WHS Says Duplication of Folders is failing because not enough free space available

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  After downloading most of the Action Pack into a WHS folder (86.23GB), WHS is telling me "Duplication is failing for shared folder: MS Source. There is not enough free space available to maintain a copy on more than one hard drive." I am also getting "Not Enough Free Space on Some Hard Drives". and when I deleted some unneeded files in other folders (1.5 GB worth approx.), the first error went away but I still have the second. I have about 936.35 GB free. Now for the strange part; looking at Disk Manager, I see the following SYS (C:) volume cap=20GB, free=13.6GB; DATA volume cap=1397.26GB, free=931.99GB; DATA (D:) volume cap=91.78GB, Free=936.36GB or 1020% free. Hmmmm. A little corruption? A separate problem?
  
  

  First, logging into the server desktop is unsupported.  Second, that is normal for how WHS works so no need to worry about it.
  
  

  I've seen some threads which indicate adding a larger disk then removing a smaller disk (which I did) can leave your disk pointers (?) or cache (?) or free space (?) screwy. Would the partition table indicate this condition?
  
  I have a home brew hardware setup with two drives, 120GB & 1.5TB, both internal running a Commercial (as opposed to Action Pack/Partners) WHS w PP3.
  
  Thoughts on why WHS is warning me there is insufficient free space to enable folder duplication and yet there are no longer warnings about Folder Duplication failing?

  Proabably because you don't have enough room on your 120 GB drive to keep a duplicate copy of every file.  If that drive is your primary drive, you lose 20 GB for that, plus the fact that WHS keeps 20 GB free per drive would knock you down to about 80 GB of usable space on that drive.

  • Proposed as answer by Olaf EngelkeModerator Monday, January 18, 2010 9:33 AM

  Monday, January 18, 2010 6:54 AM

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  After downloading most of the Action Pack into a WHS folder (86.23GB), WHS is telling me "Duplication is failing for shared folder: MS Source. There is not enough free space available to maintain a copy on more than one hard drive." I am also getting "Not Enough Free Space on Some Hard Drives". and when I deleted some unneeded files in other folders (1.5 GB worth approx.), the first error went away but I still have the second. I have about 936.35 GB free. Now for the strange part; looking at Disk Manager, I see the following SYS (C:) volume cap=20GB, free=13.6GB; DATA volume cap=1397.26GB, free=931.99GB; DATA (D:) volume cap=91.78GB, Free=936.36GB or 1020% free. Hmmmm. A little corruption? A separate problem?
  
  

  First, logging into the server desktop is unsupported.  Second, that is normal for how WHS works so no need to worry about it.
  
  

  I've seen some threads which indicate adding a larger disk then removing a smaller disk (which I did) can leave your disk pointers (?) or cache (?) or free space (?) screwy. Would the partition table indicate this condition?
  
  I have a home brew hardware setup with two drives, 120GB & 1.5TB, both internal running a Commercial (as opposed to Action Pack/Partners) WHS w PP3.
  
  Thoughts on why WHS is warning me there is insufficient free space to enable folder duplication and yet there are no longer warnings about Folder Duplication failing?

  Proabably because you don't have enough room on your 120 GB drive to keep a duplicate copy of every file.  If that drive is your primary drive, you lose 20 GB for that, plus the fact that WHS keeps 20 GB free per drive would knock you down to about 80 GB of usable space on that drive.

  
  Thanks for the reply. I think you are missing the point, though. I'm not quite sure what you mean by unsupported. The only reason I was logging into the server desktop was to gather diagnostics via Disk Manager or Event Viewer as any good System Administrator would. Without knowing how WHS works, I would be very reluctant to change anything.
  
  That is an excellent explanation, but that could hardly be the normal condition of WHS storage could it? I mean, after all, what about the other partition with 936GB or so free (the Windows Home Server Console says there is 921GB free)? If WHS doesn't use any additional disks then what good is adding disks? I'm pretty sure WHS doesn't require a single, monolitic, massive drive? I guess what I am asking is what is the configuration or workaround (if this is a bug) so WHS uses the disk available to it and not just the disk it resides. This would be especially helpful since there are no controls for configuring storage locations that I can see.

  Monday, January 18, 2010 7:57 PM
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  If you have 100 GB of files in your shares, then in order to turn on duplication for all shares, you will need, in addition to the first 100 GB, another 100 GB on a different drive. If you don't have the space to duplicate everything on a separate drive, then you will see the first error you mentioned.

  
  

  In addition to that, Windows Home Server wants to maintain at least 20 GB free on each drive in the storage pool. If you store so much stuff on your server that one drive drops below that point, then you see the second error. Given that you have turned duplication on for some or all of your shares, and you have a second larger drive, it's probably your system drive that's full.

  
  

  This is all normal behavior, and it indicates that you need an additional hard drive, or that you need to replace a small drive with a larger one. The easiest way to do replace a drive (other than the system drive, which I would not advise you to replace) is to add the new drive to the storage pool, then remove the old drive from the storage pool. It will not corrupt data as you fear. But in your case, just replacing one large drive with another large drive probably won't help. Add another drive to the two you have now, preferably one that's about the size of your largest current drive.

  ---

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

  Monday, January 18, 2010 8:11 PM

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  If you have 100 GB of files in your shares, then in order to turn on duplication for all shares, you will need, in addition to the first 100 GB, another 100 GB on a different drive. If you don't have the space to duplicate everything on a separate drive, then you will see the first error you mentioned.
  
  Ken, thanks for the reply. I do have a sufficient amount of storage available on another disk. This is one of the points I am trying to make. I got the error when I added 86GB to a folder and I have about 921GB available on another drive.
  
  

  In addition to that, Windows Home Server wants to maintain at least 20 GB free on each drive in the storage pool. If you store so much stuff on your server that one drive drops below that point, then you see the second error. Given that you have turned duplication on for some or all of your shares, and you have a second larger drive, it's probably your system drive that's full.

  
  

  This is all normal behavior, and it indicates that you need an additional hard drive, or that you need to replace a small drive with a larger one. The easiest way to do replace a drive (other than the system drive, which I would not advise you to replace) is to add the new drive to the storage pool, then remove the old drive from the storage pool. It will not corrupt data as you fear. But in your case, just replacing one large drive with another large drive probably won't help. Add another drive to the two you have now, preferably one that's about the size of your largest current drive.
  
  OK. I understood all of that, Ken, prior to your explanation. You are telling me that since WHS partitioned the remainder of disk 0 as a data partition, neither WHS nor I can store files that will constitute more than 50% of that partition's size if I expect to turn Folder Duplication on for some or all folders stored on that partition. WHS will NOT store the duplicate folder on a different disk, no matter what (this is its current behavior whether that is right or wrong). I currently cannot or do not know how to tell what is stored where because of the peculiar way Disk Management reports disk storage in WHS and there is no report in WHS that will tell that. There is no viable workaround since I can add a new (perhaps larger), but cannot take the DATA partition offline without removing the OS system partition it is on the same disk (0) which WHS treats as a whole disk and ignores the partitions. Is that about it?

  Tuesday, January 19, 2010 2:46 AM
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  Ken, thanks for the reply. I do have a sufficient amount of storage available on another disk. This is one of the points I am trying to make. I got the error when I added 86GB to a folder and I have about 921GB available on another drive.
  
  

  The problem is you don't have 86 GB of free space on each drive.  There is obviously plenty of space on the 1.5 TB drive, but there is not enough room on your 120 GB primary drive (because the max you can store on the data portion of that drive is about 80 GB, and that's assuming nothing else is already stored there).
  
  

  OK. I understood all of that, Ken, prior to your explanation. You are telling me that since WHS partitioned the remainder of disk 0 as a data partition, neither WHS nor I can store files that will constitute more than 50% of that partition's size if I expect to turn Folder Duplication on for some or all folders stored on that partition.
  
  

  No.  You can use all of the space on the primary drive except for A) 20 GB for the OS partition and B) 20 GB that WHS keeps as free space on each drive.
  
  

  WHS will NOT store the duplicate folder on a different disk, no matter what (this is its current behavior whether that is right or wrong).
  
  

  That's because, in your situation, it can't.  You simply don't have room to have 86 GB duplicated on the 120 GB primary drive (since the max free space on that drive is only about 80 GB).
  
  

  I currently cannot or do not know how to tell what is stored where because of the peculiar way Disk Management reports disk storage in WHS and there is no report in WHS that will tell that.
  
  

  It's not necessary.  WHS handles the files so you don't have to worry about it.
  
  

  There is no viable workaround since I can add a new (perhaps larger), but cannot take the DATA partition offline without removing the OS system partition it is on the same disk (0) which WHS treats as a whole disk and ignores the partitions. Is that about it?

  All you have to do is add a hard drive (of at least 86 GB) to the storage pool and your Folder Duplication will then work for that folder.
  

  Tuesday, January 19, 2010 3:27 AM

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  Once again, thanks for the reply. I still am not getting this.
  
  The problem is you don't have 86 GB of free space on each drive.  There is obviously plenty of space on the 1.5 TB drive, but there is not enough room on your 120 GB primary drive (because the max you can store on the data portion of that drive is about 80 GB, and that's assuming nothing else is already stored there).
  
  That's because, in your situation, it can't.  You simply don't have room to have 86 GB duplicated on the 120 GB primary drive (since the max free space on that drive is only about 80 GB).
  
  Why is it necessary to have an extra 86GB on each drive? Why won't WHS duplicate the folder on the drive with 936GB on it, more than enough? God forbid we should store this where there is room.
  
  It's not necessary.  WHS handles the files so you don't have to worry about it.
  
  Obviously I do. Or, when WHS errors out with this error, I need to add a new drive, delete folders, or disable Folder Duplication on enough folders?
  
  All you have to do is add a hard drive (of at least 86 GB) to the storage pool and your Folder Duplication will then work for that folder.
  
  Drive 0's DATA partition will still not have enough. Or will the folders be automatically be migrated to the new drive?
  
  Something is missing in your explanation -- you seem to be saying that all disks must have enough room to store the duplicated folders (in addition to the original) even though the duplicate is not being stored on that disk. It doesn't make sense.
  
  In any event, I have a 250GB USB drive which I can use on the WHS. Will the drive be handled autmatically when I plug it in and add it?
  
  v/r
  Keith
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Tuesday, January 19, 2010 3:53 AM
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  Once again, thanks for the reply. I still am not getting this.
  
  Why is it necessary to have an extra 86GB on each drive? Why won't WHS duplicate the folder on the drive with 936GB on it, more than enough? God forbid we should store this where there is room.
  
  

  Maybe you don't understand how Folder Duplication works.  If you have FD enabled on a share, it stores each file in that share on 2 different physical hard drives (so if a single hard drive in your server fails, you still have the data on a different physical drive in the server).  Since you only have 2 hard drives in your server, you need 86 GB of space on each drive in order to use Folder Duplication for that 86 GB of data.  You obviously have enough room for the first copy of the data on your 1.5 TB drive.  Now where is going to store the second copy of that data?  The only drive left: your primary drive, which doesn't have enough room.
  
  

  Obviously I do. Or, when WHS errors out with this error, I need to add a new drive, delete folders, or disable Folder Duplication on enough folders?
  
  

  Correct.
  
  

  Drive 0's DATA partition will still not have enough. Or will the folders be automatically be migrated to the new drive?
  
  

  Not migrated, duplicated (since the new drive would presumably have more than 86 GB of space to store the second copy of your data).
  
  

  Something is missing in your explanation -- you seem to be saying that all disks must have enough room to store the duplicated folders (in addition to the original) even though the duplicate is not being stored on that disk. It doesn't make sense.
  
  

  Not each drive indvidually, just all of the drives combined (but excluding the drive where the first copy of the data is stored).
  
  

  In any event, I have a 250GB USB drive which I can use on the WHS. Will the drive be handled autmatically when I plug it in and add it?
  
  

  Yes.  However, due to the power-saving features on some USB enclosures, you might have issues due to the drive going "missing" (since the USB enclosure puts the drive in a low power state).  If you have room for another internal drive, that would be the best way to go.
  
  

  v/r
  Keith
  

  
  

  • Marked as answer by Hoofer Tuesday, January 19, 2010 4:50 AM
  • Unmarked as answer by Hoofer Tuesday, January 19, 2010 4:50 AM
  • Marked as answer by Hoofer Tuesday, January 19, 2010 5:07 AM

  Tuesday, January 19, 2010 4:21 AM

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  Thanks for your patience. I have enough info now  to fix this problem. Not quite sure exactly why, but can fix.
  
  One more try: when I turn on Folder Duplication, WHS makes a copy on a second physical drive. I then have two copies on separate drives: the original and the duplicate on the 1.5TB drive. Now, if you are saying Folder Duplication means three copies, the original and two copies all on separate physical drives then it all makes sense.
  
  Anyway, I added the 250GB drive and it was not only available but solved the problem.  The RocketFish enclosure luckily does not have a power-saving feature.
  
  Thanks again for your patience. Ken, you too!
  
  Keith

  • Marked as answer by Hoofer Tuesday, January 19, 2010 5:06 AM
  • Unmarked as answer by Hoofer Tuesday, January 19, 2010 5:07 AM

  Tuesday, January 19, 2010 5:02 AM
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  Thanks for your patience. I have enough info now  to fix this problem. Not quite sure exactly why, but can fix.
  
  One more try: when I turn on Folder Duplication, WHS makes a copy on a second physical drive.
  
  

  Correct.
  
  

  I then have two copies on separate drives: the original and the duplicate on the 1.5TB drive.
  
  

  No, both copies are not on the same drive.  When using FD, you have one copy on drive A and another copy on drive B.
  
  

  Now, if you are saying Folder Duplication means three copies, the original and two copies all on separate physical drives then it all makes sense.
  
  

  No, Folder Duplication only makes a second copy.  (If you don't use Folder Duplication, you only have one copy total.)
  
  

  Anyway, I added the 250GB drive and it was not only available but solved the problem.  The RocketFish enclosure luckily does not have a power-saving feature.
  
  Thanks again for your patience. Ken, you too!
  
  Keith

  
  

  Tuesday, January 19, 2010 5:33 AM

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  I am having a similar problem and have read this thread but still uncertain on how FD works. I have an ACER NAS box with 4 2TB drives(all it holds) running WHS, with FD for almost every folder. When I check server storage in WHS it states that I have 460 GB left - but I'm getting the "not enough room to duplicate..." msg on only one file. 1) How do I check in WHS how much room is left on each drive? Do I need to remote in? 2) I thought when you add a drive to WHS it gets added to a pool of free space?

  Sunday, February 13, 2011 12:19 AM