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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:53 pm 
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Thanks to its ease of use, my family is filling the server faster than I expected!

What should I look for when buying additional hard drives for my MSS?

Who makes the quietest, most reliable hard drives? Should I instead be looking for the fastest?


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:04 pm 
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I don't think you need the fastest drives, you're still limited by network access to the server. I would recommend getting the largest drives you can, at least 500GB and I personally would be watching for deals on 750GB or 1TB drives.

Everybody has brands they like, I've been partial to Western Digital in my past, but the right drive at the right price is usually what I go for. The new Western Digital "Green Power" drives spin themselves down when idle to save power, kind of cool but a relatively new feature, I believe.

Good luck, and let us know what you end up getting!


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 Post subject: Drives
PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:58 pm 
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I have read on the WHS site that the WD Green 1TB drives are problematic in the MSS.

I purchased from NewEgg 4 1TB Seagate 7200.11 drives. If you got to Tom's Hardware site you will see that they are extremely high performers and use the latest parallel technology. I have thusfar made no modifications to my MSS (RAM etc.) and have had no problems backing up 3 computers with over 1.5TB of data. With the 4 drives installed the MSS is relatively quiet. So far I am pleased with my purchase.

For performance conscious individuals I personally think getting big, fast, quality HD allows the MSS to perform very well.


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 Post subject: Hard Drive Failing
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:48 am 
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Once a week, I have been getting messages saying my hard drive is failing. A couple of clicks and what I think is a MSS CheckDisk, and the error message is gone. Is this something tied to regular maintainence or could my hard drive actually be failing.

If it is, I only have the one it came with...what happens when the primary hard drive crashes?

Thank you in advance for your suggestion/guidance.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:06 am 
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I've never really liked Seagate (past problems), but I have heard that the 7200.11 drives really are good.

I've had good experience with WD as well as some Maxtor drives. I've also had a Hitachi (IBM) but it failed. They did replace it and it worked fine after that...


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 Post subject: Average Hard Drive Life
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:59 am 
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My understanding is that hard drive failure rates are roughly 15% in five years. Those are pretty good odds overall, but what is a real life expectancy on a hard drive?

I'ld imaging this is a difficult question to answer since most of us upgrade well before failure. The MSS, however, offers a platform where drives could be running for a very long time...at least in theory.


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive Failing
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:06 am 
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Puertorican wrote:
Once a week, I have been getting messages saying my hard drive is failing. A couple of clicks and what I think is a MSS CheckDisk, and the error message is gone. Is this something tied to regular maintainence or could my hard drive actually be failing.

If it is, I only have the one it came with...what happens when the primary hard drive crashes?

Thank you in advance for your suggestion/guidance.


Those messages come from WHS and often simply mean that chkdsk has found some inconsistency, usually with indexes on the drive. Do you improperly shutdown your server, or power-cycle it, or anything like that which might cause a problem with the disk?

If it ever does fail, you can use the Server Recovery to replace the failed system disk.


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive Failing
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:08 am 
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Puertorican wrote:
Once a week, I have been getting messages saying my hard drive is failing. A couple of clicks and what I think is a MSS CheckDisk, and the error message is gone. Is this something tied to regular maintainence or could my hard drive actually be failing.

If it is, I only have the one it came with...what happens when the primary hard drive crashes?

Thank you in advance for your suggestion/guidance.


Are you using enterprise drives? Hard drives that are made for big server use in a RAID array often use firmware that are helpful for reporting performance issues in those big arrays. However I have read (somewhere - I don't remember where - perhaps at the WHS discussion board) that these "enterprise" drives can cause reporting problems in the MSS.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:03 pm 
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SPECIFICALLY, what issues have arised from the Western Digital
1tb "green drives"???

I have one of these, and I have not experienced any or noticed any issues with it?

Can you provide a link to the problem report(s), or cut and paste them in a reply?

THANJS


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 Post subject: Greg H
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:44 pm 
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Greg H wrote:
SPECIFICALLY, what issues have arised from the Western Digital
1tb "green drives"???

I have one of these, and I have not experienced any or noticed any issues with it?

Can you provide a link to the problem report(s), or cut and paste them in a reply?

THANJS


Greg H:
Thanks for your post. When I was researching every geek board on the WHS and MSS I read somewhere where some people were having problems installing the WD GP with other 7200 drives attached (perhaps one as the operating system drive). I apologize for not having the site as I was literally brainstorming like crazy in search of drives to put in to my ordered EX470. I liked the WD GP power saving and "quiet" features, and I was leaning that direction. Then I read several reviews comparing 1TB drives from Hitachi, Seagate and WD. I went with Seagate primarily for very high read/write/transfer rates AND the 5 year warranty. Since the MSS was a mystery box I had no idea what performance problems would arise if I bought the WD GPs, particularly in doing a lot of HD streaming and recording.

Sounds like you are having no problems - and that's great. You will probably have a lower power bill than I as well! :wink:

If I run into the discussion I will post it for you. However, if it works who cares what others say about their experience.


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 Post subject: Re: Hard Drive Failing
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:55 pm 
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yakuza wrote:
Puertorican wrote:
Once a week, I have been getting messages saying my hard drive is failing. A couple of clicks and what I think is a MSS CheckDisk, and the error message is gone. Is this something tied to regular maintainence or could my hard drive actually be failing.

If it is, I only have the one it came with...what happens when the primary hard drive crashes?

Thank you in advance for your suggestion/guidance.


Those messages come from WHS and often simply mean that chkdsk has found some inconsistency, usually with indexes on the drive. Do you improperly shutdown your server, or power-cycle it, or anything like that which might cause a problem with the disk?

If it ever does fail, you can use the Server Recovery to replace the failed system disk.


I haven't had any power outtages or forced shut downs. I even have the system on a battery back up. What else could be causing the CHKDSK cue?


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:35 am 
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Hmm, I'm not sure, I suppose it's possible you could have a sub-optimal disk, though it seems unlikely. What is the frequency with which you've seen the error? I've only seen it a couple times...

You can read more about it on the WHS forums


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:49 am 
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yakuza wrote:
Hmm, I'm not sure, I suppose it's possible you could have a sub-optimal disk, though it seems unlikely. What is the frequency with which you've seen the error? I've only seen it a couple times...

You can read more about it on the WHS forums


So, I've seen it once a week since I owned the device...just twice. Maybe it won't happen again. In my home, the MSS is primarily for peace of mind that I won't lose all my data. Just in case, I backed everything up to a USB drive and put that in a safe. I'ld like to never have to do that again. Hopefully this is just a minor glitch.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:36 pm 
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Can anyone else vouch that the 1TB WD green drives seem to be fine for the Mediasmart? I just ordered two of them, & then saw the post about how someone supposedly had issues...!


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:37 pm 
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Alex and I can both vouch for it. It's running just fine.


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