taflemer

Hopefully, the short version. I have used drive pool for 11 years. However, my attempt to recover and isolate a bad drive only resulted in the backup NAS being read only. Now, I am replacing NASs and using newer hardware. Want to use one of the 6TB HDDs. So, removed, cleared the partition and formatted. The installed Scanner and Drivepool. Scanner reports errors on the drive. In short, I am running chkdsk g: /f /r /x. Chkdsk is reporting the complete scan will take 13+ hours. Reading forum posts and the online manual, there is no indication that the drive will be usable. At this point there are no files to recover on the drive. Question is running chkdsk as a fix a waste of time?

Thanks again. Reading the original thread and posting my particular issue and your responses have helped on next steps. Same drive - There is one drive that has failed. I tried different ports and power plugs.. The drive spins up and get warm (not hot). Since the I/O board on the drive appears to have failed, I understand why Scanner would not pick up the problem. I though about buying a replacement board to salvage the drive. The cost is about the same a used drive. The manufacture date on this drive is 1/7/2010. So, a proper drilling and burial seams the best at this point. Swapping - I did and could trace from Hardware drive to Megaraid, Scanner, DP, and Windows Explorer. With the remaining 9 drives running, scanner and DP are OK. W.E. still shows the drives in read only mode. I was probably too hasty on removing the drive from the pool. Maybe if I had recognized the failure mode of the drive, I could have replaced the I/O board and let DP remove the drive normally. When I have done a removal in the past it took some time for DP to move the files around. I this case, as soon a I hit Remove, the drive was gone from DP. Certainly makes the case for file duplication. The SATA card is running JBOD. DP does the pooling. I made some major changes in the file structure, so will need to copy new backup files anyway. Will grab a couple new drives to give me space. I have a strategy to offline the machines so the house network still functions. The regular refresh and add does not put much stress on the network and can be done online. I appreciate to pointer to the Burst Test. Before I start loading files, I will give the drives a good shaking. Many of the drives are the same vintage as the one that died. One more question - If I uninstall DP and Scanner on the new server, will the drives drop the read only mode so I can format?

Thanks, I have been using Remote Desktop Connection a lot on these machines lately. I am geared up to blowout one of the machines That will clear out the Scanner data files. However, will hang onto to link if the problem resurfaces..

I have a similar issue with a twist. The posts in this thread were very helpful in troubleshooting to this point. Thanks for that. I have two NAS servers and an offline backup server. All three are running Drivepool and Scanner. The issue is with the backup server. It has ten SATA drives running on a LSI SAS31061E 16 port card. This setup has been running well for the past 18 months. I start up the server; check to see if there are any pending OS updates; update is needed; do a partial backup that freshens changes files and adds any new ones; let the server run 24 hours to catch any other OS updates (Windows 10 has lots); shut the server down until the next time. On the most recent backup cycle, Drivepool informed me that there was a missing disk. I have had this with the two NAS server. A couple of times I had SATA cables come loose. I would re-seat or replace with a new cable. Problem solved. Drives have failed; I replaced with new drives; and Drivepool did the rest. No problem. Sorry in advance for this detail. I have a spreadsheet with all my drives. Each has a unique code that I put on the drive/drive tray. The spreadsheet has the physical position of the drive; model number, serial number, date of manufacture, date put into service, date and reason for removal. I also have this code in the volume label and disk description. So, each drive is known in Windows Explorer, Drivepool, and Scanner. Megaraid software does not allow label editing, however, with the list I can verify port easily. So, when Drivepool informed me that a drive was missing, identifying the offending drive was easy. I went through the routine, checked the cable; no good; swapped the drive to another port; no good. In Megaraid, when I removed the drive it would show 9 drives. Add the drive back in 10 showed. Scanner always showed only 9. Drivepool continued to say a drive is missing. I think this was operator error on my part. I Removed the drive in Drivepool. Now it is gone, but the files are locked in read only mode. This is where I need help. Hardware wise, when I plug the drive in Megaraid shows 10 drives. After a few rounds of this, I finally checked each drive in Megaraid and my list and found that the offending drive was showing up with a duplicate of another drive serial number. OK, the drive must have a I/O board problem. I disconnected all the drives except the offending one. Restarted the server. No drives. I am stumped. I can accept the drive is bad and move on. I don’t know how to get Drivepool out of read only mode. Now, why this thread. The server I have been using has a couple issues that I am reasonably sure are not causing a problem with the drives or any of the drive software. I have a replacement server ready to go. Both servers are DL360 G5s (I know, antiques, but these work for me). I can’t move to the replacement until I have a path to get there. One option is to wipe the drive array and start over. However, to copy the full set of files would take days. I am hoping to avoid that. I have a variation on the rebuild theme. The drive card will run 16 drives. So I could buy a couple of new drives leave these out of the pool and copy locked drivepool files drive to drive. The total drivepool is 10TB, with 4.9TB filled. Hopefully this could cutdown on the rebuild time. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for the quick response. Oops, I was on a remote connection to the server, so may have run the Troubleshooter on my laptop. Not sure now. Have sent Troubleshooter data before starting the service. This time on the server for sure. Also, the email tag should be tom@flemer.net. May not match what you have on record. I know where the reset is on Drivepool, can you point me to the one on Scanner? Best Regards, Tom

I am experiencing a similar problem with two PC servers running Windows 10 and Scanner. The GUI will just open to searching.... (new issue) After reading a few posts here, I took a look at Services in Task Manager and found that ScannerServce is stopping. When I manually start the service, the GUI is available. Service startup is set to Automatic. Scanner has been on these machines for about 18 months. On one machine, two of the three drives have a non-fatal problem. I am getting ready to fix. However, little has been done in the way of changes. Just running. There have been a number of MS updates over the period, but I can't tie an update to the service stopping. Wish I was better at Jeopardy, have trouble finding the right search question to get me to an answer. Any advice? I did send a copy of Troubleshooter data. Thanks, Tom

Thanks, I will need to use the "Force Damaged Disk Removal"

I have a NAS (Windows 10) with two data drives E: and F: in drive pool G:. Both drives are 3T, there is plenty of open space. All files on drive E: are duplicated on drive F, about 500G. Note: OS and program files are on drive C: E: died. So, I am ready to replace drive E:, but want to review steps Remove old drive via Drive pool. Add in new drive via Disk Management as E: Add to pool via Drive pool. Copy duplicated files back to new drive E: Configure duplication for E: to F: via Drive pool Is this the correct procedure? Anything else that needs to be done?

Christopher, It is odd. I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 and upgrade to 10. DriveCloud is installed. Thanks.

Just a quick note. Went to download CloudDrive and popup shows a bad signature. Tried twice.

Christopher, You might say I have used Drivepool for an unintended purpose. Seeing the suffix on the Drivepool remote access should have told me that the router is trying (not very well) to be the master. I confirmed this by accident when I fired up an old HP Proliant running WHS v1.0. With it up, Windows explorer shows all the clients. I forgot to check Drivepool to see if the suffixes are present when WHS v1.0 is running. On my list. I can use Wireshark to look some more and bang on this new router to see if I can raise it up the ladder. The Verizon router is a little pricey for a home unit, otherwise, I would just give it the window test. That is open the window and throw it out. Hoping a big truck runs over it. Thanks for all the help. I can dig from here. Tom BTW - Drivepool and scanner are working just fine. Have not had time to work on Clouddrive. On my list.

Christopher, Thanks for the links. This confirms that the issue I am dealing with is somewhere between what appears to be a functional network and before Drivepool. FYI - I have replaced the dead fan in my gigabit switch and it is now back in service. Other than faster speeds there is no change here. After reading the info provided by Alex, I was not clear on access when Drivepool is running. However, that was easy for me to clear up in my mind. Running refers to the service and not the human interface. Just to recap, both NAS machines are nearly identical. The machine serial numbers are even sequential. Software is Win 10, with Drivepool, Scanner, and Clouddrive. One machine consistently shows up in WIndows Explorer, while the other is erratic. Not sure what to make of this, but in Windows Explorer, the servers show up as Computer_Name. In the Drivepool drop down, the local computer shows as Computer_Name and the remotes show as Computer_Name.fios-router.home. So, it is looking like the router is causing me grief. Will be working on next steps.

Christopher, Thanks I am digging into the Verizon router, as I am finding posts about it dropping multicast/UDP. So, one of my pieces of test equipment here is Drivepool. I am depending on it for the multicast API in .NET Framework, since the results will also help with Scanner and Drive cloud. Other than plugging the router in a few months ago, I only made the most basic of changes. I dug in and found IPv6 turned on. This has caused me some trouble in the past. Turned that off. Probably not the root cause. Also found a host list. I think the underlying OS for the router is Linux. Two of the devices with Drivepool have fixed IPs and did not show up. Added these to the list manually. Will dig here some more. We had Verizon FiOS installed a few months ago. Gotta tell ya, that field service around this area has really kicked it up a few notches. I was really impressed with communications during the install process. However, I want to get a better handle on whats what before I go to them for help. Would be pointless to hear my equipment or software is the problem. Also, I had to pull my Gigabit switch to replace the case fan. I put an older 3Com 3C16471 Superstack switch in place temporarily. It is limited to 10/100Mb. Wireshark is showing UDP traffic outbound, I think to Onedrive and internal traffic between the devices with Drivepool and a couple of desktops. So, other than slowing traffic, the 3Com SW probably is OK, but I won't rule it out. Yesterday I though I had made some progress when all three devices with Drivepool showed up after I used wired connections. Today, one of them is gone again. All I did was turn off one device that does not have Drivepool and turned on another that has Drivepool with the license removed. I forgot to uninstall. At least now I can see how to interface a device that is not running Stablebit products and access devices that do. I think you mentioned this in a previous post. In the end I may need to use the RemoteControl.xml file. I would really like to get at the root cause or at least bang on it for a while. Thanks for the help. Tom

The Remote Access Feature in Drivepool (and Scanner, Clouddrive) is handy while I am going through the set up and initial use processes. I have three clients running Drivepool all on the same subnet. However, I have found that the wireless router, a Verizon model FiOS-G1100 is not liking Multicast. That is, when all three are wired, I can see all Drivepool clients, When one client is connected wireless, it cannot see the other two and the other two can only see the other wired client. Windows 10 Explorer and Remote Desktop Connection function just fine. There are some posts that recommend making a change in RemoteControl.default.xml. Since the problem is not really with the Stablebit products and I would need to change six or nine files, I would prefer to fix the router. So, is there and easy fix for Multicast with the FiOS-G1100 router?

Windows 10 and Drivepool operability. I have been running Drivepool on a WHS2011 machine for a few years now and am happy with the results. In anticipation of WHS going away, Back in March, I started a test on a Windows 7 machine with Drivepool. At the time, there were some posts about problems with Windows 10 and Drivepool. However, I was not in a position to test. At least from what I could determine Drivepool works fine on Windows 7. Where I got into trouble was with MS Onedrive and syncing files on the machine. I have read through pages of post, but cannot find anything that will give me some guidance on Windows 10. So, I am hoping the someone can point me to better search tags on this forum. Terry Walsh in his “Building a Windows 10 Home Server” is recommending Drivepool over the built in Storage Spaces. At this point, I am agreeing with his concerns about Storage Spaces and want to proceed with Drivepool. So, I am hoping someone can point me to posts on using Windows 10 and Drivepool for a home server. Most of what I found so far are hardware issues that I don’t think apply to me (yet). Thanks for any help here.

I recently purchased copies of Drivepool Download 2.1.1.561 for Windows. One is on Windows 7 Pro (32bit) and the other is on 8.1 home (32 bit). There are no apparent problems with the install. However, I can "see" usb drives in Windows Explorer but not in drivepool. I have read through the manual and searched the forums for help. Not sure what I am doing wrong here. BTW, I can see and add the (C:/) drive in drivepool. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks for the quick responses. This got me going...to buy a copy of Stablebit version 2. Will explain shortly. HP Proliants have been a comfort zone for me. Starting with a Proliant 1000 tower. It was retired out of the banking industry and arrived with no cpu, ram, or drives. Yes - there are other companies that manufacture servers, but I have followed retired Proliants for twenty some years. I just like these machines. In fact I like the HP Micro Server given it’s pedigree. Moving to a less distant past. I had a dedicated PC running X10 Activehome and servers for file sharing. When I moved into WHS V1, I did it on a Proliant. The added features of WHS were much more than I had expected. Once I was comfortable with it, I moved X10 Activehome onto WHS V1. All worked very well. Microsoft then released WHS 2011. Knowing that 2011 would only run on one cpu, i again looked at the HP Micro Server, but opted for a Pavilion with the thinking the I could return it to a desktop function when I got my bearings on WHS 2011. Again I installed X10 Activehome. All my fish were swimming in the same direction. I was happy. Microsoft announced that they would discontinue WHS and not much later X10 went bankrupt. For the last couple of years I had this blank look on my face that says, “what do I do next?” On top of this these, technology is moving to cloud computing and the internet of things. You can see it in my face, the technology concepts are easy enough, my quandary is how do I get from where I'm at today to these new technologies. My wife was in need of a PC upgrade, this normally comes with the added purchase of MS Office Pro. This time we decided to purchase (subscribe to) Office 365. The five user subscription comes with 5TB+1TB shared of cloud storage. Considering the purchase price of Office Pro, I think this is a reasonably good deal at $100/yr. Now my task is to get it all to work together. We have a HP mini 210 netbook that has been sitting in the closet for a while since we puked it up to the point where waiting for Internet Explorer was a matter of going to diner and taking a nap. I cleaned out pile of junk and added a new 2GB RAM card. I even removed the WHS connector. It is much better now. I have purchased a copy of Stablebit version 2 with the plan to use the single drive feature to create a clean path between the desktop and Onedrive. Stablebit should allow me to add or even remove drive space without upsetting the cloud links. I even transferred a couple of ripped DVDs to the mini and streamed them to another PC. Not bad. For me, WHS V1 reaching end of life this year is not that big of a deal. I start the machine make my backup and shut it off. My expectation is that after July there won’t be any security updates. If I get really paranoid I have options, shut off the internet during backups, setup a machine with another OS or even build a WHS 2011 machine. The glide path for 2011 provides plenty of time to make next steps. X10 Activehome on the other hand is looking more like a dead horse. The new owners of X10 have been promising to revive the software for a couple of years now. Not long before they shut off the servers, X10 had introduced an app for iPhone. The software works inside without issue, but I want to move onto the internet of things. None of the alternative packages really get me going, I am still looking. Our Windows history is v3.11, 95, 98, 98 ME, XP, we skipped Vista, 7, we skipped 8, 8.1, and now are looking forward to the release of 10. Also, NT, WHS V1 and 2011. Micro Center is selling a tablet called Winbook TW802 with a quad core CPU, 2GB RAM, a USB2.0 port and a full version of Windows 8.1. Lets see, internal battery equals a UPS, a wall wart equals low power, built in screen, no keyboard or mouse required. There might be some possibilities. The lack of a wired net port is not good. I am going to purchase another copy of Stablebit and install to see how it works in the 8.1 environment. As is this might work well for a Home Automation Control center or internet of things. I may or not get to satisfy my itch to save another retired Proliant. Many years ago Zenith had an ad showing a running tv with a pile of parts on the side and a statement that the tv could run even without these parts. So, maybe I could strip down a G5 or G6 and see whats what with fewer parts or not. Or there are options in between. I am thinking that the Covecube products are going to be a key part of reducing mechanical overhead and reducing my power consumption while moving into new technologies. Thanks.

So, I’m the guy in a big truck in the right lane with his arm out the window flagging the more nimble and faster guys to pass. Sorry for all the rust on my rig - washing just makes it worse. My first WHS V1 build was on a HP Proliant DL380 G3. It had 2 1gig network ports bound in tandem. The HP bind program for Windows server worked just fine in WHS V1. Two Xeon dual core processors gave plenty of power. Finally, the dual power supplies and multiple fans made for a very reliable machine. Over the years I have purchased used Proliant servers at a penny on the dollar and given them a second life. All have exceeded my expectations on reliability. I then added a DL360 G4, which is a slight upgrade to the G3s. Same two network ports and faster CPUs. The Proliants are great machines. The upside is they are very reliable and many used machines are available on the market. Server farms, corporate shops, and ISPs pull these out by the hundreds on a predicted life cycle basis, The down sides are considerable. First the machines are very noisy. You can’t just hide one of these under your desk (and think). Second, they are power hogs. My power bill dropped $100/month when I shut off the DLs. I purchased a HP Pavilion desktop with Win 7 home for WHS 2011. The primary reasons were to reduce power consumption; stay in the WHS upgrade path; and to my understanding WHS 2011 would support multiple cores but not multiple processors. I guess I could have pulled one of the processors in a Proliant. However, that would be like running a Detroit Diesel 12v71 on only 6 cylinders. Not for me. Every review of WHS 2011 I read had complaints about the lack of a drive pool module. So, I tried some and settled on Stablebit. I am now glad Microsoft omitted this functionality, the Stablebit Drivepool works great. Adding and removing drives works well and the drive stats are much more helpful than the WHS V1 drive module. The DL360 G4 now serves as a full back up to Pavilion/ WHS 2011. I start up the DL360 once or twice a month just long enough to complete the backup process. Microsoft released a program call Synctoy that works very well to maintain current copies of all files. It does leave little log files all over the drives to speed up the process. For critical files there is double redundancy, file duplication via Stablebit and a complete copy on the DL360. The DL360 sits cold most of the time. At some point Microsoft will stop updates on WHS 2011. Although I still get updates for WHS V1. Looking forward, I don’t feel rushed, but there are some issues coming. Window 8.1 does not play nice with the connector for one. I also need to figure out streaming for Win 8.1. I am kicking around next steps, WIn 7, WIn 8.1, WIn 10 and MS Onedrive. The new Raspberry Pi 2.0 is slated for a Win 10 install. There are some interesting options to look at. The Covecube products look like an essential part of any solution. I know the Covecube products work with many versions of Windows and the answer to my question is hiding in plain sight. I have not be able to find minimum system requirements for Stablebit and Stable Scanner. IE: RAM, CPU speed….et al. Hope somebody can point the guy in the slow lane to the right place.