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Introducing my HP Microserver N36L / N40L / N54L using WHS2011 + XBMC
#61
Yeah I guess the all hell breaks loose doesn't really matter in the end right because the mirrored amd raid just look like normal discs if you pull them out of the raid? When i switched to windows mirrored I was kinda like that was pointless but there was some weird power handling with the amd raid so I was still good with the switch. With amd raid the drives would abruptly power down instead of spinning down gently. Mostly the click on the arm to the lock position every so often was annoying.

What version of Russian bios are you using (date)? I wasnt able to find a modded version of the newest one but still one from January this year.

Lastly... I read a review that although the microserver doesnt support hotswap sata, it works with the right drivers installed. Anybody have details on that?
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#62
This version of Russian BIOS:

http://rghost.net/4654133?r=1021.

Which I found via

http://terabyt.es/2011/07/02/nas-build-g...a-napp-it/

Here's the funny thing - the RU BIOS wouldn't stick until I grabbed an HP BIOS from last fall rather than the 2/27/11 this refers to. Spent a few hours d*cking about with it before trying the earlier BIOS. I've gathered that the newer version loses a few features. For what I wanted this does the job just fine.

Re: all hell breaking loose - you're right, it wouldn't really matter either way in terms of rebuilding. I think what got me going on the data paranoia is some of the abysmal posts I've read about AMD softRAID.
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#63
Thanks for the reply ages ago, I havent had chance to get back on. Still not got around to buying whs11, although glad I waited as its under £40 now and 2tb drives have also dropped a lot.

Ive a few questions regarding drivebender, how does it cope with a hard drive failiure?

Reason I am asking is that we've had a few powercuts recently it was out 12 hours last week!
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#64
copied from http://www.drivebender.com

What is it?

Drive Bender is state of the art, single point storage pool technology for Microsoft Windows. Drive Bender presents multiple hard drives as a single pool of data storage, either as one or more drive letters, or a network shared drive. Drive Bender is able to do this with any drive recognised by Windows, including external drive such as USB, Firewire etc.

See the Drive Bender screen shots

Expandability

Drive Bender also provides the user with the ability to seamless expand their storage pool by simply adding a new drive. Adding a new drive expands the pool by the size of the new drive. Existing data within the pool is redistributed to the new drive to ensure the pool remain balanced.

Drive merging and converting

Drive Bender also offers a merge capability, allowing users to take a drive that contains data, and merge that drive (and data) into the pool. In addition there is also a drive conversion feature. This can take and existing drive letter (mounted against a physical drive) and convert this into a pooled drive. Once completed, new hard drives can be added to expand the once fixed drive.

Data redundancy

To further ensure data safety, Drive Bender can automatically duplicate any file added to a Drive Bender pool. File duplication is determined at the folder level and occurs on the fly as data is being written to the pool. More importantly, files are only duplicated across physical drives ensuring maximum safety and data redundancy.

Non-destructive

One of the key Drive Bender features is its non-destructive file system technology. In short, this means that all drives within a Drive Bender pool are utilizing standard NTFS format and file structures. This is to such an extent that a drive can be pulled from the pool and read on any machine capable of reading an NTFS formatted drive. More over, drives attached to the pool are not modified in anyway. If a drive is added (not merged) that contains existing data, that data will remain untouched.

Ease to try

Because of our non-destructive file system, taking Drive Bender for a test drive is easy. Simply specify the drives to be included in the pool, and you are ready go. The drives are not formatted, the only change made is the addition of a folder that holds the contents of the pool.

The technology

Drive Bender employs existing, proven kernel mode file system technology. Having spent many years developing kernel mode drivers, we are able to use this experience to great extent. The end result is a product whose performance will closely match that of the underlying drive.
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#65
That's interesting, any news on when it will be released?

Oh and I have finally bought whs 2011.
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#66
Is you graphics card passive?
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#67
Yes, most all of us are using passive cards.
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#68
drivebender release plan:

Beta 4 – Early June 2011
Read / write performance enhancements.
WHS health addin support.
User definable data balancing (i.e. the business rules used to determine where data resides within the pool).
Improved client / server interaction (this is mostly to do with task feedback in the existing client applications (such as the Manager and WHS addin).

RC1 – Late August 2011
Updated WHS interface.
Enhanced documentation.
Changes / updates as required.

Release – Date to be determined
Down the pub…

and yes my HD6450 is a passive version.
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#69
Re: Passive GPU

I'm just threw in a Zotac GT520 1GB active because I worried 5 HD's and a passive card might get a little warm. My temps with a 720p DXVA file are:

GPU 39C
Ambient 35C
HD's - 32C
Core - 46C

Which seems reasonable enough. I'll try with a 1080p file over the weekend.

About the only remaining concern is thumbnail cache which seems kind of sluggish. Increasingly thinking an SSD for my sys drive might not be such a bad idea...
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#70
Ive got quite a few Hard drives knocking about, ive got a seagate 1tb drive that I might use for my OS/thumbs/download cache. Or I might just buy a samsung F3, I thought about an SSD but I dont think the extra speed with a lot less storage is worth it or even noticeable.

I plan on using utorrent in the back ground plus a couple of extra programs, that shouldnt affect the performance of xbmc should it?
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#71
Hi .. I'm a newbie and have a very similar setup to Qlink (based on his recommendation in this thread)

I have a quick question on drivers for the video card. Are there any specific drivers for HD 6450 running with WHS 2011 or will the Win 7 drivers (64bit) work? I just do not seem to get any HD output from the card .. it all seems to be low def at 800 x 600.
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#72
jhalai Wrote:Hi .. I'm a newbie and have a very similar setup to Qlink (based on his recommendation in this thread)

I have a quick question on drivers for the video card. Are there any specific drivers for HD 6450 running with WHS 2011 or will the Win 7 drivers (64bit) work? I just do not seem to get any HD output from the card .. it all seems to be low def at 800 x 600.

Daft question are you using the output from the card? and not the one from the microserver? Or within xbmc you should be able to manually change resolution.

Other than that I cant help as I have been using various linux versions my whs11 hasnt arrived yet. Plus I used a 210 nvidia card.
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#73
wow, it looks so cool.
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#74
BEKO86 Wrote:Daft question are you using the output from the card? and not the one from the microserver? Or within xbmc you should be able to manually change resolution.

Other than that I cant help as I have been using various linux versions my whs11 hasnt arrived yet. Plus I used a 210 nvidia card.

I'm using the output from the card via HDMI. I'll download the latest the Win7 drivers and try again. The video card is Sapphire RADEON HD 6450 1GB.
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#75
jhalai Wrote:will the Win 7 drivers (64bit) work?


yeah, they will and these are the only drivers you should install.

i'm running the AMD Catalyst 11.6 Package and i'm doing fine with it.
there is also the 11.7 package released, so maybe you should try these.
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Introducing my HP Microserver N36L / N40L / N54L using WHS2011 + XBMC6