I've been using StableBit DrivePool for years, but I'll probably replace my Windows PC, and I'll have to rethink my system. Today, my motherboard has 6 SATA ports, where I have my 6 HDDs connected. My new PC will be a mini PC, with only USB-C ports (USB-C 4), and I won't be able to connect all 6 HDDs directly to the motherboard, as of today. So, I'm thinking of moving my HDs to an external enclosure, something like a DAS. I use these HDDs not just as backup, but to work with the files on a daily basis . Nothing too heavy, but I don't want to wait seconds to open a Word document, for example. 

Can you suggest an enclosure that supports USB-C 3+ with a good transfer rate and that would recognize my drives separately, so I could continue using DrivePool? I've been looking around, and I just can't find a reliable one. I always find reviews saying that the enclosure has damaged the drives and corrupted all the files inside. 

Thanks!

1. Back up the server contents on another machine, then reload?

2.  or can I just rebuild the machine without the HDD, load the software then restart with the HDD plugged in ?

Thoughts?

Hi,

Running Windows 10 Pro.

I have six 4TB drives in a pool (drive E:\) that are more than 8 yrs old. I have scanner showing some 56 bad sectors on 1 drive, though stable for a 2 weeks. I decided to change them out anyways and replacing them with four 14TB drive. The data will remain on the old drives and I will put them away just as a spare backup should they ever be needed.

In the current pool, some folders have been set to duplicate, but not all.

The old drives are connected through an HBA. I can connect the 4 new drives to the motherboard SATA drives, so I should be able to have them all online.

What is the best way to migrate? I was thinking of doing this:

1. Create a brand new pool as drive F:\ with the 4 new drives.
2. Copy everything over from E:\ to F:\
3. Turn off the machine and just remove the 6 drives, along with the HBA.
4. Configure the new drive pool for duplication as needed and performance, etc.

Will this work? When I start back up, can I just rename F: to E:. or do I need to do some cleanup and remove E: first?

Thanks.

I want to update the server and am at a loss what i should use for an operating system. I still want to use the Stablebit software to manage the disks and provide duplication.

My important uses include: 

1. backup

2 remote management (my storage server is headless)

3 File shares (so I can use DrivePool)

What do you suggest? I see that you are running Windows Server 2019. Would this give me the required functions (same look/feel) as Windows Home Server 2011?

What is the best practice to use RAID with stablebit? Should I just ignore the RAID setup and just Drivepool and all drives not in a RAID? Do I put them in the RAID as...mirrors? Or if money is no object do I just make my hardware raids and ignore Stablebit?

I come to you all for help, and I am quite confident I will get the help I need here 🙂

So, a friend gave me a Brand New SANS DIGITAL EliteSTOR ES316X6+B JBOD to solve my ever expanding storage needs for Plex.

Sans Digital EliteSTOR ES316X6+B

I would like to know how I can connect all the hard drives in this device to a Windows 11 Pro Workstation PC (Dell Precision 7920)

The EliteSTOR JBOB will be for backup only and I will be using Storage Pool to manage all 14 Drives so far ( at least that is my hope).It did come with a SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 cable.

I would like to connect it to my Workstation so I can access all the drives on there, but my workstation does not have the port to plug the SFF-8088 cable in. I assume from there that I will need one more component, and I do not know what that could be.
I have been reading on HBA (very new to this), and I was looking at these two;

LSI SAS9207-8E Logic SGL SAS PCIE 12/3.3V CTLR 8Port Ext 6GB/S SATA Plus SAS

and 

LSI Logic SAS 9300-8e SGL LSI00343

I believe once I install this on my Workstation, I should then be able to see the 14 drives using DrivePool? 

I know there are people on here with way more experience than me and I hope you all do guide me to achieve what I am hoping to. 

Thank You all in Advance. 

https://sabrent.com/products/ds-uctb

I'll be attaching it via a USB-C cable.  I just need to know if there's anything I need to do wrt Drivepool before removing them from my Norco.  From what I understand, all the pooling information is stored on the pooled drives themselves and the order in which they're placed in drive bays don't matter, but I just want to dot all my T's and cross all my I's.  I won't be doing anything crazy, like RAID or unRAID, just messing with DP (and Scanner).

Please let me know before I put shotgun holes in my credit card, as the Sabrent ain't cheap.  Thanks muchly in advance!

This got me thinking - how old is the oldest drive you have in your PC/server? Whilst I now know these HD204UI's are 10 years old, Stablebit Scanner reports them as around 7 years 300 days old, so I assume that's been their "power on" time.

(Before anyone asks, yes I do have some redundancy in my system and have spare drives on standby just in case!)

- SSD checked for the SSD and Archive checked for the spinning rust

- On file Placement I've checked a couple of folders I want to remain only on the SSD for performance reasons.  I've also marked these folders as "Never allow files to be placed on any other disks"

This seems to work correctly in that files are moved onto the SSD, but.... When I run a "Re-Balance" these files are then copied OFF the SSD back to the HDD.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Nathan

Pic of setting --> https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkiTPpgNxBQV8B-pmaKvnfgyVLLU?e=XCrZeG

To that end, I was eyeing this cute little beast:

https://sabrent.com/products/ds-uctb

(The 10-bay version.)

Should this work will full pooling and reporting functionality?  If not, does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative that's NOT a rackmount chassis?

Thanks in advance!

I am looking to bring in 1/2 SSDs to use with drivepool for caching and always like to penny pinch. I was wondering if a cheap DRAMless one would be sufficient or is it best to spend a bit more to get SSDs with DRAM?

1) Replace one of the 4TB drives with another 16TB drive. This would solve the problem for about $350 dollars

2) Add a PCIe SATA expansion card to connect the x4 old 4TB drives I have sitting around. Though I'd need an external enclosure since my case can't hold any more drives. It seems like from reading reviews that these cards can be finicky and I don't really wanna deal with instability. So I'm not sure on this option.

3) Upgrade motherboard/cpu to a mobo that has at least 8x sata ports (ideally would aim for x10-x12 ports). I'm not finding a lot of decent options here though unless I'm missing boards it seems like most are $500ish dollars, plus then a cpu (haven't even looked for another cpu that supports ECC yet).

4) An option I'm not thinking of?

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

https://www.newegg.com/microsemi-1100-24i-sata-sas/p/17Z-000T-00013?Item=17Z-000T-00013

But now I am wondering whether there is a 4/16-port SAS/SATA card with a wider and more recent PCIe bus that works well as an HBA and is cheap 2nd hand. Basically, is there an improved alternative to the IBM M1015 with a relatively similar value for money?

Quote

This chip supports two SATA-600 ports and four SATA-300 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 5 and 10). The manufacturer added two additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by a Marvell 88SE9172 chip (RAID 0 and 1).

 

Quote

 

F - 4TB

T - 2TB, 4TB, 4TB & 6TB

 

first now i only use drivepool on Windows 10 and it's work ok 

i mainly use to store games and movies 

so everytime i want to watch movie from Shield TV i have to turn on my PC with drivepool on it.

now i want to change all my pool to new hardware  (i have 5 x 10TB) 

then i can turn drivepool on 24/7 for in home streaming 

any suggestion for CPU, M/B, Ram, PSU , OS? and such 

only spec i choose now is the case , the case is fractal design node 804 (can store up to 8 drive)

thank you 

sorry for my english

I have a ws2016 machine with a gigabyte mobo with 6 sata ports and 2 pcie adaptec 6805 cards (8 port) full of drives.

In total I have 19 drives in my machine.

It includes 3 pools: 2 of 2 drives and one of 5 drives, all have duplication enabled.

I was wondering what is the best in terms of performance ? Should drives from a same pool be placed on the same controller or on different controllers ?

What would the pros and cons be ?