Microsoft WHS (Windows Home Server) Backup Service Failure – Almost a Total Disaster!!!

Barry Cleave — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:50:00 +0000

So What is This About?

I have been running Windows Home Server for about 9 months. I always intended to write some posts about my experience but hadn’t got around to it yet. Anyway, I woke up a couple of mornings ago and switched on the PC in my bedroom (while lying in bed – yes how sad is that!!) to be greeted by the Red WHS (Windows Home Server) system tray icon warning me of a “Network health is critical” Problem.

Well nothing startling about that as WHS seems to find I have a disk problem fairly regularly despite the fact that the system is less than a year old and built from good quality components including the disk drives. In fact the health warning relating to disk drives has been going on since the first couple of weeks so I treat it as just another “MS annoyance”. I just take the appropriate remedial action and it goes away (but now I am wondering if it is an indicator of some deeper problems with WHS like the well known data corruption bug!).

So I opened up the WHS Console to find the following:

(Click on screenshots to enlarge if necessary)

This was a first – the backup service was not running. OK probably just needs a system restart so the first thing I tried (as anyone probably would) was to shutdown and restart the system. When it restarted the problem was still there.

Now you should all be aware that WHS is meant to be a “User Friendly” and restricted version of Windows Server that your granny can use.

I duly clicked on the “How do I correct this problem” link which opened up a browser window with instructions on what to do in 5 stages, this can be found at:

How to troubleshoot the “Backup service is not running” error message in Windows Home Server

The first thing to notice is that this Knowledge Base article has not been updated since January 2, 2008. Bearing in mind that WHS has been out for a short time this seems a long time for a problem that has not been fixed when my research shows there is more information on potential solutions available, but more of that later.

The solutions offered are:

On This Page

INTRODUCTION

MORE INFORMATION

Before you troubleshoot this problem

Troubleshooting methods

Method 1: Restart your home server

Method 2: Reconnect any disconnected hard disks to your home server

Method 3: Remove hard disks by using the Remove a Hard Drive Wizard

Method 4: Repair hard disks that are identified as “Unhealthy”

Method 5: Reset the backup database

Well I had already tried method 1 with no success.

Methods 2 and 3 were not applicable as I had not added or removed any external disks as part of the storage pool.

Method 4 was also not applicable as there were no disks marked as unhealthy
( and unless there are you can’t do any sort of check/repair from the WHS consol)e.

This left Method 5 – Reset the Backup Database.

Ok that sound reasonable until you read what it actually means: (Emphasis in red added by me)

Method 5: Reset the backup database
You should reset the backup database only as the last option. When you do this, all the home computer backups are deleted. These backups include any customized backup configurations, such as excluded hard disks or folders. Reset the backup database only after you complete the previous troubleshooting methods. If you have a database inconsistency error, follow these steps to reset the backup database:

1. Log on to the Windows Home Server Console from any home computer.
2. Click Settings, click Backup, and then click Delete All in the Backup Cleanup area.
3. Restart your home server.
4. Log on to the Windows Home Server Console from any home computer.
5. Click the Computers & Backup tab.
6. Right-click each of your home computers in the list, and then click Configure Backup to reconfigure the backup.

If you receive a “Backup Service is not running” error message, follow these steps to reset the backup database: 1. Log on to the Windows Home Server Console from any home computer.
2. Click Settings, and then click Delete All to reset the database.
3. Restart your home server.
4. Log on to Windows Home Server Console from any home computer.
5. Click the Computers & Backup tab.
6. Right-click each of your home computers, and then click Configure Backup to reconfigure the backup.

You should reset the backup database only as the last option. When you do this, all the home computer backups are deleted.

Sorry – What was that!!!!

You should reset the backup database only as the last option.

When you do this, all the home computer backups are deleted

OK Microsoft, I bought WHS to backup several PC’s and laptops conveniently, without fuss, to a schedule and so I had a set of restore options going back many months if not years. Now you are telling me that I have to delete them in order to get WHS backup working again, unbelievable!

That is just not acceptable in a backup server system!!!

Yes I know WHS does several other things but they can all be done with freeware, or NAS boxes, etc. The only thing I shelled out my hard earned money for was a simple, secure and disk efficient backup system for my computers.

So What Next

Well I wasn’t about to give in without a fight and as my WHS system is not on a “headless” server system I attached a screen, keyboard and mouse and logged in.

(Warning – be careful in doing this or gaining access through a remote connection session as you can make changes that will break WHS)

I tried restarting the service but it just stopped again.

I tried checking the disks but there was no problem

I looked at the event logs and looked up the error codes but got nothing more to work with.

So then I tried a couple of Google searches on the Internet and found some information on the forums.

It seems that the problem may be corruption of the index/database files for the backups.

This is backed up by information I can see using the “Event Viewer” add-in to WHS

“Unexpected error 0×26 from unexpected EOF on D:\folders\{00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A7F909A47AB4}\Index.4096.dat: Reached the end of the file.”

From information on some of the forums it seems that the 3 most probable causes are:

Manually stopping a backup when it is running
Power failure in the middle of a running backup
Windows Update restarting the system during a backup

I reckon I could only have been the victim of number 3 – if true, well done you developers!

Forum links are:

forums.microsoft.com/Wind...tID=2324660&SiteID=50

forums.microsoft.com/Wind...tID=1744726&SiteID=50

forums.microsoft.com/Wind...tID=2294698&SiteID=50

You should also note that the Microsoft KB article does not list these as possible causes – why not?

It seems that there are some possible solutions that involve deleting files and copying backups that need access at a DOS command level, well beyond the abilities and experience of the average user. I will give them a try and see where I get to. It also seems that some tools may be available soon from MS to help deal with these sort of problems but as it has taken more than six months without a fix released for the data corruption problem I am not holding my breath. At the moment I am thoroughly disillusioned by the apparent robustness of WHS and tools (not) available to correct the most basic of problems.

If anyone has any information on other measures or tools available, etc. any suggestions would be most welcome.

Fortunately for me I do not rely on WHS as my sole means of backup. All my critical data is backed up elsewhere in addition to WHS. I also have images of the OS’s on most of my computers but some are rather old. I now need to make sure that other NAS and removable drive backups are up to date, WHS was meant to overcome the need for such manual checking and starting of backups.

If I have to reset the WHS backups I will loose a lot of potential system backups for the individual machines and that is a real pain if anything goes wrong with any of them in the near future.