I've been using the 120 day evaluation of Windows Home Server (WHS) for about three months now on a DELL SC430 server. It has two hard disk drives on it; an 80Gb with the 20Gb SYS partition and then the rest as DATA; plus a 250Gb second disk with the rest of DATA. Actual data used is only 150Gb at present, backing up five PCs and using Shared Folders. The 250Gb disk is potentially faulty which I only use in test configurations. It has suffered a bad block trauma in the past and though it is not getting any more, I would not want to trust it in a 'real' situation.
I've now purchased a new DELL SC440 server with 250Gb disk drive for only £125 delivered. I've also purchased a new full OEM version of WHS to run on it. I have the choice of the following new disk drives 160Gb, 250Gb (came with server and has DELL hardware diagnostics on it), 320Gb and 500Gb. I've moved the existing disk drives from the old server to the new one, updated the video and network drivers and it is working again with the WHS evaluation version on the new server.
I understand that I will have to re-install WHS and recreate the accounts and settings, so I've decided to start completely from scratch again.
My dilemma is which disk drives do I choose?
a) is a single larger disk drive better or worse than two drives for overall server performance?
b) do I go for just the 250Gb that came with the new server? The data should fit and I can always add another disk at a later date.
c) should I go with the biggest drive to start with?
d) or a small (SYS only) drive and a big dedicated DATA drive?
Also how do I transition the Shared Folder data to the new configuration? At the moment I'm just doing a file copy to an external USB hard disk drive and intend to copy it all back after the re-installation. Will this work? Also, do I have to remove and re-install the WHS Connection Client software on the five PCs?
No comments:
Post a Comment