How to add drives with data to a pool

S_F · September 2012

The title says it all. I have a bunch of drives with existing data already protected with FlexRaid so I only want to pool them. How do I add my drives with existing data to a pool? I wish there were a good writeup about this somewhere.

saitoh183 · September 2012

I use Flex as well to protect my data and use DP for pooling (Flex pooling just isnt stable enough for my taste)

What you do is:

1- Create you pool with your drives.

2- There are 2 ways to move your data over

1- Slow way but safe: Copy(if you have enough space) or Move data to the pool drive using Teracopy or just windows normal copy

2- Fast way but could lead to issue(i never had any with this method) : Make sure Show Hidden files and folders is enabled. On each drive you should see a hidden folder called Poolpart.XXXXXXX... move your data into this folder. The move should be instant. Do this on each drive making sure you keep the identical folder structure. Using DP Balancing tool you can set the threshold of the drives really low in order to force it to rebalance the data equally on all drives.

3- Flexraid Do a validate and it will be longer since it will have to change the location of your entire data (you moved the files of the root of the drive to poolpart folder.

you should be all good after that

bobberGman · September 2012

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum and wanr to upgrade from WHS v1 to WHS 2011 and use DrivePool for my drive extender. What I'm contemplating after reading the above posts are the following steps...

1- Install WHS 2011 on a 128 GB SSD and connect one 2 TB drive

2- Install DrivePool

3- connect my remaining 6 2 tb drives

4- add the remaining 6 drives to the pool (is it ilike WHS v1 where I just right click to add the drive to the pool?)

I'm mainly concerned about keeping the Video share intact. Is it as simple as it sounds or am I missing something important.

I'm not a network administrator, so please offer advise in simple language that I can understand.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

Paaland · September 2012

@bobberGman

You cannot simply insert the WHS 1 drives into the WHS 2011 and all is well. WHS 1 juses some NTFS "tricks" to create the pool. While DrivePool (DP) uses a hidden folder called PoolPart.XXXXXX...

It's been a long time since i used WHS 1 and I cant remember exactly where it placed it's files. But you will need to "move the files into the pool" in order to complete the conversion.

Shane · September 2012

Hi, you may wish to read through http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/574/how-to-migrating-from-whs-v1s-drive-extender#Item_1 which describes how to migrate your data from WHS v1 to WHS 2011 using your existing drives. If you have further questions after that, ask away!

bobberGman · September 2012

Thanks to Paaland and to Shane for your very quick answers to my questions.

Shane, I read through the link you provided and it seems pretty straightforward. As far as moving the files using the dashboard, I guess I just need to get started and see how the dashboard is laid out and see the options that are available.

Do you recommend that I turn off file duplication in WHS v1 and remove the duplicate entries before shutting down and taking everything apart?

I still need to get another controller card and some additional RAM so probably won't tackle the upgrade for at least another week.

Once again, thanks for your response. You helped me deceide to make the upgrade. I was afraid that I would have to go get additional storage to back up the drives prior to the upgrade. It's nice to see that the data can be moved.

I may need to ask some additional questions once I get started, if not I'll post the results.

Shane · September 2012

There's no need to turn off WHS v1's file duplication; DrivePool handles duplication consistency across drives automatically (just remember to use the Dashboard to set your preferred duplication level, after you've migrated your stuff across and shared the folders you want, per the how-to).

S_F · September 2012

OK. So let's see if I've got this correct.

I install DP and all of my drives will have a new folder. I always enable all of the folder view options. My drives already have the whs 2011 folder structure. After that my whs shares will be populated with my data? How do I add my additional folders as shares?

bobberGman · September 2012

I did the upgrade last night. I installed WHS 2011 with just 1 drive connected, then added a second drive and installed the trial version of Drivepool. I then added the remaining 6 drives containing data.

I was able to see the drives and the files just fine. I moved the data on each drive to the hidden Drive pool folders as suggested but I have a couple of questions...

As all of my files are video, how should I go about moving or copying them into the Video Share? This is important to me as my WD Live Hub points to the Video Share and I use the Hub as my "go to" source for everything.

Also, when using Drivepool, does the video share behave the same way as in WHS 1? In WHS 1, the Video share indicated that it had a capacity of 1.87 TB, but with DE it really had all of the drives available. I was able to rip everything directly to the Video Share as mapped on the client PC.

Thanks for the help and the upgrade guide! It made it pretty painless.

bobberGman · September 2012

I also seem to have multiple duplicates. I started out with about 4.5 tb of data. I now show about 7.8 tb.

saitoh183 · September 2012

@bobberGman

Duplicates how? because of Duplication setting in DP or duplication cause by manual manipulation by you? As for the Video share, Video share will indicate the total space of the pool not just the share itself(this goes for any shared folder that is pooled). Move your videos into the Video share the same way you did for the other files you moved. If you dont want to to move the data, you can create a share out of your current Video folder and then use the Move Folder option to move the entire directory to the pool also.

@S_F

Use the Dashboard to add shares. If DP tabbing in the Dashboard is default, go under the folder tab and do Add folder then browse to your Additional folders.

bobberGman · September 2012

Probably have duplicates because of both. I had DE duplicates from WHS 1 then moved files from the drives to the Drivepool hidden folder. I think Drivepool may have made duplicates of everything or I triggered it to happen when I moved the files.

I'll try moving to the Video share and deleting the rest if I find duplicates.

Instead of using the dashboard to add shares, can I use the default shares in WHS 2012? My WD Live Hub points to them and I can't seem to configure anything else within the hub.

Thanks for the responses!

saitoh183 · September 2012

The default Video share of WHS2011 can be moved to the pool(how i have it setup) thus allowing you to use the default shares. For the duplication, if leaving from WHSv1 , before hand , you should unduplicate all folder so that you dont move extra data for nothing. Duplication in DP is off by default

bobberGman · September 2012

I currently show a yellow pool condition the warnig details are... When I hover over Warnings i see File placement not optimal.

The duplication warnings are ' There were problems checking, duplicating or cleaning up one or more drives on the pool.

the files are all backdrop.jpg files generated by wd live hub when getting content information for dvd rips.

is there anythinf I can do about it?

saitoh183 · September 2012

It should give you the option to let DP handle the cleanup

TRaSH · September 2012

What you do is:

1- Create you pool with your drives.
2- There are 2 ways to move your data over
.....

2- Fast way but could lead to issue(i never had any with this method) : Make sure Show Hidden files and folders is enabled. On each drive you should see a hidden folder called Poolpart.XXXXXXX... move your data into this folder. The move should be instant. Do this on each drive making sure you keep the identical folder structure. Using DP Balancing tool you can set the threshold of the drives really low in order to force it to rebalance the data equally on all drives.

i just did this trick and it worked kinda,

when i goto the dashboard im not able to move the folder anymore because it says that a folder always excist with that name.

anyway to solve this ?

or do i need to remove it from the dashboard ?

saitoh183 · September 2012

You can try to unshare/reshare the folder in the dashboard

bobberGman · September 2012

I don't have the Balanceing tool option button visible. Is it a version thing?

saitoh183 · September 2012

you have to click on Files under the Drivepool Tab, By default its on Disk

bobberGman · September 2012

I don't have a files button or option to click on. Only have...

>Add / remove disks

> Settings (opens server settings form)

Below that

> Manage Folders

saitoh183 · October 2012

bobberGman · October 2012

Thanks for posting the screenshot. I understand where the balance button should be. I just don't have it. I only have a folders and settings link. The settings link only provides access to basic server settings. Nothing like I'm seeing in this and other discussion topics. For example, I don't have an option to show the pooled drive as ntfs.

I thought that maybe its because I'm still running the trial version?

saitoh183 · October 2012

what version you running?

bobberGman · October 2012

Version 1.0. I only have the remeasure option... No balancing. I'm running the trial version.

saitoh183 · October 2012

this option is is available in 1.2 and beyond, so you would have to use the beta version

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