Drive Balancing tool for WHS

[voorhees]

Brian,

Just ran the tool (v1.3) and it balanced my pool as advertised. However, once the process was done and it cleared off the fake files on my two pool drives (2 x 1.5TB, now 41% and 39% used), it left my system drive at 99% used, where it was 27% used previously. For options I chose:

Do you want to include D: in the balancing effort (y/n)? n
Do you want to clear out the LandingZone (y/n)? y

Do I need to manually delete the fake files off the system drive? Should it have deleted those also? Or, is this a result of my choices?

Thanks in advance.

[Beefcake550]

Thanks for the input. It should have deleted the files, but go and delete d:\fake and that will solve your problem. You could also do a right click in he disk management add-in and go to "refresh" just to make it just didn't grab the latest data yet.

I'll look into in a few minutes....I'm working on another algorithm change which should minimize waiting time.

-Brian

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

It should have deleted the files, but go and delete d:\fake and that will solve your problem. You could also do a right click in he disk management add-in and go to "refresh" just to make it just didn't grab the latest data yet.

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I deleted d:\fake, and everything looks to be good. Back to 27% on my system drive and a nice green healthy status once again. I had tried hitting refresh several times. Restarted the server and hit refresh several times again. I am not sure what happened but that was my issue. Thanks again for the help and the great work on the great app.

[Beefcake550]

No problem. I am definitely overjoyed that so many people are using and enjoying the tool. .

-Brian

[crarbo1]

Beefcake550,
Just for reference, I had the same issue as voorhees. Hopefully the new release doesn't have this bug. Anyway, bug or not, I like this app very much and appreciate your work.

Thanks,
Chuck

[Beefcake550]

Point taken crarbo1, I am still working on the optimization and haven't looked at this bug yet. I'm starting to think I may not be able to release an update until tomorrow night (still need to do testing as well).

-Brian

[Beefcake550]

crarbo1 & voorhees:
I found the bug that was causing the fake fiels not to be deleted. It turned out to be a leftover from when I added "D:" support in the drive pool balancing. The files should always be cleaned out now.

Everyone:
I'm starting testing now...wish me luck!

-Brian

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

crarbo1 & voorhees:
I found the bug that was causing the fake fiels not to be deleted. It turned out to be a leftover from when I added "D:" support in the drive pool balancing. The files should always be cleaned out now.

Everyone:
I'm starting testing now...wish me luck!

-Brian

That's great! I'm glad you made this app!

Chuck

[Beefcake550]

Hey all,

I'm done with the coding, but testing is commencing now and one of the significant changes in the app is how it ends itself. I'm running it on my own machine now, but it won't finish for a few more hours. As a result, I'm going to heir on the side of caution and not release the new version until I'm sure it works as expected.

I've also sent out the update to a user with 23 drives, yes I said 23, in his/her system. They are the one who really requested this overall change, so with a big system like that, I've ask him/her to test it out on that system first to make sure all is good.

So, quick summary of the update:
1) Fixes bug where d:\fake does get cleaned up in some cases.
2) Changes algorithm to restart DE to be more intelligent by using Disk Throughput measurements. Thanks to Sam Wood (creator of Disk Management add-in) for the code to measure disk throughput.

Sorry to disappoint, but better to be safe than sorry. Assuming all goes well tonight, I'll be releasing the update tomorrow sometime...perhaps before I go to work.

-Brian

[Beefcake550]

Ok, so go and get it....new version is released. ALl ended well in testing last night. The OP has the latest download.

-Brian

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

Ok, so go and get it....new version is released. ALl ended well in testing last night. The OP has the latest download.

-Brian

Brian,
I used your latest version and still have the same problem. Fake files on D partition is not getting cleared. It's not a big deal to me to have to do that manually though. I just wanted to let you know the issue is still there for me.

Chuck

[Beefcake550]

dang it....

could you try:

include d: - n
clear landing zone - n

then, when you get the menu options, refresh Disk Management...D: should be filled

now, choose 5 for quit....

Does that clear the d:?



I think I already found the problem....missed a simple case.

-Brian

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

dang it....

could you try:

include d: - n
clear landing zone - n

then, when you get the menu options, refresh Disk Management...D: should be filled

now, choose 5 for quit....

Does that clear the d:?



I think I already found the problem....missed a simple case.

-Brian

Brian,
I will certainly do that for you. However, it will have to be tomorrow morning at the earliest. My wife is watching and recording shows right now. I will let you know the outcome.

Thanks,
Chuck

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

dang it....

could you try:

include d: - n
clear landing zone - n

then, when you get the menu options, refresh Disk Management...D: should be filled

now, choose 5 for quit....

Does that clear the d:?



I think I already found the problem....missed a simple case.

-Brian

Brian,
I just did what you stated above and it worked like it should.

I hope this helps,
Chuck

[Beefcake550]

thanks chuck, since that flow worked for you, it means I foudn the real problem and will fix it shortly. Sorry about that. That fix plus the improvement to the DE restart function during the Landing Zone Clear should help you out. I may have time for that tonight, but I'm on Daddy-Duty and we'll see how good the kids (3 & 5) are.

-Brian

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

thanks chuck, since that flow worked for you, it means I foudn the real problem and will fix it shortly. Sorry about that. That fix plus the improvement to the DE restart function during the Landing Zone Clear should help you out. I may have time for that tonight, but I'm on Daddy-Duty and we'll see how good the kids (3 & 5) are.

-Brian

Brian,
Sounds great! Don't be sorry. I really like your program. Take your time. It works, and if people read your "readme" file, they should know where to look to delete the fake files if they are not getting deleted by the program.

Chuck

[-=Jeff=-]

VERY COOL TOOL!!!

now I need to remember to run it weekly. nice thing is I can login from work and run it at home remotely

[Beefcake550]

glad it worked for you Jeff. There is a way to schedule things in Windows, but I forget the details right about now. I definitely need to run it more often as well.

[rlvogel322]

Originally Posted by -=Jeff=-

VERY COOL TOOL!!!

now I need to remember to run it weekly. nice thing is I can login from work and run it at home remotely

I second this. I have been running this for a while.

This is a long overdue Thank You!!

[Beefcake550]

your welcome.....it's great to hear back from people that enjoy and use the tool rather than the ones who have problems with it. Problems are good though, so I can make the tool better for all.