Getting tired of WHS - Need some suggestions

[JustinWI]

I have been running WHS and Sage on my "server" for a while, but WHS has been giving me some headaches as of late, mostly with causing the video to stutter on my HD200. Some of the issues have been related to drive balancing or backups running. As an FYI, my movies are not balanced, just my photos. I also enjoy the backup feature but it isn't something I require.

I only use Sage for streaming movies, no live TV. My server is headless, so I do not need any functionality of a HTPC in it, such as bitstreaming. My current setup is a low end dual core AMD with 2GB. I currently have 3.25TB of storage with about 300GB free. I have an HD100 and an HD200, with a HD300 to be purchased soon.

The easiest and most cost effective solution is to wipe out the WHS install and put on Windows 7. I could then swap out one of my internal drives with a larger one for more storage. My only worry is cleaning up the mess that the drive pool would leave behind.
Another option is to build a NAS and move all of my movies over to that. I would like to reuse as much storage as possible, so I was looking at something like Amahi where I could still pool different drives. I would leave Sage on WHS for this setup.
The last option is to still build the NAS and move my Sage install to my other Windows 7 desktop, but this desktop is wireless.

Any tips or suggestions would be great as I seem to be at an impass. I am looking for a combination of cost effective,increased performance, and reducing power consumption (if possible).

[PLUCKYHD]

Windows 7. You need to get all your pooled info off while WHS is still up and running that is the easiest way. Took me forever to do this. You won't look back

[davephan]

You could build up an unRAID storage server and a Windows 7 server for SageTV. The unRAID server can accept different drive sizes as long as your parity drive is the largest. Using Windows 7 for your SageTV computer will allow you to be able to recover the SageTV computer very quickly with an image in case you have problems.

Dave

[stevech]

I use disk drives on Windows 7. I do have some Linux NASes, but they are just the 3rd rank backup to the backup.

Most of the NASes use Linux. Slow speeds to/from NTFS and LInux file systems. Also lose a some file attributes that some programs need. And issues with last-modifed date that hoses up synch programs like SecondCopy.

If I were to buy a NAS, it would be a Synology because of their media servers. A DS211J two-drive in RAID1 would do. But it'll be rather slow if most of your work is for Windows programs.

[JustinWI]

Seems like Win 7 with some form of internal storage is the preferred method. I had looked into unRAID, but am not sold on another machine for just storage so I was always leaning towards internal.
Does anyone know if the license keys for Sage are interchangeable? Would hate to have to buy a new license key for the non-WHS version.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by JustinWI

Seems like Win 7 with some form of internal storage is the preferred method. I had looked into unRAID, but am not sold on another machine for just storage so I was always leaning towards internal.
Does anyone know if the license keys for Sage are interchangeable? Would hate to have to buy a new license key for the non-WHS version.

Mine was the whs license worked fine on my windows 7 pc when I moved it.

[big poppa pump]

The license should work just fine in windows 7. I am just about in the process of moving my SageTV installation from WHS to Windows 7.
I have installed and currently configuring FlexRaid to do all my backups on this machine now.

[-=Jeff=-]

is that why my shows sometimes pause midway then go faster for a sec or 2? due to my WHS running something in the background?

Is Win7 that much better for running SageTV Server? I have been running WHS for about 1.5 years. this would mean another PC running in the house.. hmm.

[JustinWI]

Jeff,

In all of my cases of Sage freezing during playback, I could tie it to something with WHS. It was usually the Drive Balancer, but I have something in place to only have that service running for a few hours while I am sleeping. Then, the backups were causing the freezing. I am not saying this is the case for everyone, but it certainly was for me.
In my case, I will not be running an additional machine, but I would be replacing my WHS with Win 7.

[jptheripper]

After all this conversation I am seriously considering consolidating my HTPC and WHS into one Win7 box. My problem is I would need an external eSata box, and I would need to manage shares back to my other PCs. Not that big a deal, but what made WHS convenient.

[scat]

PLUCKYHD

I am interested in your hardware setup, I am in the process of building a server, what are you using to serve your "30tb+ of storage and counting." on the "W7 64 bit q6600"

Thanks
Scat

[dstanley]

I, too, was having the problem with Sage recordings 'pausing' for a few seconds and then speeding up to 'catch-up' before running properly. I added a 2gb non-pool drive to my WHS system and moved my recording directory and recordings to that drive. I have not had a single hiccup since. I use all extenders on my system.
Strange that all the time I was running Sage on my WHS box and writing recordings to the pool I never had any problems at all until after the update to 7.
That being said, it is possible that once my WHS box started to get the drives over 50% full they had more 'work' to do!?
The other thing that I was wondering might contribute is WD Green drives - were they actually harming the WHS Drive balancing somehow. I am still not 100% positive that it is not something like that.
But for now - with the non-pooled recording drive my problem seem to be gone for now.

[JustinWI]

dstanley -
We have a similar setup. The bulk of my WHS drives are WD Green.

I just bit the bullet and bought a new setup and a 3TB SATA III drive to throw in it in addition to some of my existing stuff. Hopefully that won't have any hiccups. Any tips for moving that much data as fast as possible? Both PCs have gigabit cards and a gigabit switch will be in between.

[dstanley]

Copying over Ethernet is probably the same speeds as cabling the drive by SATA to your WHS - I would guess ...
I used SuperFlexible File Synchronizer but only because I have this software anyways. I just let it run - it will take time - that's for sure.
I don't know the FASTEST way of doing it but maybe even the free SyncToy would be the easiest - set it up and let it run!

[lpitman]

The First thing I would do is increase your RAM, this would be true for any of the fore-mentioned options.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by JustinWI

Does anyone know if the license keys for Sage are interchangeable? Would hate to have to buy a new license key for the non-WHS version.

I bought a second license so that I now have a backup. I was buying an additional extender so another Sage server license is just $50 when you buy it bundled with an extender.

If my main server is down for some reason I can just reconnect my cleints to the "old" WHS machine. It won't have TV tuners but at least it can play your video library as I duplicate all of my video files, music and photos between my Win7 Sage Server and my WHS box. And assuming that your TV files still exist you could even pop that hard drive into your WHS box while you are getting the main server back up and running.