Comments on: Sans Digital TowerRAID TR4M-B and Acer easyStore Home Server

By: Kam

Kam — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 04:22:58 +0000

Thanks for the detail write up!! How do you like the TR8M-BP? What is the practical throughput you get from transferring big files?

By: David

David — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:47:10 +0000

I finally got the driver and the dual eSATA card working now,and showing all 8 drive…

The main thing that kept stopping me was, I was not aware that you could “NOT” use the Remote Access that launches from WHS console (homesever.com). I knew I had to use a Remote Desktop, I but didn’t know I had to use the one on a regular PC in order to have more control of the WHS… Still a newbie when it come to the In’s and outs of a WHS…

What I did was first open the CD that came with the Sans Digital TR8M-BP and found the folder that had DRIVERS (32bit) in it and copied & pasted them to the WHS Share folder titled Software..

Using a PC running Windows 7, I then went to Start – Control Panel – Network Internet – View Network Computer and Devices… From there my ASPIREHOME server was listed, then I right clicked with the mouse which gave me and options to “Connect with Remote Desktop Connections”. From there I was able to lunch Remote Desktop Connection to my WHS, after I logged into WHS it gave me some what of a PC desktop…

Next I went to Start – (Right click) on My Computer – Manage – Device Manager, found the SCSI Raid Controller with the yellow ? … Click the [Driver] tab in the device properties. Click the [Update Driver] button to continue..

The €œWelcome to the Hardware Update Wizard€ window appears… Next Select “Install from a list specific location ( Advance), then select ” Search for the best driver in these locations”, Check the “Include this location in the search:” Click on the Browse [button]… Go to My Computer – Data – Shares – Software, from there I found the folder that I copied the all the 32bit Driver in.. I believe it was the “RAID Driver 32bit Win -2003″ was the one that was needed…

After the driver was installed for the controller, and the WHS restarted. Everything worded like a it was suppose to…

Never really working with a WHS before, I think in the last 3 days I’ve learned more then I ever thought I would…

I hope in some way this could help some one else too.

Thanks,

David

By: Kam

Kam — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:12:16 +0000

Hi David, I haven't run WHS on the h340 for a while now (see here and here). However, from what I can remember, I need to use Remote Desktop Connection from another computer to connect to the Home Server, and install the driver by running the setup program that comes with the CD. Make sure you use the Windows 2003 version of the driver (and hope it came with the CD). Reboot and you should be good to go.

By: David

David — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:53:00 +0000

I just got the Sans Digital TR8M-BP 8 Bay Tower, and found that they divid the 8 drives into two section… So you have to use the dual port eSATA card they give you in order to use all 8 drives… The TR8M-BP 8 Bay Tower has two eSATA ports on the back Line-1 & Line-2…

Myself I am still new with WHS, and I am using the Acer Easystore 340… I still don’t understand how to get the Acer to see the Driver needed to run the new dual eSATA card that I installed… I even tried to copy and past the whole CD that came with the TR8M-BP in the “add-in” folder, and tried to launch it from there, but of course no luck..

Could you please give me some kind of walk though to follow in order for me to get my Acer 340 WHS to see the driver needed for the dual eSATS card…

Thanks

By: Kam

Kam — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 06:48:47 +0000

Hi Red, my TR4M-B came with a CD with drivers. The driver is needed for the Silicon Image eSATA adaptor. I am not familiar with your model so I can’t offer any help. Their tech support responds to emails so that is one place you can start. Good luck!

By: Red

Red — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 01:46:57 +0000

Where do you find the drivers for WHS to get it to detect the tower? I purchase the TR4M-BNC which is a bit different from your model and I have the acer h340 also. Thanks

By: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on Acer easyStore h340 | kamlau.com

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on Acer easyStore h340 | kamlau.com — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:04:58 +0000

[...] amount of drive bays I have with the easyStore h340 hardware: 4 bays inside the case, 4 bays in the TowerRAID eSATA enclosure. I also want to setup RAID sets so that my data has some fault tolerance. To make the number of [...]

By: Kam

Kam — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:32:45 +0000

Hi Erik, the photo is up-to-date as I have moved 2 HD from the Acer Home Server to the Sans Digital eSATA enclosure. Good luck in finding your enclosures, let us know how it goes.

By: erik

erik — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:03:57 +0000

it seems like your photo of your acer easy store is outdated because only two hard drive lights are on but you say you have filled them all. i just put my fourth 1 tb drive in the easystore. now its time to look for esata enclosures. thanks for the suggestions.

By: Kam

Kam — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:23:22 +0000

24 is a lot of hard drive to manage. I used to have up to 8 external drives plus the 6 internal drives with my previous home server setup but I found that the server runs really hot and it is not very energy efficient. So I consolidated the drives to TB drives and move the files to the new Home Server. If you have enough USB ports, you can hook up all your external drives to the server. If you are running out of USB ports, you can always add more with USB PCI adapters. However, USB connections are considered slower than eSATA connection. Alternatively, you can get the Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M which can host 8 drives in one enclosure. If you get three of them, you will have enough room for all your 24 drives.