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I have been running a "server" for a number of years with both Scanner and DrivePool being an integral part of it all (I LOVE these products!!!). I think it's time to redesign my current virtualization environment, and I wanted to know what you guys think: My current setup: "Host" (running Win10 Pro w/Client Hyper-V): - Scanner and DrivePool for media, backups, VMs, etc. - CrashPlan for offsite backups (~10 incoming clients) - Plex Media Server (doing occasional transcodes) - Multiple VMs (Win7 for WMC recording, Win10 testing, VPN appliance, UTM appliance, etc.) I feel like the current setup is getting a little too "top-heavy". My biggest pain points are the fact that I have to bring down the entire environment every time M$ deploys patches, and a lack of clean backups for the VMs that are getting more-and-more important. Being the budget is a big concern, I'm hoping to re-work my existing environment... My proposed setup: "Host" running Hyper-V Server, CrashPlan, Scanner and DrivePool VM for Plex Media Server, targeting shares on host VM for WMC TV recording, moving recordings to host share Etc., etc... I believe this design will allow the host to be more stable and help with uptime...what do you guys think of this? I know I can install and run CrashPlan, Scanner and DrivePool on Hyper-V server, but I've never done any long-term testing... Also, can anyone recommend a good, free way to backup those VMs with Hyper-V Server? If I can get a backup of those VMs onto the DrivePool array and sent offsite via CrashPlan, that would be perfect -Quinn

My pool consists of four, green WD 2G hard drives, and in general, I remove old drives after 2-3 years, even if they're still indicating healthy. But I'm starting to not trust Scanner's AGE report any longer. In the attachment, the two bottom drives (the ones ending in -00DC0B0) were installed at the *exact* same time. Now scanner is reporting they were replaced ~4 months apart. The top two drives (ending in -19D8PB0 and -00D8PB0) were installed almost a year apart, yet scanner reports *exactly* a three hour difference. What am I doing wrong? Should I stop trusting Scanner's age information?

Hope this is appropriate and someone can help me. I have 2 Pools consisting of 2x2TB HDDs, x2 duplication. One Pool is solely used for client backups, the other for most of the shares. Also, a Server Backup HDD and a seperate data HDD. Scanner is running as well. I would like these HDDs to spin down when not used for more then one minute (and is there a downside to this, i.e., is spinning up something that contributes to wear & tear of the HDD?). I have set this in the Power Options of Windows. Given that there is a myriad of settings in scanner that affects this, I am at a loss how to accomplish this and especially as I would preferably like to have Scanner read the SMART details (amongst which the temps I think). So how do you guys get this to work? The types of HDDs I have are: Seagate 2TB NAS (ST2000VN000) Seagate 2TB Desktop (ST2000DM001) Seagate 8TB Archive WD 4TB NAS (WD40EFRX) HGST 700GB (HTS541075A9E680, 2.5") What I have done now, for all HDDs in Scanner is: - Disk Settings: All options are OFF (incl. Query power mode directly from disk) - Disk Control: Disabled Advanced Power Management and Standby Timer (although the latter will not remain blacnk and show a fat dash when I open Disk Control again...) - Scanner Settings -> SMART: Throttle queries not more than 5 minutes As far as I can tell, all HDDs go to stand-by but are woken again after 5 minutes (I guess due to reading SMART). Can this be improved upon? Kind rgds, Umf

This is the second time scanner has reported imminent drive failure on a brand new 6TB Seagate drive. There are no smart errors or surface defects on the drive. The file system is reported as healthy. The whole disk is healthy. All three 6TB drives are healthy. It could be the controller? Two of the 6TB drives are on the same controller that I recently put in to replace the one with the two dead ports. I can't tell if it's those two drives scanner is reporting as ready to fail. I should probably try to swap out a drive this weekend on the other controller to see if it actually hot swaps out the drive for the new one.

At about 3:00 this morning, the StableBit Scanner sent me a warning email: S.M.A.R.T. Failure on 'SERVER' One or more disks are expected to fail within 24 hours:WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 ATA Device But when I log into the dashboard now and click that drive, all I see is: "The on-disk S.M.A.R.T. check is not predicting imminent disk failure. There is no indication that the drive is experiencing a mechanical problem." I don't have another of that drive in the system, so I know I am clicking on the right disk! I downloaded "Home Server SMART 2013" and ran the disk's short test; it completed successfully. But I am still worried. Is there any way to look in the StableBit Scanner's log file and see why it sent that email?

It is purely cosmetic but in scanner setting-all setting it shows the wrong version number. Setting shows 2.4.0.2929 but add-ins shows 2.5.0.3062.

Hi, had to remove SB scanner from my server and are now trying to reinstall it again what happens is that i get error 80070643 fatal error during installation Seems like the installation is totally f*cked up. Is there any way to roll back /remove every trace to make the installer work again?

After upgrading scanner on my WHS 2011 box to 2.5.3000 beta to match the Win 7 box I upgraded in response to my last issue, I have suddenly starting getting "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" appearing in a Covecube troubleshooting box every time I open the Dashboard in WHS 2011. After I send the error report to Covecube, the Dashboard will open for a minute or so, but it eventually closes itself. Any ideas? I assume the error relates to scanner, but I am also running DrivePool 1.3.7572. I have not changed the DrivePool version for a long time, though. Thanks, Wonko

Hi, In the Scanner features it outlines file recovery: File RecoveryOnce a damaged file is identified by the file system aware scan, you can attempt recovery of that file. * File recovery supports uncompressed and unencrypted NTFS files. Partial file recovery works by reassembling what's left of the file to a known good location on another disk. An optional, full file recovery step is attempted by reading each unreadable sector multiple times, while sending the drive head through a pre-programmed set of head motion profiles. This has the effect of varying the direction and the velocity of the drive's head right before reading the unreadable sector, increasing the chance of one last successful read. * File recovery is not guaranteed by any means, but stands a good chance of at least partially recovering a damaged file. My DrivePool disks are encrypted with Bitlocker then added to the Pool. Is the implied behavior of File recovery not support repairs on Bitlocker volumes? 2. Is there any form of checksumming done by the scanner or the DrivePool soft? Basically a "poor mans" next gen file system feature? 3. (How) Does DrivePool and Scanner protect against so called "bit rot" or a flipped bit, especially when duplication is enabled (in theory that would allow a copy from known good copy, based on say checksum)? thank you, ~v

I am running Scanner 2.5.2968 on Windows 7 64-bit. I have 3 hard drives. Two of the three have all of the sectors scanned followed by a file health scan without any issues. My third 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black drive passes the sector scanning portion, but the file health scan is never performed. I have verified the checkbox next to Check file system is checked. I have manually rechecked the drive twice, and the file health scan still shows as Unchecked. Any ideas what is going on and how to fix the file health scan? Thanks.

Hello, I am using the StableBit Scanner, and it has already proved itself useful, in sending out an email alerting of a failed drive. I have a question about the checkbox to submit to BitFlock for analysis. This is in the SMART details...I have the checkbox ticked, and it says "(submitting in a few minutes)" This message never clears. Can you assist with this? The only thing I can think of on my end is...I am using a web DNS filtering service, is it possible the the URL for BitFlock submission is being blocked? Or something else? Thanks

I have stablebit scanner installed, along with server smart to evaluate hard drive health. Drive pool is also installed, and there are 3 hard drives in my pool. I mapped 2 of the DrivePool folders to my workstations, and use those folders all the time (one holds all my photos, the other holds all my videos). The other day I received a warning on the dashboard along with an email about one of the drives parking too many times which indicates a possible failure. This warning was only send from Scanner, not from server smart, so I looked into it and the drive seemed to be OK as far as performance, I thought maybe this Scanner is just a little too sensitive to some sort of reading because server smart had all check marks and did not show anything wrong with the drive. Needless to say, the drive failed about a month later. Not only did the one product prove to be a great value (Scanner), but the second product saved my data due to me not listening to Scanner’s warnings. Drive pool showed the drive as missing after it failed, I chose the remove drive option, and suffered no loss of any data. The remaining 2 drives balanced out and all is good. I just wanted to post this little story and to thank the team that has created and continues to support these products. I also feel that this post will help others decide to put faith into the product and have some piece of mind that their data is safe with proper use of the software. Thank YOU!