Sometimes you may want to uninstall a drive that you have connected to your Windows Home Server. WHS makes this easy and this guide and video tutorial will take you through the necessary steps to remove a drive without losing data. I had a colleague ask me how to do this so I figured that I would update the guide for others seeking help.
Please note: If you are passing disks through to a Hyper-V virtual machine or a RAID controller, this guide only covers the WHS portion, not extracting the drive from the virtual machine or RAID array.
The video:
Steps:
- Login to your Windows Home Server using the Windows Home Server Console
- Go to Server Storage
- Select the drive that you want to remove/ uninstall
- Ensure that there is enough free space on the server so that the drive being removed can have its data transferred to the remaining storage pool
- Either click “Remove” from the menu or right click the drive and select the “Remove” option
- Click Next
- Click Next
- Click Finish
- Go do something as the data is transferred off of the drive to be removed, it will likely take a few hours. Just let the WHS be during this process and realize that the share folders and backup service will be unavailable while the data is being copied.
- Remove the drive
That’s it! Enjoy.
Related posts:
- Recover Data off of a Windows Home Server Failing Drive
- The Big (30+ drive) Windows Home Server (Part 2) Hardware Selection
- The Big (30+ drive) Windows Home Server (Part 1)
- Windows Home Server Remote PC Backup
- The Big (30+ drive) Windows Home Server Quick Update
- Installing Windows Home Server Connector Software Without the CD
Good info. Would be better if you talked in the video, unless you’re shy
That is definitely a thought. My goal was to make something text based so people could do it at their own pace. I may try narrated ones someday soon.
I don’t know I actually feel like when someone is talking and you’re seeing it getting done, you can process the info quicker than trying to see two things at once. What I mean by that is that I have to keep watching two things – the text what you’re doing and the thing that you are clicking which makes it just harder to look at. Just a thought….
Point taken. It may not make the next 3-4 (already recorded and I need to find a better mic) but after that, I will work on audio too. Thanks Paul.