So, recently I acquired an EX495. (WHSV1 PP3) I have two six-month-old 3TB WD "red" drives from my previous NAS that I'd like to put into the drive pool for the EX495.

I've reviewed and understand the forum posts describing the default MBR --> 2.1TB limitations of WHSv1, and the workaround process to get GPT disks recognized by WHS and DE.

I was planning to steam ahead full throttle until I came across the following post which caught my attention.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1673666
My key takeaway from that was- you might be able to get WHS to recognize your GPT disk, and the full >2.1TB capacity, but when the time comes that you actually start writing far enough into the disk, you run into problems.

This got me digging further, leading me to a few posts where people said driver updates were required to have the >2.1 TB disks work properly. Some comments (and broken links,) referenced updated "intel Matrix drivers" or "rapid storage drivers" and one comment stated that the BIOS needs to be reconfigured for AHCI in order to get these larger GPT disks to work. (Requiring a VGA cable, etc.)

Taken together, I'm wondering if anyone can confirm that more is required to get >2.1TB GPT disks fully and reliably working to their full capacity IN DRIVE EXTENDER on an EX495 than what's laid out in the fine tutorials referenced here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1559559
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/ ... n-whs-pp3/
http://spackle.wordpress.com/2011/04/22 ... in-whs-v1/

Or, is it the case that, even after you get past the MBR/ GPT thing, there is still be a more subtle problem waiting in the wings with your hardware drivers, which doesn't show up until long after you might think everything's up and running fine with your nice new >2.1TB disk?

If, in fact, driver updates/ BIOS changes ARE requried to use larger GPT disks in an EX495 with WHSv1, I'd really appreciate some more specific details about what drivers are the right ones, or what specific changes should be made. Thanks.

The easiest way to check to see if the 3TB are recognised by your server is to use a Remote Desktop connection and use Disk Management. You should see the 3TB drive. Convert the drive to GPT and format it. If you still have 2.1TB and 768GB left over then you have a problem. If the drive format uses the complete drive and has 2.78TB, then your off to a good start. Then you can follow the wiki.

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HP MediaSmart EX495 E8600 3.2Ghz CPU, 4GB ram, 8TB storage including 3TB drives in pool. WHS with Active Directory, WDS, Media Center Master, Logitech server. Office 2010 server with client add-ins.
Microsoft MVP - Windows Home Server.

Hi, Yes, I've been using RDP to do Disk Management and other administrative functions on the server, and that works fine.

The first time I tried adding a 3TB disk through the management console, it only showed 768GB as some others have reported, and I wasn't able to convert the disk to GPT as I had planned to do by following the guides to making GPT disks work on WHSv1.

I subsequently removed the disk in WHS console, then physically from the unit, and connected the disk to a USB cable. I converted it to a GPT disk with a Win7 computer, though I gave up on formatting it since it was taking forever.

Later, I updated my "intel ICH9R/D0/DH SATA AHCI controller" driver in the server to rev 10.8.0.1003, as directed elsewhere, by downloading from here:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail ... ldID=20768

On reinstalling the drive in the server, and adding it again through WHS console after the driver update, the disk is now recognized as a 3TB disk, of which 2.1TB is added to the storage pool. There's a big (~768GB) chunk of the disk now reserved for "system." So at least that's a better amount of disk availability than the 768GB I was getting before, but still not the entire drive capacity. However, in Disk Management, now I AM able to convert it directly to a GPT disk without having to remove it from the server like before.

So, I removed the disk from the storage pool in WHS console, and converted it to GPT in Disk Management. It's currently in the process of formatting, and with a good format out of the way, I'll try following the guide again and see what happens. I hope WHS won't choke because it's expecting to see this 768GB chunk of each big disk reserved for the System that won't be there.

I've all but abandoned WHS v1, except for occasional testing of Home Server SMART Classic. I've been running WHS 2011 and then later transitioned to Windows Server 2012 R2 (with the Essentials feature). That said, I am not able to provide any guidance to using 3TB disks with WHS v1. Microsoft is continuing extended support into July of 2015 for the Server 2003 product family, but this is just maintenance...hotfixes, security patches, etc.

You're not going to find a non-advanced format disk in a 3TB capacity, and using AFDs with WHS v1 is tricky in its own right. I wrote up an extensive process on how to use AFDs with WHS v1. This includes partitioning and formatting the disk on another system, which may enable you to "get around" the limitations. I would certainly proceed with caution.

I have a 3TB Western Digital Red drive in my EX487 and it works without issue, under Windows Server 2012 R2. This server does have a "hacked" BIOS which was derived from the EX49x BIOS. This BIOS hack was not done to support the disk, however, but rather to support the Intel E5300 dual core CPU.

Matt

_________________
Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Hi Matt, thanks for the comments.
Seems like fewer and fewer people are sticking with WHSv1 so much any more. I'm stubborn I suppose, but I'm starting to see why.

I've spent a few hours this evening fiddling with this, trying to get a 3TB Red AF drive properly integrated into the drive pool for my EX495. Much of the stuff I've been trying involved suggestions and information based on the guide you wrote about getting AF drives working in WHSv1.

That said, I think it may be one thing to get AF drives with MBR volumes working in WHSv1, and a different thing to get AF drives with GPT partitioning working in WHSv1.

By following the approaches outlined in guides by cbutters and yourself, I WAS indeed able to get the 3TB recognized in DE and added to the storage pool, (without any 768GB chunk reserved for "system" as experienced previously, ) but not without lots of nasty messages at startup from WHS about errors of various services, (backup service, virtual disk service, etc.)

It seemed like no matter what I've tried, (which included using diskpart instead of Disk Management to create a partition on my GPT disk that's properly aligned to a 4096k sector boundary,) I'd still end up with lots of system and service errors, and no nice "acceptance" of my new GPT disk into the storage pool.

I was even getting numerous "file sharing" errors for files that aren't even located on the newly added storage pool drive, which has got me really nervous. Trying to access these files from another system results in "file handle" errors, trying to access these files within WHS via RDP doesn't seem to be working either. I deleted the problematic files, but then new ones came up with the same errors the next time I booted up. Fortunately this data is backed up elsewhere, but I wonder if all of the data on there is toast.

I do think that it should be possible to get 3TB GPT AF disks available in WHSv1 as backup disks, but am starting to feel doubtful about getting them to work properly in the storage pool with DE.

Like Matt I have moved away from WHSv1 first to WHS2011 and then to WS2012E (not the R2). I do continue to run a WHSv1 server for a couple dedicated tasks but to be honest this may be its last year running. I do have an EX485 running WHS2011 and its been very stable and I use it to run a dedicated task too but my primary server is WS2012E.

The thing with WHSv1 is its showing its age and if you want to run the newer and larger drives then as your finding out it takes a lot of effort. Where as this is not quite the case using WHS2011 or WS2012. While WHS2011 natively only supports 2TB Drives you can run the larger drives in a pool using Drive Bender or Stablebit Drive Pool. Thing is once you have WHS2011 or WS2012 running with a 3rd Party Drive Pool Software solution the issue of running the larger than 2TB Drives becomes a no brainer it just works. Just which pooling software to use is up to you I can not recommend one over the other. I use Stablebit Drive Pool while others use Drive Bender and claim it works better for their needs. I never played with Drive Bender as Stablebit Drive Pool has always done what I needed it to do. I believe Matt uses Drive Bender because he ran into an issue with Stablebit Drive Pools not doing something which Drive Bender resolved for him and I am sure he may chime in on that exact reason which may or may not be helpful to you.

Simply put make it easier on yourself and put those 3TB Drives to use in a solution that can work with them properly. Even if your attached to WHSv1 and want to continue running it you can run it along side another server solution the problem here is it costs money for the hardware and software or if you upgrade the OS on your EX495 you will have some work to do to get the Drive Lights working and such but once done its done and you can then run those larger drives.

Give it some thought and if you enjoy tinkering to get something to work where its not quite designed to work then there is fun in doing so but if you just want a solution that you can run without having to tweak the hell out of something then you will have to find a new solution. Nothing right or wrong here just options to look at.

_________________
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

I'm not particularly "attached" to WHSv1, except for that's what's with the HP "MediaSmart" package. I do like a few of the features that are built into the HP solution. I can't update the OS to WHS2011 and have it remain a "MediaSmart" server anymore, can I?

The funny thing here is- I was HOPING to be able to use the HP mediasmart stuff pretty much "out of the box" but frankly, things mostly have been an exercise in "trying to tweak the hell out of it" to get things working as I'd expect them to.

This was the case with the LX195 that I had, and now it's happening again with this EX495.

Did you end up getting the 3TB drive installed properly ? Does it show up properly in Server Storage ? Can you post a screen capture ?

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HP MediaSmart EX495 E8600 3.2Ghz CPU, 4GB ram, 8TB storage including 3TB drives in pool. WHS with Active Directory, WDS, Media Center Master, Logitech server. Office 2010 server with client add-ins.
Microsoft MVP - Windows Home Server.

The LX195 was limited from the get go. I have one here just to have it but could not envision it for use. The EX495 however is a completely different animal and more robust.

There are some nice features that HP did put into the 3.x software and I will leave it at that. Exactly what are you looking to do or better yet what features do you like on your server? Aside from the issue with getting the 3TB Drives to work what other issues are you having to deal with?

I tell you honestly if Diehard says you can get the larger drives to work in your storage pool then it can be done. I think he has taken every MSS unit he has around the world and back a few times. Sometimes you just need to put things aside for a day or two take a deep breath and then readdress the issue again. Often one might over look one small detail which can cause a magnitude of frustration. Best to review what needs to be done a few times then tackle the issue slowly and amazing things can happen.

One thing about WHSv1 is its showing its age but at the same time it has a wealth of ADD-INs that are available to add features to it. Over the years I enjoyed using WHSv1 and I out grew it so yes I moved on but that does not mean its no longer viable its just showing its age but many still run the OS and enjoy it.

_________________
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

@Diehard:
Re: Did I get the 3TB working properly and added to storage pool? Yes and no.
Like I said above, I DID get it so it SEEMED to be recognized in the storage pool to its full capacity, (no screenshot, sorry,) but something was still not right, since the backup service wouldn't start correctly, and there were many nasty windows system-ish messages at every startup. Moreover, using Disk Management to convert the disk to GPT and format it seemed to give me a big partition that wasn't properly aligned at a 4096 byte sector boundary. This is based on using WMIC to check partition info for the new GPT partition, then dividing the starting offset by 4096 which gave me something that ended with .25. I think that means "not aligned."

So, I used diskpart instead, to delete and recreate a properly aligned partition, then updated registry values accordingly per cbutters' guide. Here, too, only partial success, since backup service, etc. still wasn't working properly. I'm not sure why, since I have ONLY been RDPing into the server at this point, and don't even have any computers associated with the server and being backed up. I guess the server backs up itself???

I DID try adding the new GPT partitioned and aligned volume as a "backup disk" instead of as part of the storage pool. For some reason, the WHS console wasn't happy doing that, either. In the end, I just added the new aligned GPT disk manually as another system hard drive, and copied all the share contents onto it for a manual backup. The WHS console doesn't have anything to do with the new disk, and my blue light continues to flash on the front of the server for that disk.

@Comp1962
Honestly, I mostly just wanted a nice fast server for media storage, streaming, and sharing, and which could allow me to VPN into my home network. I saw a few reviews that made the mediasmart servers look like a fairly good performance value for the money, so I picked up an LX195 off Ebay a while ago, and the EX495 off Craigslist just recently. I had high hopes for my LX195 when I got it, especially for the media streaming, but they just didn't pan out.

Up to now, I've been completely happy with my old Buffalo Linkstation LS-XH1.5TL which works great for what it does-- which is about 85% of what I want. But it's only a single drive unit, and I've run into capacity limitations. The LX195 ended up being a backup for the Linkstation until its HDD failed, and now I've acquired this EX495, which is the unit I really WANTED anyway. I'm hoping I can get the server working ok for it to be the primary device I'm using, and I'll have the Linkstation for data backup.

At present, the only thing I actually really USE with the MediaSmart server is the remote access domain name/ IP redirection thing that links to your microsoft Live account to allow you your own personal subdomain beneath e.g. homeserver.com. However, I really would like to have the transcoding-on-the-fly which I THOUGHT the MSS was supposed to do for media serving.

I haven't had enough good experience with it yet to have gotten into what's available with other add-ons, etc.

From what I can see so far, I DO like the MSS 3.0 compared to what was on the LX195.

I really never was fully fond of the Media Functions that HP provided with their MSS although many do enjoy those functions I opted to go with other software solutions. For online media streaming I use Subsonic for Music and Remote Potato for Movies. Now subsonic does allow you to stream movies its does not do quite as good of a job as Remote Potato. Both of these programs have apps available for Android and iPhone/iPad devices.

This weekend if you like I can setup a Remote Potato Site on the EX49x and dump a couple of movies on it to let you see what it would be like to see if its of interest to you. Remote Potato does stream music and pictures as well but I don't get into the picture end of things and I think Subsonic does a much better job with the music.

As for streaming content within your home the MSS has its Twonky component but its known to have issues but those issues can be worked around and some prefer Serviio. For me I use some basic media devices on my TV's that work well and do not require me to use Twonky on any of my servers.

My first WHS device was an EX470 which I still have but things are funny because I purchased it because it was less expensive to purchase then for me to build a unit. Then I started building custom servers tailored to my needs. Now I am fond of the MSS which caused me to collect them so I have just about ever model series here in the house to play with. While I do not particularly use them as I once did I found that they work well for media streaming.

I actually prefer to use an MSS for media streaming with WHS2011 installed because WHS2011 does not have the DE component which I was upset about when it was removed but that alone takes a lot of the overhead off a server like the MSS to allow much smoother video streams. Of course I opted to go with Stablebit Drive Pool to replace the missing DE component and it works much better then DE did. The other option would be to go with Drive Bender which I have never used but many claim its better then Stablebit Drive pool but I can only talk about what I know.

Long story short, if you want to see what media streaming with Remote Potato is like on an EX490 just send me a PM and I will set it up this weekend and let you take it for a test ride. I will also add that Remote Potato will stream a wider variety of video formats then what the MSS Supports. I can also throw in WHS2011 on the EX490 and install Remote Potato to let you see the difference there or could just open up the EX485 running WHS2011 so you can see how that works out to help you figure out if you might be better off with WHS2011 or with the WHSv1. I do have a WHSv1 server running Remote Potato but its a completely different animal and it was built to stream content.

One more thing I have to mention and that is the speed of your internet connection will also have an impact on how well your server will be able to stream content. You really need a decent connection speed on both ends to get good results.

_________________
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

If you can find Seagate drives with Smartalign then they are plug and play with a Server 2003 or XP system, the O/S will still mess things up but the drive will fix it on the fly