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    Can someone give an opinion on setting up Hard Drives on a new Windows Home Server install?
    My plan is to use three hard drives, a small 80 gig for the system software and two other much larger drives for
    all the data. Most discussions here only seem to talk about two hard drives so I wasn't sure if there is a
    reason to use just two HD's for a small setup like I plan, or would the 3 drive setup work ok.
    Second question, can the Windows Home Server install be done with just the HD for the system software installed
    in the computer and then add the additional two data HD's at a later time, or, is it best to have all the HD's installed
    in the computer when starting the Windows Home Server software install. Thanks for any comments.

                                                                               John JS
    Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:02 PM

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    John,

    WHS handles the available drives in it's own manner. The first bootable drive it sees, it will format and use a 20GB partition for the system software and the balance of the drive will be added to the space on your other drives to give you the data storage, In this space, it will create the various Shared Folders, but note that if you have Duplication enabled for any particular folder, then WHS ensures that each copy of that folder resides on separate drives. You need to 'forget' the idea of drives being C: D: E: etc., as all your extra drives are attached via mount points on the C: partition.
    There are a number of papers available here, or here, which will explain the various mechanisms of the WHS operation.

    Colin





    If anyone answers your query successfully, please mark it as 'Helpful', to guide other users.
    Thursday, November 27, 2008 6:00 PM
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     3 hard drives give you the most protection when you have duplicate folders turned on.

    That way there will be 1 copy of your data od drives 2 & 3 and only the tombstoes will reside on drive #1 with your os.
    Sunday, November 23, 2008 6:14 PM
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    Generally, it's best to have all the drives installed when you set up your server. It's not a requirement, however.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Sunday, November 23, 2008 6:31 PM
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     Can I force WHS to not store any 'Data' on the disk I load the system onto and keep that disk for system storage only or does WHS automatically use all disks to store 'Data'? My thought is to make WHS use only the two larger disks for "Data' storage so if one of them fails, I won't have to worry about reloading all the system files since they would be on another disk
    I saw this info on another post, "It will create a 20 GB partition on that drive for System C: drive (Sys) and the remaining will be used as the D: drive (Data)." Will WHS automatically use this D: drive for data storage of the folders such as "Pictures, Music, Documents, etc' or can I determine or change which HDrives  these folders will will go?

                                                                                                                JohnJS 


                                                                                                          
    Thursday, November 27, 2008 4:13 PM
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    John,

    WHS handles the available drives in it's own manner. The first bootable drive it sees, it will format and use a 20GB partition for the system software and the balance of the drive will be added to the space on your other drives to give you the data storage, In this space, it will create the various Shared Folders, but note that if you have Duplication enabled for any particular folder, then WHS ensures that each copy of that folder resides on separate drives. You need to 'forget' the idea of drives being C: D: E: etc., as all your extra drives are attached via mount points on the C: partition.
    There are a number of papers available here, or here, which will explain the various mechanisms of the WHS operation.

    Colin





    If anyone answers your query successfully, please mark it as 'Helpful', to guide other users.
    Thursday, November 27, 2008 6:00 PM
    Moderator
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    Thanks everyone for the replys,  I now have a pretty good idea how to set up my new WHS computer thanks to you folks sharing your knowledge.


                                                                                                         JohnJS
    Monday, December 1, 2008 12:48 AM