StableBit DrivePool

StableBit DrivePool is an add-in for the Windows Home Server 2011

Current BETA stage: M2 (Milestone 2)

Build: 1627

See StableBit DrivePool BETA milestones

Features

• Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
• Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
• Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive.
• All your data is stored in standard NTFS files. You can always access your files even if the Windows Home Server completely crashes or this add-in can't be used.

BETA

StableBit DrivePool is a BETA and has the potential for bugs. Because of the nature of this add-in there is potential for data loss. Only serious testers should consider downloading and installing the current BETA builds.

Your data integrity can be compromised with this BETA build. Use at your own risk, and only with non-essential data.

System Requirements

• Windows Home Server 2011 (or Windows Home Server 2011 RC)

Download / Install

Download the latest version: StableBit.DrivePool_1.0.0.1627_BETA.wssx

SHA1: c87ec90aa8511f9b094d3d182dcc04fad8d474c1

Change log: View changes.txt

Upgrading

Upgrading to a newer build is simple.

• Uninstall the old version.
• Reboot the Server.
• Install the new version.

Because StableBit DrivePool installs a file system driver, a reboot is necessary to ensure that the driver gets updated properly. Your pooled data will not be deleted by the upgrade.

Upgrading from BETA M1 to M2

StableBit DrivePool BETA M2 is now aware of foreign disks. When you upgrade a M1 build to a M2 build, all your pooled drives with data on them will be shown as Unhealthy in the Windows Home Server dashboard. This is perfectly normal. Just select each disk and run the foreign disk wizard from the task list on the right. This will check your disks to ensure that file duplication is handled properly and mark your disks Healthy.

Crashes / Errors

StableBit DrivePool come with a large set of diagnostic tools built in in order to make troubleshooting and resolving problems easier. If you encounter a problem using DrivePool, depending on the nature of the problem you may want to employ a particular troubleshooting method.

We encourage everyone to participate in the BETA and report issues that they encounter by following the instructions outlined below.

Here are the various ways of troubleshooting StableBit DrivePool and reporting the problem:

Sanity Check

If you're not sure if DrivePool is running, follow these instructions.

• StableBit DrivePool Sanity Check

This will teach you how to perform a basic sanity check to make sure that DrivePool is functioning.

Error Reports / Event logs

If DrivePool refuses to start or the Dashboard does not list any drives and folders, follow these instructions on how to collect error reports and submit them to StableBit support for assistance.

• StableBit DrivePool Error Reports

Error reports are written when DrivePool encounters exceptional conditions that prevent it from functioning properly. If such a condition occurs then DrivePool writes out an error report file and issues a windows event log entry.

I/O File Errors

If you're having trouble copying files, opening files or using a particular application with the pool, follow these instructions to collect detailed I/O logs and submit them to StableBit support for examination.

• StableBit DrivePool Log Collection

DrivePool uses the high performance Event Tracing for Windows logger in the kernel driver to collect detailed trace data on every I/O operation leading up to your error. This will show you how to properly collect this data.