I've got a HP MSS ex475. I've been using it with the original Seagate 500GB disk that came with the MSS and a Western Digital Green 1TB drive. My WD 1TB drive has recently failed (I have since google searched and found out there is an issue with these drives due to high load cycle counts and this is the likely reason why it has failed). Despite, the MSS saying it has failed, it still appears to function. The error message on the MSS I got when it failed was this (taken recently but it was the same message back when it failed too):
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I noticed then noticed that going into the Server Storage tab, both my drives were listed but the WD drive was showing as "Not Added". Right clicking on the drive would only give me a "Remove" option. I also noticed textual/graphical summary of remaining storage space would not display. Instead I would get a progress bar saying "calculating sizes..." and nothing would change. The image below shows what this looked like.

I then purchased a new Seagate 2TB to replace the WD drive. I added it to my drive pool. The status changed to "Healthy" and I got a green light. The Server Storage tab was still stuck on the progress for "calculating sizes...". An image of this can be seen here:
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When I attempt to remove the old WD it gives me this error:
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Does anyone know how I can resolve this? I thought it might be something to do with the "The Drive Extender Migrator Service is not running" warning but clicking on the link just takes me to this web page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/windows-home-server/help

Can anyone help or point me in the right direction. I can still see all my data as far as I can tell and I'm trying to do daily backups of my critical data in case the hard drive does completely go. However, I'd like to get everything migrated over to my new drive as soon as possible just to be on the safe side.

TIA

The easiest way to resolve the issue is to install another drive to provide the space WHS needs. You probably have Duplication turned on and there is probably not enough space on the DATA Partion on the System Drive to accomodate the data that was stored on the drive your attempting to remove. Of course you could turn off duplication and remove the drive. I would attempt to run a CHKDSK /r on the drive with the issue by connecting it to another computer and see if it might correct the issue but it also appears that WHS may have already removed the drive. If the drive LED in the bay the drive is installed in is purple in color then its not part of the drive pool anymore. You could also run the WD Diagnostic Utility to help determine the health of the drive. Its possible the drive just became corrupted. Its also possible you might be able to add the drive back into the pool but I would check the health of the drive out first.

If you download the ADD-IN HomeServerSmart you can examine the condition of the drive using that ADD-IN. If the drive checks out then try adding it back into the storage pool and see if the errors clear up otherwise replace the drive and if the drive was registered and purchased within the past 3 yrs it may still be covered under waranty. If you never registered the drive and still have the original receipt then WD should honor the waranty but I do believe the drive has a 3 yr waranty unless you popped it out of an external enclosure like the ELEMENTS USB External drive then its only a 1 yr waranty.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Thank you for your reply. I think some of your points have overlooked some of the information I've given in my opening post. It's possible that I've written things in haste in my opening post so they may not have come across as clear as I hoped. Anyway, to help clear things up, I've replied back to specific parts of your post in line. There's a few things for me to try which I will give a go but may be the additional information could help provide some other options as well:


I have already added a brand new 2TB drive. This should be more than enough space to migrate whatever data there is off the 1TB WD drive.


I will give this a go to see if it helps.


Although WHS shows the status as "Not added", all the files are still accessible and the drive LED is still blue.


I will give this ago along with the CHKDSK command.


No this is not possible, as mentioned in the opening post, the only option available on the 1TB drive is to "Remove", the other options are greyed out.


I will give this a go too.


It is currently not possible to re-add the drive.


I have already bought a replacement (the 2TB drive). This has been added to the drive pool successfully. However, WHS does not allow me to remove the 1TB drive and thus the data cannot migrate.


Unfortunately, the drive is just outside of the 3 year warranty period. However, I'm not concerned about the physical drive, I just want to migrate my data across.

If you set your computer so you can view Hidden Files and Folders, the data on the drive can be found in the DE folder. If you can read the drive then you can copy the data off the drive to a location of your chosing. If the files were duplicated on your server then what your viewing may be just the files which are on the other drive.

Lets just wait and see how the CHKDSK on the drive in question works out for you. In the mean time if you can copy the data to protect and preserve it this should be your first priority.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

This thread might be useful.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9730

I'd follow Comp1962's suggestions above, in particular the SMART Add-In and chkdsk on your drives. If those don't help, you can try physically removing the bad drive and then try to remove it from the console. Worst case scenario, back up your data and do a Factory Reset to get back to a clean state.
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-U ... 573697777f

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?

Just to follow up, I installed the HomeServerSmart add-in which was able to read the SMART data off the dodgy disk. The Load Cycle Count value was at a quite low 300 and therefore I can only assume my WD wasn't plagued with the common WD issue of having a very high Load Cycle Count.

I already had a back-up of most of my data so I backed-up the odd few files that weren't already in my back-ups and then I formatted the disk. I then ran a full system scan including checking bad sectors etc. It reported no issues and all seemed fine. I can only assume that the data or filing system on the HDD got corrupted and it wasn't a physical failure. This is great news as I can re purpose the drive for some other use.

Thank you for all the help from everyone. Very much appreciated