I set up a share even though the instructions I have are not the same as the GUI. However, I don't see the share anywhere in Windows. It's not in the network. Did I do something wrong?

How did you set up the share?  What instructions are you following?  Is your server visible on your Windows network (i.e. can you see Tower)?  Do you have other shares that are working?

Nope I can't see the tower in the network. I am using instructions I get here at the forums.

Nope I can't see the tower in the network. I am using instructions I get here at the forums.

 

Plus the web console seems really weird. It works for a while and then I just get a busy indicator and nothing loads. On, and it's rebuilding the parity disk from 1% again for some reason.

Can you provide a link to the instructions you are following?  We need to know what steps you have taken.

 

Based on the very limited information you have shared, my guess is that you have a workgroup mis-match.  Windows XP uses WORKGROUP by default, Windows Vista and 7 use MSHOME by default.  Your server also uses MSHOME by default.  You need to make sure that the server and each computer on the network all use the same workgroup name.

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility

 

And my Workgroup is listed as WORKGROUP. unRAID had MSHOME in there and the network wouldn't see the server so I changed it to WORKGROUP and it still won't see it.

OK, good.  So your computer is running Windows XP, correct?  Set unRAID to be the 'local master' on the settings page.  Next, reboot all of your computers and your router.  Browse your network through WinXP and you should be able to see 'Tower'.

XP? No, Windows 7 x64. I finally got it to show up my changing "Local master" to yes. However, I got started to copy my data over and it said 18 hours which I know is not right. I noticed in the console that all 3 green device lights were flashing. I'm not sure if that indicates a problem or just activity. So, you're saying reboot the router and all the computers. Should I reboot the server with unRAID also?

 

EDIT: I am copying my files to my HD Movies share right now and it's going at about 43MB/s on a gigabit connection. Did I do something wrong? I am copying from this PC to the shared folder (Windows 7 x64). I rebooted the PC and router first also.

 

EDIT #2: Why would my disk2 be flashing green and white? It shows a * for temp, 3TB free, 26,995,604 reads, 11 writes, and 0 errors.

XP? No, Windows 7 x64. I finally got it to show up my changing "Local master" to yes. However, I got started to copy my data over and it said 18 hours which I know is not right. I noticed in the console that all 3 green device lights were flashing. I'm not sure if that indicates a problem or just activity. So, you're saying reboot the router and all the computers. Should I reboot the server with unRAID also?

Not if its now working.  But generally yes, reboot everything - shut it all down and bring 1 thing up at a time - router, unraid, desktop.

 

EDIT: I am copying my files to my HD Movies share right now and it's going at about 43MB/s on a gigabit connection. Did I do something wrong? I am copying from this PC to the shared folder (Windows 7 x64). I rebooted the PC and router first also.

 

EDIT #2: Why would my disk2 be flashing green and white? It shows a * for temp, 3TB free, 26,995,604 reads, 11 writes, and 0 errors.

 

43MB/s to the protected array is a great speed.  Average is 30ish.

 

#2: the drive has been put to sleep mode (as you don't need the second drive until the first is mostly full - depends on the "high-water" setting I believe.

Thanks for all of that. I just could have sworn that I was getting copy speeds of 10 times that to my previous mobo hardware raid volumes.

 

Also, what is that "Local master" option? I had to set it to "yes" in order for my windows network to see the machine and the shares.

 

Lastly, what's the recommended split level? I set it to 2 thinking that option would be best as shares could span drives. That way as my HD Movie collection, for example, grows beyond 3TB it will just span across drives.

 

I still have not received my key to unlock my other drive and I have a 5th drive to pick up today. Hopefully I can enable those soon. Will those automatically be available to all shares once I preclear and add them to the array?

Thanks for all of that. I just could have sworn that I was getting copy speeds of 10 times that to my previous mobo hardware raid volumes.

 

 

Maybe a local RAID array, but not over a network with a maximum theoretical speed around 100Mbps and certainly not to an unRAID protected array which is slower than a RAID array due to the way it works.

 

Peter

Well, you mean slower to copy to or slower in general? It will still have the speed to stream my 1080p content obviously right?

 

I guess on a side note, is this Apple Time capsule an OK choice for this setup. It worked fine before but now that I am getting seriously into media sharing, I wonder if I need a better router/switch.

It'll always be slower than a RAID array attached directly to the motherboard of the machine you are accessing. It will still be fast enough to stream HD content and likely even 2 or 3 streams at once. There wouldn't be many users if it couldn't stream HD content.

 

Peter

Thanks for all of that. I just could have sworn that I was getting copy speeds of 10 times that to my previous mobo hardware raid volumes.

 

 

Maybe a local RAID array, but not over a network with a maximum theoretical speed around 100Mbps and certainly not to an unRAID protected array which is slower than a RAID array due to the way it works.

 

Peter

 

the connection is 1Gb/s theoretical, not 100 Mb/s. I started copying my 1.38TB of movies over at around 9am. 4 hours later I am about 1/3 of the way through. It says 12 hours remaining but I think that figure is wrong possibly, hopefully anyways, heh. The movies I am copying were copied from my previous Windows 7 hardware raid over ethernet to this Windows 7 station in about 3 hours.

1Gb = 125MB. Little b for bits, capital B for bytes. 125MB/s is the physical rate. The fastest TCP transfer over Gig-e that I've accorded is 117MB/s. UnRAID is limited by disk rotational delay to less than 40MB/s. The time is probably correct.

Local master is a Windows concept.  Simply put, whichever computer is the local master is the 'master' of the network.  The computer will store the workgroup information for all the other computers on the network.  You want whichever computer will be on the most to be the local master.  Since most of us run our unRAID servers 24/7, it makes sense that unRAID should be the local master.

 

I assumed you were running WinXP because the Win7 default workgroup is named MSHOME.  If yours was named WORKGROUP, then you or someone else must have changed it.  Either way it doesn't matter as long as it is working now.  Just keep in mind that any new Vista or Win7 computer you add to the network will also need to have the workgroup changed to WORKGROUP.

 

By the way, I highly recommend using TeraCopy with the 'always test after copy' option enabled for your data transfers.  Not only will it give you a much more accurate estimate of how long the transfer will take, but it will also let you pause and resume the transfer, and most importantly, check the files against the originals to make sure no data corruption occurred during the transfer.

 

You are already seeing very good transfer speeds, so I don't think you'll need to replace your router.  Do you have a parity drive assigned yet?  If so, then the transfer speeds you are seeing are quite phenomenal.

Why is it that when I cancelled the file copy after about 16 hours and connected a hard drive to copy the files (per the manual) it was actually slower than the network copy? I was getting about 25MB/s and it was giving me a copy time of about a day and a half. It froze overnight too.

How was the drive connected?