***Note: Before deciding to purchase or build your own Windows Home Server machine, make sure you read this article on the serious data corruption issue that Microsoft is currently working to fix.  I believe they will have it fixed very soon (they say June 2008), and I have no reason to doubt it can be fixed, but I feel I should put this warning out there for anyone planning to purchase.  I guess I am plunging in because I am a glutton for punishment ***

OK - here's a recap:

Be sure to visit Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4 of this series as well.

I have the WHS set up.  I also have the connector software installed on my desktop. 

And … While you were away I also installed the connector software on my main "Vista Media Center" machine, an HP Pavillion Slimline s3300f with a dual (like it matters any more) HD/Blu-Ray DVD drive and an AMD Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core 5000+ Processor with 2 GB of RAM.  I also set up my XBMC mod of the original Xbox (not sure if this is on the up and up so hopefully MSFT can't read this and sue me or something) with our Vizio Flat Screen in the upstairs bedroom and a Linksys Wireless "N" gaming adapter.  There's a lot that has already been written about this Xbox mod so I'll let you research it, but needless to say if you have an original Xbox lying around and not being used, this is a no-brainer.

Also, without ever touching a configuration, the Home Server backed up both machines overnight.  Interesting.  Keep that one in mind - I'll touch on it in a later post when I set up the backup strategy.  That having been said, after confirming the backups I disabled the local backups on the machines because I want to use their USB hard drives for something else.  It's cool that it happened seamlessly, but also a little scary.

Quick tip:  WHS backs up all of the volumes on your computer, including USB drives, but will let you disable volumes that you don't want backed up.  So if you plan on transferring your media to the share drives on WHS, it would be redundant to get it backed up through the WHS backup feature as well (unless that's the way you want to build your redundancy - I plan to use online storage for the most important stuff). 

OK - back to the storage discussion:

For anyone keeping count, I ordered the Home Server with 1TB of storage (2×500GB drives).  The windows partition took 20GB of that space, and the two backups took up about 40GB as well.

Now my media, all told (Pictures, Home Movies, Music, etc.), is about 300GB.  So it would seem I have plenty of room to spare, right?  Well, not so fast there, Scooter.  One of the features of the Windows Home Server OS is the duplication of folders (it's also at the heart of the data corruption issue mentioned above, but no sense beating a dead horse).  So this means, if you have more than one hard drive, WHS will duplicate your data across all of the installed hard drives to ensure redundancy in case one of the drives fails.  So technically, that 300GB of media becomes ~600GB, and together with the backups and WHS partition I am suddenly pushing my storage capacity to a point where I begin to think about expansion (given the rate digital media expands in my house). 

You can control how much space is taken up by duplication by designating some folders as "non-duplicating" folders.  However, for things as important as my kids' childhood pictures, home movies, and digital music that I paid good $$ for, I want to have some extra protection.  So the best alternative I have, at this point, is to add hard drive space (besides, I couldn't wait to try it out :-)).

When you access WHS over the network, it appears to you as one big drive, no matter how many drives may actually be in your system.  MSFT refers to this technology as their Drive Extender.  As I have already said, it provides redundancy by, essentially, mirroring your data onto at least 2 disks in case one of them were to fail.  Now when I first heard this I was hard pressed to see how this was different from the Software Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) that has been around for quite some time.  And rather than try to give you that answer in my words, I am going to copy the explanation directly from MSFTs documentation:

Windows Home Server Drive Extender is different than and more powerful than a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) in several ways:

? You can use any hard drive, any time. You are not restricted to adding more hard drives of the same type and size. When you want to grow your home server storage, you can buy and add any hard drive you like.
? Internal and external hard drives can be used to grow your storage. No space in your home computer case? No problem—plug in one or more hard drives of your choice.
? Drive removal is easy. After you have had your home server for awhile, you may want to remove older, smaller hard drives and add new, larger hard drives so that you can store more files.

OK - so I'll buy that.  If you want more information on how the drive extender works, I would direct you to the MSFT documentation.  It has been conveniently collected all in one location for you by the good folks over at the MS Windows Home Server blog.  Note that MSFT implores you to not try and install the WHS file system on top of a hardware RAID.  It may seem like a good idea, but it can apparently really gum up the works.

And now time to move on to the HDD installation.

If you remember where we left off, I had not yet put my Velocity WHS in its final resting place back on top of the Armoire.  I did this so I could get to it quickly once I was ready to add the storage space.  A 1TB drive at time of this writing is around $200.  I couldn't find anything for much less.  However, at one online retailer I could find 2 750GB drives for ~$225.  So I get .5 TB more space for about 1/4 the price - at least that's the way my math works.  Feel free to correct me.

The drives I bought were Samsung SATA OEM models.

These received great reviews for being very quiet, which is what my highest priority was given the eventual location of the server.  So  I first shut down the WHS from the console on my desktop PC, then unplugged it to be sure, and finally opened the case.  Removing the case was extremely easy - as was the entire HDD installation.  There are two thumb screws in the back that came off easily even for my fat fingers.

As you can see, the hard drives are conveniently located at the top of the server.  The two in there are my existing Hitachi 500GB drives.  To begin the installation, you need to attach four yellow "nubs" (my technical term) to the side of your HDD where you would normally attach the rails (there's a picture below).  Then you open up the cage by unscrewing another thumb screw in the machine.

Once the cage is open, you set the HDD into place and attach the cables.  Notice the yellow nubbins?

After everything is plugged in you simply close the cage and screw the thumb screw back into place.  Rinse and repeat for each HDD you want to add.  It's as simple as that!  I was very impressed.  This isn't as simple as the HP Media Smart, of course, but as often as I will be changing out drives (maybe twice a year) I am willing to forgo the ease of install for the extra horsepower (no, I don't work for Velocity).

After I installed the drives, I closed her back up and switched the machine on.

You'll notice now on the front power switch that there are four lights on, indicating that all four disks are recognized by the machine.  But this is not the end.  We need to go back to the console to make sure the disks are recognized and ready to use with WHS.

This is the Server and Storage tab on the console before I installed the two new hard drives …

This is the Server and Storage tab on the console AFTER I installed the two new drives …

So great news, it recognized them.  But we're not done yet.  We still need to "add" them to the storage extender so that we can use the additional space for our files.  You have to do this one at a time.  First, I highlighted the drive I wanted to add, then I clicked "+Add".  This brings up the "Add a Hard Drive" wizard …

If you click next, you will get a warning that WHS is about to format the drive and add it to the array.  This is important to note especially if you decide to use a USB drive (which is allowed) as part of the array, since many folks usually intend to use their USB drives for more than one machine.  You will need to take any data you have off of it first, or it will be lost during re-formatting. 

Another note about USB drives: once you add one to your array, you should not remove it.  Unlike using USB drives for regular PCs, WHS does not take kindly to removing one and using it on another computer.  So be sure that if you are using a USB HDD, that you are willing to part with it. 

So after you click finish you will see a progress bar while the drive is formatted and added to your array.  Then, if all goes well, you will get a success message.

Again - rinse and repeat for each new drive you add until your are finished.  From now on, WHS will monitor your drives and will let you know if there is a problem.  Because I have four hard drive slots available, I could theoretically get up to 4 TB in the server, not including external drives.  And it gets bigger as storage options get bigger.  Of course, to do this I will eventually have to replace one of these smaller drives.  WHS will let you do that. 

Through the same Connector interface you would simply click the hard drive you want to remove, then click "X Remove".  This will cause WHS to move all data that was on the drive you are removing to the remaining hard drives, so you won't lose any data.  But pay attention to how much you have, because if the drive you are removing has more data than the remaining drives can hold, you are going to lose the data that won't fit, unless you move it onto some other type of storage.

But I am sure I will get a chance to cover that on down the road as we continue to explore this thing together.

I hope this helped.  Let me know what kind of questions you have.  In Part 4, I am going to try an add-in. 

Cheers!