Christopher (Drashna)

I'm glad you figured that all out! But that's not 100% correct. It's called "other" because it may not be pooled, or it may be space "used" by bad sectors, or system space, or the difference between used sectors and actually used space. (which is probably why you have ~400MBs of "other" too). I know it's not the best name, but it's the most accurate. Agreed. We will see about adding that in the future. Actually, we've recently discussed that recently, internally. Okay, thanks for the feedback. We'll see what we can do about this one. And thank you for taking the time to post the updates!

dbailey's 100% correct. As for the drive letter thing.... try running "mountvol /n" from an elevated command prompt. It will stop windows from automatically assigning drive letters.

All the "data" about the pool is actually stored on the drives themselves. Once you remove all the disks in a Pool, DrivePool is no longer "aware" of the pool. WHich not only means that removing all the disks in the pool "removes" the pool effectively, it also means that the pool is system independent. I think that pretty much answers what you're asking. If not totally directly. As for the system, I'd HIGHLY recommend buying a UPS (Battery backup) for the system. It's meant to help with power fluctuations. Surge protectors are basically glorified fuses. A good UPS does voltage regulation and such to prevent spikes and dips from affecting the hardware. They're definitely pricier, but it's definitely worth the investment (I'm a cheapskate, and *all* of my computers have a UPS attached to them)

You can just delete the files. this just "resets" the database. Once new backups on the clients start, it will recreate the database files. No harm will be done to the clients. I mean, other than losing their backups.

If that's the case, then it *should* get the SMART data normally. Also, have you tried the "UnsafeDirectIo" setting for scanner yet? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings That should *definitely* get everything. But it's "unsafe" for a reason. People have had issues with some of the methods used.

Each "volume" can only belong to one Pool. That said, normally, you'd only have one partition on the disk, so only one volume. But you can have multiple partitions on a drive, and you'd end up with multiple volumes on that disk. (volumes can span disks, but that requires dynamic disks which we don't support ATM). So partitioning the drives up like that, you can definitely add the multiple partitions to the same pool, even if they're on the same disk. And DrivePool is aware when volumes are on the same disk and does not use those volumes for duplication of anything on the other volume/partition on the same disk. So you don't need to set up two pools. You can keep just the one.

No, we don't usually have any sales/deals like that. Same price all year around. However, we do have occasional giveaways: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/243-the-stablebit-tweet-to-win-giveaway/

Yes, you absolutely can change the names. And through the "normal" method to do so: Open "Computer", right click on the DrivePool drive, and select "Properties". Then type the name you want, and hit "OK". It will most likely come up with a UAC prompt. But aside from that, it's just that simple.

Depending on how Quota's work on the file system level (and I suspect I have a good idea how now)... It's because of how the DrivePool volume works. It doesn't fully emulate all of the file system properties (such as reparse points, for example). Could you submit a ticket, that way it ends up on alex's to do list? right now, he's busy trying to add Reparse Point support, which isn't simple. But it may make it every easy to add quota support, but don't .... quote me. I'm soo sorry for really bad, unintentional pun. Also, by default, DrivePool should report as NTFS anymore (for compatibility reasons).

Has it been tested by alex or I? No, I don't think so. But IIRC, there are a number of people that have. But I'll see about testing... this weekend or early next week (thanksgiving and all, so I definitely understand the wanting to wait to mess with it)

That's.... upsetting. It may be just coincidental. But I wouldn't be surprised if there was some underlying problem that DrivePool brought out. Check that system's disks for other errors (such as SMART errors)? And it may be a good idea to run a memory check too. Just in case.

lol. I should try Windows Phone 8. It may be better. But I had an HTC HD2 (loved that phone), and I was able to try Windows Mobile, Android and Windows Phone 7 on that thing. I just didn't like Windows Phone's UI. Maybe because I was bitter with what was happening to Zune at the time. (Still am, in fact). But each Android phone manufacturer puts their own "skin" on the device. Meaning that it has anywhere between extremely light customization over "android source" (such as what Samsung does), up to and including a complete overhaul of the UI (HTC's Sense UI). Considering Google keeps on borrowing code and idea's from HTC.... and I love Sense, that's my choice. But honestly, it's best to go in and figure out what you like. Find a store that has "live" phones, and not the dumby ones (I hate how that's becoming more and more common.... so you can't tell which you like, you just have to take a $600 gamble....)

PJShots, Thanks for the feedback! And that's good to know.

Well, that indicates taht you have Malware Bits and Avast installed, right? It *could* be an interaction between the three. Try disabling them temporarily, and see if that fixes the issue. If it does, try starting one, and see if the issue comes back. And if you can verify which is causing the issue, let us know.

There shouldn't be, no. But anything that creates a virtual disk *may*. Or it may be remotely possible if it installs a file system filter (http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701) But aside from those.... there shouldn't be anything that adversely affects it, especially like this.

No, you don't need a drive letter for DrivePool to recognize the drive. DrivePool supports drive letters, drives mounted to folders, or not mounted at all. So you can use the drive however you want. Personally, I'd recommend mounting them to a drive letter (http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624) As for disk information, have you tried StableBit Scanner? There are a bunch of additional columns you can enable, to get more information about the disks.

Yeah, I would rather not have you do that as well. But it's best way to figure out *why* it's hanging the system like that.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure that was how everything was set up (on all accounts). And yeah, the best way for us to see what is going wrong... is that crash dump. Though, it may be a good idea to run a memory test also. But that's also very time consuming.

VPN may work. And there are mobile apps that could access "SMB" shares after you've connected the VPN. Though I can't speak for the iTunes stuff. I've avoided the Apple eco-sphere completely. And I'm using an HTC One S (though I really want/need to updated to the HTC One). I'm an HTC fanboy. They're all I've used since the HTC Dash 3G (aka HTC Maple). So... yeah. And I like Android. A lot more options, I think. I liked Windows Phone, when it was still the Zune OS. But it doesn't feel as smooth now. And yeah, ebay is a good method to make back the money. Especially during this time of year!

Well, there used to be an upload widget, I swear.... Feel free to upload to dropbox, or the like and send us a link.

But now, I want to find this for myself (for ease of use), so... yeah. I'll keep looking for a good solution.

And yeah, there aren't a lot of solutions. And the ones that exist are far from excellent. There was HFS, IIRC. From a long while ago. And worst case, FTP would work. ANd it should be built into IIS (the MS web server). You'd just have to set it up though.

Parrottm, What you describe is definitely not normal nor typical. I'm assuming you have NOT set up an advanced configuration files to enable UnsafeDirectIo (as that could cause this behavior). If you have, disable it temporarily (rename it). http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings If you haven't.... Well, I'm guessing that the RAID array was marked dirty because of booting into safemode. A better option would be to set the StableBit Scanner service to "Manual". That way, it only loads when you want it to. And that way, I am sure you'd rather not, but could you get a crash dump of the system when it's hanging like this? So we can see what is going on? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_System_Freeze And that RAID5 array? Is it done via Software (aka Disk Management) or is done on a hardware controller?

"Hot Spare". No, DrivePool tries to use every disk in the pool. But that also depends on the Balancer settings. And as dbailey has pointed out, installing Scanner creates a Balancer for it in DrivePool, so that if Scanner determines that the drive is failing, it will migrate all data off of that drive. You can optionally set up the balancer to migrate data off a drive with SMART errors as well. *And* you can set it to avoid using any disks that have exceeded their manufacturer specify temperature threshold (as these disks are more likely to fail).

We're glad to hear that you love it! Well, you can just enable Duplication. That will make sure there are 2 copies of the files, and on different drives. You can enable it for the whole pool, or just certain folders. And you can specify higher than x2 duplication as well. And the best part is that DrivePool handles this. It checks the files, makes sure there are the right number of duplicates, warns you when the parts don't match, etc. And it can boost performance (read striping) for the duplicated files. So, while you could definitely set up a second pool, and set up something like Allways Sync on a schedule, there is the built in option.