It is currently Tue Mar 19, 2024 3:04 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]

Recent News:



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:21 am 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:04 am
Posts: 19
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Hi all

I have three WD Red 8TB drives in my X510 running WHS2011 but would like to use the system bay with a larger disc than the 2TB maximum.

With the range of high capacity USB sticks available these days I was just wondering if I could install WHS2011 on a USB stick and boot off the lowest of the rear USB ports.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  

Attention Guest: Remove this ad by Registering with the MediaSmartServer.net Forums. It's Free!
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:02 am 
Offline
Max Contributor
Max Contributor
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:29 am
Posts: 1510
Thanks: 6
Thanked: 191 times in 189 posts
It might work I have never tried it.
whs2011(Vail) requires a minimum 160 GB drive .
But then you only gain the os drive bay possibly.
But don't forget that there probably is some data on that os drive in the d partition.

Why not go with a 4 or 5 bay drive enclosure that can use either usb or esata.
I saw a 4 bay on amazon for like $90.00 the other day.

_________________
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:02 pm 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:04 am
Posts: 19
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
HI

I think I will just try it.

My curent set up has a 120GB SSD as the system drive and 60GB is used by WHS2011.

So I could use a 128GB USB stick.

I have a VGA, keyboard and mouse adaptor but not sure if I can get into the BIOS and change the boot order and permanently save the changed boot order. But then if the system disc bay hasn't got a bootable disc in then my thoughts are it should boot from the USB port. That is what happens when setting up WHS2011 from a USB stick.

I may hust do a partition copy from my current SSD to a USB stick using Paragon and see what happens.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 10:03 pm 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
nige wrote:
My curent set up has a 120GB SSD as the system drive and 60GB is used by WHS2011.

So I could use a 128GB USB stick.

I have a VGA, keyboard and mouse adaptor but not sure if I can get into the BIOS and change the boot order and permanently save the changed boot order. But then if the system disc bay hasn't got a bootable disc in then my thoughts are it should boot from the USB port. That is what happens when setting up WHS2011 from a USB stick.

I may just do a partition copy from my current SSD to a USB stick using Paragon and see what happens.

Make sure the mobo jumper is set correctly and you can get into BIOS by pressing DEL. If memory serves the boot settings are not fixed, can be changed & saved.

I also hear you saying that you've got it working OK fine with a smaller drive, but it couldn't hurt to use a stick bigger than 128gb for the test just to be safe. MS recommends the physical OS drive should be at least 160gb. You don't want to piss off Mr. Gates... [-X

Let us know how it goes!

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 4:55 am 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:04 am
Posts: 19
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
lioninstreet wrote:
nige wrote:

\:D/
Make sure the mobo jumper is set correctly


Thanks for the info.

Which jumper and what are the settings ?

I can see JP1 and JP2 on my mobo.

JP1 has a jumper on it, JP2 is bare.

It would be great if I can get this done as I need to replace the mobo anyway as the network connection stopped working. I have a spare board.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:19 am 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
Here is a link to a thread by Yakuza showing the process of setting up the jumper. It's the same on a ex49x series. Note that you may need to review Jkasal's post near the bottom of this thread (on September 24, 2009 at 8:25 pm) if you have any problems.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/01 ... x487-bios/

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:14 am 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:04 am
Posts: 19
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Got into the boot screen easily and set up USB as first boot device with an external HD case in the rear lower USB port. The case had WHS 2011 installed on it and had been the C drive when created. But it was now the D drive and the empty HD I put in the bottom HD bay was the C drive.

So my plan now is to try to install WHS 2011 on an Integral 128GB USB stick, one of the tiny metal cased ones.

What I will try is to install the WHS setup files onto a bootable hard drive.

Install WHS2011 to the USB stick and when done go into BIOS so it boots up to the USB stick. Hopefully I can then change the drive letter to C


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:56 am 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
Once you get the OS booting from the USB stick, it would be interesting to see if the MSS will permit it to boot using a different USB port other than the lower rear port.

That just in case the lower rear port needs to be used for something else like a PXE paperclip bypass with WHSv1 on a USB with a ex49x....

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14522&p=105009&hilit=paperclip+no+more#p105009

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 9:22 am 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
ricky450 wrote:
I think it is possible to because I have done it myself.
Hi ricky 450, Welcome to the site and thanks for the feedback! That opens some interesting possibilities, especially considering nige's success.
nige wrote:
So my plan now is to try to install WHS 2011 on an Integral 128GB USB stick, one of the tiny metal cased ones. What I will try is to install the WHS setup files onto a bootable hard drive, install WHS2011 to the USB stick and when done go into BIOS so it boots up to the USB stick. Hopefully I can then change the drive letter to C
nige, I just checked out those little Integral Memory flash drives. pretty cool, and it can be had all the way up to 512gb! I see why you chose it. I'm still amazed how much data they're now able to put on such a little stick.

It looks like they're mainly distributed in Europe. Who in the sates is selling them?

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2020 11:06 pm 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
Looks like SanDisk is selling a 512gb version stateside now and PNY is also offering one of these mini sticks but they only have 256gb.

Ive toyed with this lately using one of the PNY 256 sticks on an MSS and I've come across several challenges that Ricky450 didn't mention.

My first attempts were to simply load the WHS11 OS onto the stick installed in the MSS using an external DVD drive. This worked great right up to the point the OS started looking for the destination drive and wanted a driver for the stick. Worst case I have to start trying drivers and see if something sticks.

Next was a free app called WinToUSB, It apparently works well with w7 but has a usage restriction for server based OS's and requires a $300 purchase. [-X

Second attempt was using AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. This app is also free will load the WHS11 app onto a stick, but then after plugging it into the MSS, the OS begins but the install hangs when installing devices. To eliminate the issue being stick related (USB3.0 in a USB2.0 port) I tried an install of w7 on a 16gb USB2.0 stick. The install worked but it was uncomfortably slow to navigate the OS.

But there was finally a victory! The MSS will run nt6.1 on the stick.

I'm next installing w7 with USB3.0 drivers slipstreamed in onto the PNY 265gb USB3.0 stick in the hopes that the 2.0 stick wasn't saturating the MSS USB2.0 port and will run faster. If it does, I'll try the slipstream process on WHS11. If not I can either purchase AOMEI Partition Assistant Server (it's on sale at the moment). It will also load an existing install on to the stick.

Or I could try cloning an existing drive and load that onto the stick. Anyhow, it's a fun project...

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 9:07 pm 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
After having no luck trying a different disk with the server OS, it looks like the Windows to Go install issue has been finally isolated to the USB stick itself (a 256gb USB 3.0 PNY Elite-x Fit microstick).

This was found by using AOMEI, loading w7 (with USB 3.0 drivers slipstreamed in) onto the microstick, then trying to use it to boot a laptop and a homebuilt PC, both with native USB 3.0. It wouldn't run on either. The w7 OS was verified as working by loading it onto a old USB 2.0 PNY stick and running it on the original USB 2.0 target computer (albeit painfully slowly as SIW2 said). But it would run.

It's still possible that part of the issues experienced is AOMEI standard doesn't play nice with integrating the Server OS onto the USB stick. Another potential issue is the potential for an unusable OS speed, even when saturating a USB 2.0 port with a USB 3.0 stick.

Some time back, USB stick distributor of what appears to be somewhat questionable quality sticks ran HD Tune on their 8gb USB 2.0 & 3.0 sticks in both 2.0 & 3.0 ports. Natch the 3.0 trounced the 2.0, but it does show a nice improvement using a 3.0 stick with a 2.0 port.

USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0 Speed Test Results - Premium USB

2.0 stick - 2.0 port / HDTune Avg: 19.3 MB/sec
3.0 stick - 2.0 port / HDTune Avg: 31.2 MB/sec (+161%)
3.0 stick - 3.0 port / HDTune Avg: 54.9 MB/sec (+274%)

The only way to know for sure is buy a quality 3.0 stick with good NAND & controller that will run w7 on a USB 3.0 computer, then take it from there. So the question is, should I be looking for a high end stick with a SSD controller on it (something like Corsair's GTX) or is that overkill?

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group