7 replies to this topic

[juzzle]

As Alex Kuretz so thoroughly points out, Advanced Format Drives can not be used as System/Primary/OS drives in WHS v1.  So, when my WHS v1 OS drive fails (and it will), who makes 1TB or larger drives these days with 512byte sectors?

Some quick research:

512b sectors:

• Seagate Barracuda XT range (eg ST33000651AS ST32000641AS)

4kb sectors (wont work)

• Seagate Barracuda range
• WD Caviar Green
• WD Caviar Blue
• WD Caviar Black (?)

Not sure about Samsung or other makers, but certainly WD is dead to me.

[Joe_Miner]

As Alex Kuretz so thoroughly points out, Advanced Format Drives can not be used as System/Primary/OS drives in WHS v1. So, when my WHS v1 OS drive fails (and it will), who makes 1TB or larger drives these days with 512byte sectors?

............

Actually, you can use an Advanced Format drives -- Per TechVet's article above I installed a WD20EARX as the System/OS drive in my EX-487 V1 as detailed here starting with Post #13 on Dec 6th.

Still works great and better than ever.

[juzzle]

Thank you Joe,

So to be clear, TechVet's article indicates that the jumpered method can't be used for OS drives, but thank you for clarifying that I can still use the realign method after the OS is installed on the drive. Two caveats here though:

1) you must have a successfull installation of WHS v1 OS onto the Advanced Format drive (so far 8 failed attempts) and
2) a willingness to go through the extra step of removing the drive, finding the gear/software and running the align program.

In this case, (1) wasn't achieved, thus (2) can't be attempted (even if I had the inclination).

Yours is a good reference for those willing to fiddle, but where the HP recommendation not to use Advanced Format drives for OS drives (at least), my question still stands: what 512byte sector drives remain on the market?

[Joe_Miner]

...........
Yours is a good reference for those willing to fiddle, ......................

I didn't really fiddle -- the installation was pretty straightforward following TechVet's blueprint.

[juzzle]

Thank you for the follow-up Joe,

I realise it doesn't feel like a "fiddle" to a "fiddler" but to someone that just wants to get on with business, it's a step they can do without. I perhaps should have explained that whilse I was asking a hypothetical question "what drives should I buy when my OS drive fails", however, in parallel, my brother (a non-fiddler) was desperately trying to get his business' WHS v1 back online (server restore) using an AF drive.

Interestingly, a HP MSS Server Restore or Reset would not complete with the AF Drive as Drive 1 or Drive 2. When the drive was removed and the Reset performed with two non-AF drives, it worked fine. However, I bet we can add the AF drive to pool and have it add without any problems - go figure.

[ikon]

I don't know who is making non-AF 1TB drives anymore, but I would say this; I doubt anyone will be making them for long. If you do find some, I would buy a few immediately.

BTW, you can add the AF drive to the pool, but only if you jumper or re-align it.

[powder]

Both system and first data drive in my WHS v1 HP495EX are identical Seagate 1.5TBs. So I bought a 3TB Seagate for my second data drive and put it into my WHS v1. You know what happened next.

But I thought it was the >2TB issue - so got a Seagate 2TB Brracuda instead - ST2000DM001. And then bumped into all the great work that had been done here and by Techvet. But because I already had the drive, and we are all looking for faster ways to do this, I talked with Seagate. They told me that the SmartAlign should handle the issue transparently with no drivers required. So I hot plugged the disk per Zeeke, and pulled down HD tune to see what the performace would be. (http://homeserversho...ng/page__st__20).

Using HD Tune to benchmark transfer rate using 64KB blocks, it is delivering between 95-213 MB/sec, average 168MB/sec. Access time 14ms, Burst 193MB/sec, and CPU usage 37.6%. Drive is running at 37 degrees C. The performace is a little higher than the spec sheets, so it appears that it is working well in this application. With 2.5TB of open space reported by WHS, I do not think there is any data on this drive, even though it is part of the pool at this point.

1. Is this going to be good enough to use as a data drive with out having to do any alignment? Are there other effects downstream that are not visible to the benchmarking software?

I also benchmarked both my existing drives, Seagate 1.5TB ST31500341AS. The average system drive transfer rate was 5 MB/sec, and the average data drive transfer rate was 11 MB/sec. The temp on both drives was 48 degrees C. This is way below the 135MB/sec that is listed in the specs. While high, the temp is still below the 60 degree limit in the specs. The console is responding as normal, requiring a 15 - 30 second logon.

2. Is there a real problem here with my system drive and first data drive? Should some of WHS be shut off before running this test?

By the way, I would post the HD tune screenshots if I had some idea of how to do this....

[pcdoc]

Thank you Joe,

So to be clear, TechVet's article indicates that the jumpered method can't be used for OS drives, but thank you for clarifying that I can still use the realign method after the OS is installed on the drive. Two caveats here though:

1) you must have a successfull installation of WHS v1 OS onto the Advanced Format drive (so far 8 failed attempts) and
2) a willingness to go through the extra step of removing the drive, finding the gear/software and running the align program.

In this case, (1) wasn't achieved, thus (2) can't be attempted (even if I had the inclination).

Yours is a good reference for those willing to fiddle, but where the HP recommendation not to use Advanced Format drives for OS drives (at least), my question still stands: what 512byte sector drives remain on the market?

There are many drives that do not use AD format. Many of the smaller drives do not have AF. Personally I would not use AF on the OS. Get yourself a 500 gig drive and use if for the system drive. As for you performance, there is definitely an issue. My guess is that there is an issue with the OS drive.