Windows Home Server is showing signs of death

Question

I have a Windows Home Server (HP EX485 MediaSmart Home Server) and it started acting up about 4 weeks ago and a few days ago complained of a corrupt database and would I like to try and recover it? Yes, I would but I ended up losing all backups. I have to reboot it frequently for the client machines to be able to see it. I have 4 hard disks in the computer.

I suspect that the primary hard disk is going bad. My first question: How can I confirm if it's going bad or not?

I'm thinking about removing the primary disk and replacing it with one of the others and reloading the OS with the server restore disk. I know that I'll lose everything (but I recently did anyway) but is there any other reason why I should not do this?

Answer 1

You could download the hard drive diagnostic tools for your hard drive. I've had good experience with these tools correctly diagnosing a problem with drives before. You may have to open the case to figure out what particular brand your drive is and download the specific tools for it. A list of tools for various brands can be found here: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Answer 2

To monitor your disks on Windows Home Server (WHS) I have had good luck with "Home Server SMART Classic". It is a WHS add-in and show up in the WHS console view. It displays the S.M.A.R.T. information from each installed disk and lets you know the health of each installed disk. Its free, but if you really like it you can donate to support it.