Okay, I'm using an older Lenovo desktop pc as a WHS 2011 media server and it has been flawless and working fine since I put it in use about 3-4 yrs ago. I have 5 hard drives in it currently and I'm about to max it out in terms of space and power to run more hard drives.I did add a sata card in it and have 1 sata port left on it but there is no more room to add hard drives inside case..Just need opinions on what you think may be the CHEAPEST solution at this time to gain some more storage capability..
I do have a PCI X16 slot unused so was wondering if a USB 3.0 card may be in order.It's a "larger" slot but my understanding is because of this I could plug any size card in it I want,true? Which would help me since I could use external usb 3 hard drives with their own power.And if I go this route would usb 3 be fast enough that it would at least give me somewhat "close to" performance of my sata hard drives?
At some point I will probably just switch everything to a nicer case with more storage capability but trying to keep cost down now. Could grab a usb 3 card for under $20 probably which is ALOT cheaper than a new awesome case..
Also for anyone running a WHS 2011 machine what is the largest external hard drive you can run on it? All my reading seems to point to 2 TB which is fine but larger of course would be nicer.
There is no junk..All files contained are movies,music,pictures,etc...My understanding was WHS 2011 has trouble handling drives larger than 2tb ?? The option to add in a usb 3.0 card would not yield desireable results? Usb 3.0 is not suitable for media playback?
WHS2011 can only have 2TB drive. It does not support anything larger. Biggest limiting factor of WHS 2011. Since individual folders can't be cross different partitions or drives, it limits how much you can backup or how much you have can on each shared folder.
False.... I just built a 48TB Raid 6 Server for a client last week using WHS 2011. He had 4 Dunes in his home and out grew his old 16TB Raid server I built him 4 years ago. Please do not post false info and confuse users on this board.
Cool..kinda what my understanding was..No big deal. Just need a way to add more storage without a huge performance hit..Would the usb 3.0 card be terrible? If so may just have to go with a new case that can accommodate alot more storage.
Can you use a sata HDD Hard Drive external docking station?
I don't use WHS. I just use windows 7 Backup with a no longer available external unit named a Venus T5 which hold 5 hard drives. I have an additional 4 drives and a SSD in my computer case.
I am not current on hardware and software choices.
Something like that would work as well!! Going to check up on them right now..I just really need whatever solution i do to be "external" as in supply it's own power. Hence why I was thinking usb 3.0 card. I've got 1 free sata port on an add-in card I installed but space and power is a problem in current case.
Thanks for all the replies so far.All are appreciated..going to check on the external sata right now..stay tuned.
I was running WHS2011 with two 3TB drives with no trouble. Where did you hear WHS2011 only supports 2TB drives? This WAS a limitation for WHS v.1, but not 2011. I think there is some sort of client backup bug when backing up to certain large drives, but even my backups worked just fine.
EDIT: the more I think about it, I had a 5TB WD Red in there too.
Out of box, WHS2011 will partition any drive > 2TB to 2TB per partition because its backup feature doesn't support over 2TB size. It is a well known limitation. If you don't use the backup feature or use 3rd party tools like drive pool, it can exceed 2TB limit. Not sure what the WHS1.x is since it has its own drive pool feature.
Stablebit Drive Pool? No slowdown for me. Either way, it isn't a requirement, you mentioned it would not work on drives over 2TB on WHS 2011. I did it, and it worked. I have since gone to Windows Server Essentials 2012 and deleted the VM, so I have no way to pull up screenshots, but that WSE is still on the same two 3TB drives I had in the WHS server. I moved the 5TB drive to a W7 VM and added a second, so no more 5TB drives in the WSE machine.
I too am confused by these posts claiming WHS 2011 cannot work with larger than 2tb drivers and or SB Drivepool. I am running WHS 2011 with four 3Tb and one 5Tb drives, and Drivepool. The drives cannot be formatted as MBR, they must be GPT. I am also using the back up feature, both for the server and clients. I am using a one Tb external drive to back up the server, but that is because it's what i had available. I can not say whether there is a size limit for that.
As mentioned, DP is not a native feature of WHS2011. Not everyone use Drive Pool on WHS 2011. Myself included because it slows down the disk performance for my taste.
Stablebit Drive Pool? No slowdown for me. Either way, it isn't a requirement, you mentioned it would not work on drives over 2TB on WHS 2011. I did it, and it worked. I have since gone to Windows Server Essentials 2012 and deleted the VM, so I have no way to pull up screenshots, but that WSE is still on the same two 3TB drives I had in the WHS server. I moved the 5TB drive to a W7 VM and added a second, so no more 5TB drives in the WSE machine.
Rudy, thanks..I was actually looking at something like this today..not this one.I think it was a 4 bay unit,but same principal. Unfortunately like anything else in life,cost is a factor in all this.Hence why goal was to keep it as cheap as possible. Thought about just buying a larger case with more bays,and more power for sata items, and just moving the stuff from existing case to new case. Then just getting a sata card for the pci x16 slot and being back in business.Much cheaper cost than a DAS, but would require more work from me. Also I have 1 port left for sata drive, so could just get a bracket($2-5) that would turn that internal sata port into an external port on the back of machine. And then just use a esata hard drive enclosure for now. Probably actually the cheapest way to go at this second. Esssentially buying myself some time to do something more permanent and "elegant" later.
As for the Drive pool debate, I use it so I guess in effect that is what limits the size of the drives I can use. right now a couple of 2 TB drives would go a LONG way for me..Larger drives are probably more the bargain,but not much I can do since I run Drive Pool. Also never noticed any performance hits at all using it. Movies anything start up in 1-2 seconds.
From what I gathered so far:
1. Using Dashboard, you will only be getting 2TB per partition max. However, you can use the Windows Disk Management tool to format larger drives into single partition and it can be used for any server folder.
2. Client PCs using MBT will be limited to only 2TB max per partition for backup.
3. Client PCs using GPT can have > 2TB partition for backup.
4. Server backup is limited to 2TB per partition.
Drive pool is not part of WHS 2011 and no one is claiming you can't use > 2TB drives in them.
Again, DRIVE POOL DOES NOT LIMIT THE SIZE OF YOUR DRIVES, not even in WHS 2011. I was running two 3TB drives and a 5TB drive in WHS 2011, as stated above. Also you have another confirmation from Leebo.
I'm not nitpicking, since your comments are confusing the original poster. My comments are valid, so that he understands he is not limited to 2TB by WHS2011 or DrivePool. As you can see in post 18, he IS confused about what he can or cannot do.
At release, the limitation was there for backups. There was a patch later that allowed larger drives to be backed up, or more accurately it fixed GPT client backups. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2781272
Ok, so Technically I should be able to purchase a 3-5 TB external hard drive and then plug that in and format it in a way that WHS 2011 will be able to use all 3-5 TB of it...This is awesome if I can do this. I have no reason to believe you didn't do it,just hoping it will work for me!! This would be the best solution in my dilemma. I could do what i said and then send all my movies off one of my existing 2 tb internal hard drives to this 3-5tb drive and remove the 2tb from the pool and then remove from server and plug in the 3-5 tb in it's place and then add it to the pool. I'm I correct in my thinking of how to do this?
One thing, when removing a drive from the pool, there's a better "undocumented" way. Go into the settings and tell it that no data should be put on the drive, then once it is clear do the remove. It's much more reliable and seems to be faster. Drashna has confirmed this a few times.
Speaking of, why not triple check and get the word from him on his forum? That way you've got three people confirming the capability. And, Drashna (Chris) does this all the time, so you can certainly trust his opinion.
Thank You!!!!!! My understanding was it couldn't be done,but i'm going to try this..Will update my experience here once I accomplish it. May be a week or two...Need it done before turkey day though. But i will report back to make sure this can help someone else who may be in my situation.
Just making sure you see my post above, I think you might check with Chris on the Stablebit forum for a third opinion. It's all he does all day, so he can give you a very qualified opinion.
I have no where near the experience of this group, but I can tell you that I can confirm TJ's assessment that WHS 2011 does not limit drive size to 2TB. I have a smallish WHS 2011 box that has the OS drive, two 2TB drives, and an added 3TB Seagate. WHS did not ask, nor force me to partition the drive. I did partition it after the fact, because of how I needed my server folders set up, but it was not "necessary".
2 x 3TB, 1 x 4TB, 1 x 5TB, and 1 x 64GB SSD all in an HP N40L microserver. Running WHS2011 and StableBit DrivePool for several years now with no problems. I just have to manually install updates and reboot the machine every four or five months. As drive prices drop and I need more storage, I replace smaller drives with larger ones. Started out with all 1TB and 2TB drives. I also have mine set to hibernate after two hours of inactivity and wake it via network ping when I want to access something.
IMO, DrivePool is some of the best $20 I ever spent on this hobby.
I think with Storage Spaces you can do something about drives more than 2TB, but you can't back up the server itself for more than 2TB. I'm not sure I've ever actually heard of anyone using Storage Spaces on WHS2011 though! Definitely agree with DrivePool. I used FlexRAID the past 4 years and its been great for the most part, but its a bit funky in how it handles shared folders (I've rebuilt 3 times and each time forgot how you have to delete the shared folders first, then add them back in and add them in the FlexRAID control panel too). My last rebuild I went with DrivePool and much happier with it for pooling. I gave SnapRAID a shot for the parity redundancy, but didn't care for it. So now, I just use FlexRAID for parity and DrivePool for sharing (and some folder duplication). Combine that with Crashplan for external back up and I'm very happy with the setup.
Just an update..haven't done anything yet..Would love to go with a 4 tb or larger drive but just not ready to spend that amount now. Will probably go with a 3tb and switch out the 1 tb drive in my server, and just plan for a complete overhaul next year at some point.
Maybe wait for Black Friday and see if anyone sells a 4tb for 3tb price?
Signature edited to appease the OCD's
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