Windows Evaluation Period expires early

Installation 1:

Wanted to blog about Windows Small Business Server 2003 and my old Dell PowerEdge 2600 server did not have a DVD drive so R2 in the action pack was not an option.

Not a problem only wanted it running for a few days so grabbed an old CD based evaluation copy and installed it, staying up until 4am prepping the system.

The following afternoon tried to logon only to find the evaluation period had expired. The BIOS battery failed and the year had gone back to some time in the stone age setting of the evaluation time bomb.

Microsoft Support: Evaluation version of Windows Server 2003 may expire before the date that the Winver.exe file reports

Installation 2:

Okay I have an HP ML350 G4 and I know its got a DVD drive but the action pack is on the other side of the room … it’s only temporary … I’ll just persist with this original SBS 2003 evaluation version. 

In with the HP SmartStart on with the SBS 2003 … what do you mean SP2 can not be installed … 4GB drive!!  … but it’s a 67.83GB partition in Disc Manager and only 4GB on the drives properties!!

 

Installation 3:

Change out the hot swap drive and installed SBS 2003 evaluation remembering to use SmartStart to blow away any configuration on this 2nd drive.

Plugged in the original drive and it was still showing 4GB in properties but over 60GB on Disc Manager. Recreated the partition and formatted it now I have the full 67.83GB accessible.

Okay … it's going to be another 4am session so just do the basic installs and configure later.

• Updated with Windows Server SP2 and Exchange 2003 SP2
• Installed PowerShell 1.0
• Installed WSUS 3.0
• Installed SharePoint Services 3.0
• Installed Windows Deployment Services
• Did some basic configuration of the Group Policies and some other tweaks.
• Copied a XP virtual machine and installed to domain.

Okay … I’m ready to start configuring WSUS, SharePoint 3.0 and WDS … do I really want to leave the configuration until later … what do you mean I need to replace SBS 2003 CD3.

Something about SharePoint Services not working on early versions of SBS 2003 because of a faulty CD3 … now why did I stop using this evaluation version in the past … faulty CD3. A great reason to always “Blog It”.

I found some information about the date on the SBS folder on the replacement CD3 being December 2003 mine was August 2003.

Microsoft Support: Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Small Business Server 2003 Installation Update

Installation 4:

So a few hours sleep later will I admit defeat and go for the Action Pack … I have this HP OEM SBS 2003 R2 version somewhere … would that be admitting defeat … it is snowing … very heavily … and I’ve just downloaded SmartStart 8.30.

• Installed HP OEM SBS 2003 R2
• Left the R2 component off just now
• Installed WSUS 3.0 and configured the downloads
• Installed HP Version Control Repository Manager
• Configured HP Version Control Agent
• Broke the NIC

I would not recommend learning about HP Version Control on a live system.

• The NIC would not work big red cross in device manager.
• De-installed the driver and let machine reinstall it.
• Rebooted driver ok in device manager
• NIC would not ping anything including its self.

At this point I would like to tell you how I fixed this, but, after many years in IT support your fingers take over from you brain and just fix it.

• Okay I just shut down some services and when that did not work I rebooted it again.
• Network connectivity back to normal.

more to come …