How to differentiate between identical drives in the pool

rjbreton · September 2012

Hey Guys, this may be a dumb question but I haven't found the solution yet. If you have a number of identical drives in the server and DrivePool or Scanner reports a problem with one of them, how do you know which physical drive it is? I don't see serial numbers just model numbers.

Thanks in advance.

saitoh183 · September 2012

In Scanner right click on the disk and choose Disk Details

rjbreton · September 2012

Thanks, I won't mention how many times I looked at that page and didn't see the serial number. It would be too embarrasing.

Thanks again.

rjbreton · September 2012

I have been still thinking about this. How would you differentiate between identical drives if you didn't have the optional Scanner software?

My point for this question is I feel there should be something in Stablebit itself to help physically identify drives.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's responses.

Cheers

hopester · September 2012

You can see the volume label in drivepool so I have a sticker on the end of each drive giving its name and warranty expire date.

Klode · December 2012

I also go with the sticker method to physically identify the drives. I suggest there should be a place in drivepool to also identify the drives by its model and serial, instead of just drives letter.

webmarck · December 2012

I have a variation of the same problem. A bug in my system (do not know if it's hard drive or motherboard that is the reason) means I experience that disk pool reports a fatal error: "The pool is missing a disk."

If I turn off the server and let it stay off for 1 hour the disappears problem when I restart .... But how do I find which disk is the problem? - I can find the serial number on the disc - but I can not see which disk it is in the pool because I have 3 discs at 3TB - and I would of course like to remove the disc from the pool while it works so I do not lose data.

My pool consists of discs that do not have a separate drive name

What should I do?

Shane · December 2012

The "Pool" tab of "Server Folders and Hard Drives" will tell you the drive letter and volume label of a missing pool drive. If you then use StableBit Scanner (or another drive utility) that can show the corresponding serial number to that drive letter, you would then be able to know which physical drive is involved.

If you have pooled drives without drive letters / volume labels, you can give them letters / labels via Server Manager's Disk Management section (Start, Administrative Tools).

andersa · December 2012

to me it seems like a reasonable request that drive pool is enhanced to display HDD serial numbers as it for sure will help with the management of larger systems.

IMO, adding drive letters just confuses things and fill no function on a file server.

NickM · December 2012

Adding my vote for Drivepool to display more disk identification information. I have 4 x 2 TB drives, all the same make/model. It is impossible to tell them apart.

Shane · December 2012

Unless/until serial numbers can be displayed by DrivePool, I use the method of setting the volume label of each drive to be the same as its serial number.

If one already has a bunch of drives in the pool, one could unplug them from the machine, note their serials, then plug them back in one by one and set each volume label accordingly (if they don't have drive letters, the volume label can be changed via Properties in Disk Management without having to add a drive letter).

(p.s: I'll submit the feature request; I know from a year or two back this was discussed and the coding was not as straightforward as one would've thought, IIRC mainly because the various drive manufacturers each had their own way of doing things)

Klode · January 2013

Unless/until serial numbers can be displayed by DrivePool, I use the method of setting the volume label of each drive to be the same as its serial number.

Model and serial numbers can be displayed by DrivePool already. I just discovered that last week. I remember in v1, we had that info displayed somewhere. That was nice and easy to find any drive. That's why I am submitting the idea, I know it can be done. If you have an empty drive, not part of the pool - so no drive letter, DrivePool will show model and serial info like: WD10EACS - 01B2345.
Just try it for yourself!

Thanks

Shane · January 2013

Unfortunately, that's not both model and serial - it's just the model string returned by Windows, e.g. WDC WD3200AAKS-00VYA0. Tested with Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital drives.

Good news though on the feature request! Model and serial will be added for 1.3, and there should be beta versions of DrivePool and Scanner with the new features sometime next week. Alex has kindly given me a draft of the upcoming change log with the details:

* Added a "Identify disk" task for missing disk where all the known identification data is shown

for that missing disk. We also have an option to "Ping" all the connected disks for one minute

in order to help you identify the missing disk by looking at the disk access lights.

* StableBit Scanner disk health will now be reported on the Pool tab for disks part of the pool

when the Scanner is installed (Scanner 1.2+), including missing disks.

* Added a disk identification module. DrivePool will now show the model / serial number for drives

that are part of the pool or are missing (when available). When the StableBit Scanner (2.3.0.2841+)

is installed, the model / serial number is retrieved from the Scanner instead of Windows for

added accuracy. In addition, the 'Case' and 'Bay' as specified in the Scanner are also reported.

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How to differentiate between identical drives in the pool

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