hansolo77

I think I figured out what happened with the drive having a lot of unduplicated data. Turns out it was a hidden system folder $RecycleBin. DrivePool's balancer settings for some reason showed that the new drive had most (if not all) of that folder rather than have it shared amongst all the drives. I saw this, and as an experiment I unchecked all the drives but one for that folder, and it moved to that other drive. So that was definitely the case. Trouble is, now it's all on that other drive, even though I reset it to use all drives. The duplicator or whatever isn't transferring that folder. The other strange thing is that that doesn't exist in the pool to begin with, and I can't seem to figure out how to remove it. I know it's a system folder and probably can't be removed, but why is it 80gb when there isn't even anything IN my Recycle Bin on the Desktop? Another issue I've now been having is the Server Essentials window keeps coming up saying there is low disk space on the D:\ drive (the DrivePool drive) even though there is 4.23tb available. Not sure why it's doing that. It was doing that daily before I added that new NAS drive then it stopped, now it's doing it again. I've rebooted multiple times and Windows definitely sees there is plenty of space, yet Server Essentials keeps reporting there is less than 10% available on the drive. Need a little help with that...

I just checked and I'm running DrivePool v 2.1.1.561. I think I was having trouble when I used the newer version, though I don't remember what the problem was. I did also check and DO have the "real time duplication" enabled. I also gave the drive a drive letter (temporarily) so I could open it in Explorer. There aren't any files on the drive, other than what is inside the hidden PoolPart folder. I don't know how to check if the files IN that folder are duplicated though. I lastly checked to verify if maybe the drive was setup to use Shadow Copies and maybe THOSE were taking up space (it was disabled). Also, just to update, it's now at 81.2gb Unduplicated. It's a small chunk on a 4tb drive, but still it's the size of 2 BluRay disks!

Ok, I'm definitely going to have to get a replacement back plane. When I got that new NAS drive the other day, I swapped out "Rail 1 Bay 2" where I had a working 2tb drive. I didn't want to risk plugging the new drive into a possibly failing bay, so I put it in there. I moved the old drive out and put it down in that "suspicious" "Rail 3 Bay 4" slot. Windows didn't detect the drive until after I performed a cold boot of the system. Once I did that, it was working fine. Then today I got a replacement drive I had RMA'd with an Amazon retailer (the guys who sold me that HP drive I couldn't directly RMA with Seagate (which by the way the replacement was an OEM drive too lol)). I plugged it into the "Rail 5 Bay 1" slot that I had previously thought I fried when I installed one of my spare "might work/might not" drives. Well, nothing happened. The drive spun up, but Windows never detected it. I then thought "ok, maybe I don't have the hot-plug setup right in the BIOS" since I had made all those changes trying to fix the BMC/IPMI issues. Rather than fix it, for now I just wanted to get that drive working and verify it was a good drive. So I just powered down and did another cold boot. Well, once Windows came back up, DrivePool was then saying a drive was missing, and it was that fricken "Rail 3 Bay 4" drive again. Windows still didn't detect the new drive down in "Rail 5 Bay 1" either, so I shut down, and swapped the drives (put the new one in "Rail 3 Bay 4" and the old one in "Rail 5 Bay 1". Powered up, then DrivePool was saying a BUNCH of drives were missing. Pulled up the Device Manager, and it looked like the entire array of drives connected to the Expander card had vanished. F^CK. Spent a good couple of hours taking everything apart, checking cables, checking power, etc. In the end, I discovered that if I didn't have a drive connected in "Rail 3 Bay 4", everything works (all drives detected). But if I had a drive in there, the Expander locked up and couldn't find ANY drive. I now have the old drive and the new drive on "Rail 5" and the system seems happy. So I'm definitely thinking that "Rail 3 Bay 4" slot is hosed, and I'm going to need to replace that back plane eventually. They're not expensive, but they're not really cheap either, about $50 or so. But before I worry about replacing them, I'm going to continue building up more drives in the remaining bays first. If the rest of bays are fine, I'll just replace the one rail. But I want to make sure it's just the one. I guess I could swap out drives and put them in the remaining bays, but I'm more of a "it works, don't go screwing with it and make it stop working" kinda guy.

Yeah he replied back to me last night around 11:30pm. I imagine he was on weekend and didn't get back to my issue until last night (would have been early Monday morning in Asia). He asked me to take a picture of the BIOS screen (where it should show the BMC version number (though until I fixed it, it was blank)) and of the Serial Number on the board. He then sent a CC to the original guy and said if it was identified as a BMC issue to please send me a new BMC chipset. That actually has me a little worried.. if such a problem occurs frequently enough that they have a backup solution to replace the chips. I replied back to both and said what I did to make it work, and that if I hadn't there wouldn't have been any version number of BMC to show him. However, I said if they would like to have that information for tracking purposes, I would be more than willing to accommodate. I laid out all the details and suggested they keep that in mind should a future issue crop up with other users. I then asked if they felt if the failure might be an early sign of a more serious problem, and if I should be considering replacing it. I got another reply a few hours later (I was in bed this time) saying that basically the step of removing the power and battery is a basic/generic troubleshooting step they typically have users do. Funny, he never mentioned it before; just went straight to giving me a tool to reset the password *shrug*. All I know, is it's working now.. On the other hand.. I got that new drive in the mail. I don't like the way our postman is handling the mail now. Might be a new guy, I don't know. We have a screen door with a solid metal plate at the bottom (a lot of screen doors are all glass top to bottom, ours is divided into 3. Top or Middle can open, and the bottom is sealed. We went with that option because we have a dog and didn't want her running to the door and breaking through it when we had it open). Anyway, he used to open it to put packages between the front door and the screen door. The way they do it now, he just stacks it right in front of the door. You can't even open up the front door to get your mail because it's blocking. This wouldn't be a problem if we lived in a house, and the door was kinda hidden. But we live in a condo community, with a shared apartment building facing the parking lot, where the front of the building is wide open and easily viewable. There's nothing to stop somebody from coming up and swiping that stuff. The old way at least gave a bit of security so people don't see packages waiting. It's even been on the news around here lately that people have been caught on camera trailing behind UPS trucks and waiting for a box to be dropped then they go and pick it up for themselves. What ever happened to scanning the barcode and getting a signature for delivery? I wonder if there is a way to tell the post office to require signatures or at least a person hand-to-hand delivering. ANYWAY (again!).. I got the drive ok. But I was upset at the mail man for just leaving it out. That's not cheap hardware! I brought it in, and it was COLD. According to the post office tracking, it was delivered at like 9:30am, and it was nearly noon before I checked. Luckily, the drive seemed to format (long, not quick) ok and passed Scanner's sector checks. Got it added to the pool now. Something strange. I didn't put ANYTHING on this new drive. I plugged it in, switched it to ONLINE in the Disk Manager, created a partition and long formatted it, then scanned it, then enabled it for DrivePool use. However, it is showing there is 48GB "unduplicated". I'm not sure what that could be. How can there be files on the drive that aren't duplicated somewhere else first? Also, when I have DrivePool do a "remeasure" it doesn't do anything. Shouldn't that cause it to say "hey, there's 48GB of stuff on this drive that's not duplicated.. so lets duplicate it!" rather than just skip over it and identify it to me as unduplicated? Lastly.. if anybody cares to know who might be following this. When I started having that BMC/IPMI issue, I thought it might have been related to the new exhaust fan I installed in the Norco case. Might still have been, who knows? Well, I had ordered 2 fans, but the delivery was shady (like everything else). Rather than come in a box, they both arrived in a VERY LARGE bubble envelope. I mean, this thing was like 30 inches long by 12 inches tall. Inside was 2 80mm fans and a USB Thumb Drive. That was the first sign something was amiss. Opened up the bag, the USB was fine (it was in one of those "killer, hermetically sealed plastic & can't open" kinda packages that hang on hooks in the store). There was also an undamaged 80mm fan box, and another fan box that looked like it had been ripped open. All the innards of the box were scattered in the bottom of the bag. However, THAT fan is what I installed. The other fan, still in the sealed box, was damaged when I took it out (ironic huh?). The box was perfect, and everything looked good, but a piece of white plastic fell out of the box. I then noticed that it was one of the fan blades! So I RMA'd it with NewEgg. Still waiting for them to RECEIVE it before they can even send me a new one back. It really makes me wonder about these guys. Why on earth would you put 3 tiny little things in such a huge bag, rather than just bubble wrap them and put them safely in a box? I mean, these are BOXES to begin with.. I wouldn't put a box in a bag.. maybe the other way around. Ignorants. But yea, I read a few forum threads about the kind of fans recommended for replacements. I thought about getting some Noctua fans, but apparently the way the case is drilled prevents 2 of them to be installed. So I went with 2 Arctic Cooling F8 Pro fans (link). They can pump out 33 CFM air at only 22dB. That's a lot better than the Delta's that are factory installed (at least for noise, the air movement might be a little less). I've heard good things about the Noctua fans though, but with enough people saying the installation side-by-side on the back is 50/50, I chose to go with the Arctic cooling since 100% of users that went with them confirmed they work. I might replace the fan wall fans with Noctuas, but I'm not sure if they will work with my wall. The design of my fan wall is different than any other I've seen pictures online of. Basically, the fans sit in plastic housing where the power cable attaches to the side of the housing. That housing is then slid into another housing mounted into the fan wall. The power plug is then connected automatically to existing pins mounted on the fan wall's housing. Those existing pins are then connected to a square plastic tube, running along the bottom of the fan wall that goes to each fan, and then comes out the far side where the SAS Backplane Rails get their power. Two tiny little wires (red and black) then connect to a molex plug, which goes to your power supply. The problem I see with a replacement fan is with the size of the fan (it looks like Noctuas have an extruding bit of rubber or something around the screw mounting holes which would prevent the fan from sliding into the housing) and with the power plug (if it's not a 3-wire and is instead a molex or 4-wire, it won't connect). So I think what I'll have to do is either buy one and test it before buying 3 more, or hope I can maybe find somebody who HAS one that will let me borrow it for testing. What would be really helpful would be if I can find somebody online who has already DONE that with those fans and my version of the fan wall that can confirm it for me. Have to look and wait and see. Alright, I'm exhausted now. No more typing!

Yeah, UPS had it across the country in a day and half.. then they sat on it 2 days (original expected delivery was Wednesday). Then they sent it to the post office, who held it another day until today. But I never considered the shipping delay because of the holidays. Good call on that. Yeah that IPMI thing was driving me nuts. I was afraid I was going to have to send it back and exchange it. Luckily I figured it out. Strangely still, I haven't heard back from the tech guy. Guess he's lost too.

Wow, what a waste of a week. Been trying to fix this BMC/IPMI thing all week. And it's my vacation! So yeah, a good 8-10 hours every day messing with this thing. But... just fixed it! (knock on wood!) The solution? After googling like crazy trying to find somebody else who had this problem, I found a forum thread for SuperMicro users, where the suggested solution was to unplug EVERYTHING. Unplug the power, remove the battery, remove the CPU, remove the RAM, remove all expansion cards. Make sure all jumpers are back to their default (which mine already were). Basically pretend like you just bought it and installed it before you connected anything to it. Wait a good 5-10 minutes (theoretically this will drain out any potential saved power going to any part of the motherboard, and will eliminate any storages). Once that's done, connect one thing at a time and build up a running system. Of course I know it won't work without CPU and RAM both, so I connected those first. Booted up, and waited. By default, this board will do a 30-count (not seconds, more like 5 seconds each count) to verify the BMC is initialized, then a 30-count to initialize the system, then it POST's. Well, all this week my BMC has taken all 30-count to come back blank. Strangely enough, the last time I checked, the BIOS will show what version the CMOS and BMC are running, and the BMC has been blank. After having everything unplugged, that BMC 30-count took till only 15, then the system booted right up. I went into the BIOS and WOOT!!! It showed the BMC version. Not only that, but all my sensor data was back! Went over to the BMC tab, and it had passed it's test and connected via DHCP to the IP address it was on before. BONUS! I made all my typical enable/disable changes in the BIOS and rebooted. BMC 30-count didn't even get to 29 (counts down) before the system was up and running! While at the server, I logged into a command prompt and pinged the IPMI and got 4 replies (nothing big, it always did that even when the BMC wasn't working, but it was reassurance). Opened up a web browser (still at the server) and was able to bring up the IPMI website and log in! All my sensor data showed up right there on the first page! WOO!!! I then rebooted again and walked away. Waited for it to finish then tried to connect to the IPMI from a client PC. It worked too! So there you have it. A week wasted, and all I had to do was disconnect everything. WHATEVER!! <_<

Not much help. Thanks! I think I'm probably going to go with the Netgear. I've actually had that on my wishlist for awhile. I just happened to see that Cisco yesterday when I was checking prices. I guess UPS is delaying the delivery of my drive another day. Not sure why, is been sitting in my city for 2 days now. I'm having a new problem with my motherboard. I had it set up and the IPMI interface was working. Then I decided to go and install a new case fan. Rather than plug it directly into the power supply, I connected it to one of the fan headers on the motherboard. That way I could use the IPMI to keep track of the fan speed and temps. Well, for some reason now, it's not working. The sensors are completely gone now (fan speed, temps, voltages) and display all 0's. I can't connect to the IPMI address either. When I rebooted the computer, it took forever to load the POST screen, and the BIOS shows the BMC has failed it's connection tests. It was unable to get an IP address from the router (using DHCP). I also couldn't get it to work with a static IP. The tech support agent I got in touch with sent me a tool that basically resets the BMC to it's default state, but it failed. It looks like it wasn't able to even detect the BMC version number. So I'm out of ideas for the moment. Waiting on the tech guy to reply back (I think he's in Asia some where). I hope I don't have to RMA this motherboard.. I just got it!

About to add my next 4tb Seagate NAS drive to the server probably tomorrow. Got in on a good deal from NewEgg on Cyber Monday for $119. Should arrive tomorrow. Good timing to because I've only got like 2GB space left! So I'm looking at unmanaged switches for my next big buy. I've done a bit of deep thinking and I think I've narrowed it down to two possibilities. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100158106%20600052100%20600052097&IsNodeId=1&Description=unmanaged%20gigabit%20switch&bop=And&CompareItemList=30%7C33-122-058%5E33-122-058%2C33-150-156%5E33-150-156&percm=33-122-058%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B33-150-156%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24 Hopefully that "compare" link will work. Essentially they're the same thing. 16 ports, Gigabit, unmanaged, lifetime warranties, same cost (with the NetGear's discount). The Cisco has some kind of mini port that I have no use for at this time being but might be useful in the future, and QoS which might be useful in a home server environment for streaming videos. The NetGear brand I'm more familiar with, matches the brand of my router, and has over a hundred positive reviews versus Cisco's less than 10. So what do you guys think?

Both of those issues you quote are relating to x86 architecture. However in my situation, I'm running x64, so I don't think that's the problem. Unless you're using x86 code for the x64 version? As long as the stable version works, I see no need for me to bother upgrading unless I develop some further issue.

Alright thanks!

Ew.. I never thought of that. Are unmanaged switches typically the kind that have trouble forwarding magic packets? I was looking to buy one here in the coming months and thought that would be the way to go. If that would be a problem, I need to rethink it. i will try that new beta here in a little while. I'm downloading some stuff into the drive pool right now and I don't want to stop it because I'd have to restart.

Success! Uninstalled beta, installed stable, transferred over a file I've been trying to for the last couple of days, and it worked! Of course, I still need to watch it, but I think that was my problem!

Cool Chris, thanks for getting back to me. I remember specifically downloading that beta version (v 2.2.0.651) when I tried reinstalling it. I will try uninstalling it and reinstalling the official "stable" version (v 2.1.1.561). I typically do that if I have the capabilities; download the beta. I usually have no issues and something it is "fixing" might be something I needed. I couldn't remember which version I had before, and remember discussing things about the beta version having better compatibilities with hardware. But yeah, I'll give that a go tomorrow. One of the nice things about having an "off every-other day" part-time schedule is you can spend a whole day working with stuff like this without trying to remember what you did in the fleeting 4-5 hours between work and sleep. Unfortunately, the down side is that you have no money. I'm going to go behind my doctor's back and try to open up my availability more and see if I can't cope stress-wise with some more hours. As for Windows 10. That's awesome news. I knew about the Media Center stuff and that was my primary reason for not going with the upgrade. I built this computer for the sole purpose of watching TV on it. Since I'm migrating to using Kodi and the server, this isn't really necessary anymore. The other thing I was mostly concerned about was the suggested rumors that in order to continue receiving updates from Microsoft, you'd have to pay for a subscription to that functionality. I believe I read that the first year would be free, as a "tease" to get everybody on board (like the "tease" to auto-install if you have a legit copy of 7 or 8). After that, only extremely critical updates would be installed for free, but the weekly updates wouldn't be available. What kind of information are we talking about here (where you said you're giving them more information). Do I have to provide name/address/phone number/credit card type information when I go and register it? I prefer to stay anonymous, and don't even participate in the "customer improvement programs". I just don't like having that information available, especially to Microsoft who are DOWN with pirating and constantly on the receiving end of hacks and public leaks of information. - The only reason I ask about Light's Out is because I use that to wake my server if it's in standby. The new build I have doesn't support S3 mode, so it only goes into full blown Hibernation. Light's Out will initiate that just fine, but the only way I can wake it is with a MagicPacket, which the client software sends. I know I can also wake my server from the "Advanced WakeOnLan" addon for Kodi, so if the Light's Out client doesn't work in Windows 10, I suppose I can always find an alternative. - As for waking up the client PC... I didn't know that's how it does it! I always thought the server did all the work, and sent my client PC a MagicPacket to wake it up for backup. That's a good way to do it I guess. I think my way might have been better though.. what if the server is powered off? The client would still wake up and try to do the backup. But I guess the flip side is, what if the server tries to send the wake up and the client is powered off? Lol, same situation. Anyway, I'm exhausted. Think I'm gonna run off to bed before I try to mess with this anymore tonight. Tomorrow I'll try to uninstall DrivePool and install the old version. Then if I still have trouble I'll do my restore. If I still have trouble after that, it's Windows 10 time!

I've spent the evening trying to resolve this, and nothing I do helps. I'm going to attempt to do a system recovery from a backup on the server, not sure how that will work. In the event it doesn't work, I plan on formatting and reinstalling Windows. Probably wouldn't hurt, since I've not done that in YEARS. Maybe now would be a good time to jump off Windows 7 and dive into Windows 10? How crazy is it? I know for starters that they've completely removed Media Center. I'm ok with that now. I've been building a Raspberry Pi up with Kodi and I'm really digging it. The only feature Media Center had left that Kodi doesn't quite do well yet is the PVR functions, and I'm already working on an alternative where my server does the recording for me. The only problem is that my server's storage is VERY LOW at the moment. Like less than 1 tb. So I'm going to have to do something about that. But other than the Media Center/PVR stuff, is there anything major I need to worry about going in on Windows 10? It looks like it runs in a touchscreen interface, is there a way to disable that? I'm sure there is by now. Also, does Windows Server communicate with it ok as far initiating wake ups for backups? What about on-demand waking up of the server through Lights-Out, is it compatible with Windows 10 yet? And finally... is it true what I read that I'll have to PAY and SUBSCRIBE to a service to get updates from Microsoft, or was that just crap rumors? I think what I'll do (if the restore from backup doesn't work) is create a new manual backup of the current setup. Then if running with Windows 10 doesn't work out well, I can always come back to this and hope somebody has a solution or something I can try.

No, actually its Windows 7 Ultimate x64. And the server is Windows Server Essentials 2012 R2 x64. I'm not sure, but I really think the problem is because of DrivePool. If I try to copy/move the same file around on my Windows 7 system, it works fine. I can also move things around on the server. It's only doing it when I try to do across the network.

I've searched google, and people are just flat out unsure WHAT causes it. NIC drivers, Folder Permissions, File Sizes, Extremely large LOG files, Firewall/AntiVirus, corrupted Windows, RAM. They've all been suggested. I'd just about given up, when I came across an old thread (2011 era) related to DrivePool. Ah-ha! A potential resolution. So I'm posting it here in hopes that somebody else has come across this error and knows of a solution.. http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/73/write-error-on-storage-pool-error-0x800705aa-insufficeint-resources-exist-to-complete-the-requested/p1 Basically, if I try to transfer any file larger than probably 2k (it worked for text but not a 25k picture) over my network from a client computer to a server running DrivePool, I get this error: An unexpected error is keeping you from moving (copying) the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem. Error 0x800705AA: Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service. I've never received this error before. It has actually been coming up here in the last couple of days since I've been messing around with the new SAS expander and drive planes in my server. When I installed the new SAS expander, I thought I had screwed up my DrivePool and uninstalled/reinstalled the DrivePool software in hopes that it would fix it. Since then, I've been having this issue. Is it possible my uninstall didn't completely UNINSTALL? Or is it maybe because I installed the beta? Something else I've just noticed.. my Server Essentials Dashboard is showing that the Active Directory Certificate Services (CertSrv) service isn't running. I tried to "repair" but it comes back. If I check the Services management, it shows it's not running, and if I start it, I get an error. Could this be what's causing it, or is that a whole different issue?

I don't even know what virtual machines are. Is that when you have your computer running, but then also have like another system running inside it, like a different OS, but at the same time? I guess something like that would be useful if you wanted to have a SERVER and a CLIENT on the same exact hardware, or if you're doing a bunch of experimenting with software and stuff but you don't want to risk messing up the stable system. Is that right? If so, I don't really have any use for that. Thanks for clarifying SAN for me. I learn a little bit more about this stuff each day! I think I'll just keep the setup the way it is. I don't want to run the risk of screwing something up.

Yeah I had come across that tutorial while doing my Googling for a solution. I'm not sure that will solve the problem though. It specifically requires you to change the SAN (whatever that is) policy on a per-drive instance. So it would only work for drives currently connected to the system. If you add a new drive, it would probably still come up "offline". It's no big deal, I don't mind it doing that. It was just frustrating because I forgot Server does that, and I was pulling my hair out wondering why DrivePool was saying drives were unavailable when Scanner was showing them RIGHT THERE. Lol.

It says it's an administrative policy. Is there a way to change and/or disable that? It's very annoying when you're trying to troubleshoot drive issues. I don't plan on using HyperV, especially since I don't even know what it is. I just feel like the "automatically offline" is just a needless hurdle.

Ok, so after a couple hours, I finally got the Windows Recovery to boot up of the CD.. I was going to try and do a system restore. Trouble now is, it can't find the backups. I think it's because Windows did a preliminary scan of drives and detected "New" ones and turned them all offline. So I can't access the drive the backups are on. So I tried going into the command prompt to run a chkdsk on the OS. While in there I did a d:, then e:, f:, etc, checking the directories. Turns out, most drives are empty, and only like 3 of them have a PoolPart folder. OMG I think my pool is hosed. 15 years of saved photos and music now most likely gone. I can't deal with this. I had a feeling something was up when Windows DID load, and had all the drives but DrivePool showed no pool, and offered only the C: drive as an option to build a new pool out of. Omg what a mess. Hopefully the data I still have can be recovered onto another temp drive like I did months ago before I started this whole upgrade procedure. I'm super depressed right now, really need advice going forward. I thought I knew what I was doing, but apparently not. I hate my life.

OH SO MANY WOES Here I was all super excited because I got the expander and my cables. Now I'm having all kinds of trouble and I don't know what to do. I really need some help. For starters, it now takes my computer like 30 minutes to boot up Windows (the BIOS part is a cinch, I'm talking about the the whole Blue Window logo and the spinny dots taking 30-45 minutes to load before I get the login screen). This is ridiculous. I don't know what it's doing. I've trying running a manual chkdsk on the OS drive (which is an SSD) and it always comes back fine. I'm in the process now of verifying my OS files are good (sfc /scannow). I suspect they'll be fine too. I haven't done anything new other than install that new expander, which just uses the mobo for power. The strange thing too is that occasionally on boot, the entire network of drives other than the SSD won't show up in Windows. But they show up fine during the BIOS boot stage if I have it set to show the OptionROM screen. So the hardware itself is seeing the drives fine. But for some strange reason Windows doesn't. I wish I knew what was taking so long for Windows to load so I could troubleshoot it. Please somebody help me! I'm "this close" to formatting and reinstalling Windows, thus wiping all previous configurations out the window. I really don't want to do that...

Leave this topic open just in case... I'm a half asleep idiot over here... Windows Server has some kind of built in security feature that puts drives into an OFFLINE state if they are new. Well, they're not new, just connected using a different interface. I just opened up my Disk Manager and found them all "disabled". So I have to go through an turn them on. Stupid Windows. I'm also experiencing a HUGE slow down on my machine. I think I jacked something up in my BIOS when I was trying to reconfigure it to load the OptionROM so I could verify the LSI card was detecting all the drives (which it was). Now my system takes forever to load, and when it does it runs at a crawl. I'm going to mess with this later, but for now I think this is my solution.

Ok, so if ya'll have been following my build progress, I just got the new HP SAS Expander. Previously I had the LSI Controller connected to 2 of my backplanes, and the other backplanes connected via reverse breakout cables. Since I just got the expander, I connected all the backplanes to it. Now only the 2 backplanes that were originally connected via SAS are being detected by DrivePool. The other 4 backplanes aren't being detected in DrivePool, but they do show up in Device Manager and Scanner. I just tried to uninstalled DrivePool and reinstall it, in the hopes that maybe that would rebuild the pool, but that didn't work. Any ideas?

NEED HELP FAST!! Does DrivePool not recognize a drive if it's connected using a different method? After installing the new HP Expander, none of the drives that were originally connected via reverse breakout are being recognized in DrivePool. I checked Device Manager, and they show up. They even show up in Scanner. But DrivePool is alerting me that these drives are missing! UGH! I've come so far just to get hung up by this. I can't afford any data loss to re-add these to the pool, since I've got like 10% free space remaining on all of them. LOL HELP!!

Wow Holy JEEZ!! Ordered those SAS cables from Monoprice yesterday, and got them TODAY. In fact, they arrived at like 10:30 in the morning! I didn't even pay extra, but they pretty much came next day air. I'm impressed! Now I get to go through the fun of installing the new card and cables. WOOT! Excitement!