Storage Concept of Windows Home Server (WHS)
WHS saves data differently than a traditional computer. It uses a technology called “Disk Extender” (DE) which simply put is software that combines or “pools” your hard drives together into one large drive. The first drive in the system is split into two partitions when the software is installed, the first for the operating system, and the second for data (referred to as “Shares”). Every time you add a hard drive either internally or externally, it will add to the “Shares” section of the storage therefore allowing you to increase the capacity of storage as you need without ever worrying about things like drive letters and folders. The control panel for the server lets you add users and lets you create “Shares” as well as easily assigns permissions of each “Share” to the respective user. This is handy in controlling access of critical data to certain users. The amount of space you can have in your server is “theoretically” unlimited and is only restricted by the number of drives you add. For example, you could start with a PC that had two hard drives in it, 1 500 gig and a Terabyte drive giving you 1.5 Terabyte total storage. As your needs grow, you can add two more Terabyte drives giving you 3.5 Terabytes and so on. You can also add drives via USB and they will still be added to the pool so you do not have to worry about drive type or size. You just keep adding till you have enough storage.
The other very important aspect of WHS is called “Duplication”. This is the process of specifying a folder (Share) that contains important data such as photos and enabling “Duplication” which basically duplicates the Shared folder that you specify to another physical drive so that if there is a hard drive failure, your data will be protected as it is also located on another physical drive. This is handled automatically by the system and is not something you have to do other than to select which folders (Shares) you want to use the feature on. I recommended that you have to have at least 3 drives in your system for this to be used.