Important information about Windows Home Server

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jethro's picture

I have just read the Technical Brief for Windows Home Server Drive Extender.

Update: that file link seems to be broken - I have attached the original PDF File

Here are some of the important points to note when using Windows Home Server:

  • windows home server logo Hard drives are formatted before they are added to server storage. Make sure that you back up any important files that are on the hard drive before you add it to server storage. Formatting a hard drive deletes all files on the hard drive.
  • Do not use USB 1.1. USB 1.1 is much slower than USB 2.0. The home server performs slowly if you connect hard drives to a USB 1.1 port. If you are using external hard drives, ensure that they are connected through USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394 (for example, FireWire). USB 2.0 works best with one drive per controller. Performance suffers if multiple hard drives are connected to a single USB 2.0 controller. Using hubs to connect multiple USB drives to a single controller has a negative impact on system performance and is not recommended.
  • If you unplug an external hard drive prior to using the Windows Home Server Console to remove it, the drive will be listed as Missing. In this case, you should immediately plug the hard drive back into your home server, and then follow the instructions in the Remove a Hard Drive Wizard to safely remove it.
  • It is highly recommended that you not use hardware RAID technologies for your home server. Recovering from hard-drive failures becomes increasingly complex when hardware RAID systems are used. The recommended approach is to use multiple hard drives that are configured as Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD).
  • Windows Home Server automatically manages the shared folders on your home server. Do not modify the underlying configuration of the shared folders that Windows Home Server manages. Creating shared folders outside of the Windows Home Server Console is not supported.
  • You can lose files if you remove a hard drive. To safely remove a hard drive, click the Server Storage tab on the Windows Home Server Console. If you do not have enough server storage space, Windows Home Server warns you that you could lose files or file duplication as a consequence of removing the hard drive. You will also lose files with file names longer than 240 characters as a consequence of removing a hard drive. Windows Home Server sends you a health message if you have files with file names longer than 240 characters. Rename these files with a shorter file name.
  • Do not use Disk Manager. Windows Home Server is a powerful system that automatically manages your hard drives for you. Almost any change that you make with Disk Manager will cause the storage system on your home server to fail, and possibly result in data loss.
  • You should not use the DEFRAG utility on your Windows Home Server hard drives. Defragmentation does not affect the primary data partition in a home server with multiple hard drives because the majority of files are 4 KB tombstones. The DEFRAG utility may cause issues with the Volume Shadow Copy Service that runs every 12 hours to create previous version snapshots of the shared folders on the home server.
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Windows_Home_Server_Drive_Extender.pdf675.3 KB