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bmelloni

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Posts posted by bmelloni

  1. Sadly, although I had great experiences with support in the past, this time the support team has been very unresponsive.  Maybe this time they are overworked, understaffed or I was unlucky and my case was assigned to an inexperienced support person.  After sending the logs and running the troubleshooter, the next response from support was to... please send the logs and run the troubleshooter (yes, same thing again).  It has been 5 days and so far formal support has not provided a single suggestion on how to solve the problem or given any sign of having done more than just glancing at my case and replying with a cookie-cutter response. 

    This forum has been much more useful.

     

    So, for an update on all the things I tried and discovered:

    1) For the good news, the pool runs fine when I'm not trying to make a change and I am able to increase the duplication to x3 or reduce it back to x2 just fine, no problems.

    2) Every so often I am seeing errors about not being able to access files because they are "in use" even though those files are for applications that were not launched, have no background processes and during those tests I had already shut down any processes (like backups and antivirus scans) that could legitimately lock those files.  I also run MalwareBytes in addition to the very strong antivirus I normally run, with zero threats detected (in other words I am quite confident that there is no virus scanning files either).

    3) Every time I try remove a drive through the "Remove" option I get an error telling me that a directory does not exist or that a file already exists.

    Given the above precautions, checks and symptoms.... I strongly suspect of a DrivePool bugSpecifically, possibly multiple DrivePool threads stepping over each other.

     

    Possible workaround to remove a drive:

    1) Increase the duplication to x3 (with 3 drives present at the time).

    2) Remove the drive physically.

    3) Remove the missing drive from the pool and reduce duplication back to x2.

    4) Allow things to rebalance and add any new drive(s) to the pool.

    The workaround should not be needed, but with no hope for a prompt resolution it might be the only way to replace the old drives soon.    I believe that workaround should be safe, but I would really appreciate if someone would confirm that my plan is valid.

  2. Christopher, I upgraded to the Beta version, but it still gives the

        "Error Removing Drive:  The directory name is invalid" message.

    I also got a notification of an available update to version 2.2.3.1016.  So I upgraded to that one and tried to remove the V: HDD.  Same thing.  Looks like the "drive remove" bug is still around.

  3. 2 hours ago, Christopher (Drashna) said:

    If you could, update to the latest beta version. We've ran into a couple of VERY odd issues on Windows 10, and the newer version should help with the issue.

    http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.3.1012_x64_BETA.exe

    Thank you.  I am currently working with your support department and just uploaded both logs and troubleshooter data.

    But I will definitely upgrade from 2.2.2.934 to the Beta version to try it if they can't find another cause.

    In the meantime, even though I can't remove the old drives... at least the pool is balanced and has x3 duplication fully completed at the moment and the pool is "functioning" properly as is.  I suspect that applying the Beta and then reducing duplication to x2 *might* let me remove one of the old HDDs, but I'd better wait for your support team's analysis of the data I just uploaded before I try additional things.

  4. I just bought several Samsung 2TB 860 EVO SSDs to replace my drivepool HDDs. 

    - My pool was originally setup with 3 HDDs and 2x duplication. 

    - I removed one of those HDDs (first from the pool, then from the PC) with no problems.

    - I installed 2 of the new SSDs onto the PC, formatted them and verified that Windows 10 Pro sees them fine and can read/write to them.

    But... when added one of them to the pool... nothing.  The drive is now on the pool but no data is being stored to it.  Worse, if I try to remove one of the remaining 2 HDDs from the pool I get errors about not being able to write because the file already exists and then it rebalances the data/duplication across the two HDDs.

    I already upgraded DrivePool to version 2.2.2.934 (the latest) and I saw no difference.   I then tried to increase the duplication to x3 to force a write to the SSD and it quickly got stuck at "Duplicating... (1.2%)".

    EDIT:  Given the stuck condition I attempted to remove the SSD for the time being.  I got an error "Error Removing Drive: The directory name is invalid." and it started duplicating again.  I gave up and went on to do my normal work.  Upon looking at Drivepool again I found it at 9.2% and appears stuck again but I'm not positive.  UPDATE... it is very much stuck.  It is more than an hour later and it is still at 9.2%.

     

    I already opened a ticket with support, but as there are only so many support people... I am hoping that someone in the community might have some hints on how to proceed while I wait for support.

  5. I have been happily using Drivepool on Windows 10 for many months.  Had some problems but they were not Drivepool's, just bad drives.

     

    Then I tried to do a deep virus scan using Windows Defender.  I had roughly 1 million files across all of my drives, but Windows Defender happily kept scanning for 24 hours and 4 million "files" before I decide to call it quits.  Doing a Norton scan from a bootable USB stick confirmed the approx 1 million files and gave my drives a clean bill of health (no viruses or other malware).

     

    So I am left wondering what happened, and suspecting that the drivepool virtual drive might confuse Windows Defender.  

     

    1) Has anybody reported a similar problem?

     

    2) Does anybody at Covecube have interest in doing further troubleshooting to confirm/reject the problem being Drivepool confusing Window Defender? If yes, feel free to contact me through the email in my registration.

  6. I got a new Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB.  It does not scan, instead it says "Waiting to scan (temperature equalization)".  It has been in that state for hours.

     

    When I look at SMART, it shows:

     

    - It is running at 89F.  

    - Life Maximum:104F (Operating limit 158F, Physical damage limit: 158F)

    - Life Minimum: 104F (Operating limit 32F, Physical damage limit: 32F)

     

    - All the other attributes have a green check mark.

     

    I submitted to BitFlock.com for analysis (ID: 7DNPDPHZ)

     

    By reading other threads I also found the "suggested solution" to set the "Override maximum temperature", which I set to 155F.  No change observed, it still won't scan.

     

    Not sure what else to try.  Any help will be welcome.

  7. Thank you.  

     

    I renamed my old drive from D to M, installed drives O and P, made a pool D = O+P, moved all the data into D.   Worked like a charm.

     

    My next step... to take out the credit card and buy DrivePool and Scanner.

     

    BTW... you need one more product to cover all the needs:  Something that can do a low-impact image backup of the Windows drive C just like DrivePool can do for any drive other than C.

  8. The main reason I looked into DrivePool is its ability to automatically mirror the content and to expand by simply adding drives if I ever need to.   I am now looking into all the possible issues to determine if it works *for me* and whether it is time to buy a license or to look for an alternative.

     

    DrivePool obviously covers very well how to create a "new" drivePool for data, but since backup/mirror is my primary concern... I must be able to backup/mirror the C (windows) drive too.  Hence this question:

     

    1) Is there a procedure for taking the Windows C drive and end up with a Windows C drivePool?  Or is this not supported?

     

    2) If not supported, what is the "best practice" or perhaps "recommended product" to go along with DrivePool to achieve automatic backup and/or mirror of the C drive?  I ask because even if DrivePool doesn't support it, it doesn't make the need go away and it must be a very common concern... with a well know answer.

     

    ---

    Note:  I asked this already as a followup to a support ticket a couple days ago.  But it wasn't as clear and I didn't see a way to edit it.  This is an attempt to be clearer.

     

  9. Hello,

     

    My primary purpose for using DrivePool is backup.  Being able to grow is also nice, but secondary.

     

    I have a D drive and there are a number of installed applications that rely on it being "D".

     

    I know that when creating a new drivePool it will typically create a new letter.  I am looking for a procedure that will allow me to end up with a D drivePool.  I thought of the following, but I would like confirmation that it would work:

     

    1) I install two new drives, O and P.

     

    2) In Windows Disk Management I rename D as Q.  Now there is no D.  I reboot just to be safe.

     

    3) I create a drivePool based on O and P, with backup/mirror turned on.  I *HOPE* the drivePool will get the first free drive letter, which is D.  Can someone confirm this?

     

    4) I move all the files from Q to the new drivePool D.  Then remove Q (the old D drive).

     

    So... if the above is valid I should end up with a pool D based on O and P.  I have not tried it yet, because I can't risk losing my data.

     

    Would this work?  Is there another way to achieve it?  Or am I just dreaming?

     

    ---

    Note:  I asked this already as a followup to a support ticket a couple days ago.  But it wasn't as clear and I didn't see a way to edit it.  This is an attempt to be clearer.

  10. I asked this question in the Win10 thread but got no reply, so I'm trying again.

     

    I know that both the stable and beta versions work on Windows 10.  The stable version unofficially (my son is using it without a hitch since he upgraded from Windows 8.1 to 10 over a month ago), and the beta version officially... but it is beta and thus by definition it is not expected to be 100% stables.

     

    The question is: "In their current state, which version of DrivePool is more reliable when used with Windows 10:  The Stable version or the Beta version?"

  11. My son clued me into StableBit drivepool and scanner.  He's been using it since Windows 8.1 and had no problem with the Windows 10 upgrade (at least a month ago) even though the stable version isn't supposed to support windows 10.  I am also on Windows 10.

     

    1) Scanner: I installed the stable version and had some issues.  They seemed to have fixed themselves after a reboot, but no... I just looked at the ErrorReports and I still see errors.  So I will follow the advice and upgrade to the beta version.

     

    2) DrivePool:  What is safer for Windows 10, using the stable version (that seems to work fine for my son) or using the beta version (and possibly not get the automatic updates once it becomes stable)?

  12. I just installed StableBit scanner.  Running on Windows 10 Pro.  

     

    3 disks in my system:  

    - 237GB SSD,

    - 465GB HD,

    - 931GB USB HD (used only for image backups at this time).

     

    The scan often goes into a "Connecting to service" state for around a minute. This happens in the middle of a scan.  Then it starts over from 0%.  It took several tries before it could complete the drive scan for the 1st disk.

     

    What is it doing?  Is it a bug?

     

     

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