Sharing difficulties between Windows PCs

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Zarking hell, so much is going wrong.

I'll start with the positives: I've repurposed the Lenovo “IBM” ThinkPad T60 as a comic book reader. It was previously used exclusively for MemoryMap, but a second offline use for it seems sensible, mainly because I want to (attempt to…)  repurpose the HP Stream as a file server being as how the Bush tablet refuses to stay connected to the network. The HP is currently running Windows 8(!) so I'll try installing Windows 10 IoT.

The old desktop is up & running but being weird about network sharing. It seemed to work (I think) but then I changed the computer name to something that wasn’t immemorable gobbledygook and another computer on the network can't see shares from it. Name-change-related? Who knows.

Then I tried sharing from the HP to the desktop: nothing.

From desktop to Dell laptop: nothing.

From Dell laptop to desktop and HP: nothing.

Either the computers don't appear, or Windows claims usernames or passwords are incorrect, when I know they're not.

I think I'm a little tired of it all; it's especially draining because when I tried it on the Bush tablet, all the sharing worked straight away (I could even access the shares on my phone) so for it not to work on all these very capable computers is quite disheartening.

Turned them all off for today; maybe I'll look at it again when I have more energy.

Only have ONE HDD plugged in when installing Windows!!!1!

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Gah! Windows needs to be installed on Disk 0 (i.e. the SSD should be in sata position 0) or else the Windows install puts a random tiny partition on the disk in position 0.

Swap motherboards? Check number of SATA ports.

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https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-installed-recovery-partition-on-second/01dde377-a8bb-4b3f-8aeb-8d37bff5898e

A quote from this page seems pertinent:

“It is never a good idea to have more than one drive attached when installing Windows.”

Wise words.

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First tried diskpart cleaning the disk with the extra boot segment on; wouldn't let me.

Then plugged boot SSD into Disk 0 (IMPORTANT: marked SATA6G_1 on motherboard). This wouldn't allow booting as it must have confused the whole system.

Looks like we're reïnstalling Windows. Again.

Unplugged the three storage drives and made sure boot SSD was plugged into the ‘first’ SATA position.

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Windows 10 IoT installed with all partitions on the boot drive. Now copying backup stuff onto the three storage drives.

RAID operations...

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There's a certain order of operations needed to get a drive unraided, and it's all a bit weird, but basically I need the SATA ports to be AHCI rather than RAID.

I half-did the job using the F11 EZ config tool in the Asus BIOS, but that was a mistake! It half-made a RAID using two of the three drives, but then no drives would show up in boot. Turns out I should just use the ‘proper’ (i.e. not EZ) Intel RAID tool.

I've just used it to make a whole new RAID of all three drives (because two drives were ‘trapped’ in that old weird RAID) and will now delete that RAID which should hopefully ‘free’ all the drives…

…and it didn't work: two drives are still trapped, weirldy still with the old name I gave the three-drive RAID (RotLA, obvs). More research needed.

AND I can't install windows on the SSD; probably still something to do with SATA being RAID configured…

Ok, changing back to AHCI allowed Windows to say it can be installed, but that two-drive RAID is still there…

Trying another three-drive RAID, but making it RAID1 (mirror) instead of the RAID0 (stripe; basically just butted up to each other). This might help by giving the drives a proper ‘nudge’ into a totally different mode…

Correction: trying RAID5. RAID1 is only to mirror two drives max.

Back in the Windows installation, it won't let me install on any drive because RAID not AHCI.

TIP: in Asus BIOS, turning Intel Rapid Storage Technology RST on & off is done in EZ Mode (note: this not the same EZ as mentioned earlier!) but actually configuring anything is done in “Advanced” mode.

Weird: simply turning off RST gives the same old drive config showing up at install.

(Zarking hell, this is a lot of pissing about. If this gets sorted, I don't think I'll bother with RAID ever again; just make more back-up.)

Yikes, still not showing three separate drives. Time to start physically unplugging them…

(Yikes, case has evidence of previous spider nesting inside: lots of tiny moulted exoskeletons.)

Just leaving the SSD in didn't help: Windows still refuses to install on it.

Next plan (after a looooong diversion to fix a power button issue) is to plug the drives into a another computer one by one via USB thingie and see what we can do.

Interesting! One of the drives from the old RAID plugged in on its own is recognised by Windows as belonging to a pool and even shows that there were originally three in the pool and the old RotLA name. It even gives me the option to “Delete pool”. Ha ha, guess I'll deffo be trying that, having run out of other options!

https://aidanfinn.com/?p=16571

…But the FriendlyName is NOT RotLA for some reason!

Used Get-StoragePool to list pools and find the name is actually just “Storage pool” (roll eyes emoji…)

Failed on the first go, but seemed to work on the second try…

(NB: Letter Case Matters For PowerShell Commands!)

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All done! By plugging all four drives (three storage + SSD system disk that EZ RST nonsense wiped) in individually via USB to another computer and using PowerShell & CaFHDP to wipe and format, they're all rescued and Windows 10 IoT is installing.

Old desktop renew

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Project Old Desktop Renew begins!

Power usage numbers:

Seems to be using about 32W at idle.

Seen a peak of 59W.

Copying data from ext HDD onto PC: 37W.

Concurrently copying from USB to SSD: 42W.

Wireless keyboard & mouse is NOT playing nicely with this computer: cursor jerks around and keyboard inputs lag. Weird. Wired mouse works fine.

Wait… problem is with REAR USB ports; wired mouse only works in front ports, and wireless set is fine in front. Even weirder.

Then it started working. No idea what's going on.

Then it stopped working, even in the front ports. Fuck’s’ake.

Anyway, moving on…

First step is check downloads on this old desktop box to see if I need to back stuff up (yup!)

(Just dumped it all to ext HDD for now; I will probably regret not sorting it…)

Win10 IoT installed!

All updates & programmes installed.

Unraiding: the intel option doesn't appear at boot… It used to pop up “press ctrl + I to RAID” (or similar).

Did some googling and F11 in BIOS seems to access similar functionality. I removed the current raid, made another raid, removed that… I think. Anyway, eventually I was just left with the computer only being able to network boot… very weird. My fiddling didn't touch the boot SSD, and the computer won't boot from USB. More investigation needed.