Christopher (Drashna)

If you're using WHS2011, both. That's how we get the stats for what is where.

Can you verify that there is no other activity? Does the "scan" section say that it's throttled? Also, you can check the performance by right click on the column header, and select "performance". That will list the activity speed of all the drives in Scanner. Also, do you have a lot of smaller files on the drives? Worst case here, try restarting the Scanner service, or reboot the system.

Well, those all look right... So I'd guess some weird interaction, or maybe a disk error. And if it makes you feel any better, six months or so ago, it would have been over mine as well.

I wouldn't say that's normal. I'd say that it's a manufacturing defect with the drive. I have a bunch of 3TB drives (all seagate though), and I've not seen this before, nor heard of someone getting a new drive with that reported. Though, is the disk GPT or MBR? As for long term health, I'm not entirely sure what you mean here. The longer the drive is powered on and active, the shorter it's lifespan will be. But that's normal wear and tear. And if you're trying to compare to a RAID... drives would last longer in a "pool" or as a JBODs than in a RAID, which is constantly active and constantly writing to the pool. With StableBit Scanner, it's possible to get the drives to idle/suspend while not in use. There is no such option with RAID. Another health factor is heat. Heat damages the drives and can significantly reduce the lifespan of a drive. That is why data centers are heavily air conditioned. Scanner does monitor the temp of the drives and will warn you about that as well. And if you're using StableBit DrivePool, the Scanner balancer has an option to not use disks that have overheated, to help preserve the disk and, more importantly, your data.

Oh, and if you do have enough data to fill that 500GB and still need more duplication space, DrivePool *will* alert you to that fact.

Well, cool that it notified you. Not so cool that you have a drive that has failed.

Depends on how Scanner was reporting it was damaged. If it was the surface scan, running the WD diagnostic tools could have triggered the built in error correction routines and moved the affected files off of the damaged areas of the disk. This would be my guess.

Ouch, on the Norton thing. And that's called successful marketing, unfortunately. As for PerfectDisk, I keep forgetting that I'm using that as well... And yes, I think it does a good job of keeping peformance up. I also use the "SMART Placement, Performance Aggressive" option. And to be honest, it definitely makes a difference, especially on the pool. It's one of the "performance issue tweaks" I recommend for WHSv1, and it can definitely make a difference. As for it hanging, that's... odd. I'd definitely recommend checking to see if you have any other file system filters loaded, and then contact their support http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701

Yup, and that was the thinking behind it, actually. But if you install 2.x, you can get both now.

If you install the drivePool software on another computer, it has a drop down that lets you select another computer. So you can manage to pool from your desktop, without having to open the dashboard. But if you're using WHS2011, then v1.x may be a better choice still.

Okay, that may not always make a difference. But that said Media Stuttering thread still applies to WHS2011 an Server 2012 (and R2). So feel free to check out that link too. http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/8335-before-you-post-media-stuttering-playback-issues-performance-irregularities/ And I'm glad that it helped you. That was ... an interesting journey creating that thread. Though, if you're using 2012 R2, it is possible that it may be a driver issue. It's a new OS, and there have been some significant changes, so OEMs many need to release updates.

DrivePool tells you the total amount of storage available. The reason behind this, is that while you may have pool file duplication enabled, you can disable duplication on other folders. So reporting it as 500GB could be inaccurate. Also, you can set the duplication to 3x or higher on specified folders. Again, making the reporting inaccurate, or a lot more complex to report. So we've opted to keep this simple, and just report the raw capacity.

If it makes you feel any better... so do I, for mistaking what version you had (rather, assuming). Glad that you got it sorted now. It should be smooth sailing now.

If that is the case, it sounds like you may have missed the dashboard bit. Open the dashboard, and open the Applications tab. Make sure that there is not an entry for "DrivePool". If there is, right click on it, and select Uninstall. After that, close the dashboard, and re-attempt the install. (and sorry, I grabbed the link to the wrong version, that skipped this bit. Sorry!)

In part because it's a way to generate more interaction on the forum here, and because it's come up a few times... A couple of pieces of software I highly recommend (well, aside from DrivePool and Scanner, that is): Subsonic: It's media streaming software. It has a "standalone" version and "WAR" version that you can install on your server (or desktop) so you can stream your music and video to the web. Or even to your mobile device. It works great with DrivePool, as well. It does require a yearly subscription for the video, and the app support, but it's dirt cheap. Personally, I use a fork of it called "Madsonic", as it's much more actively developed (more than one update a year). ESET: I use this on all of my computers. I've been a long time supporter of the company and love their product. In fact, I have it installed on my server (Server 2012 Essentials), though I am using the "ESET File Server" edition. It's cheap, and has all the features that you'd want for a file server. Otherwise, NOD32 works great on all desktop Windows versions, as well as Windows Home Server. Their licensing is also "version independent", so you can look for a cheap copy of an older version, and update to the newest version out. It is a good, cheap way to get multiple PCs protected. And it also uses Windows PE to create an offline scanner. Raxco Perfect DIsk: While it may be debatable if defragmentation is needed... I've seen it greatly improve performance. Especially on WHSv1. It's even SSD aware, and has it's own method for optimizing SSDs. And personally, I find that the "Performance Aggressive" SMART Placement option does seem to help with performance.

Wait, are you using the Beta version of Scanner? (2.5) If not, could you see if that helps. I've pinged alex, so he'll take a look when he gets a chance.

I believe you do need to remove the failed/missing disk before it will start re-duplicating the remaining data (should be *all* of it in that scenario). But as long as you have a copy of the data, it will try to duplicate it when it makes a duplication pass. When DrivePool makes a duplication pass, it compares the files. If it notices that one of the files doesn't match the other two, it would generate a warning and let you know. At that point, you can decide what to do.

The actual pool should be fine. All the files are stored on normal NTFS volumes. and worst case, you can access files in the hidden "PoolPart.xxxx" folders. So the data should be fine. As for the software, try doing a clean reinstall when you are able to: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q3017479 That will clear all the settings, and files for DrivePool, and should allow you to install it without any issues. And just to re-emphasize: We are very very protective of your data. Disaster recovery was one of the top considerations for DrivePool when Alex initially designed it. As long as the drives are intact, (as in recognized by the system, and the partitions still there, and NTFS), then you can recover your pool. Even if that means reinstall the OS, or moving the drives to another system. We value your data as much as you do, and have done everything in our power to make sure that DrivePool will *never* just "eat" your data.

I've flagged Alex about this, so he can take a look, and see if he can fix it on our end. But this sounds like a weird issue with Windows Firewall....

Glad to hear it. Performance is one of those things that we definitely take seriously and is a big thing for our products. But WantStuff, have you disabled SMB Signing on your 2012 R2 Essentials Box? If not, you may want to do so. It may get you a bit more speed. Namely, SMB signing prevents "man in the middle" attacks. But if this is at home, a MITM attack means you're already screwed... And it adds additional overhead to each and every packet sent, slowing down network traffic. It's entirely up to you whether you want to do this or not, but I do personally. But I also am going to be spending the money on ESET File Security soon (NOD32 doesn't install on Server SKUs, and Endpoint Protection is $$$$, while file security is like $45/year, give or take). http://mctexpert.blogspot.com/2011/02/disable-smb-signing.html And yeah, WHSv1 had some serious performance issues. I have a huge long thread at We Got Served about it, and a list of possible fixes... It was that bad.

@x-ares-x: Yes, that is fine. you're router is adding it's name as a "dns suffix", and that may be normal for it. But yes, make sure you add the TCP port "27515" to the allowed list for your firewall, on the client. That or... make sure that the DrivePool.Service.exe file is added to the list of exceptions on both machines. @sspell: I used to use Symantic for firewall... till I discovered it's a bit overzealous, as you're noting. Make sure you add said port the the "allow" list, as a network Service, If you haven't already.

Well, I know that at least some of the chkdsk passes are recorded to the event viewer, but not all of them (IIRC). You *may* be able to find some logs of them there.

Could you check the Application Event viewer and check for the specific error that it is giving? (filter for errors, to make it easy to find)

You are correct that Shadow Copies/Previous versions do not work on the DrivePool disk. You can definitely turn it on, configure it and successfully use it for the drives that are in the pool though.

Good to hear. Enjoying 2012R2?