Building new server Which OS???

[stevech]

Originally Posted by ewelin

I wasn't sure if there was any real benefit.. .I know sage recomends it but I didn't see an issue with the way I had it configured currently. I guess I'll try swaping it in the near future.

Difference is 64/4 I/O's per second per stream, and lots of those require moving the heads in the disk.

Acronis Disk Manager and other utilities will reorganize in place.

[Djc208]

The WHS backup routine is very well designed. It has lots of features to reduce the amount of space needed for backup of client PCs, look at: http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2007/06...server-backup/ as well as the simple protection it provides for native folders.

It also makes remote access and setup easier and can allow access to your files from anywhere on the internet. XP can be set up for some of this stuff but you have to know what you're doing. Now that the data bug is fixed It will probably be my next upgrade.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ewelin

Do you think that recording to a 64k block is really a benefit? i'm recording to the drive pool and I don't notice any stutter or skipping when watching tvs.

If you don't see it now you will see it eventually. As more shows are recorded and deleted and as the drive fills up you'll be beating that hard drive head all over that disk just to play a video.

Gerry

[wayner]

Originally Posted by gplasky

If you don't see it now you will see it eventually. As more shows are recorded and deleted and as the drive fills up you'll be beating that hard drive head all over that disk just to play a video.

Does defragging solve this problem?

[gplasky]

With 64K block I've never defragged my recording drives. Would defragging help? Yes-momentarily. If you record alot, watch them and delete them you would have to defrag constantly. (OK-quite often) And you would have to defrag when you're not recording. You're better off following the recommendations of the software and users of the software. They don't put ithat warning in the setup for nothing.

Gerry

[wayner]

I believe you - I just installed a new 1TB drive for Sage the other day and I did use 64K blocks but I was wondering if defragging would help as well.

[ewelin]

I just removed a 1tb drive from my storage pool and it's now dedicated for sage recordings. I did notice a slight stutter yesterday while watching NFL Football. Regular TV is fine, but there was a stutter on the games. So it was only a matter of time.

[stevech]

I have only std def. 2x500GB drives in RAID1, one big partition for video w/64KB clusters and one small boot partition for C:. No stuttering playing back to an MVP via WiFi link with 2 tuners. Used to have a lot of stuttering with playback via PC screen and a cheap video card.

HD would be a different story of course.

[wayner]

How do you check for the size of clusters on a drive that is already formatted? Do you see this through the Disk Management Snap-in for Vista/XP? If so where?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by wayner

How do you check for the size of clusters on a drive that is already formatted?

Among other possibilities: use chkdsk or my 'size' utility in the downloads section (see the link at the bottom of my profile).

- Andy

[stevech]

Originally Posted by wayner

How do you check for the size of clusters on a drive that is already formatted? Do you see this through the Disk Management Snap-in for Vista/XP? If so where?

One tool: Acronis Disk Manager Suite: Can display and you can change a partition's cluster (block) size non-destructively as I recall. And resize/repartition, etc.

[dlandrum]

I hit a wall on this with multiple tuners recording to a drive while multiple users were streaming from a drive. I tried assigning tuners to specific drives and that worked, but I had a monthly task to manually rebalance the recordings so no drive would filled-up.

After a couple of years of that (using BTV and Sage) I created an external raid 5 array with 5 drives. It decreased heat in my case, requires zero maintenance, and has been very stable. In real scheduling I have seen it record 4 HDHR streams and 2 HD-PVR streams while 3 HD100s were streaming from it.

[Apap]

I ended up installing XP Pro SP3.
My primary HTPC was suffering multiple BSOD reboots every day so the new Server is standing in as a temporary replacement and working well so far.

Vista was not cooperating well with the video card and WHS did not want to play nice with the on board ethernet controller and there was no more time to troubleshoot. Now all I have to do is rebuild the HTPC as a client system and pull 450 ft of coax through the attic and pull 4 security camera cables while I'm at it.

[clintj]

I really wanted to use 2003 Server, but sagetv wouldnt install on it, so i was forced to go with very stripped down version of XP.

I just rebuilt this server a few weeks ago..I've got 4gb of ram, dual core 2.4 with 8 1Tb hard drives for storage (raid 5) and a 300gb drive for the sytem.

I can't see any reason to not use the most simple operating system you can get running as i do not want the OS to get in the way of Sage.

[stevech]

I run Sage with two tuners on Win XP Pro, on an AMD3800. Sage is but one of quite a few apps on that PC, including home automation, web server, other stuff. No problems. XP isn't stripped down but no email is done on that PC.