Alex

I would be very interested in seeing their architecture and comparing it to DrivePool, point by point. ---- It should prove to be interesting.

Oh, and DrivePool has all of the "infinite" and unlimited hoopla that they're promoting since day one. (See features: http://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Features) To my knowledge, we were the first to implement this type of architecture.

Well, your computer will not come to a screeching halt if you install a shell extension. I'm speaking from my personal experience of doing computing on Windows for the past few decades, and for every version of Windows that I've had installed there comes a time where you simply have too many shell extensions, and right clicking becomes noticeably slower. There's nothing preventing DrivePool from adding shell extensions as an option in the future, we have the code for that, But I wanted the primary interface to be built without them (contrary to my first instinct).

SIIG SC-SA0M11-S1 PCI-Express 2.0 Low Profile Ready SATA III (6.0Gb/s) 2-Port Controller Card (my personal favorite inexpensive PCI-Express eSATA card) Specifications: Speed: SATA 3 (6.0Gbit/s) Ports: 2 x eSATA Slot: PCI-Express x1 2.0 (~4 Gbit/s x 2) Chipset: ASM1061 OverallSupports Identify: Yes Supports SMART: Yes AHCI Driver Firmware: 0.95 AHCI ModeAHCI compatible: Yes (works out of the box with the default Windows AHCI driver) * Driver: 6.2.9200.16548 (6/21/2006)storahci.sys * Port multiplier support requires Asmedia driver. StableBit Scanner - Direct I/O Methods: AtaPassThrough Identify: Yes SDD: Yes SMART Status: Yes SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: Yes Power Mode: Yes StableBit Scanner - WMISMART Status: Yes SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: No Tested on Windows 8 64-bit. Asmedia Driver Firmware: 0.95 AHCI ModeAHCI compatible: Yes (works out of the box with the default Windows AHCI driver) * Driver: 1.3.4.0 (1/5/2012)asahxp64.sys Link: http://www.siig.com/download/search/?keyword=SC-SA0M11-S1 * Port multiplier support requires Asmedia driver. StableBit Scanner - Direct I/O Methods: AtaPassThrough Identify: Yes SDD: Yes SMART Status: Yes SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: Yes Power Mode: Yes StableBit Scanner - WMISMART Status: Yes SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: No Tested on Windows 8 64-bit.

Rosewill RC-210 Internal SATA / eSATA PCI Controller Card Specifications: Speed: SATA 1.0a (1.5Gbit/s) Ports: 1 x SATA, 1 x eSATA Slot: PCI 32-bit 66 Mhz (~2.133 Gbit/s x 2) Chipset: SiL3512 See: SiL3512 SATA Controller Chip

Overall Supports Identify: No Supports SMART: No RAID Firmware Firmware: 4.3.84 (1/19/2007)AHCI compatible: No (proprietary driver required) Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ Driver: 1.0.14.1 (12/26/2007)SI3112r.sys Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ StableBit Scanner - Direct I/OMethods: None Identify: No SDD: Yes SMART Status: No SMART Attributes: No SMART Thresholds: No SMART Error Log: No Power Mode: No StableBit Scanner - WMISMART Status: No SMART Attributes: No SMART Thresholds: No SMART Error Log: No Power Mode: No PerformanceBurst: 74.2 MB/s Tested on Windows 8 64-bit BASE Firmware Firmware: 4.5.02 (10/30/2008)AHCI compatible: No (proprietary driver required) Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ Driver: 1.2.15.3 (7/23/2009)SI3112.sys Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ StableBit Scanner - Direct I/OMethods: None Identify: No SDD: Yes SMART Status: No SMART Attributes: No SMART Thresholds: No SMART Error Log: No Power Mode: No StableBit Scanner - WMISMART Status: No SMART Attributes: No SMART Thresholds: No SMART Error Log: No PerformanceBurst: 78.8 MB/s Tested on Windows 8 64-bit

As far as I can see, this bug does not affect NTFS as it doesn't exercise the same code in srv2.sys. Our file system exercises code in srv2.sys that NTFS never uses.

Explorer integration, This looks like some of the very early prototypes of DrivePool 2.X. DrivePool actually does have some explorer integration code (that is disabled). I've tested this, and it does not work. Here's why: Ask yourself this, when do you really need to "add a disk to the pool", or "change the duplication level of a folder" ? These are very rare events, and yet, if we integrate this into the explorer shell, this information will be queried every time that you right click anywhere. This really slows down your computer. It's really not practical. It will slow down the Windows Explorer shell for no good reason. I personally hate shell extensions that slow down my OS. I've tested this internally and it does not work. For this reason DrivePool has scrapped all explorer shell integration in favor of the DrivePool UI. Here's another reason: No remote control. DrivePool 2.X has full remote control capability. Shell extensions cannot be remote controlled. Of course the real question is how much money do they have to promote this? Perhaps unfortunately, that is the only thing that matters.

There is no Maximize because I feel that there is no need for it. As far as not remembering the state of the performance UI, well this is intentional. I've actually removed this functionality from later builds in favor of optimizing performance. Right after the Performance UI was released, there was some criticism of it being a bit "bloated", so I've done some optimizations in this area which led to the performance UI being disabled by default.

I will test that specifically. I haven't had a chance to do this yet, but I will test strong name signing specifically. I don't "expect" to find any issues, but you are on the "todo list". If there is an issue that is reproducible, it will be fixed (this is why we do extensive public BETAs).

Just to follow up on this, I've examined this crash in detail, and I will reiterate, this crash has only happened because you have verifier enabled. Everyone else who has upgraded (without verifier) is not experiencing this crash. The problem is that covefs_disk.sys is leaking a few kilobytes of memory every time it's upgraded (and only when it's upgraded). It really is nothing to write home about. Of course it will be fixed in the next build. More importantly, it has nothing to do with the srv2 crash, which should be fixed in the latest build (that is out now). I like to be very precise in my BSOD analysis and don't like to speculate, and I don't like it when completely separate issues are grouped into one. It makes troubleshooting more difficult, I'm sure that you can understand. I am always happy to provide more information on anything that I've said, or if you have any further issues please let me know.

I've started putting up disk and controller test data in this forum, as it relates to the StableBit Scanner's ability to gather SMART and Identify data using various disk controllers. Direct I/O Test "Direct I/O" is a set of technologies that the StableBit Scanner uses to read data directly from the disk. I collect my test results using an internal Direct I/O testing tool. You can get the latest version here: Download The tool will probe your disk and controller for various forms of data that the StableBit Scanner uses and will display either a green check mark or a red X to indicate whether the probe was successful. At the bottom, it will list the probing "methods" that were successfully used to probe the controller / disk. If you're interested in contributing your test data to this forum, then just run the tool and select a disk that is connected to the controller that you want to probe. Make sure that your computer is not doing anything else while probing. There is a small chance that the probing process will crash your system.

SYBA SD-PEX40035 PCI-Express 2.0 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card Specifications: Speed: SATA 3 (6.0Gb/s) Ports: 2 x SATA, 1 x PATA Slot: PCI-Express x1 2.0 (~3.9Gb/s x 2) Chipset: Marvell 88SE9128 OverallSupports Identify: Yes Supports SMART: Yes Firmware Firmware: 1.0.0.1012AHCI compatible: No (proprietary driver required) Driver: 1.2.0.1006 (6/16/2011)mvs91xx.sys Link: http://www.sybausa.com/productInfo.php?iid=997&currentPage=2 StableBit Scanner - Direct I/OMethods: SmartIoCtl, ScsiPassthrough, ScsiPassthrough48, ScsiMiniportPortDriver Identify: Yes SDD: Yes SMART Status: No SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: No Power Mode: No StableBit Scanner - WMISMART Status: Yes SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: No Tested on Windows 8 Tested SATA ports only.

Overall Supports Identify: Yes * Supports SMART: Yes ** * When using the RAID firmware and driver, but only on the first port. ** When using the RAID firmware and driver, on all ports. RAID Firmware Firmware: 7.7.03 (7/1/2009)AHCI compatible: No (proprietary driver required) Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ Driver: 1.5.19 (4/21/2009)Si3132r5.sys Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ StableBit Scanner - Direct I/O Methods: SmartIoCtl Identify: Yes * SDD: Yes SMART Status: Yes * SMART Attributes: Yes * SMART Thresholds: Yes * SMART Error Log: No Power Mode: No * Data is only valid on the first port of the controller (bug in controller driver). Workaround implemented in StableBit Scanner 2.4.0.2914+. StableBit Scanner - WMI SMART Status: Yes SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: No Power Mode: No Performance Burst: 109 MB/s Tested on Windows 8 BASE Firmware Firmware: 7.3.05 (8/25/2005)AHCI compatible: No (proprietary driver required) Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ Driver: 1.1.14.0 (11/20/2007)SI3124.sys Link: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ StableBit Scanner - Direct I/O Methods: None Identify: No SDD: Yes SMART Status: No SMART Attributes: No SMART Thresholds: No SMART Error Log: No Power Mode: No StableBit Scanner - WMI SMART Status: Yes SMART Attributes: Yes SMART Thresholds: Yes SMART Error Log: No Performance Burst: 110 MB/s Tested on Windows 8

Koutech IO-PESA220 PCI Express x 1 Low Profile Ready SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card Specifications: Speed: SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Ports: 2 x eSATA Slot: PCI-Express x1 1.1 (~1.95Gb/s x 2) Chipset: SiL3132 See: SiL3132 SATA Controller Chip

SYBA SD-SA2PEX-2E PCI-Express x1 SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card Specifications: Speed: SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Ports: 2 x eSATA Slot: PCI-Express x1 1.0 (~1.95Gb/s x 2) Chipset: SiL3132 See: SiL3132 SATA Controller Chip

Of course you can upload files to the forum (with a 2MB limit). See:

It looks like this issue is not occurring in build 265. If anyone still experiences srv2.sys BSODs in build 265 or later, please let me know.

DrParis, I've split this post out of the previous topic. It has absolutely nothing to do with the srv2 crash. This is a covefs_disk crash, and it only occurred because you had verified enabled (which most people do not). I've instructed you to enable verified previously to troubleshoot the srv2 issue. It is the job of verifier to perform extensive analysis on kernel driver code and crash your system at the first sign of trouble. This is what happened here. I will of course be examining this crash to determine if it was due to a bug in DrivePool or some other more general system instability.

DrParis and others, I am fairly certain now that the crashes experienced in Windows 8 / 2012 (by some of you) are a result of a bug in srv2.sys. There is, what we call, a race condition, where the same memory address gets freed twice. In other words, it's a bug. I've implemented a workaround in the latest build that should overcome this problem. As for why this doesn't happen with NTFS? That is because Windows 8 doesn't do Fast I/O Reads on NTFS. I suspect that this is hard coded somewhere.

I'll check out these scenarios to see if I could reproduce them. I think compiling DrivePool on the pool would be interesting The second issue sounds especially odd. We don't do anything special with the NTFS ACLs. They're not processed by DrivePool in any way, they're simply passed through to / from NTFS on a set and get. But I'll try what you suggest and will see what happens. One of the test servers here is running VirtualBox + XAMPP 24/7 from the pool (with MySQL), but I'll try to get MSSQL into testing as well.

Ok, here are new builds that have Fast I/O reads disabled on the Windows 8 kernel: x86 - StableBit.DrivePool_2.0.0.263_x86_BETA.exe x64 - StableBit.DrivePool_2.0.0.263_x64_BETA.exe This should prevent this crash from occurring while I keep investigating. Thanks everyone for helping out and being patient with this issue. Changes 2.0.0.263 --------- * [D] Disabled Fast I/O network reads on Windows 8 / 2012 as a workaround for a system crash. * Added "Pool options" text to the pool options button. * [D] When moving a directory with an explicit per-folder duplication (or that has sub-directories with explicit per-folder duplication counts set) to a new folder on the same pool, make sure to correctly re-propagate the M/I flags. * [D] Deleting a directory that had per-folder duplication enabled, and then recreating a new directory with the same name would incorrectly mark the new folder as duplicated as well (usually until a reboot). * [D] Fixed setting per-folder duplication on read-only folder (or folders whose parents may be read-only).

I've received 3 more dumps and will review them to see if they correlate with everything that I've seen so far. I'll try to get a new build out today that, at the very least, will turn off Fast I/O cached reads on the Win 8 kernel (which are causing srv2.sys to run the code that is crashing the system).

The reason why NFS support is not enabled on 2.0 by default is because it has not been tested thoroughly yet on all of the supported operating systems. I don't want to enable it unless I'm sure that it works on every supported OS. From what I understand right now, it does not work with the Microsoft's NFS service on Windows Server 2012. However, I've had great success with haneWIN NFS in the past (which is super fast), so you might want to give that 3rd party solution a try.

Here is the decompiled code from srv2.sys that is crashing. if ( mdl1 && mdl1 != mdl2 && !(mdl1->MdlFlags & MDL_SOURCE_IS_NONPAGED_POOL) ) { do { mdlCurrent = mdl1; mdlFlags = mdl1->MdlFlags; mdl1 = mdl1->Next; if ( mdlFlags & (MDL_PARTIAL_HAS_BEEN_MAPPED | MDL_PAGES_LOCKED) ) { MmUnlockPages(mdlCurrent); } IoFreeMdl(mdlCurrent); } while ( mdl1 ); *(_DWORD *)(Length + 4) = 0; } So right in the if statement, srv2 is trying to test whether mdl1->MdlFlags contains the MDL_SOURCE_IS_NONPAGED_POOL value. mdl1->MdlFlags is an invalid statement. mdl1 is already freed at this point, it has no flags (it doesn't exist).