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Moving Data Disks to new WHS 2011 Install


ChipMonk

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Following unreliability of a SATA PCI-e expansion card on an D510MO Atom system, I am moving my installation over to a (hopefully) more robust system. My data is on 4 2TB drives with OS on a separate 500GB drive partition C and with D as the Feeder Partition.

 

I am feeling reasonably confident about how to transfer over the licences and reinstate the pool, using the utility tool if required, but I'm not sure about the following and would welcome some input.

 

Because of the idiosyncratic way the SATA card was detected on my Atom system and because when I first installed Drivepool I wasn't sure how to nominate a particular drive letter for the Pool, I ended up with the following (see attachment) with Disk order and letters out of order with Disk Names and with Pool as "F"

 

When I move my disks over to the new OS install, before reinstating Drivepool do I need to tweak the drive letters and order so they exactly match the original configuration and leave F vacant or can I order them as follows and somehow get the Drivepool letter to P

 

C: WHS (OS)

D: Feeder

E: Data_1

F: Data_2

G: Data_3

H: Data_4

P: Drivepool

 

I DO NOT want to do anything which risks my data or is a major undertaking. I lived with "Drivepool F" perfectly happily when I stopped noticing it! But I'm particularly worried in case I get the data disks in a configuration that Drivepool can't immediately identify and is therfore unable to get all my data showing as the original pool.

 

Thanking you in advance for any help you may pass my way.

 

Thanks - Chip

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There is no need to change the drive letter of the pool, especially if you're moving to a new install. And the "WSS Troubleshooter" utility will map the shared folders to the "new" pool's drive letter without issue.

 

I think that answers everything you asked/wanted to know. If it doesn't please ask.

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Drashna - sorry, but I'm still confused, your wording is ambiguous, at least to me!.

 

You say "no need to change the drive letter of the pool". Now does this mean that I don't need to pay any attention at all to HDD drive letters in the new WHS enclosure and the tool will pull all the info from the drives, regardless of their order or drive letter, and create a new Drivepool with a newly allocated drive letter.

 

Or does "no need to change the drive letter of the pool" mean I shouldn't try to change it, therefore I should make sure that, at very least, "F:" is free so that the new Pool can reallocate this slot for itself so doesn't change from F (as in the original poll) to something else.

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Thanks Doug - that seems clear and what I was hoping to hear. I couldn't remember at which point in my initial Drivepool install I selected (or had allocated) the Drivepool letter. So I can do this prior to attaching the data HDDs and with any letter available at that point. After that I assume that it's not important in what order the data disks are connected, identified and "lettered" by the new OS - the Troubleshoot tool will then find all the necessary information on the drives and allocate them to the new shared folders on the Drivepool drive. Here's hoping it really works that way.

 

Many thanks - fingers crossed for the transfer over this weekend. I'm really impressed with Drivepool but this is the first time I've really tested it beyond day to day operations.

 

Thanks for the help.

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Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

For the situation you described, there was no real need to change the drive letter. But there is absolutely no issue with changing the letter, if you want to do so.

 

And yes, it's not important how the drives are connected, or what letters they have. The disks are identified by the PoolPart folder, and some very hidden metadata (it is done this way, specifically because it is much more resilient to change, and very unlikely to break to the pool)

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Just a quick report back to say that the transfer went incredibly smoothly. OK the disk and pool letters got a bit scrambled but I stopped fretting about that ages ago since they're a complete irrelevance. Drivepool 1.xx has once again been a joy to work with, especially compared to the horrors of MS WHS v1 Drive Extender, which still gives me nightmares! Hope the move to v2 works as smoothly with WHS 2011 when the RC comes along. Delighted to see that Dashboard will now be supported.

 

Many thanks Alex and Co.- a great job.

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ChipMonk,

 

Glad to hear it! 

And yeah, the drive letters aren't really important. Though, if you want to hide them a bit, we have a guide for that:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624

(to mount the drives to a folder, so they don't use a drive letter, but are still accessible)

 

And yes, DrivePool is much much more resilient than Drive Extender, and definitely gets better performance, too.

As for the move to 2.x, the pools are backwards and forwards compatible, so there would be no issue migrating at all.

 

And yes, it is nice to see the dashboard integration. Though, it's not as complete as the 1.x version. But hey, it's still a beta, right? :)

 

And thank you for the kind words! 

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Hi, I just reinstall WHS 2011 on my single drive in the server, installed drivepool and scanner. Then I reinserted my data disks (7) in the server. I then downloaded the wsstroubleshoot tool as recommended. Ran it, and all went fine retrieving all of my shared folders. Back to one of my client computer's lauchpad, I have found in the shared folders, a new folder which was not there before. The client backup folder was there. I have to say that folder was in the pool, with duplication enabled as there is no specific recommendation to leave it inside or outside the pool.

 

So, in order to retreive the shares from the pool, is there a way to not retreive that specific folder, since there is no need to have it in the shares, making it available to all users?

 

Thanks,

 

Claude

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Ok, Will try that. I messed up the backup database, fixed it and need to re-enable the shares again.

 

Claude

 

Edit: Tried that, but the option to stop sharing folder is only available for shared folder created by the Administrator. The ones created by the system have no option for stopping sharing in the dashboard. So, fixing one issue with the tool, brings you another one, and you are on your own to find a way to fix it.

 

But we, the users, are here to find these kinds of bugs or irritants and provide feedbacks to the company so they can fix it and provide even better software.

 

How I see that is when you run the utility, you get a box with all the shares to be re-mapped with a checkmark beside each ones and you can uncheck the ones you don't want to be re-mapped. Just an idea...

Edited by klode
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If you are doing a new install you should disconnect all drives except OS drive.

 

Install OS

Install DrivePool (Then change DrivePool to drive letter of choice)

Reattach data drives

 

Then use "WSS Troubleshooter" to remap shares (http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities)

 

Your data will not be affected in any way.

 

Could this be used to move a working drive to another controller?

 

I have two drives on a extra SATA controller that is most likely to causing very slow reads and transfers of data to and from the attached drives.

Would like to physically move the two drives to a USB3 based multi-drive enclosure.

Both drives are 1.5Tb with 750Mb free on each

Total drivepool is 11TB with 2Tb free

 

nb these 2 drives can not be removed from the pool. Most likely due the very slow data transfers

 

br Ser

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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.

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