Drive configuration for DIY Windows Home Server?

[NTB]

I know the OS partition itself is only ~20GB, and that any remaining space - along with any other drives - goes to the storage pool. But how do file transfers work? Do the files go directly to the other drive(s)? Or do they go to the 'primary' data partition (on the same drive as the OS) and then get moved to the other drives? In the first case, the size of the boot drive wouldn't matter much, but in the second I'd think that the more space there is left on the OS drive, the better. Any suggestions?

 

[RebateMonger]

Windows Home Server Technical Brief for Drive Exstener has your answers.

"The Windows Home Server Drive Extender Filter determines which hard drive to initially write a file to...."

".....One goal of the algorithm the Filter uses is to keep related files together on the same hard drive. Copying music from a CD to a hard drive illustrates why this is important. If a single secondary hard drive failed, it is more convenient to lose all the music from a few CDs and then re-copy those CDs than to insert hundreds of CDs to re-create one track from each. One way to achieve this is to ensure that a set of files created around the same time are stored on the same secondary hard drive."

An obvious method for choosing the secondary hard drive would be to use the one with the most space free, but that would result in sometimes alternating among secondary hard drives. Consider the CD scenario again. A moment ago, the second hard drive had the most space available, so Track 1 of this CD was saved there. Now that the second hard drive has this new file on it, the third hard drive has the most room to hold Track 2, but we would really prefer to store it on the second hard drive with Track 1. Choosing the hard drive with the least available space is a good choice because the hard drive with the least free space tends to remain the hard drive with the least free space for a long time, and the same secondary hard drive will be chosen."

Also....

"The primary data partition in a home server should be as large as possible for two reasons:
? You want to provide sufficient space to grow the file table for all of the files that you will store on your home server.
? Windows Vista® and other home computer operating systems check to see if there is adequate space on the primary data partition prior to starting a copy operation."