Christopher (Drashna)

Is this for a test notification or an actual alert? If it's for the test, then it only sends it to the account selected. You can test it out by using the "simulate" tab in the Scanner settings. I'd recommend enabling both "Simulate damage sectors" and "Simulate all reads". That should produce an error, and send you an email to both accounts.

Depends on the error here. And I'm assuming this is for StableBit Scanner. If it's "damaged", as in it found bad sectors (and not SMART warnings): Find the disk in question Click on the "+" on the left-hand side of the disk. There should be a column of buttons on the left side. The forth one should have a green circle with a yellow arrow in it. Click on that. A menu should pop up, and select "Mark all damaged sectors as unchecked" option. That will clear it, and cause StableBit Scanner to rescan that section (as per the normal scan rules). If it's a SMART error, well, open SMART details and there should be an "Ignore" button. You can ignore just the current value (will come back if it increases) or you can permanently ignore that value. But if it's a SMART error, what specific value is it?

There is absolutely no issue with swapping the card out. The data about the pool is stored on the disk, so as long as StableBit DrivePool can see the disks, there is no issue. In fact, if you have USB/eSATA enclosure, there is no issue with switching between the input types as well. As long as they show up properly. So to answer the question, yes. Just disconnect the drives, swap out the controller card, and reconnect them. StableBit DrivePool will handle that just fine.

Well, we do have the combo purchase. But aside from that, no, there are no plans on combining the programs. We'd rather keep them separate, because they do serve very different goals. And some people just want Scanner on their systems (such as for a desktop or tablet, or even HTPC) and don't need DrivePool on it. And some don't want to use StableBit Scanner (or have issues with it) and/or prefer using a different tool. But we absolutely appreciate your love of our products, and your enthusiasm!

Well, ZFS is for *NIX (unix, linux, BSD) systems, and is block based (from what I can tell). Also, IIRC, ZFS does take a lot of overhead to get decent performance. But I agree. It would make DrivePool a lot better to have that feature.

I don't think flagged it for alex yet. So I did, just to make sure. https://stablebit.com/Admin/IssueAnalysis/5255 But also, try the different combinations for the read striping and network IO boost options. If your system is on the lower end, make sure that Network IO Boost is disabled. This feature uses additional resources and can cause problems if ... well, you don't have he available resources. (it differentiates disk and network traffic, and prioritizes network traffic). Read Striping is what determines which disks are faster, and how to "stripe" the data. Disabing this means it will only read from one disk at a time. It may help if you disable this.

I had a 500GB HDD that I shrunk the partition (using Disk Management) to fit on a newly bought solid state disk. Shrunk it, and let Windows Server Backup run. Then I did a BMR onto the SSD. Worked just fine, and even aligned the disk properly. I do believe that I had to reconfigure the backup, but aside from that, it worked great. It wasn't WHS2011, but SBS2011E. But that's just the "Active Directory Domain" version of WHS2011. So it is identical for this purpose. As for how to install to a drive smaller than 160GB: http://connecteddigitalworld.com/2011/09/20/installing-whs-2011-or-sbs-2011-essentials-on-ssd-or-sata-hard-drives-smaller-than-160gb/ I'm sorry to hear about the failing disks. That's never pleasant. And I do hope that you can remove all the data from them before anything bad happens. Don't forget to deactivate them before uninstalling them.

Restart the service (services.msc, and look for "StableBit DrivePool Service". Since that controls the UI... If it's hanging still, make sure you're on the newest version (2.1.0.561 is the newest "Windows" version, 1.3.6.7582 is newest WHS version). If it's still hanging on that version, then reset the settings (basically, delete everything you've just uploaded. http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2299585B If it still persists after this, then get a memory dump of the service: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Service_Memory_Dump Issue reported here: https://stablebit.com/Admin/IssueAnalysis/5254

Actually, there should be no issue with deleting the "D:\" partition and extending the drive. Since the "space" is after the system partition, it will just merge the same into it. No worrying about if it converts the disk to dynamic or not (umfriend, that's probably what you were thinking about). And it shouldn't matter if you move the shares or not first. If there is nothing in them, the dashboard will want to recreate the shares instead of moving them.

Depends on how much is free usually.... But probably not. And I just wanted to make sure that Network IO Boost was disabled. It can cause some performance issues on lower end systems.

If you've had no issues with the drives since changing the controller's drivers, then that's great. And it sounds like the drivers are buggy. As for why this happened at all.... if there is an issue with the driver, it would affect the Virtual Disk service. And since we rely on that a lot, it would affect DrivePool as well. Could you post the Error Reports from the system? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Error_Reports Well, could you upload the entire folder, and not just the error reports folder?

There should be absolutely no issue with hosting the Client Computer Backups in the Pool. However, we do recommend that you enable duplication on the folder, so that if a drive does fail, that you don't lose everything (it's very sensitive for file loss).

Try disabling "Network I/O Boost" and see if that helps. This feature uses addition resource overhead and could be why it's talking longer. Also, there is this: http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/8335-before-you-post-media-stuttering-playback-issues-performance-irregularities/ If neither of those help, enable the file system logging and produce the issue: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection Also, if you do have a good amount of memory available on the server: fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2 Run this from an elevated command prompt.

dslabbekoorn: There is no reason to feel like a newbie there. That's very odd behavior in general. And to be honest, I'd expect more erratic behavior than that from the system for from a bad cable. As for the access denied issue, I would recommend checking the Event Viewer on the system to make sure there are no "disk" or "controller" errors in the "System" section. If there are, well, there may be another issue there. As for the Troubleshooter, http://dl.covecube.com/WssTroubleshoot/Release/download/Wss.Troubleshoot_1.0.0.165.exe This link should allow you to download a version that will work on Server 2012 Essentials. However, if the issue continues, please enable logging, and try to reproduce the issue. http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

I wasn't sure how you were migrating, so I wanted to make sure that was covered. As for restoring, you would need to boot from the install disk, and select the "repair an installation" option. This will load up the restore wizard. You do need to have your backup disk attached at this point (or prior to it). However, you do need to make sure that the original partition/disk is smaller than the destination disk in question. That shouldn't be an issue. But if it is.... boot into the system, clear off the contents of the "data" partition on the system disk, then delete the partition (in diskmgmt.msc), and then manually run a backup (wbadmin.msc). Then you should be able to restore properly. That's at least how I've done it in the past. I've actually migrated SBS2011E (the "small business" version of WHS2011) from a 500GB HDD to a 128GB SSD that way. So I do know it works. Alternatively, you could close the "System Reserved" partition and the system partition to the new disk. Once you've verified that's bootable, delete said partitions on the HDD. This way, you can continue using that disk in the pool, and run for the SSD. And I'm not sure what you mean by the last question. But it's definitely worth running the system from an SSD. If only for the fact that the dashboard will be a lot smoother and run better overall. And overall, the system will be "snappier".

Is "Read Striping" and/or "Network I/O Boost" enabled on the pool? Specifically, these features can add additional overhead to the system, and cause a slowdown. Depending on the hardware in question.

Ah, I think that forefront may use the same engine as MSE.... Also, you may want to verify that Windows Defender is indeed disabled. As for excluding folders: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418942.aspx

Sorry for misunderstanding. If the drives are actually dropping out of the system.... Well, check the Event Viewer on the system. The "System" section should have "disk" or "controller" related events listed. That should shed some light on what is going on. Also, what controller(s) are you using, specifically? Or motherboard? And have you tried resetting or swapping out cables? Also, is this happening under heavy load? Or a light load? Or...?

Depends on how you restore/reinstall the OS. To be honest, the best option here is to run Server Backup (if you're not already) and restore at least the C:\ drive to the SSD. Once that's done, you'll probably need to "Transfer" the licenses (refreshes the hardware profile). However, if you're doing a clean install... Then deactivate the licenses prior to reinstalling the OS. Then, reinstall WHS, reinstall the programs and activate. And that's basically all there is to it. There is an utility to restore the shares which you may want to run afterwards as well: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities

Henry, Thank you for uploading the dump. And you're dead on. It's caused by "THIRD_PARTY_FILE_SYSTEM_FAILURE". Aside from that, I'm not entirely sure, as I'm definitely not the expert here. However, I've flagged the dump for Alex (as he is), and he'll take a look at it. In the meanwhile, I'd recommend excluding the Pool drive from being scanned by MSE (well, Windows Defender), just in case. Also, are you on 2.0.0.420? If so, could you see about upgrading to 2.1.1.561? https://stablebit.com/Admin/IssueAnalysis/5249

Yeah, that's the file system filter for Microsoft Security Essentials (or Windows Defender). It could be more complicated than that... but if you could upload the dump (or minidump) to us, it would be much useful. And yeah, if there isn't enough space, it won't create a dump.

First thing I would recommend is to check the SATA connections, and maybe swap out the cable, if you have the option. If that doesn't help, right click on the disk in question, select "Disk Settings", and check the "Do not query SMART data" option. If that helps, the enabling the "Smart_NoWMI" option may help: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings Also, There is the "burst test". This is good for troubleshooting problematic controllers. It is possible that the controller is failing/crashing/reseting under heavy load.

Rebuild, no. Specifically, any file not duplicated maybe have been lost. If it was on the "failed" disk, then it's gone (unless you can recover it). But once the damaged/failed/missing disk is removed from the Pool, StableBit DrivePool will then start a "duplication pass". Which means it will check all the files that are still on the pool. If there are not the proper number of copies of the files, it will create an additional copy on another disk. You don't even need to plug a new one in, if you have enough space on the remaining disks.

Well, if it makes you feel any better.... while I haven't been bugging him daily about it, I have brought it up at any chance I get. Because I do think it would make a great product, and a great addition to our "line up".

Ah, Avast..... I hate to say this, but we've had a lot of issues with Avast lately. Including when testing on a clean system. More than likely, the issue is being caused because Avast doesn't like something that the StableBit DrivePool Service is doing. I would recommend, at the very least, exclude "C:\Program Files\StableBit\DrivePool\DrivePool.Service.EXE" from being scanned, as well as the pooled disks. Though, I would highly recommend uninstalling Avast. That should fix the issue immediately.