November WHS update issues

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:33:11 Z

I've run into a strange issue after installing the November WHS update.

Since the update my mapped drives to the shares on the server showing red (Windows Vista in My Computer) and saying there was 279GB free of 213GB. Upon getting on to the server and opening up My Computer I found the same the the D: (Data) volume is listed as being 213GB in size and having 279GB free. The server has the following drives in it:

Western Digital WD5000 - 500GB (465.76GB)

Quantum FreBall AS60 - 60GB (55.92GB)

Western Digital WD2500 - 250GB (232.98GB)

Maxtor 4A250 - 250GB (233.76GB) - Boot/System volume

Total Size: 988.33 GB
Free Space: 279.33GB

While this isn't a "show stopping" error it is a bit of a concern since I can't count on the system knowing how much free space there really is.

Anybody else run into this issue? Know how to resolve it?

Thanks!

Eric Sten

November WHS update issues

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:41:32 Z

Eric Sten said:

Your server is functioning as designed. WHS now reports the entire amount of free space to a client (before it only reported the free space on the primary drive).

November WHS update issues

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:44:08 Z

Eric,

Although it looks 'wrong', it's a result of part of the update where the available space that Vista sees is changed.
Previously, Vista could only 'see' the available free space on your D: partition, in your case 213GB as available for file transfers. However, the new version allows Vista to see the total space available to it for transfers, ( in your case, 279GB.

So, what you see is correct, if a little confusing!

Colin

If anyone answers your query successfully, please mark it as 'Helpful', to guide other users.

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:40:38 Z

Colin Hodgson said:

If anyone answers your query successfully, please mark it as 'Helpful', to guide other users.

Personally I would NOT call this correct, event though it's probably by design.

Correct would be if total size reported would be total size of "data partition", free space is total free space of "data partition". For Eric this would be Total size: 986.33 GB Free Space 279.33 GB.

Eric, I suggest you file a bug for this issue on Windows Home Server Connect Feedback site, and then put a link to your bug report overhere so others can vote on it.

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:28:40 Z

brubber said:

brubber,

It definitely is by design (although I agree, it looks wrong).

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:52:54 Z

Hi Eric...

I'm not too sure the people replying are reading your numbers correctly (279GB free of 213GB in total). I too have the same problem. On my WHS shares Vista is reporting 1.88TB free of 166GB. As a result Vista show all red as it think there is no space left on the shares.

Now the issue here is not what WHS is reporting as free... more that it is reporting the total size incorrectly. This is not by design, this is a bug.

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:05:49 Z

thebeersmith said:

Yes, I (and others too) are reading his figures correctly.

Although I personally agree this should not be happening (see my previous post in this thread) I'm afraid this is by design. That's why I asked OP to file bug report/suggestion on connect feedback site and try and get others to vote on it.

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:13:56 Z

thebeersmith said:

Yes, it is by design. The change has to due with the "landing zone" issue I raised on this thread 4 months ago. Before this update, Vista would not start to copy any data if there was not enough free space on the primary drive. This change effectively "lies" to the client in regards to how much free space is available on the server (it now tells the client how much total free space is available, not just how much is on the primary drive).

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:11:00 Z

If this is by design, then it's a bad design. If it's going to report the total available space, then it should show from the TOTAL space, not total space available out of a partial total space (the system drive). I'd rather have it the way it was than this "update".

It is also causing some programs to occasionally interpret my shares as full (which, judging by the red bar, so is Vista on some level) and will not allow me to write to them.

In addition to this poor asthetic, I'm also getting a *lot* more instances of not being able to edit/delete files/folders because of permission issues.

So, the question I have is this: Is there a way to uninstall this update? It's not fixed any issues that I had, and has made my experience with WHS much more clunky.

Ron

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:40:23 Z

dvdluvver said:

Please submit a bug before you uninstall so that we have the correct CABs. You should not be having permission issues and this behavior should be improved as far storage is concerned.

Thank you

Lara Jones [MSFT] Windows Home Server Team

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:14:55 Z

Let me just say that while I am having no technical issues with this update, the fact that Vista is showing my mapped drives all in red with the confusing 666GB Free of 445GB is absolutely horrible human factors. I hate it enough that I am sorely tempted to uninstall the update (I never ran into the problem that this update was trying to get around.

Perhaps a future Vista update could avoid showing all the red when the available free space is more than the space on the drive (or better yet, perhaps you could find a more elegant solution that doesn't require lying to the OS in the first place).

Bob

November WHS update issues

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:12:00 Z

kariya21 said:

I understand all about the landing zone issue... before this update I could not copy any files larger than 18GB to WHS. However while they have appeared to fix one issue (the way WHS reports the space available on a shared drive), they have neglected to address how WHS reports the total amount of space (not just the space available). In my case it is being reported as the size of the landing zone drive (166GB). So the space available is larger than the total space... which is a good trick (wish my bank account worked the same way ;-)

So this is by design?... I would not think so. Infact if you look at the properties of a mapped drive on Vista... Vista is showing the following info :-
"Used Space - working 815573480" <-- just displays "working" and some random uninitialized number.
"Free Space - 1.88 TB" <-- this is correct
"Capacity - 166 GB" <-- not correct, and appears to be the size of the landing zone drive.

The issues here is that Vista is unable to determine the used space (shown by the fact it displays "working")... simply because in the world of unsigned numbers, the calculation Total Space - Free Space = Used Space will not work in this instance.

Anyway... I would think this is an easy bug to identify and sort out, so hopyfully a fix will be available very soon.

November WHS update issues

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:26:32 Z

I am going to file a bug-report. I don't think that this "design" is the best way to leave this issue. I'm a network engineer/administrator by trade and know that this "design" would never fly in the corporate world. Yes the original issue has been resolved, being able to copy files to the server that are larger then the space on the main drive, but having both the server and the clients report that there is more space free then the server "thinks" it just crazy. One bug has been replaced with another "intentional" bug. Poor design to say the least. Reporting the total space available on ALL the drives on the server shouldn't be that difficult since it is already being done by Windows when expanding dynamic disks on a server to span multiple physical drives.

I'll get the bug report made and allow voting. Just as another note, I've seen at least 3 other postings about this same issue. So I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for this to be fixed.

Eric Sten

November WHS update issues

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:05:18 Z

The behavior is by design, yes. But I happen to agree that it's a bug. I can, however, tell you why I (at least) didn't report it a long time ago. I don't map drives to my server's shares (instead I use UNC paths for everything) and this issue only appears when you map a drive. Since I think most home users probably don't map drives, it's not too surprising that it went unnoticed.

I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)

November WHS update issues

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:29:28 Z

We currently have two bugs open on this. This is the master bug:

http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=384243

Please validate and/or comment on this bug.

Thanks

Lara Jones [MSFT] Windows Home Server Team

November WHS update issues

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:03:10 Z

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my bug/feedback post and to this message thread Lara! I'm going to mark this as answered.

Thanks!
Eric Sten

November WHS update issues

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:59:20 Z

I removed this thread as being answered because Microsoft has deemed this to be a bug that won't be fixed. So in my opinion the problem has not been resolved and thus not answered.

From the feedback status on the bug:

Type	Bug	ID	385042
Status	Resolved (Won't Fix)	Access Restriction	Public
Opened By	EricTSten	Blocking Issue	No
Opened	11/30/2008	Submission Language	English
Resolved	12/8/2008 7:23:49 PM

How does "Won't Fix" constitute as being resolved???

*sigh*

November WHS update issues

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:59:30 Z

Eric Sten said:

Type	Bug	ID	385042
Status	Resolved (Won't Fix)	Access Restriction	Public
Opened By	EricTSten	Blocking Issue	No
Opened	11/30/2008	Submission Language	English
Resolved	12/8/2008 7:23:49 PM

How does "Won't Fix" constitute as being resolved???

*sigh*

I apologize for the confusion.

They are working to update the KB to explain the behavior. The storage team explained that currently the way this has to work is that either the mapped drives will show the incorrect available space based on total available drive space or the landing zone behavior will be incorrect and users will not be able to copy files to their servers.

Lara Jones [MSFT] Windows Home Server Team

November WHS update issues

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:55:39 Z

Ken, I mapped a drive to the WHS to find my Photos I have stored there that I access with Picasa (Google). Now the drive is red. I never installed the update at the end of November so I suppose it was installed automatically however, in running the Connector troubleshooter it tells me I do not have the same version on the WHS that I have on my client. So that leaves me with three questions:

The mapped drive works fine so is it just a bug?

How do I know if the update is installed on my WHS?

How do I get the connection software to be the same?

Thank you very much.

HBV

November WHS update issues

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:09:36 Z

HBV said:

It is a known issue.

HBV said:

How do I know if the update is installed on my WHS?

Open the Console. Click on the Settings button, Resources tab. Look at the component numbers. 3 of them should be 6.0.1800.24 (the other 2 should be 6.0.1800.0).

HBV said:

How do I get the connection software to be the same?

If it is up-to-date, you will receive a message saying the versions don't match. It is also a known issue.

HBV said:

Thank you very much.

HBV

November WHS update issues

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:32:09 Z

Lara Jones said:

Lara Jones [MSFT] Windows Home Server Team

Huh... this is ridiculous.
It can't be left like this as it is causing Vista grief. Right-click a mapped drive a view the properties. If Vista can't workout what is happening with the mapped drive, what could happen to third-party apps?

This is nothing more than a sloppy implementation of the original bug fix. And if this is the best the dev team can do... well i'd be pretty disappointed.

November WHS update issues

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:10:23 Z

Thank you very much kaiya21. My WHS is up to date so I will just wait for the fixes.

HBV

November WHS update issues

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:29:51 Z

This is a serious bug. There is no way you can tell me that this is by design or working as intended. All of my drives are displayed in an error state in red because of this. Why can't you simply report the total space properly? You already gave us the total free space, now give us the total space as well.