First my setup:
-HP Data Vault X310 with 2 x 2TB drives added (a 3rd 2TB to be added soon)
-pyTivo running on the WHS
-Netgear Gigabit switch
-3 TiVo Premier XL's wired to the switch with CAT 5 cable
-Most content stored in mpeg-2 format

My problem is that when I start watching a video program the transfer rate cannot keep up. I notice that when I copy files to the WHS from my desktop computer I get widely varying transfer rates. Sometimes it will be about 10MB/Sec, which I assume is about the max for a 100 MBit NIC and other times it will be down to 1MB/Sec or less. I've been running WHS for about 2 years now, but the X310 is new as is the TiVo's and the 2TB of DVD content ripped to mpeg-2.

I don't know how to get a look into what the WHS is actually doing. I also do not know if there is a software solution to see what is happening on my network. As I understand a network switch the traffic should only be between the two ports that are exchanging data, unlike a hub that sends all data to all ports.

So far if I just transfer from one TiVo to another I have not seen the problem. I can start the transfer and start watching right away and never get to the point where I run out of data.

Hi jtcweb welcome to the forums

The best way to see what your server is doing is to use Remote Desktop Connection. When it asks for the name of the computer you want to connet to just enter your servers name. When asked for the user name enter Administrator and when asked for the password just enter the password you provided to the server.

After a warning which you can close and its abit intimidating when you first see it just understand what they are telling you and close it. You will then see the servers desktop which for the most part will operate just like any Windows Desktop and its there where you can check out the Task Manager and see what your server is actually doing.

Check things out and then if you find you need additional help just write back. One thing you may want to consider is the overal design of the X310 and what it was actually intended to do which is basically to share files and backup clients. Streaming media maybe possible but if your also transcoding then that alone can put a big hit on the processor. If you have other Gigabit devices on your network you may want to also consider upgrading your network to gigabit although that will not do much for the 10/100 devices but for the gigabit devices it will speed things up there provide the CPU is not the bottleneck which you will soon find out.

Alex wrote a review on the X310 which may also help you better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the server you have which may or may not shed some light on the performance expectations. If you like you can read his review from the link below.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/06 ... ata-vault/

_________________
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

Also, do you have any Advanced Format drives?

_________________
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?

I picked the format of the videos I'm storing so there doesn't need to be any trans-coding, as I understand the processor is a bit on the lite side.

I'm not sure what "advanced format" drives are. I just added two drive the "normal" way - Plug them in and add them to the storage pool.

Check this article out: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/12 ... me-server/

_________________
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?

The X310 unit came with a 1TB system drive and WHS server installed. Would that drive either not be advanced format or have it disabled? I suspect that the drives I have are advanced format, do I have to move the data off of them to disable this?

I pulled the 2nd & 3rd drives and confirmed that they are both advanced format drives (WD20EARS). The drives do have the jumper option, am I correct in my understanding that I will lose the data on the drive when I install the jumper? If I turn off folder duplication I would have enough space to remove one drive at a time, jumper it and then put it back in. Once I do that to both drives I can turn folder duplication back on.

Does it take a long time to "remove" a drive from the WHS console?

It can take hours to remove a drive, depending on how much data is on the drive and how much free space you have.

_________________
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?

You mention the original system drive and 2 unjumpered EARS drives which means you have room for one more drive. You could add in a 4th drive then remove one of the EARS Drives then you could correct the issue with the EARS Drive by installing the jumper or running the Align Utility available for download on the Western Digital Web Site then you could add the drive back in the storage pool and remove the other unjumpered EARS Drive then correct the issue and then add it back into the storage pool.

_________________
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