whs_conflict_resolver_main

Add-in: Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver

By on January 17, 2010 in Add-ins & Apps, Windows Home Server

A new add-in has been released to support Windows Home Server users who experience reports of File Conflicts in the WHS Console. Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver scans your backed up files and their “tombstones” to identify any potential file conflicts, based on file availability and readability. If any file is found that is considered unsafe, missing or corrupt, Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver will try to fix it.

whs conflict resolver main thumb Add in: Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver whs conflict resolver scan thumb Add in: Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver whs conflict resolver conflicts thumb Add in: Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver

whs conflict resolver rebalance thumb Add in: Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver

Suffice to say, and the developer also makes this point, working with tombstones is fraught with danger and can lead to file loss. The developer advises users to make a backup of files on the home server before trying to fix file conflicts. This is for advanced users only – you’ve been warned!

While scanning, the Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver Add-in uses the following terms:

  • Found and secure: the file was found on two or more drives in the storage pool
    Note: this state is only possible when ‘folder duplication’ is enabled for a shared folder
  • Found, but unsecure: the file was found only on one hard drive in the storage pool
    Note: this state is perfectly normal when ‘folder duplication’ was disabled for the shared folder
  • Missing: the file was not found on any hard drive in the storage pool
  • Corrupt: the file was found on at least one hard drive in the storage pool but is not readable
    Note: check to see if this claim is true by opening this file with the associated program

In case you have ‘Found, but unsecure’, ‘Missing’ and / or ‘Corrupt’ files, the Add-In gives you four options to resolve the file conflicts on your Windows Home Server.

  • Fix found and unsecure files: use when you have duplication enabled but the Drive Extender program is skipping (for some reason) a file so it’s not being duplicated. The file will be recopied to the server so it’s detected by the Drive Extender program.
    I’ve seen this happen on my server after a hard drive crash.
  • Delete missing files: be careful and use this option only when all hope for the file is lost. When the file was not found on any disk in the storage pool, it will be deleted preventing it from causing file conflicts.
  • Fix corrupt files: be careful and use this option only when you have tried opening the file with the associated program (e.g. opening an mp3 file with Windows Media Player) but failed. The Add-In will search for a working copy of the file in the storage pool and recopy the file to the server so it can be detected by the Drive Extender program.
  • Delete corrupt files: be careful and use this option only when fixing of the corrupt file has failed and you have verified that the file is indeed corrupt. It will be deleted preventing it from causing file conflicts.

Update: v1.1 Now available for download.

  • Implemented ‘The Stamp Icon’ by JasonMFC from http://www.homeserverland.com
  • (Hopefully) fixed bug where very large files were being marked as corrupt
  • Improved user experience with checkboxes
  • Implemented debug mode that is accessible by pressing F3

Download: Windows Home Server Conflict Resolver


Enjoyed this post? Share it.

If you enjoyed reading this post, then why not share it with your friends and followers?

About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
View all posts by Terry Walsh →

Sign Up for WGS Daily News

If you don't want to miss out on the latest news from We Got Served, why not subscribe to our daily digest? You'll get the day's headlines and a short summary of each news item delivered straight to your inbox each morning.

, , , ,

  • Jacko Ammerlaan

    The add-in might be handy, going to install. Hope I never have to use it.

  • http://homeservershow.com diehard

    I'm trying it now and am seeing some Recorded TV files & HP Converted Videos as corrupt. The fix corrupt file option fails on all. But when I play the files, they play ok. hmmm.

  • dvn

    Tested on my PP3 frankenbuild. Detected all my movie .vob’s as corrupt, but they’re not. I saw the author’s note to verify the corruption claim, so no further action was taken.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      pretty much here. 1 missing, 1 unsecure and 383+ corrupted. Still running and most appear to be vob files. I wonder if it is seeing shadow copies as corrupted files…

  • http://usingwindowshomeserver.com Andrew Edney

    Terry – I think you mean the WHS Console rather than the WGS Console :-)

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

      Ha ha – easy slip! Thanks Andrew, will correct.

  • Peter_P

    Reading the above it appear's only to find file conflicts on Pooled storage. What about disks which are not in the pool (my 12 TB film libray for example) where one of the disks constantly shows file conflicts? Delete the 30 or so files that WHS complains about on the drive and it starts indicating the next 30. Even a copy of the disk in my second WHS shows the same problem.

    • http://undercoverblogger.be/whs tdmts

      Peter

      It only checks pooled storage. Your 12 TB library is not being checked…
      Lol, your remarks about WHS console complaining about the first 30 files that are corrupt sounds familiar. One reason why I made this Add In was to indicate which files exactly were corrupt.

      In my testing VM environment this seemed to work OK but looks some people are reporting the (false) detection of corrupt files. When you encounter this situation, could you please give me as much info as possible? (File extension, on how many drives this file was found, …) You know, anything you think is special about the file.

      Thank you for trying the Add In out, I'll do my very best to make it even better.

  • Samalama

    Having had file corruptions in the past (HW related not WHS OS) I like the sound of this tool for peace of mind. In the past I have used the Windows Home Server Cleanup Tool (whsCleanup.exe) from here http://calvin-au.com/whscleanup/ which works well to identify issues.

    Does anyone have a comparison of these two tools (other than one being packaged as an add-in?:|

    • BuckDanny

      I haven't used either of them, as I haven't had much file conflicts yet – and I'm not going to look for trouble just for the fun of it :-)
      The WHS Cleanup Tool does seem to have one major advantage, in that you can select which shares to scan, which is a big plus if you have many files in many shares, but only a limited number of file conflicts. But it's a good thing to see this kind of tool being developed as an add-in. Let's hope it will continue to grow in stability and features.

      @tdmts: The way you have written this up on your website, and the screenshots provided, is an example of how software documentation should be. Big kudos for that alone !!
      And of course, it's nice to see Belgian people develop for WHS ;-)

  • http://homeservershow.com diehard

    Terry, maybe you can link to the support forum here,
    http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/forum/181…

    I found the link at whsplus.com

  • http://homeservershow.com diehard

    an other cool tidbit, Philip Churchill has a link on his site to a YouTube video of an earlier version of this software called Risk Assessment.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYTbaLRKObI&hl…

  • Samalama

    YUnfortunately although I like the fiunctionality I had to remove this. It showed lots and lots of file errors which on checking were all fine.

    The files were on non-duplicated shares and of different file formats (GHO, WAV, mp3, XLT…)

    I'll wait for the next update – good luck as looks nice and is well documented but just didn't work for me

  • AithenNick

    I'm seeing a behaviour where it is flagging large files as being corrupt. I have a number of DVD ISOs, which seem to work OK but many of which show up as corrupt. Similarly large ZIP & PST files from backups that are the same.
    If it helps with debug, the majority of these were on non-duplicated shares.

  • Petre

    Anything over 1GB is reported as corrupt.

    I binary compared the both copies stored on the WHS disks (just navigate to c:fs to see the mappings to the phisical drives) to the original files (I still had them on another machine) – no differences, no read errors …

    • Gordon

      Ah, that explains a lot. I saw the same behavior and even re-ripped a DVD-ROM image to no avail.

      I'm seeing the large file issue on shares with duplication ON.

  • Neil

    this would of been great to know about a week ago.

    Hard drive failes. (didnt have duplication turned on). It lists like 4 files which i lost a total of 50MB. I was soo happy. So i removed the drive from WHS. then I find out i lost all 500GB from random places lol :P

  • http://www.undercoverblogger.be/whs tdmts

    Hi all!

    Okay, having read the forums where the Add-In was released (and after checking myself) I found there were indeed some issues with large files on duplicated shares. I think I identified the bug and killed it :-) .

    Also, I enabled a Debug mode that you can (De)Activate by pressing F3 after clicking once in the Add-In to help make my life easier in case of trouble.

    So it would be nice to see if you could give it a (second) try and let me know what you think.
    Download on: http://www.undercoverblogger.be/whs

    PS: documentation has been updated to reflect the changes made.

    • Gordon

      Thanks for this, I'll try the update. Otherwise it is very good for my peace of mind knowing there is something that can warn me if I'm in danger of losing data and possibly correct it!

  • AithenNick

    Suddenly no conflicts using new version!!!

  • sxt173

    The link does not seem to work anymore. Is there a mirror or another source?

  • sportbikerr1

    1.1.1 is still falsely reporting corrupt files. I can copy the files off but when Conflict Resolver runs it says corrupt and spawns a dw20.exe which never goes away.

  • Matt A.

    Could somebody please post a download mirror for this app? The site at undercoverblogger.be has been down for days and I *need* this plugin bad.

  • DeWoert

    Same here, i'm having problems with file-conficts, and want to try this add-in.
    So please tell me where i can download this add-in

  • Eddie

    This addin is great and has saved me a number of times…so thanks ! One anoyance is that you can only select a top level share. It would be great to be able to select just a folder or file…saving hours of checking huge shares. Thanks again…..

  • Mark Stokes

    I have had a hard drive fail and now have thousands of files showing as corrupt. Recovering them seems to work very well, which is good,. But I have to manually click "Yes" to recover each and every file. Is there anyway to say just go through and fix them all? Clicking Yes thousands of times is going to take me a very very long time!

    Thanks