Software I use and recommend

[Christopher (Drashna)]

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.

Edited September 22, 2013 by drashna
Added additional software to list (PerfectDisk)

[dbailey75]

 

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.

 

I use eset AV as well,  and if you are patient, you can pick it up for $10,  my mom, poor soul purchased Norton from their website and spent $70 on their product, well she got a new computer recently, and Newegg had a deal on the Eset security suite, $10, and now she thinks its not as good as the Norton.  Even though her old PC, got a virus, and she was too impatient to wait for me to resolve the issues, and she spent another $75 at a computer shop to fix the virus issue, and they still didn't fix the problem. lol.

 

I'm also using Raxco Perfect Disk Defrag, I had this on my HP MSS, and the upgrade was cheap, so what the heck.  Seems to work well, but it often hangs on the OS drive for some reason, if set to smartplacement, changing to consolidation and letting it run a couple times, and then changing back to smartplacement, seems to clear it up.   Is it better then the built in defrag in WHS 2011? no idea.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

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

[dbailey75]

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

your over my head on that question, but here are the file system filters that came back.

 

eamonm

PDFSFilter

Luafv

DefragFS

[Christopher (Drashna)]

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.

[dbailey75]

no worries, its only the OS drive that has issues, did the same thing when I was running the HP microserver.  no problems with the data drives.

 

I forgot to mention that I've been testing Syncback Pro, and I really like this software, I'm not impressed with the user interface, but I like the fact that it's a sync software with file versioning,  I have it set to hash my irreplaceable data on each backup to ensure the source and destination files are exactly the same, and if there's a problem with the hash comparison, I can address immediately.   I like to ensure those files are read frequently to ensure the data is not corrupt, aswell, and exercise the HDD.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Maybe it was an issue with the disk itself then... If it was the same disk.

 

And Syncback Pro looks like a good backup solution. I'll definitely have to take a look into it.

[CptKirk1]

Have you ever tried Auslogics Disk Defrag?

 

I use it on a number of my machines around the house.  But haven't put it on my WHS2011 machine (using DrivePool 1.x and Scanner).

[Alex]

And Syncback Pro looks like a good backup solution. I'll definitely have to take a look into it.

 

I just have to mention that, personally, I've used SyncBack SE (not Pro) for years. It's a great piece of software and reasonably priced too.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Have you ever tried Auslogics Disk Defrag?

 

I use it on a number of my machines around the house.  But haven't put it on my WHS2011 machine (using DrivePool 1.x and Scanner).

Not yet. I guess I know what I'm doing over the weekend. 

And as long as it has Windows Server support, it should work on WHS just fine. Otherwise... 

[Shane]

Oh, nice find, CptKirk1 - it (Auslogics Disk Defrag) has large fragment support, works on WHS, and it can defrag all of your disks at the same time. Bonus points!

[CptKirk1]

I installed it this weekend as well.  I've got it set to just do the 4 disks on my WHS machine.  Unchecked the pool 'drive' so it did not try to defrag that. 

 

I like that it does all disks at the same time as well.

 

You can also set it up to do a defrag as a scheduled event in the program itself.  I move a lot of files on and off the server so I set it to do a defrag each day at 4:30am.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

To be blunt, PerfectDisk and DisKeeper can do the same. And at one point, both had WHS versions. I'm not sure if they do anymore. But, IIRC, PerfectDisk ignores the DrivePool disk anyways.

 

But like a lot of programs, preference is a big thing.

[CptKirk1]

Completely true, but Auslogics Disk Defrag has the added benefit of being free.

[dbailey75]

Yep, I'm all about free software, and I liked that there was a portable option, but I've been running Perfect disk since whs V1, which had dashboard integration, and while their is a still a whs 2011 version, it runs from your desktop (RDP), and the upgrade cost me maybe $10 or $15 I don't recall, but I'll keep this guy in mind for my desktop. 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Yup, true, you got me there. Free is a nice price. If you haven't purchased licenses already. PerfectDisk runs on my server already, and it set to SMART Placement (Performance Aggressive). And I just let it sit and do it's thing.

 

 

 

Though, one thing I'm not seeing that Auslogic's Disk Defrag has is a "fragmentation shield". And what I mean by that, is a filter that prevents fragmentation of new files. And while that may be arguable useful... (but then again, people still argue the merrits of defragging in the first place)...

 

 

Either way, it looks like a good product, and very fully featured. Something I would definitely recommend to friends for free defragmentation.

[dbailey75]

 

Though, one thing I'm not seeing that Auslogic's Disk Defrag has is a "fragmentation shield". And what I mean by that, is a filter that prevents fragmentation of new files. And while that may be arguable useful... (but then again, people still argue the merrits of defragging in the first place)...

yeah, I completely forgot about that, here's the 411 on PD's Optiwrite. http://blog.raxco.com/2012/08/27/optiwrite-fragmentation-prevention-that-doesnt-sacrifice-system-speed/,

 

I never actually gave this feature much thought, just have it all setup under "stealth patrol".

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, with defragmentation, it's "set and forget" what you want out of the product?

Regardless of the features, and the price?

[dbailey75]

Well, with defragmentation, it's "set and forget" what you want out of the product?

I've certainly forgot. 

[Mick Mickle]

Ref: Subsonic.  I've been using Remote Potato for about 2 years now.  Although it's no longer being developed, except for Windows 8 and 8.1 upgrade packs, the 1.06 "stable" version is free and has worked great.  Streams movies (including mkv) to my Android devices and computers across the Internet at various levels of quality.  Works best with a Silverlight client in Windows.  Use free Remote Media Center to connect in Android, and they recommend MX Player -- but I use the stock video player in Android 4 with super results.  The only weakness I've found is that, although you can password protect web connections, you can't make an SSL connection.