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Larger than 2TB drives


whatsinaname

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Hello,  I have been using stablebit drivepool since may of 2012 and have been happy as a clam.  No problems to speak of.

I finally have  a reason to register and post,

 

I have have a HP N40L, with 5 drives.  a 250 gig for os, 2 750 gig drives and two 1TB drives.

Recently I removed a 750, and then added a 3TB drive.  I formatted the drive by remote desktop as one large 3TB drive.

Added to the pool and was working great.  Now I see that my server backups are failing. (I backup to a 2TB external drive)

 

The failure shows as \\?\volume{e and a bunch of numbers (assuming drive id)

 

Do I have to remove the drive and let WHS 2011 format it as a 2tb and 1tb?  I hate splitting disks like that.  I thought there was a kb that fixed the >2tb issue.

 

Thanks for any help and keep up the great work on a great product.

 

Oh, and I am using 1.3.7585

 

 

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No, there is no fix for the >2TB issue. There is a workaround by which WHS2011 Server Backup will backup a volume that is > 2TB in size but only if the actual contents is < 2TB. Else it will fail. I can't remember what the workaround was or where I read it but it required a registry key change. In any case, there is _no_ way in which you can have WHS2011 Server Backup backup a 3TB volume with more than 2TB of data on it.

 

In any case, IMHO, in w WHS2011 system, you do not want > 2TB partitions/volumes. Mind you, WHS2011 Server Backup _will_ backup more than 2TB of data, just not single volumes/partitions in excess of 2TB.

 

Edit: If you really want to keep the 3TB partition (which I would strongly advise against) then maybe this can help: https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/c0c0ecb1-7d48-4eb7-8c7f-7abea3794328/client-backups-and-server-backups-over-2tb?forum=whsvailbeta

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Thanks for the reply,  I will just remove it and let whs reformat it and then add the 2 partitions to the pool.  No problems.

 

I  have been flirting with the idea of going to freenas because of microsoft dropping whs, but it is over kill for what I do and there is no easy way to back up the server.  WHS and stablebit have been working great so I cant quite bring myself to fix something that isn't broke.  

 

Thanks for a simple answer to a complex question.  great community here.

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As a follow up to this thread.....

 

So, I am looking at moving to StableBit (v2.1.1.561) from DriveBender due to what I see as slow performance when trying to access files in the pool.  StableBit seems much snappier when trying to read/write to the pool, as well as when trying to get things like file sizes and counts from Windows Explorer.  However, I am confused by the apparent limitation when a new pool is created of 2TB (in the CoveCube virtual disk).  I am attempting to create a single pool of 3x4TB drives, with full duplication.  When created, this pool only shows as 2TB in Windows Explorer, as does any pool created with a disk larger than 2TB.

 

I also perform regular backups of the large shares that will be contained on this pool, and am concerned about that 2TB limit.  I am not even sure I would be able to place the content in the pool, as I am simply trying to copy these files across the network.

 

Has this limitation always been in DrivePool, and will it ever be removed?

 

Sorry for the newbie question, perhaps I am missing something.....

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Thanks for the reply,  I will just remove it and let whs reformat it and then add the 2 partitions to the pool.  No problems.

 

I  have been flirting with the idea of going to freenas because of microsoft dropping whs, but it is over kill for what I do and there is no easy way to back up the server.  WHS and stablebit have been working great so I cant quite bring myself to fix something that isn't broke.  

 

Thanks for a simple answer to a complex question.  great community here.

Yeah, WHS2011's Server Backup only supports 2TBs per volume. If you want to back up a larger drive, then you need to split the volumes.

Additionally, Server Backup has issues with Advanced Format drives, and can cause the backups to fail on those (the other part of the 2TB limit).

 

The hotfix you refer to is the UEFI/GPT patch for the Client Computer Backup, which can backup much larger drives without a problem (Ironically).

 

 

As for Switching, you could move to Windows 8. It would be a simple solution, but you give up the client backup, website and eas of management.

Alternatively, there is always Windows Server 2012R2 Essentials. Yes, it's ~$400 price tag, which may dissuade most people... but if client backups are important .... well, I've looked into this recently, and .... well, Essentials is actually SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than most of the alternatives (as in $1000 or more to do what WHS/Essentials does for client backup).

 

As a follow up to this thread.....

 

So, I am looking at moving to StableBit (v2.1.1.561) from DriveBender due to what I see as slow performance when trying to access files in the pool.  StableBit seems much snappier when trying to read/write to the pool, as well as when trying to get things like file sizes and counts from Windows Explorer.  However, I am confused by the apparent limitation when a new pool is created of 2TB (in the CoveCube virtual disk).  I am attempting to create a single pool of 3x4TB drives, with full duplication.  When created, this pool only shows as 2TB in Windows Explorer, as does any pool created with a disk larger than 2TB.

 

I also perform regular backups of the large shares that will be contained on this pool, and am concerned about that 2TB limit.  I am not even sure I would be able to place the content in the pool, as I am simply trying to copy these files across the network.

 

Has this limitation always been in DrivePool, and will it ever be removed?

 

Sorry for the newbie question, perhaps I am missing something.....

It depends on where you're looking at the disk from. In a few places, the driver does report that it's only a 2TB volume. This is for compatibility. 

However, in Explorer, it should show up as the proper size of the pool.

 

It should show up as 2TBs in Disk Management and DiskPart. But explorer.... It should show up as the correct size.

 

If it's not, please open a ticket at https://stablebit.com/Contact and we'll see about getting this fixed.

 

Also, what OS are you using here?

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@romans1136: _IF_ you are running WHS2011 and want to use WHS2011 Server Backup, then do _not_ create volumes larger than 2TB. You may create DrivePool Pools larger than 2TB because WHS2011 Server Backup does not backup Pools anyway. You can only backup the underlying disks.

 

Furthermore, if you're going to use (a) more than two disks in a Pool, and (B) duplication (less than the number of disks/volumes/partitions in the Pool), then you can not know where the files are and therefore need to backup _all_ volumes/partitions.

 

Assuming you want to use x2 duplication, my advice then would be:

1. Create six 2TB partitions, 2 on each 4TB HDD

2. Create 3 Pools of 2x2TB, each with duplication. Pairing should be such that you do not have a Pool consisting of two partitions on one HDD so:

2a. HDD1_P1 and HDD2_P2

2b. HDD2_P1 and HDD3_P2

2c. HDD3_P1 and HDD1_P2

 

This _can_ all be backed up by WHS2011 Server Backup and the way to do it is to backup HDDx_P1s, not the HDDx_P2s because they all contain duplicates.

 

It is a bit of a hassle but I see no other way around it. Also, you might need  6TB or 8TB Server Backup HDDs...

 

@Drashna: I have never heard of WHS2011 Server Backup having issues with AF (4Kn/512e) drives _as long as they are connected to a SATA port_, only with such drives connected through USB but if you are aware of such cases I would really like to know.

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Thank you all for the responses.  I am currently running just Windows 8.1 on the 'server', but am looking at possibly moving to 2012 R2 essentials.  I just do not know that I want or need a full Domain on the home network.  Perhaps will hold on until we see what Windows 10 server brings to the table.

 

At any rate, I tend to simply backup the pool content, and thus do that on a share by share basis, and not the whole pool.

 

So, far, I am pleasantly surprised by StableBit.  Software is well done, and these forums and the Customer Support (looking at you here Christopher) are top notch.

 

Time to retire DriveBender. 

 

Thanks!

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Windows 10 will be much the same as far as versions.

 

However, as for 2012R2 Essentials, check out a couple of links:

http://www.tinkertry.com/how-to-make-windows-server-2012-r2-essentials-client-connector-install-behave-just-like-windows-home-server/

As URL states, it's how to run the Essentials server just as WHS2011. It's great if you don't want the domain functionality.

 

However, I (yes, me) cover a LIST of reasons why a domain is a really nice thing to have:

http://homeservershow.com/byob-episode-139.html



@Drashna: I have never heard of WHS2011 Server Backup having issues with AF (4Kn/512e) drives _as long as they are connected to a SATA port_, only with such drives connected through USB but if you are aware of such cases I would really like to know.

 

I've seen reports of it on the We Got Served forums, and on the Home Server Show forums as well.

Though, not everyone has seen that issue.

 

 

 

Also, regarding the backups:

http://stablebit.com/Support/DrivePool/1.X/Manual?Section=Using%20Server%20Backup%20to%20Backup%20the%20Pool

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