Upgrade from Evaluation version to OEM
From We Got Served Wiki
The upgrade is actually a server reinstallation as opposed to a new install. This will keep all your existing files and storage pool intact. If this was a new install the drives specified for the storage pool would be formatted and one would lose the data on the drive.
What you will need
- Windows Home Server OEM Server Installation Disk (or flash drive)
- Your Home Server
- DVD Drive attached to your Server
- NOTE: BIOS must be able to boot from this device
What to Do
Make sure any programs or files on the SYSTEM partition (the C:\ drive) are backed up either to the d:\ drive or off of the hard drive. Make sure you make note of the users, passwords settings and Windows Live ID you had used in the previous install because you will have to re-enter this information.
Also write down the fixed IP address and DNS names you used in the previous install if you manually configured this.
- Set BIOS to boot from optical drive.
- When prompted, hit any key to boot from the drive.
- When the installation window appears, select ‘Reinstall Server’.
- NOTE: If your system drive is not the first drive listed, it will not give you the option. If this is the case: shut down the server, and unplug all drives but the system drive. Once setup is running and reboots the first time, reattach all the drives.
- Install will take over an hour and several reboots will occur.
- After install finishes, you will have to setup your administrator password. Make sure that you use the same password as you had previously.
- If you manually configured your network, you will need to open the Network properties for your network adapter’s TCP/IP settings and put in the values you had previously used.
- Run "C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\Discovery.exe" on each client computer to rejoin them to the server.
Done
That is it.
Credits
This page was originally written by condition_unknown for We Got Served.
