WHS on constant reboot cycle

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berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#100429 11-Apr-2012 15:34

Was watching a movie stored on the WHS machine from my HTPC when it just stopped. Checking under 'Network' in explorer showed the WHS machine wasn't visible, so I went down stairs to see if the power was cut to it etc. It was audibly running, and so I plugged in a monitor to see what was happening...

It was just on a constant reboot cycle. It would go through the usual ram, hdd checks and just before you would expect to see it loading WHS, it would reboot.

I'm guessing either something is corrupted in the OS or the HDD with the OS installed has failed. I couldn't hear any unusual noises/clicking from any of the HDDs, so I though I would try to repair the installation by booting with the WHS install disk and going through the repair steps.

I opened the tower up, attached a dvd drive, changed the bios setup to boot from it 1st, but when it the 'Windows is loading files' screen appeared, it progressed about 1/20th of the progress bar and rebooted! And kept doing the same each time.

So, this is where I'm hoping for guidance so I don't mess up anything in trying to isolate the problem.

The machine comprises of 10 x 2TB drives and I'm not sure which has the OS installed on it - I installed all HDDs at once and loaded WHS - probably not the best idea. All HDDs were bought new and the systems has been running flawlessly since Nov 2010. It has a heap of Win MCE recordings on it along with iso copies of dvds and blurays.

Any logical steps to follow would be greatly appreciated!

freitasm

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#608099 12-Apr-2012 02:32

First things: when reinstalling make sure you have the drives plugged in and be extra sure you select the recovery option, otherwise all your drives will be erased.

Now that this is clear... It sounds like a hardware problem. Obviously there are lots of things to look at from here.

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berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#608114 12-Apr-2012 07:56

Yeah, don't want to lose anything...

Could be faulty ram - its an asus board which has an led for when there is a fault with the ram. It didn't light up with both sticks in, but when I tried each one individually, the light came on and the bios reported a RW error for both.

I'm thinking this is why the 'Windows is Loading files' progress bar failed as it could't store anything in the ram.

I'll get a new stick or two in the next day or so and report back.

Thanks

alanwright

46 posts

Geek

#608120 12-Apr-2012 08:27

I had the same problem recently. Turned out infact to be a faulty system drive.

As already mentioned to do a reinstall (NOT A NEW INSTALL) you will need to ensure your system drive is on SATA 0 (1 in some cases). If it is not, you won't get the reinstall option and if you go ahead, ALL your data will be wiped.

Sadly in my case, my system drive was broken and it would not reinstall, would get to 20% and hang. I had to buy a new drive, install WHS (with all data drives unconnected). Then install a new drive, copy data from data drive to new drive, then add drive to pool, rinse and repeat. Took about 2 weeks. I would recommend getting a 3rd party copy program (rabocopy?)

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#608129 12-Apr-2012 09:37

Yikes, hopefully doesn't come to that but thanks for the info. I'm hoping (if its not just the faulty ram) that with all drives connected as they were originally that it will work out which is the system drive.

alanwright

46 posts

Geek

#608132 12-Apr-2012 09:44

Good luck, there is a plug in avaiable (30 day free trial) that will show you all drives in the system, and which chanel they are connected to, so takes the guess work out of it. Not much good if you can't boot up though, but I have found this tool very handy in the past. Well worth the $10 they ask

http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/products/whs/diskmanagement

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#608136 12-Apr-2012 10:00

Nice! Thanks and $10usd is very cheap

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#612439 20-Apr-2012 15:23

Ok, got some new ram which is recommend in the motherboards manual.

So when I power on and wait for it to boot, sadly the screen goes blank (black) and it reboots itself continuously. When I view the full POST, I see that it is saying theres a RAM R/W error!!!

So I have new ram and its saying that the error! I've done a quick search on R/W errors and most posts come up with latency and voltage settings that need to be changed. Is this the case?

I haven't touched my mb settings for overclocking - everything is set to auto.

Any RAM gurus out there?

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#624923 14-May-2012 15:12

So I've had no luck with this.

I've reset the cmos and changed the battery and tried new ram in the different slots, but still the same.

I can't think of what else it could be other than a faulty motherboard (or maybe power supply...?)

So, I may have to get a new mobo and I don't think the same model would be available. So I'll have to do a fresh install, but I need to get the data (videos, photos, movies) off the other drives. I can't remember how much I had - I'm thinking around the 5TB spread across the 10 x 2TB drives (or maybe thats duplicated..?)

Open to ideas....

freitasm

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#624937 14-May-2012 15:42

Perhaps it's an OS problem?

Insert the install DVD, and instead of a New Installation select Server Reinstallation. This will clean the OS and rebuild all the mappings, etc...

Be careful not to select New Installation as this wipes out ALL attached drives.

Another option is to unplug all drives and just reinstall as new - this includes the existing system drive, so you will need a new HDD. All your data will be in your drives and can be read, you will have to manually copy back to the server one drive at a time.

This last option is good to make sure it's an OS problem, not a hardware fault.

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jaymz

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#624938 14-May-2012 15:47

I have seen a very similar issue, even if you tried to boot with a linux cd or something like ShadowProtect the PC would restart.

Turned out to be some of the capacitors on the mainboard had leaked.

Replace mainboard and away it went.

I don't mean to be nasty, so please don't take this the wrong way. but, you have backups of your data don't you? or were you relying on the RAID'ed drives?

On that thought, is it a hardware RAID or software inside WHS? I prefer hardware RAID where ever possible, I have more trust in that than Windows (i know RAID cards can fail, but you are less likely to hit software issues on them)

xpd

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#624940 14-May-2012 15:51

Other option to check hardware is boot a CD such as Hirens Boot CD.... if that fails to load then youve got a major issue. If it boots tho, use the diagnostic tools on the CD and get testing...

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berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#624943 14-May-2012 15:53

freitasm: Perhaps it's an OS problem?

Insert the install DVD, and instead of a New Installation select Server Reinstallation. This will clean the OS and rebuild all the mappings, etc...

Be careful not to select New Installation as this wipes out ALL attached drives.

Another option is to unplug all drives and just reinstall as new - this includes the existing system drive, so you will need a new HDD. All your data will be in your drives and can be read, you will have to manually copy back to the server one drive at a time.

This last option is good to make sure it's an OS problem, not a hardware fault.

Unfortunately, it doesn't get to the installing part. It shows the 'Windows is Loading Files' message with progress bar, goes about 1/10th of the way and then reboots.

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#624946 14-May-2012 15:56

jaymz: I have seen a very similar issue, even if you tried to boot with a linux cd or something like ShadowProtect the PC would restart.

Turned out to be some of the capacitors on the mainboard had leaked.

Replace mainboard and away it went.

I don't mean to be nasty, so please don't take this the wrong way. but, you have backups of your data don't you? or were you relying on the RAID'ed drives?

On that thought, is it a hardware RAID or software inside WHS? I prefer hardware RAID where ever possible, I have more trust in that than Windows (i know RAID cards can fail, but you are less likely to hit software issues on them)

Yeah, just the drive pooling with WHS - Not he end of the world as I have the videos elsewhere. Mainly the tv recordings. If unsuccessful, I'l have to re-rip all our dvds/bluray too.

My gut feeling is its a faulty mobo

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#624948 14-May-2012 15:57

xpd: Other option to check hardware is boot a CD such as Hirens Boot CD.... if that fails to load then youve got a major issue. If it boots tho, use the diagnostic tools on the CD and get testing...

That's a good idea, I'll give that a go. Thanks.