Christopher (Drashna)

If the error is happening during boot, then it may be that not all the drives are loaded into the pool.... But as for the Essentials stuff, all that stuff is logged in "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\WindowsServer\Logs" (or something very close to that). I can take a look at that if you want (best would be to upload it to dropbox or another cloud sync site, as the logs can be large. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it would be triggering that "randomly".

Alex significantly changed the "Lock" system used by DrivePool, in part to greatly improve the functionality, performance and reliability. However, any significant change means that there is always going to be issues that crop up. http://blog.covecube.com/2013/07/stablebit-drivepool-2-0-0-310-beta-file-system-improvements/ If you guys would be willing to grab some logging data and send it to http://stablebit.com/Contact, we'll see about getting the issue sorted. To enable the logging: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

There is a new update for DrivePool 2.x out today. There are a lot of changes, and it may fix a lot of these backup issues. I'm not sure, though. If you want to head to http://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Download and update the system and see if it fixes the issue. If not, let us know. As for Storage Spaces.... I can dig up a few more horror stories if you really want. But the lesson is that it's super new, and not well tested out yet. I'd recommend staying away from it till it's been well tested. And even then...

That would be a very good reason to stop using them! And you have checked to see if the drives are still under warranty, right? I suspect they're not, but free/cheap RMA would be a great idea, once they're cleared out.

Check the "Balancers" on the DrivePool UI. I believe the "File Placement Limiter" balancer may be what you want. As for changing the folder structure... There isn't a "master version" of the file. So changing it like you suggest would at best add a lot more overhead to DrivePool for a relatively small gain. I'm sure Alex can explain this better than I, though.

David, After deleting the service folder for DrivePool, everything looks fine? No more duplicate drive listed, or?

DFergATL, Could you do this? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Error_Reports And after that, would you mind reseting the settings for DrivePool (you'll need to reactivate): http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2299585 And both of those issues are weird (and actually, probably related), and definitely something that needs to be fixed.

It has some *very* basic intergration. It adds a "Manage DrivePool" link to the "Additional Tasks" in the Storage Tab. The added bonus with 2.x is that you can install it on your desktop/client computer and use it to remotely control/manage the pool that way. No need to open the dashboard.

The files are stored on NTFS volumes. So when you deactivate DrivePool, it basically turns off DrivePool. You're files are still fine. Then you can move the drives to the new system, activate DrivePool, and it will recognize the "old" pool, recreate it, and even try to use the original drive letter. This way, you don't have to try and move all the files around and spend hours. This way, you can have the new system up and running in minutes. Alternatively, you could install DrivePool on the new machine, activate the trial, then copy the files over. Once that is done, you could deactivate the old system, and and use your ID to activate the new system, ending the trial.

If it makes you feel better, what he's working on will right now (and is eating his time) may help or even fix the issue.

XAlpha, It may not be exactly what you want, but have you checked out the File Placement Limiter balancer? (It's built in actually) You can basically do what you describe, albeit manually.

It gets worse. Microsoft's official stance is that "Storage Spaces is only meant for storage. Not for databases of any kind". Which is half the point of using a RAID type array. And it wasn't as much as bad QA ... as they "stole" the code from the WHS team, and then pushed it out to meet deadlines.... As for support, it's been forwarded to Alex, but he's been real busy on some real deep changes on DrivePool. Ones that may help with the issue (if not fix it. )

That PEX-40062 should be good. It uses a similar chipset, namely one by Marvell, and those seem to work very well. You should be fine with either card, though. Though the 40062 is a 2x card, so it does require a 4x or higher slot to use. So it may be more "efficient" to use 2x 40035 cards, as they are 1x cards. That way, if you get a bigger card in the computer eventually, you have the "higher" slots available still. But this is really up to personal preference. And glad to help!

Storage Spaces should definitely handle it. It's basically conventional RAID and functions as such. As for Drive Bender, I'm not sure, but I don't think they do either. And yeah, everything with file systems seems to end up more complicated that it would seem. I'm sure Alex has horror stories along those lines. But like he said, it's on his to-do list.

If you had the drive 90% filled at any time (like, lets say, you'd just added the one disk, and it filled most of that disk), then it would have triggered this warning. And .... the notification system sometimes doesn't clear the alert until you manually clear them. Or till the next time it does a "server assessment". Otherwise, the assessment may have taken place while the system was still booting, and wasn't able to properly process the storage. Not entirely sure. (not without logs at least)

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. As for the drive mode, AHCI is much better... and it is possible to switch, but it's not exactly simple: http://www.ehow.com/how_7508713_switch-mode-ahci-mode-windows.html As for the Syba cards, they're pretty decent. I'd recommend this card though: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/35-syba-sd-pex40035-pci-express-20-sata-iii-60gbs-controller-card/ I actually picked up one of these from Fry's Electronics a while back, and work pretty well. The only issue I had with it was that it was preventing the system from sleeping... Otherwise, yeah, the cards get a lot more expensive very fast. If you want a cheap higher end card, the HighPoint RocketRAID 2720 is a decent card. You just need to get breakout cables as well as the card (supports 8 SATA drives though)

Not a problem. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask! Also, don't forget to deactivate the DrivePool license on WHS before re-installing/migrating. That way you can activate it on the new system and start using DrivePool immediately.

I saw the "PFC" in the model number, and was glad. All the cyberpower UPS's that support "pure/true sine wave" have "PFC" in the model number. APC makes it a lot harder to tell! And glad to help. Sorry that you had some hardware issues. Hopefully everything works great after getting the PSU. On the plus side, that's a great modular, 80+ platinum PSU!

As for replacing the Rail... I don't know yet. I'll make sure to let you know as soon as I do it. It shouldn't be too difficult (famous last words, and all.... ) Check out the WD Reds for STBs. They're like the WD Green, but ... fixed and designed for NAS usage (aka, constant usage and long uptime). May be a great idea. (and yeah, same with the firmware...) I'm using it for storage and streaming. I use Server 2012 Essentials, as I've been using Active Directory/domains since I figured out how to do so on WHSv1. I use Serviio and Subsonic for streaming. I also use it to host some web content (a blog or two). As well as for "Windows Deployment Services", which is a PXE (network) boot server. And well said for the rest of it. And nice setup. I've tried using some of the network media players... but I've had issues with them too. I've had to return my WD Live Plus HD (first gen) three different times... So, I stopped using that and opted for XMBC on Windows. Using the MySQL sync trick. Works very well for me.

A UPS is such an important accessory for your server. It's a must have. You pay for insurance on your car/home/etc, right? Then why wouldn't you want to protect your hardware in a similar manner! Just saying. Also, when shopping for a UPS/battery backup, make sure it's compatible with Active PFC power supplies. It's all but guaranteed that your power supply will be. And if the UPS isn't compatible (aka uses "true sinewave"), when it switches to battery, it could short out the UPS, blow the power supply or damage your hardware. Just a heads up. I've dug up a lot of that info recently because my UPS is getting old, and I really do need something with a higher VA rating. As for chkdsk, it usually wont recover files. It will fix issues with the file system and *may* recover files. But you'd have better luck with a data recovery program. And the less you use that current power supply, the better.

Ah, yeah, defective rails. I have one partial (only one drive bay works), and I think I have another rail that doesn't work at all. There are 2 that I know work (I have 8HDDs attached). But, considering it was a demo unit, and I got it for just the shipping, I'm not complaining. Just wish it wasn't $50 to replace a rail. Norco does sell replacement RAILs. I can get you a link if you want. But like I said, it's around $50 per, IIRC. As for the 4TB drives, they've been out for a decent while, so they should be pretty good by now (worst case, check for firmware updates before using the drives). Personally, I prefer Seagate Drives, they run a bit warmer, but I get better performance out of them. As for the expansion card, thanks for the info. I use a HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL card actually. Fairly cheap, and a decent card. I only use it to pass through drives, but it supports 8 bays. I have another PCI express slot, and will be getting another one of these cards eventually. But it also needs a firmware update to read 3+TB drives too. But drivers and firmware are the first things I check with new stuff. It's just a good habit. (though if you really want to contribute there is this: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/36-how-to-contribute-test-data/) Add some data for StableBit Scanner.

huadiph, I'm not exactly sure what's going on here, or why you're having so many issues with the drives. Have you had any unexpected reboots or power failures? And your computer is connected to a surge protector (at least, preferably, a UPS/battery backup that uses "true sinewave", aka supports Active PFC PSUs)? In regards to the permissions issues, I've experienced similar when I've had damage to the drive (due to repeated BSODs). running a full disk check (the repair bad sectors option, or chkdsk /r x:, or ideally chkdsk x: /r /scan on Windows 8) and see if that helps. And one of the drives didn't show up? At all? Did you check device manager? If it didn't show there, then there is something definitely wrong. That, along with all the other issues you've mentioned, I'd be inclined to suspect that you may have some bad wiring here. Either with whatever the computer is plugged into, or with your power supply. And while it may be possible that your Promise card may be at fault, I've seen this before with a bad power supply (did the same, or at least very similar and killed 2 drives, and severely damaged 3 others). Which is why I am suspecting that as the issue.

As for "cloning" the drive. Do you have a Server Backup? If so, pop in the installation disk, and just the SSD and server backup drive, and run the repair option. I did that to migrate to a SSD, and had no issues (even aligned it properly). Once that was done, booted from the SSD with no issues. As for if it fails, to recover the pool, you just reinstall DrivePool and reactivate. It will immediately see the pool, and assign it the original drive letter if it can. Though, If you do have to do this, I'd recommend downloading and running the WSS Troubleshooter utility we provide. First, run the "Reset NTFS Permissions on the Pool", to get rid of the old permissions (so they won't cause issues, just in case), and then run the "Repair Pooled Shares". This will change the shared location of the default shares, and create new ones for the rest of the folders. That way, you don't have to do anything but configure the user accounts and permissions. http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities As for the SATA ports: yes, not a problem. Specifically, DrivePool uses hidden files (Alternate Date Streams actually) to track the disks. So moving the drives to different ports, or even different controllers should never be an issue.

Glad to have helped. As for drives... I've had good and bad luck. It's just a game of chance... but I also try avoiding new lines for six months or so, just to avoid issues. May be a good idea for the future. As for Windows Easy Transfer, yeah, it doesn't get everything. Not unless you know exactly where to look. However, the activation ID for DrivePool, we can always reset that on our end. And if you're using the same hardware (and HDD, unfortunately for you), you may not even need to reset the activation. And yeah, shared folders and the permissions stuff can be a real nightmare if you don't know exactly what you're doing here. Microsoft has taken steps to make it easier... but until they come out with something like WHS's wizard... And if you don't mind command line, there is the "dpcmd" executable that you can manually change the duplication status for folders on the WHS version: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities And as for the "nice, easy to manage long term solution", that's exactly what we aim for. Especially that nice and easy part. I also run a Norco 4220, and am very happy with it. If you haven't already, you may want to consider getting a SAS card to hook up all the bays. (my only issue is that the case was a demo unit and at least one of the "rails" is defective, as in only one HDD works on the one rail).

I'm not really sure what you mean here. But all but one of my systems is running Windows 8, and one of those is an EFI system, and the boot disk is GPT. As for backups.... There is no such thing as too many backups.