WHS Versions

Azhar

Fixing stupid since 1972
Joined
Jan 9, 2001
Messages
18,877
I don't have my new storage computer parts available yet to experiment with WHS 2011, but on a spare computer I tried WHSv1 with a couple of ancient 200gb drives to see what the ruckus was about and I'm duly impressed with how easy it was to administer and how the drive pool works. Seeing how WHS 2011 doesn't have drive pooler anymore, is there any compelling reasons to use it? I haven't tried it yet because my old spare I had lying around only have 1gb RAM. WHS 2011 won't install unless you have 2gb.

64-bit isn't a big deal to me since the new computer will be 4GB and use AMD's Fusion APU, so RAM will be shared with video, so I'll have less than 4GB of system memory anyways. What does WHS 2011 have that WHSv1 doesn't have?

This will only be a media storage server for all of the HTPCs in the house.
 
I've read up about Drive Pool and how well it make up for the loss of drive pooling in WHS 2011, but how solid is it? I've only seen 3 or 4 comments on it in WeGotServed web site, three being very positive and one being negative. I don't think that's enough feedback for me to risk 4TB of movies across 6x2TB drives.
 
I've read up about Drive Pool and how well it make up for the loss of drive pooling in WHS 2011, but how solid is it? I've only seen 3 or 4 comments on it in WeGotServed web site, three being very positive and one being negative. I don't think that's enough feedback for me to risk 4TB of movies across 6x2TB drives.

Been using it for a few months and it's been rock solid. They offer a 30 day trial as well.
 
Seeing how WHS 2011 doesn't have drive pooler anymore, is there any compelling reasons to use it?
Yes: WHS 2011 can actually support newer 2TB and larger drives. When it came to 2TB drives, WHS v1 only worked with certain 2TB drives that probably aren't being sold anymore and generally didn't work with newer 2TB drives or larger sized drives. In addition, the UI is a bit faster to respond and has better support for newer hardware. And there's the ability for you to backup the actual OS install if needed which WHS v1 lacked. Finally, mainstream support for WHS v1 ends on January 8th, 2013. So

So if you're looking to expand and/or longer shelf life/support, WHS 2011 is gonna be your best bet out of the two OSes.
 
I don't have my new storage computer parts available yet to experiment with WHS 2011, but on a spare computer I tried WHSv1 with a couple of ancient 200gb drives to see what the ruckus was about and I'm duly impressed with how easy it was to administer and how the drive pool works. Seeing how WHS 2011 doesn't have drive pooler anymore, is there any compelling reasons to use it? I haven't tried it yet because my old spare I had lying around only have 1gb RAM. WHS 2011 won't install unless you have 2gb.

64-bit isn't a big deal to me since the new computer will be 4GB and use AMD's Fusion APU, so RAM will be shared with video, so I'll have less than 4GB of system memory anyways. What does WHS 2011 have that WHSv1 doesn't have?

This will only be a media storage server for all of the HTPCs in the house.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1700168

WHS 2011 for $29.99. Grab it quick and get Drivepool. It's like getting Drivepool free.
 
If I install drivepool on my WHS box with files on all my drives already, I wont loose my files or have to format them right?
 
If I install drivepool on my WHS box with files on all my drives already, I wont loose my files or have to format them right?

In theory no...they have migration ability. However, if you don't have a backup of your data..it would be foolish to use that feature. Migration in any system is usually "safe" but not absolute. I would recommend moving as much data onto few drives a possible and then add the "empty drives" to the pool and copy over.
 
What's the consensus on using a regular Win8 box instead of WHS2011? You can network backup to it, it has drive pooling built in, etc?
 
What's the consensus on using a regular Win8 box instead of WHS2011? You can network backup to it, it has drive pooling built in, etc?

Just my opinion. But I'll never use Windows 8. I've never read a single reason that made it better than Windows 7. On the contrary, I've never read a single positive thing about it. WHS 2011 was made specifically for running a home server. It doesn't have all the extra junk built in that you don't need. It's reconfigured and super easy to use it remotely. It's rock solid.

In my opinion, WHS 2011 for the home server. Windows 7 for everything else. Windows 8 for those who just have to upgrade even though ti makes no sense and is a crappy OS. :p
 
What's the consensus on using a regular Win8 box instead of WHS2011? You can network backup to it, it has drive pooling built in, etc?

It's still in beta. And once it's released, it's gonna be awhile before some people report back with how the official release works as a server. So in other words, the consensus is to wait and see.
 
Thanks guys. I ended up using Windows Home Server 2011 and bought Stablebit Drive Pool. I've very impressed how easy it is to use it and that it could add my NTFS drives without needing to format it. WHS 2011 runs very nicely on an AMD A4 APU with an ASRock A75 Extreme6 board and 4GB DDR3-1600 RAM.
 
Please come back in a few weeks and report back your experiences with WHS 2011. By then the honeymoon period should be over :)
 
Please come back in a few weeks and report back your experiences with WHS 2011. By then the honeymoon period should be over :)

Why would it be? I've been running Windows Server in my company since 2006 without downtime, even 2008 and 2008 R2. Better if I stick with what I know, seeing how 2011 is based on 2008 R2. It'll be completely headless and untouched. I'll only be reading and writing data from the storage drives, nothing more.
 
Why would it be?
Because you've only used it for a few days at most. So you haven't had time to explore it and see if there are any small issues, nitpicks, bugs, etc with the OS.

Not saying WHS is a bad OS. While I found out quite a few little issues and problems with the original WHS v1.1, ultimately it still was a good choice for me. However no one actually reported the little things until after I bought and installed it. So in your case, I want to see if there's actually any little issues, nitpicks, bugs, etc that you may have run into with that OS.
 
There are definitely little issues with WHS 2011 but i dont think its any more buggy than WHSV1 and is probably less so.
 
Because you've only used it for a few days at most. So you haven't had time to explore it and see if there are any small issues, nitpicks, bugs, etc with the OS.

Not saying WHS is a bad OS. While I found out quite a few little issues and problems with the original WHS v1.1, ultimately it still was a good choice for me. However no one actually reported the little things until after I bought and installed it. So in your case, I want to see if there's actually any little issues, nitpicks, bugs, etc that you may have run into with that OS.

Got it. I'll keep this thread up to date then.
 
I've been using WHS 2011 for a few months now and I love it. I'm using the DrivePool and LightsOut add-ins (just ending their 30 day trials), but havent had problems with either of them. A bit of tweaking with LightsOut, but there's plenty of info out there online as a reference.

One thing that really I like about WHS 2011 is the ability to extend the system partition from within the WHS OS. I was using the OS created D:\ drive for my backups, but that partition was only 90GB or so and quickly filled up. So I was able to move the backup folder, delete the D:\ partition and extend the C:\ partition. Which was my initial goal when I installed the 160GB OS drive. I found this article about extending the partition and it worked like a charm - http://connecteddigitalworld.com/2011/08/13/extending-your-system-partition-of-your-primary-hard-drive-on-sbs-2011-essentials-or-whs-2011-server/
 
recent storm crashed my whs v1 about a week ago, so i setup a new system with whs 2011. I immediately purchased drive pool as i couldnt live without the drive extender coming from whs v1.

any other must have add-ons? i mainly use this server for backups (yes sadly i lost my whs v1 backups as they didnt upgrade/transfer). Not that i needed them or i would have found a way to get the data.
 
recent storm crashed my whs v1 about a week ago, so i setup a new system with whs 2011. I immediately purchased drive pool as i couldnt live without the drive extender coming from whs v1.

any other must have add-ons? i mainly use this server for backups (yes sadly i lost my whs v1 backups as they didnt upgrade/transfer). Not that i needed them or i would have found a way to get the data.

I can't speak for WHSv1, but in WHS2011 and DrivePool when you pull a drive and plug it into another computer, you don't see anything on the drive until you set folder option to view hidden files.

At first I thought I lost some things too when I pulled a drive out of a WHS2011 machine with DrivePool installed despite Stablebit promising you can see everything even if you plug the drive into another computer.

Perhaps WHSv1 pooled files are the same way? Expose the hidden files in folder options.
 
Are there any options to get the de-duplication as well from v1?
 
I don't mean to derail this thread, but it looks like WHS is orphaned.

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-server/rip-windows-home-server-143619

I also realized I can merge my media center PC with my home server if I switch to Win8, so I think I might just do that instead. Obviously it'll keep working for a long time, this is just a third option.

Not a derailment at all. Seems like Windows 8 will have WHSv1 features (only better) that makes the development of WHS redundant.

From this site:

Windows 8: In Windows 8, Microsoft includes a feature called Storage Spaces that provides Drive Extender-like data redundancy and storage pooling functionality. But the ways in which Storage Spaces improves on Drive Extender are almost too numerous to contemplate. The redundancy is better, supporting two-way mirroring, three-way mirroring, or two-way mirroring with parity. You can have multiple pools, and multiple spaces within those pools, each of which provides a normal and compatible drive letter, and each of which utilizes the normal NTFS file system. Storage Spaces is better, easier to use, and more flexible. It's everything that we had with Drive Extender and more.
 
Personally, I'm skipping Win8 and it's incredibly sad that MS is dropping WHS along with Media Center (pretty much, it's clear that MS is orphaning MC too).
 
I jumped on the WHS bandwagon early on. I have 3 Intel SE4200's running WHSv1 which runs 24/7. They were a b*tch to set up being headless systems but once up and running they have proven to be rock solid stable and only go down when the power goes off. Given their reliablity, I'll run them till they quit and then look for another solution. When MS took Drive Extender out, they may as well have taken it completely off the market. If I were to use a 3rd party product like drive pool It wouldn't be with WHS.
 
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