Adding a Drive to Server Storage
To add the drive to the Server Storage pool, highlight it and click Add the hard drive to Server Storage to begin the wizard.
A new feature in Vail is the ability to digitally label each drive to differentiate it from others in the pool. Vail urges you to affix a physical label to the drive to properly identify it, if needed at a later date. This is perhaps not a problem if every HDD is different in your system, but if you have two or more of the same type, labelling is almost a must!
Excluding the System volume from the Server Storage pool
As discussed earlier, in Windows Home Server Vail, you are able to separate your System volume from the storage pool. To do so, highlight the System drive and click Exclude the Hard Drive from Server Storage.
If you have a problem with your system drive and have to perform a new installation, your data is preserved. The lack of this feature in WHS v1 was a major criticism of the platform, so it’s good that Microsoft has listened to users and provided a solution. On this occasion.
Client Backups
Another change from Windows Home Server v1, client backups are now listed as a folder under the Server Folders tab.
The folder cannot be shared (why would one want to?) but can be set-up to be duplicated on to a second hard drive, providing an extra layer of protection.
As you’ll discover in our Computers and Backup Deep Dive, Client backups can themselves be backed up now, which is a great improvement from the first release.
Hard Drive Properties
When you highlight a particular drive, you can have an option to View the hard drive properties which allows you to view a host of detailed information on each of your connected drives, as well as access Vail’s Check and Repair features.
Of course, WHS v1 only allowed a repair of a drive if it detected a problem.
If you’d like to discuss Server Storage and Hard Drives in Vail, check out our dedicated forum at WGS Forums.
