Help reinstalling server on new hdd

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Hi everyone, I’m having an issue trying to reinstall my plex server on a new windows installation. I tried the Plex support page and also searched in forum but I was not able to fix it, so I’m asking for your help.

My HDD died a month ago and I lost my Windows Installation, so I needed to purchase a new hdd and reinstall everything. The “good” news is that I was able to recover the data on my hdd (not able to recover the Windows installation), and (most important) I have the metadata folder on a different hdd, so, I should be able to recover my Plex Server with no issues (I thought).

So I have:

  • New Windows 10 installation
  • Data recovered from Old HDD:
    ** A folder called “Plex” that was located on Users/Danilo/AppData/Local
    ** A folder called “Plex Media Server” that was located on Users/Danilo/AppData/Local
    ** A folder called “Plex” that was located on C:/Program Files/
  • Second HDD (I:) with a SERVER/SERVER folder (142gb) with all the metadata (7000+ movies, 150+ Tv Shows, 200+ Concerts, etc).

I tried:

  • Installing Plex from scratch, login with my account, changing metadata folder to I:/SERVER/SERVER, restarting server - Failed, it configured a new server with no libraries.
  • Installing Plex from scratch, adding LocalAppDataPath = I:/SERVER/SERVER on HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Plex, Inc./Plex Media Server, started server, login with my account. - Failed, it configured a new server with no libraries.

Notes:

  • I backed up the I:/SERVER/SERVER data BEFORE doing any step, so it is not overwritten when changing metadata folder on Plex.
  • I wasn’t able to recover the registry information from the died HDD. I guess I’m still able to do it, but don’t know how.
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Nobody is able to help? :frowning:

3

support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/

4

@dduke2104 said:
support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/

I followed that guide before, but as I mention on my question I was not able to save the registy information, and doing what it says there I wasn’t able to get it work.

5

You didn’t explain why you weren’t able to save the registry information but it is an essential part of the process. Yeah, your customized metadata wouldn’t probably be restored but it would have put you way ahead of where you’re going to be otherwise.

If you couldn’t recover it from your failed hard drive then that’s a lesson learned for you about backups. I’ve used that move procedure myself - exactly as it was written - and it worked perfectly.