xavier

I had file conflicts, and made the mistake of not taking them seriously, as it was a load of old music files I let it go. Turned out my drive pool (DE) was starting to fail. Initially it was just the occassional file conflict, then last week Drive Manager (add in) showed the warning message that one of my drives was unhealthy.

Biggest problem turned out to be DE. It works well when all is well, when a drive starts to fail DE can be a nightmare. I had three drives in the pool and a spare slot. I bought a new drive 3TB for my whs 2011 box and swapped out a 2TB for the version 1box.

At this point DE failed, I could still access most of the files, but DE was unable to calculate the size of the storage pool. I added the 2TB drive without a problem. I then hit an unbeleivable problem, I could not remove my 1.5TB because the system was saying there was not enough space!, and there was no way to force whs to start migrating the data and remove the drive.

I did consider using folder duplication to get the server to shuffle the data on to my spare drive, but in the end yanked the drive and used sysntoy and goodsync to move the data over from the whs 2011 box, i am still working through all the file conflicts! My version 1 is a hot backup

I agree with no-control, quite highly specced, you should probably list the things you are going to do with (or on) the server first. If its storage, backup and streaming (ripping on a seperate PC) then I'd be templted to go for a cheaper build, or as you are in the UK go for the HP microserver. The £100 cashback is still available and at £139 including with AMD Turion II Neo N40L / 1.5GHz, 2GB DDR3 SDRAM
and a 250GB HDD. Ideal if the ripping and transcoding will be done on a PC.

late as ever, using virtual box on windows 7 pro, as a test, but production on a box

Wrote this sprawling post, then realised this subject has been covered, in short HP Microserver (with £100 rebate seems a no brainer)
HP Microserver in – Shuttle K45 out – WHS ver 1

My first server was an old repurposed Dell 4600, and I then built my Shuttle K45. I thought this was a good idea when I bought it, but quickly regretted the choice due to the loud fan. It remained my workhorse for over 18 months, and as my WHS was becoming full (3TB) I decided to get a new machine with greater expandability.

I set my heart on a self-build , I imagine like most forum members, especially when I heard HP were pulling out of the market. I did monitor the price drop as HP sold off the 490s, but never bit.

Then surprisingly I started to see posts about the HP microserver, and the £100 cash back, taking the price down from £229.92 to £129.92 for a 4 bay business class microserver. I bit. I could buy this and at the very least it was better priced than a NAS solution.
• 1.30Ghz Athlon Neo N36L Dual Core (64 bit)
• The build quality is excellent
• It’s quiet (not silent)
• 4 bays (not hot swap)
• DVD Bay
• The motherboard slides out for RAM upgrade
• One expansion slot.
The microserver is designed for Server 2008, and therefore to get it to work with WHS Ver 1 did require getting hold of additional drivers. I followed the forum advice from Wegotserved for drivers and I ‘reinstalled’ WHS Ver 1.0, my add-ins are
• Mymovies, Add-in central, Disk Management, Advanced Admin Console and Perfect Disk 11.

and was up and running in no time. I added an additional 2TB drive and….well nothing…it just sits and does its thing.
Prior to buying this I used to power my server down every night, now I have a box I’m confident to just leave on 24/7.
To say I’m pleased is an understatement, HP have extended the offer, and despite the gut instinct to self-build I have just ordered a 2nd microserver, to be my WHS 2011 or ‘other’.

I currently have the old Dell in the Garage to back up my server, using synctoy, may replace that with the new microserver running Windows 7 – Ultimate (need HDD encryption). Selling off the shuttle K45 – my first real server.
Sorry for the long post