[In the course of typing up this forum post and continuing to search for a solution via Google searches in the process, I actually found the solution (however weird and obscure) to my problem. I changed the title from a question to a statement and I'm going to post my solution where so that future forum searchers may find it and be saved my frustration]
Other than a drive dying of old age, I haven't had a single hiccup with my WHS over the last 5 years or so. Now I have this problem:
Windows Home Server Console doesn't work on client machines or on the server itself. When I run the Console on a client machine and attempt a login, I get the error:
This computer has lost connection to your home server. Check your network connection and make sure your home server is powered on. Then try to connect again.
When I remote desktop into the server (because, despite that above error, it's on the network and detectable) and run the Console, I get this error message instead:
The Windows Home Server Console cannot start because the Windows Home Server Storage Manager service is not running. Please restart the Windows Home Server. If the problem persists, please contact Product Support.
When I look in the Services menu, Windows Home Server Storage Manager is set to automatic startup and is currently stopped. When I manually try to start it by selecting Start, I get the following error message:
Could not start the Windows Home Server Storage Manager service on Local Computer
Error 193: 0xc1
After searching Google for a bit, I found something that sheds a little light. On this site they are talking about how if you have a file or folder in a system path that has the same name as a word in the folder name, it can cause problems. Here's a direct quote from that page:
PROBLEM Service fails to start. When trying to start a service using the Services Management Console (services.msc) an error is displayed:
Could not start the <Service Name> on the local computer
Error 193: 0xc1
ENVIRONMENTSOLUTION Check all the folders that are in the path to the executable and make sure there are no files with the same name as the first word in the folder name.
- All supported products and operating systems.
For example:CAUSE When the Microsoft Service Control Manager launches a service it checks the path to the executable. If there are any files with the same name in the directory as the the first word in the directory name, it will fail with the above error.
- A file called "program" in your systemdrive (c:)
- A file called "GFI" in your "Program Files" folder
- File called "EventsManager" in your GFI folder.
This is documented in the following Microsoft article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q325680
This seemed... odd to say the least... but I decided to investigate.
Inside the C:\Program Files\ folder on Windows Home Server there were a dozen or so 0k extensionless files with names that matched a lot of the folder names and share name files of both the Program Files directory and my \shared\ folder. Very curious. The only unusual thing I've done on my Windows Home Server recently was to run the add-on tool "Conflict Resolver" to get rid of those annoying dead tombstone errors (which I'd been putting up with since that hard drive I mentioned earlier in this post died last year).
I removed all the phantom 0k files and stored them temporarily on the desktop for safe keeping incase they needed to be restored. I tried to launch Windows Home Server Console (no luck), I rebooted the server and tried again... and it worked! The error message and the advice I found regarding it was true: those strange phantom files were the source of my Console starting failure (specifically the console failed because the support service had failed).
My theory is that Conflict Resolver put them there as they corresponded directly to the day that I ran the Conflict Resolver. Why they were there, I do not know. Removing them, however, solved the problem and restored console access on both the server itself and the client machines.
So to recap my problem and solution for clarity:
1. Suddenly, after years of consistent stability, I could no longer run the Windows Home Server on the server or the clients.
2. I received and error that indicated there was some sort of filename/foldername conflict.
3. The conflict was that there were a bunch of odd phantom 0k files with names that matched several of the folders in /Progam Files/ including the folder where those critical WHS service files were located (which caused them to error out and not load correctly).
4. Removing those phantom files (I'm still not 100% sure where they came from, but suspect Conflict Resolver) and rebooting completing solved my problem.
Fingers crossed that at least one person finds this post in the future and is spared the frustration of solving it on their own.