81 replies to this topic

[WireBoy]

Again, as in the other thread, I believe you only need to put a jumper on pins 7 & 8 of the drive to make it work with v1.

This is only partially true, but does not apply at all to this particular drive. Allow me to explain.

The "pins 7 & 8 trick" only applies to certain 3.5" Advanced Format drives, for example the WD20EARS 2TB green drive (I've also got three of those in my X510). See the following link for details under the section titled "Advanced Format Special Jumper Setting: (for select 3.5" ADF drives only)":

http://wdc.custhelp....satadesktopjump

As it mentions, this is only of value for a single-partition application, e.g. as a WHS V1 data drive. The WHS V1 boot drive has two partitions, so this jumper configuration will not help. The WD Align utility *MUST* be applied to successfully use an Advanced Format drive as a WHS V1 boot drive.

Now allow me to explain why this Pins 7&8 configuration does not apply to the AV-25 2.5" laptop style drive. As shown in the above linked web page under the section titled "SATA Mobile Hard Drive Jumper Settings", the drive only has jumper pins 1 through 4, and they do not provide any service for the Advanced Format support under legacy operating systems. Therefore, any use of the AV-25 Series drives in WHS V1 requires proper application of the WD Align utility.

I hope this clarifies this Advanced Format issue that can be confusing.

[gibster]

Just received my IcyDock MB982SPR-2S today, mounted the 2 new Seagate 500G drives in it (they go in so easy) and now just waiting for the new EX490 to show up from HP Australia. Cool product, just wish they had put the connectors at the other end of it so the lights shown forward not backward.

All up $253.00 including shipping and GST.

gib

My EX490 finally showed up today. Going to have fun this weekend with a server restore to the IcyDock enclosure and then see if the HP Media Smart server lives up to my expectations.

So, anyone in OZ that's looking for an EX490, they are available through the HP Online Store. Because HP is discontinuing them they have been discounted about 42% from what they were priced at ($1123 au to $649 au including shipping and GST).

The box it was shipped in is like the box it comes in from the computer store. No shipping container. HP shipped it from Sydney, following the tracker it arrived in Brisbane, then the next track showed it going back to Sydney, then back to Brisbane, Townsville, and finally Cairns. Don't know if their was some damage issues with the original shipment or what.

gib



gib

[gibster]

The first review is up. I started with the Vail test hardware that I had running and since I had already tested RAID with Vail it was nice to be able to compare the speeds and performance for you.

http://homeserversho...-2s-review.html

Next up is the MediaSmart Server and maybe testing Win 7 in a RAID 0. If there is anything else you would like to see, photos, etc let me know.

Hi Dave.

I've got my dock running in my new EX490 and installed the raid software. When I open the raid manager it just shows two seperate 500GB drives with no raid configuration (and only 500GB total in server storage on WHS Connector). I set the switches as per the manual, but I'm wondering if I was supposed to hook it up to power in a regular PC and push the reset button to get raid set. I didn't do this, and you don't mention pushing the button until you tried to change raid types. Any ideas?

From what you had described, when you had it set up it looked like when you opened the software it found the raid configuration and no other steps were required.

Thanks and love the podcasts!

gib

[gibster]

Hi Dave.

I've got my dock running in my new EX490 and installed the raid software. When I open the raid manager it just shows two seperate 500GB drives with no raid configuration (and only 500GB total in server storage on WHS Connector). I set the switches as per the manual, but I'm wondering if I was supposed to hook it up to power in a regular PC and push the reset button to get raid set. I didn't do this, and you don't mention pushing the button until you tried to change raid types. Any ideas?

From what you had described, when you had it set up it looked like when you opened the software it found the raid configuration and no other steps were required.

Thanks and love the podcasts!

gib

I've got it working. Had to pull the dock, hook up to a regular pc, power up with the reset button pressed in until the lights flashed, then power off the pc. Put the dock back into the EX490 and do a fresh system install. Getting quick at system restores now

After everything was back up copied the raid manager software over, installed and ran it and now it shows my raid array.

Very cool stuff.

gib

[panioman]

Hi

Has anyone setup the Icydock as raid first in another machine then cloned their existing WHS V1 system drive over to it?
I have seen posts that indicate you have to fix the drive ID and offsets for it to work correctly.
When you just do through the cloning process on a non raid drive.

I was going to get two 320gig drives and my original system drive is also 320gig.

Thanks Ron

[Citezein]

I'm thinking about buying one of these for my new VM box. Has anyone run this with ESXi? More specifically, do you have to run the software, or can everything be done in hardware?

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

It is hardware based. OS will only see it as one drive.

[Citezein]

It is hardware based. OS will only see it as one drive.

Great, thanks. Now I just need to decide if the WD black or blue drives are best for an OS RAID.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

Great, thanks. Now I just need to decide if the WD black or blue drives are best for an OS RAID.

Given it is in raid, I wanted the best I could get so I went with black for mine, 2x250GB. They were only $50 each. I didn't look at the blue's, but I can't imagine they would be much cheaper so I think the blacks are worth the extra cost to save you in the long run.

[Citezein]

I decided on the blue versions. The vast majority of read/write from this server will be on the data drives. The OS drives will load things into memory, but after that won't do much. I'd rather keep the server quiet, cool, and as energy efficient as possible. My total drives will now be:

(2) 320GB blue for the OS.
(2) 2TB green for data, client backups
(1 - 2) 1.5 TB green for internal backup

I have a 320GB Seagate Momentus XT that I think I'll use to back up certain data and put into a safety deposit box. If the prices come down a bit, I'd like to get a 3TB ioSafe Solo Pro USB 3 drive for on-site, daily backup.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

If the prices come down a bit, I'd like to get a 3TB ioSafe Solo Pro USB 3 drive for on-site, daily backup.

Nice, I will have to check those out.

[dvn]

I'm in. Just ordered mine from Newegg this morning using the HSS click-thru, of course!

Plan to use this for my OS drive: two 60 GB SSD's in RAID 0. But I also plan to try it out in my MSS EX495. I was glancing over this thread and it looks like I may have to jump through a few hoops to get it to work, but it should, right?

[JediTim]

I'm in. Just ordered mine from Newegg this morning using the HSS click-thru, of course!

Plan to use this for my OS drive: two 60 GB SSD's in RAID 0. But I also plan to try it out in my MSS EX495. I was glancing over this thread and it looks like I may have to jump through a few hoops to get it to work, but it should, right?

I was considering using 2 SSD drives as well for the OS in an Icy Dock until I listed to the BYOB podcast and upgrading firmware. Just as easy to use 2 WD Black laptop drives. I don't think I will lose much performance on the WHS without a SSD.

[dvn]

Now where can I get my hands on one of those Origami storage boxes?

@tk - You'll probably be fine with spinning drives. More than fine, actually. I just happened to have 2 SSD's without a home after some system reconfigurations. Funny thing about the benchmarks. They look great, hovering near 500 MB/s for seq all 0's R/W, but I can't say I see any real difference from the single 120 GB SSD I had been using. I only did the RAID 0 so I could still have 120 GB's of space for my OS drive.

Edited by dvn, 04 April 2011 - 02:39 PM.

[dvn]

This looks like an interesting benefit of using the MB982SPR-2S. Note the CPU usage of a single drive vs RAID0. I assume the single drive was connected directly to the motherboard. So, a nice added benefit of off-loading some of the CPU cycles. I'm psyched!

[Citezein]

I have this up and running in my new server and it's fantastic. No problems whatsoever.

[dvn]

Yes. I got mine 2 days ago. Easy to get up and running in RAID 0. I restored my desktop image with Acronis and I was back to desktop in no time, no problems whatsoever.

I came yesterday after work, booted up, and saw this: "A disk read error ocurred. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to reboot..."

I don't think it's the Icy Dock enclosure because this motherboard has been borderline annoying since I've owned it, about 4 months Power off, disconnect power plug, wait 10 seconds, and then try again 'fixed' it.

[ikon]

This looks like an interesting benefit of using the MB982SPR-2S. Note the CPU usage of a single drive vs RAID0. I assume the single drive was connected directly to the motherboard. So, a nice added benefit of off-loading some of the CPU cycles. I'm psyched!

I wish more of these benchmark tools would keep the same scale, or allow you to specify it, so it's easier to compare 1 test to another... sheesh.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

I wish more of these benchmark tools would keep the same scale, or allow you to specify it, so it's easier to compare 1 test to another... sheesh.

Not sure I follow you. 150 MB/s is still 150 MB/s regardless of the tool you use. Right.



Hmmm, that makes me think I could have used it in my new desktop for my two OCZ Vertex 2, 120 GB SSD's in Raid 0. I didn't use it because I thought using two SATA II cables might give better performance than one from the IcyDock enclosure. I should have tested. I guess if I ever need to do a system restore and can't get the restore to work through my network I could then use the enclosure and then restore from a client PC. Good to have options.

[ikon]

Not sure I follow you. 150 MB/s is still 150 MB/s regardless of the tool you use. Right.

for example, ATTO always changes the scale of the graph so that the results for that test fall into the middle of the graph; makes it hard to compare an ssd to a spinning drive. I would like to be able to specifiy the scale.