restore of XP & Vista together took 35 minutes.

Are you loosing faith in WHS??????????????

Na, I am just wanting to make sure my bug can be reproduced.

I still am liking the WHS backup feature & i sure hope MS doesn't take away the activated part for a restored OS.

Are you going to use WHS to restore any of your files on your newly installed Vista SP1?

It sure would be nice if one could just check-off all the files they wanted to be restored (from their WHS backup) & WHS would take care of that part. Not sure how that part works in WHS, yet

Hmmm

I have no tthought about that. I shoudl try a file of two and see what happens.

It appears that the WHS team is going to release the PP1 Beta next month:

Quote:

The Windows Home Server team is pleased to announce details of the public beta of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1. This public beta will include the fix for the data corruption bug described in Knowledge Base article #946676 as well as a host of other bug fixes and new capabilities. The Power Pack 1 download is planned to be available in early June and Beta participants are encouraged to sign up and begin preparing now.

WHS Blog



Edit: From a email I received, incase one doesn't have a copy of WHS.

Quote:

If you are setting up a new home server to run the beta on, download and install the "Windows Home Server RTM Evaluation Edition" from Microsoft Connect.