@John I have the same set up as you viz HP Gen7 N54L with a few discs used to hold backup copies of files, switched on when needed. You might be interested to read my experience upgrading compared with yours. Shares not visible after update to RS 4.1 on HP Proliant Microserver N54L Gen7
I don’t think I saw any funny characters on the console when booting at the end. (I don’t have a console connected to the machine which is buried away now in a cupboard.)