13 replies to this topic

[BruceJ]

I've resisted updating from WHS ver 1 due to drive extender missing from WHS2011, I know that windows 8 will have storage spaces, but want a server and back up solution in one.

My biggest issue with WHS ver 1, is the speed of my media center menus when picking up info from the WHS especially Music and Videos and the other big issue is the video stutter when demigrator kicks in. I hope WHS 2011 will resolve these issues.

So am now going to upgrade to WHS2011 and use either Drive Bender or Drive Pool to safegaurd my media, can anyone give advice on which add in to use especially which one is best with regards to the transfer speed and working with a media center.

Edited by BruceJ, 09 May 2012 - 11:06 PM.

[pcdoc]

I've resisted updating from WHS ver 1 due to drive extender missing from WHS2011, I know that windows 8 will have storage spaces, but want a server and back up solution in one.

My biggest issue with WHS ver 1, is the speed of my media center menus when picking up info from the WHS especially Music and Videos and the other big issue is the video stutter when demigrator kicks in. I hope WHS 2011 will resolve these issues.

So am now going to upgrade to WHS2011 and use either Drive Bender or Drive Pool to safegaurd my media, can anyone give advice on which add in to use especially which one is best with regards to the transfer speed and working with a media center.

How much storage do you have? Why use any DE replacement? Unless you have more than 6-7 drives it is not worth the time, trouble, or expense to get one. In most cases, the performance is not much better than DE and you still may have issues for streaming depending of course what you are streaming. Additoanly, you can mirror your critical data in WHS 2011 using the OS which is the only protection that the DE replacements offer. Add the compatibility issue if you have to move a drive and I would avoid it. There sure is a compelling reason for a large volume that has redundancy, but none of the DE will give you that. My suggestion is try it without and if you need a higher level of safety and performance, then put the money toward a hardware solution you will be much happier.

[BruceJ]

Hi thanks for the reply. I curently have 7 drives in my homserver and duplicate everything, as I previously lost a number of files I didn't duplicate when one of my drives died. I have lots of video, blue ray and dvd rips etc. so have a an overall capacity of around 12TB, of mostly different drives added over the last few years.

From a cost point of view I would like to use my current home built server and existing hard drives, which is why I was thinking about using WHS 2011 and one of the DE replacements. Would like to go down the track of a hardware raid but in New Zealand all of these cards are hard to get and expensive.

Has anyone had experience with drive bender and drive pool and WHS 2011, is this better from a speed point of view or should I just stick with WHS ver 1.

[ikon]

As I understand it, the DE replacements don't have the issue of Demigrator interfering with streaming but, as pcdoc says, they may not have the performance you need. That said, there are several people who post in these forums who have used one or more of the replacements. I suggest you use Search to find them.

[jmwills]

One of the early adapters of Drive Bender was DieHard, if memory serves me correctly.

[Technogod]

I use StableBit DrivePool. I've been very happy with the product. I have a 6.82TB Pool comprised of five 1.5TB drives. I can stream HD video with no problems. I have a 100 Mbit/s network so I don't stream Blu-Ray. I feel it has multiple advantages over RAID.

1)No rebuild time.
2)No extra hardware.
3)All files are stored in NTFS format and can be read on any computer in case of a hardware failure.
4)All my drive diagnostic tools work because it can see each individual drive rather than a RAID array.

Edited by Technogod, 10 May 2012 - 09:58 AM.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

Another vote for drive pool. In my testing it was very fast and didn't have any problems streaming HD content but that was a couple months ago, maybe longer.

[ikon]

I guess what we need now is a testimony re: blu-ray streaming.

[Technogod]

Here are the ATTO results for Drive I which is my Pool Drive. Drive Pool shouldn't be the limiting factor when streaming Blue-Ray.

 ATTO Drive I Results.jpg   86.43K   29 downloads

[BruceJ]

HI Thanks for all the responses, looks like Drive Pool is the one to try!

[ikon]

Here are the ATTO results for Drive I which is my Pool Drive. Drive Pool shouldn't be the limiting factor when streaming Blue-Ray.

 ATTO Drive I Results.jpg   86.43K   29 downloads

While those numbers aren't earth-shattering, they are certainly more than respectable; shouldn't pose an issue with blu-ray streaming.

[msawyer91]

I've been using Drive Bender for months without any issues. I keep my media files on the fast (SATA) disks, while backups and other content resides on USB disks. When Home Server SMART warned me that the system disk in my EX490 was on its way to the funeral home, I was able to remove it from the DB pool without issue. Cloned it over to an SSD and everything continues to run without a hitch.

The main reason I use DB is for the redundancy and the ability to span over multiple disk types (SATA/USB/FireWire) with the HP MediaSmart Servers. Down the road I might build my own server with RAID but for now DB is doing a mighty fine job.

[BruceJ]

Changed over to WHS2011 and DrivePool from V1 and cant believe I've waited this long to change. WHS2011 is so much faster than V1 whne working with media center machines and DrivePool seem to be a very good solution if like me you have a multiple different hard dirves.

Tested Drivepool for a few days before changing over completely to check how robust it was, I disconnected pool drives, reinstalled WHS2011 while still having duplication on and drivepool just worked away in the background while stil serving up the files and could watch a Video file while it rebuilt the pool. No data seems to be lost or corrupted, so have move over all my data to WHS2011 and wont look back.

Thanks for you help.

[ikon]

It's good to see some love for the Drive Extender replacements. The developers have worked incredibly hard to bring them to market, so it's nice to see people are finding them useful and reliable. It certainly gives users more options.