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     I manually copied roughly 650GB's of data (over 115K files) from a USB drive to the shared folder of my WHS.   I then attached the USB drive (with all the data still on it) to a computer in my network and kicked off a back-up.  It has been running for 3 days now and is at 78% complete.

    Given that the files are already on a shared folder on the WHS, I would have thought a backup would be faster. Is the long backup time due to the fact that for each of the 115K files, WHS has to check to see if the exact same file already exists on the WHS system and log that data away? I'm hoping it is not trying to copy each file over again.

    Will future back-ups be any faster?  Thx,  Harish
    Tuesday, December 2, 2008 4:04 AM

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    The easiest way to remove the files from the backup database is to remove the computer, using the console, then run the backup database cleanup wizard in the console. Then re-join the computer; this can be done by running:

    %ProgramFiles%\Windows Home Server\discovery.exe

    in a command prompt. It will run the wizard which joins the computer and prompts you to set up backups.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    • Edited by Ken WarrenModerator Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:09 PM edit again
    • Marked as answer by Harish M Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:43 PM
    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:08 PM
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    Hi Harish,
    files in Shared folders on server are not the same as data stored in backup.
    The WHS backup database only stores clusters and the reference to the files, to which the cluster belong. So if a cluster with identical content appears twice, it's enough, to store another reference instead. While this makes the storage very efficient avoiding to store redundant date it makes the database also a bit sensible against corruption and slows down the access to the data.
    But this does not include files in Shared folders, since they are stored natively on the server outside of the backup database.

    Future backups of the same stuff will be faster, if there is not another reason for the slow speed (i.e. bad network connection between client and server or slow USB interface speed).
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf

    Tuesday, December 2, 2008 4:52 AM
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    Olaf,  thanks,  I get it.  I thought that if the files were in the shared folder, a reference would have been created and the file not backed up again.

    So I guess I now have 2 copies of each file (one in backup and one in share). 

    Regards, Harish

    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 4:55 PM
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    Harish,

    If you have Duplication enabled, you will now have three copies of the files! One copy on each of two WHS drives through duplication and one in your backups.

    Colin


    If anyone answers your query successfully, please mark it as 'Helpful', to guide other users.
    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 5:48 PM
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     Colin,  Luckly I don't -- otherwise it would be 4 -- 1 in the shared folder, 2 in backup and 1 on the orginal USB drive! 

    The backup still has not finished yet (is at 91%) this morning.  The disk utilization shows one drive as red and at 90+% the other at 2%.   I have 2 1TB drives.  This is really not that different from when I started the backup. I'm guessing that the disk usage gets updated after the backup or they have one great compression alogrithm in WHS.  Hopefully it does not crash.

    If I want to delete the back-up version of the files, do I just deselect the USB drive and back-up again or is there a different procedure? 

    Also, I think most of these use cases would get answered in primer some where.  I'll hunt around for one... but if someone has a link handy, can you please post it.

    Regards,  Harish
    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:03 PM
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    The easiest way to remove the files from the backup database is to remove the computer, using the console, then run the backup database cleanup wizard in the console. Then re-join the computer; this can be done by running:

    %ProgramFiles%\Windows Home Server\discovery.exe

    in a command prompt. It will run the wizard which joins the computer and prompts you to set up backups.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    • Edited by Ken WarrenModerator Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:09 PM edit again
    • Marked as answer by Harish M Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:43 PM
    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:08 PM
    Moderator