Christopher (Drashna)

Dynamic disks are just trouble in general. I've lost a decent amount of data to them, waaay long time ago. And I just don't see them as reliable. Though I can't really comment on the partition stuff. I mainly only use Windows based tools. As for the drive not showing up, I've seem similar. At least, where it should up as RAW or uninitialized. Had to use data recovery, but ... windows based. And I'm not getting into any arguement involving linux. I know better. That said, LVM isn't linux tech, it seems like IBM actually owns the patent on the technology. so.... yeah, and mdadm is dated 2001, where dynamic disks were apparently introduced in Windows 2000, released in it's namesake's year) I also can't comment on the idea for Storage Spaces, but I suspect that it was developed as a way to FULLY support all file system utils, *and* implement a DE type feature. Not exactly successfully, but still. And no, RAID definitely isn't a backup. And it's depressing that people think of it as such. It's redundancy. And that is also what DrivePool's duplication is. It helps pretect you against drive failure. Not against .... well nine times out of ten, user error. (be it id 10 t, or accidental) And for the most part, I think we pretty much are in agreement, here. Though, I'm not a fan of Parity. It may save a bit of space, but requires dedicated hardware to do right, and takes a LOT of time to use for recovery. Mirroring is better for uptime. And I'm also not a fan of deduplication. The reason is this: WHS' client backup. Deduplication saves on space, and can be a very good thing. But it makes your data much more vulnerable. All you need is one bad sector in the right (or wrong) spot, and you lose a LOT of information. Especially if you don't have a backup. And Alex has a fun story about that too (one that I've also experienced, though he found a "fix"). I'd rather spend money on more HDDs and HBA cards, and mirror/duplicate everything. Though, deduplication on a desktop OS isn't a bad idea at all. Especially if you have a good, reliably backup.

WSUS should install to the pool just fine. That it isn't, is weird. Worst case, you should be able to "move" the shares for it into the Pool and be fine.

IMO, It would be much better to use the 250GB drive for just the system disk. This way you can install system roles to the drive and such, and set it to be backed up by Windows Server Backup (which can be picky about what needs to be backed up). Also, this way, if you do have to do a "bare metal restore" of the server, it's not complicated by having that data partition (because it will want to backup/restore the entire disk, not just the system partition, IIRC). Also, this way, you minimize any "IO impact" for the pool. There is always a lot of activity on the system disk (if only for reads). So this helps optimize performance.

That's definitely an issue. But IIRC, Alex (the developer) actually uses vmware and his VMs are in the pool. So this is definitely odd. Could you enable "trace logging" and duplicate the issue? That way, we can get a detailed report of what is going on? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

lol. Actually, if you look up the definitions, niche and nitch are the same thing. So it is a matter of preference. I just prefer niche. I've never used the Windows Dynamic disks (software RAID). I've messed with them before and have been burned. So I've avoided it. And yeah, eBay/PayPal takes a chunk out. Though, I've had some good success with craigslist. But you have to look at the site like a swap meet. Not everything you buy is going to work, and not everyone that contacts you is interested in buying. And There are scammers. I've bought a few things via Craigslist, and have been very happy (my Portable AC unit rocks, BTW, 12k BTU unit for ~$200). Though, I've never tried selling. As for Storage Spaces replacing Drive Extender.... I can tell you for a fact that this idea is correct. I was an MS MVP for WHS for 4 years, after all. And that's about all the detail I can go into that. But as for working like Drive Extended, I completely agree. They took a great idea, and wrapped it up tightly with Dynamic disks and gave it a new name. And yeah, it's not as resilient, nor anywhere near as good. And yes, products like StableBit DrivePool are very much the spiritual successor to Drive Extender. And do a MUCH better job than Storage Spaces. But then again, DrivePool fixes most (if not all) the issues with Drive Extender, and adds a bunch more options too! And yeah, derailed a bit. But that's fine, IMO. And I can't speak for Alex, so I can't say if we will add deduplication (or soon). But Alex does have a list of features he does plan on adding. But one thing at a time, right?

You shouldn't need to do anything for those USB drives. Do they work fine if you plug them in directly to the motherboard? Also, you can check to see if they'll get the data at all by using this utility: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/36-how-to-contribute-test-data/

Yeah, there should be no overhead. All "IO operations" (read/write) are passed onto the disks directly. In the case of read striping we do some extra stuff to boost the read speed. But performance and minimal inpact/footprint are key features/tenants of DrivePool. And fact, the only "overhead" is the actual DrivePool service, which handles checking the duplication and balancing statuses, and moving files when necessary. But that should also be minimal. As for the discount, you get a $9.95 (basically $10) discount on each license purchased after the first. Up to 10 additional licenses (for a total of 11) This is for either DrivePool or Scanner. And you can "mix and match", if you want. As for the "Combo" item (DrivePool+Scanner), this discount is already applied, and counts against the 10 additional licenses. To get the discount, purchase one of the products (or the combo) and wait till you get your Activation ID. Once you have that, go back to the purchase page, and at the bottom is a "Already own one of our products?" section. Input your ID there, and click the "Apply Activation ID" button, and it will refresh the page and show you the discounted price. That, or if you get the combo, on the order confirmation page, it will have a link to "Purchase additional licenses" that will basically do that for you. SO basically, buy the combo, then use the links. And you could get a second copy of DrivePool and a second copy of Scanner, both discounted for that second machine.

You're absolutely right about the "play things". The price will be astronomical for a good while. But it's nice to see that density. But as for drivePooling... my smallest drive in the pool is a 3TB drive. So... it depends on what you have and what you want, I guess. As for "niche"/"nitch", from what I've seen, there are two camps here (and this pretty much applies to all things, but especially tech). There are the people that don't know any better. And there are the people that refuse to pay for the hardware/software to pool/raid/etc their data properly. I would say that their is a third group that spreads misinformation, but that's a combination of the two, really. I mean, I've seen all sorts of solutions touted as the best thing since sliced bread. Until something goes wrong. And then you've lost everything. Heck, I've seen that reported with hardware RAID5. (cascading disk failure). And Alex has spent a lot of time trying to make recovery as simple and as painless as possible (but there is still a failed disk, so some pain always). And we how that it shows. Between DrivePool pooling and duplicating the data, and Scanner checking and maintaining the health of your drives (and the two products working together to try help prevent data loss). Well, I was recommended the heck out of both products before Alex hired me. But yeah, I cringe when I see stories of people losing all their data. I've been there, and done that. And it's not fun.

Okay, good to hear. And no, it just means that it will wait til 2AM or whenever to process the pool. It will still "balance" it. Also, by default, it will try to use the most empty disk for the data, so as you add data, it will tend to equalize out. However, if you check the balancer settings, there are a list of built in balancers that give you a decent amount of options. But if you want more control, such as to fill one disk at a time, there are some additional balancers you can download and install: http://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Plugins And it sounds like you may be interested in the "Ordered File Placement" balancer, which does fill one or two disks at a time (depending on the duplication status).

Okay, I'm glad to hear that everything has "settled" down/in. But yeah, when you first move over from Drive Extender, it take a bit before everything acclimates. And now that it has, I would recommend taking a look at the balancer settings. You get a good amount of control over the file placement, and there are some additional ones that give you a lot more control over them: http://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Plugins ANd I'm glad that you like the software enough to purchase it. That's what we like to hear. And if you have any other issues or any questions about DrivePool or Scanner, don't hesitate to ask. Regards

Yes, this sounds right. By default, it creates a 60GB partition for the OS (if it makes you feel any better, in the early early beta's, they wanted to use 40GBs....) As for freeing system space, have you tried running the disk cleanup wizard on the server (may require you to use Remote Desktop to access the server)? Also, if you're not using the hibernate/sleep feature of the server, you may want to disable it (powercfg -h off, from an elevated command prompt). That, and do you have anything else installed on the server?

We don't automatically move your data into the pool. Not everyone wants that. And we would rather stay as hands off of your data as possible. As for moving files into the pool, there is a super quick (and dirty) way to do this. Enable "Show hidden files", and then move the entire contents of each disk into the hidden "PoolPart.xxxx" folder. Do this for each drive in the pool, and EVERYTHING should appear in the pool. This will take minutes. The way you propose would take hours or days, depending on how much data you have in the pool.

Actually, you should be fine *just* moving the drives to a different controller. No need to mess with DrivePool. All the data, and pool info is stored on the drive as normal files (well, mostly). So there should be no issue moving it to another controller/port. Though, if you are moving it to a USB enclosure... they can sometimes cause issues. They don't always pass on the drive 100%, and sometimes do some weird things. But for the most part, you should be fine.

Okay, glad to hear then. Though, just keep an eye on it just incase. If it doesn't improve soon, then PLEASE let us know!

Okay. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask! Regards

Glad to hear it. If you have any other issues or any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Regards

Could you try uninstalling any components that did make it onto the system? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q3017479 Also: Open up Windows Explorer and navigate to %temp%. This will take you to the temp folder where the logs are saved. Sort this folder by Date modified. Take a look at the top 2 or 3 files and one of them will be the largest one. Could you grab that and attach to that a ticket via http://stablebit.com/Contact ?

sjeuf12, That's odd. It should allow you to download it just fine. If not, then try here: http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePool/release/download/ (the newest builds at the bottom)

30% makes sense, specially when you have a lot of "white space" in some of those files. And I can definitely understanding wanting to maximize your space. But personally, I'd rather get a couple of 4TB drives and throw them in and duplicate. That way I know I'm set if a drive does fail. Also, ahve you seen the HGST's Helium cooled drives? 6TBs.

Shouldn't matter at all. I've added disks full of data and "moved" it into the pool without any issue. I'm not sure what you mean there. It looks like you have all the disks (minus the system disk) in the pool. the PoolPart folders are hidden by default. After you remove a disk from the pool, it's marked as unhidden, just in case it didn't move everything out of the folder (such as if you told it to skip duplicated files), just in case. That shouldn't have any thing to do with what you were seeing. As for the issue, it sounds like the settings store for DrivePool may have gotten corrupt. That could cause the issue you saw also. And clearing DrivePool's settings was the next thing I was going to recommend, actually. If this happens again (I don't think it will), could you grab the error reports from the system and send them to us? (http://stablebit.com/Contact) http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Error_Reports And 7.21TB sounds correct. My quick math said 6.99TBs. Specifically, you get approx 90.95% of what manufactures report. So, that would be approx 7.25TBs. Which is almost exactly what it is reporting.

Okay, It looks like it's mis-reporting the L:\ drive. Click on the "Pool Options" underneath the pie chart, and click on the "Remeasure" option. That may fix the issue. If it doesn't, let us know. As for remote desktop, yeah, that can happen. That's why it's good to have a "dynamic DNS" service. Most of these utilities have a program you can install that will periodically update the IP address. Or you can do the same on the router. That, or use TeamViewer.

Well, it could be that it just wasn't finish indexing, so it didn't present the option. After it's finished running, and if it's still at 50%, then something definitely may not be working right.

Well, depending on what operating system you are using, it may be remotely accessible. But it would require setup beforehand. Worst case, it may be a good idea to have TeamVeiwer installed on it, to make sure you can access it remotely, if need be.

Okay, got the Dump, and I've flagged it for Alex. He'll take a look at it when he gets a chance.

That I can definitely understand. Just double check the duplication status on the folders, and make sure they are how you want. Also, a lot of the errors were "awaiting user input" on how to resolve the issues. So double check that DrivePool doesn't have any prompts for you in it's tab.