This issue appears to impact multiple Add-Ins, not just WHS Disk Management. It looks like WHS sometimes has an issue reading an MSI package for the first time, and logs incorrect information in the registry.

Luckily, WHS refers to Add-In MSI files by filename. If WHS doesn't show WHS Disk Management as a valid Add-In to install after you've copied it to the \\server\software\add-ins\ folder, try renaming the MSI file to "newWHSDiskManagement.x.x.x.x.msi" or similar.

For more information see this bug I posted on Microsoft Connect.

It is important that you uninstall the previous version first. Your settings will be preserved during the upgrade process.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Uninstall the current version using the WHS Console.

2. Download the latest WHS Disk Management MSI to \\server\software\add-ins\.

3. (Optional) Delete the old MSI.

4. Install the latest version using the WHS Console.

Click the "cog-with-green-arrow" icon in the WHS Disk Management toolbar, on the top right of the window,

Windows Home Server "balancing storage" doesn't necessarily mean spreading files evenly across all disks. One disk with significantly higher usage than others doesn't indicate a problem.

For more information see the Drive Extender Whitepaper from Microsoft.

Microsoft doesn't count Volume Shadow Copies (previous versions) as taking up space. Windows Home Server will delete Volume Shadow Copies as necessary when disk space becomes low.

Some combinations of disks and disk controllers do not present this information to Windows via WMI. Sometimes rolling back to the default Windows drivers will work (reverting to stock Windows drivers works for NVIDIA nForce4 chipsets).

If your SATA controller has IDE emulation or compatibility mode enabled, your disks are identified as IDE. This can mean disk locations are erroneously identified as IDE Master or Slave.

Windows identifies SATA disks (that are not using IDE compatibility mode) as SCSI. This does not indicate an problem.

A red drive bay indicates that WHS Disk Management believes that the disk associated with that drive bay is missing. You will most likely see this for USB/1394 disks that you have disconnected.

If the disk will be missing for a long time, consider marking the drive bay as "Empty" in the Settings dialog.

This can be caused by an Add-In that allows you to minimise the WHS Console application.

To resolve the issue, restart your Windows Home Server or reset the console (Options --> Reset the WHS Console from the Console login screen).

We write all our settings to D:\folders\{AD6D2DAD-BBCB-4C4D-878C-A8A19935FD0A}\ on the server. Settings are preserved through upgrades of the Add-In; uninstall the Add-In does not remove your settings.

If you want to entirely remove WHS Disk Management from your system, you will need to delete these XML files as well. The GUID folder cannot be deleted, however; if you delete the folder, WHS will recreate it on the next boot (this is a limitation of WHS Application Folders).

Sometimes WHS doesn't successfully uninstall some Add-Ins; you end up in a state where the WHS Add-Ins tab shows that an Add-In is installed, but the Add-In isn't loaded and you can't install an updated version.

To manually uninstall any WHS Add-In, follow these steps:

1. Make a note of the name of the Add-In that cannot be uninstalled ("WHS Disk Management 1.0.4.0" for example).

2. Log into WHS using remote desktop.

3. Locate the Add-In in Add/Remove Programs and uninstall it.

4. Open regedit and locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Home Server\RegisteredAdditions\.

5. Locate the subfolder that references the name of the problem Add-In ("WHS Disk Management 1.0.4.0" for example) and delete it.

6. Open and then close the WHS Console from within the remote desktop session (to free up any in-use files).

7. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\.

8. If present, rename the Add-In file ("HomeServerConsoleTab.DiskMgt.dll" for example) to remove the DLL extension ("HomeServerConsoleTab.DiskMgt.xxx").

9. (Optional) Install the desired version of the Add-In through the WHS Console as normal.

No, WHS Disk Management does not run as a service. This means that when the Windows Home Server Console is closed, WHS Disk Management is not running and cannot send alerts.

1. Click the settings button in the Disk Management toolbar, or change to the Disk Management settings tab of the Settings dialog box.
* Your case is divided into columns; each stack of drive bays in the case is a column. Most tower cases have a single column, some desktop or HTPC cases have two columns. Columns are numbered left to right.
* Each column is divided into bays. Bays are counted from the bottom of the case up. Each bay has a type (selectable from a drop-down menu). If the drive bay type is a disk, you should select an appropriate disk path from the drop-down.

2. To create your first bay, enter 1 in the Column box and 1 in the Bay box, choose an appropriate type from the drop down (and disk path if required) and click the Add ("+") button.

3. Continue adding bays in Column 1. Add bays in second (or third) column if your case has that configuration. Change the scale slider if you have a monster case.
* If you make a mistake, select the drive bay from the list view and click Delete, or make a change and click Update.
* Add external disks in the last column. They are drawn last, so must be in the right-most column.

4. Click OK to save the configuration. Select a disk from the main tab and the appropriate drive bay will be highlighted in the server case wireframe diagram.

Fixed: Resolved issue with enumeration of drive paths on non-English versions of WHS

Fixed: Disk location columns are no longer empty on refresh

Fixed: Storage pool usage bar is now recalculated after all disk data is pulled

Changed: You can now copy/paste a single line from Disk Details window

Fixed: Resolved erroneous white border around main window form elements after closing Settings

Fixed: Rebuilt MSI package using latest WiX/Votive to prevent Vista from marking the installer as invalid

Added: Close/Done button on Disk Details window

Added: Copy button on Disk Details window to copy disk information to the clipboard

Changed: Settings tab now updates main window on settings close

Fixed: Buttons are no longer erroneously disabled after closing Disk Details window

Added: Real-time Disk Temperature display on main window, with adjustable refresh rate in Settings

Added: Real-time Disk Activity display on main window, with adjustable refresh rate in Settings

Added: Button on main window to globally start and stop temperature and activity monitoring (button state persists between sessions, monitoring is off by default)

Added: Tooltips for most controls

Changed: WMI data gathering speed has been significantly improved

Changed: Add-In now receives notifications from WHS when a disk is changed/added/removed and refreshes automatically

Changed: Removed "Refreshing" progress bar, replaced with animated image on main window

Changed: Disk Information window has had a makeover

Fixed: Resolved crash when opening Disk Details window for a Missing disk

Fixed: Resolved issue with displaying Add-In when WHS is set to a non-standard font size

Added: Each drive bay now has a user-editable comment field (currently only displayed in the Settings dialog)

Changed: Drive bay settings dialog now has Update/Replace functionality (previously you had to delete the old drive bay and recreate it if you wanted to make a change)

Changed: Shadow copy size is now correctly deducted from "Used Space" counters (this is more intuitive)

Changed: Misc UI improvements in Settings dialog

Fixed: Unhealthy System disks now correctly show in the Attention Required category

Known issue: Unmanaged disks mounted as mountpoints are displayed as requiring attention

Added: Disk Information now includes Volume Shadow Copy size

Changed: Storage information panel on main tab now shows disk space statistics (used, free, shadow copy size) per disk and globally

Changed: Removed disk controller and SCSI path info from storage information panel (this data is still present in the hidden listview columns and the Disk Information dialog)

Changed: Moved Disk Information button to toolbar

Fixed: Unmanaged disks with multiple drive letters are now displayed correctly

Fixed: Perpendicular/Vertical drive bays can now break to a new row manually (check the "Row End" box when adding the last bay in a row)

Fixed: Storage Wizards now cannot be closed while they are working

Fixed: Storage Wizards now show your customized disk name (if present)

Fixed: Storage Wizards now properly handle long disk names

Known issue: Unmanaged disks mounted as mountpoints are displayed as requiring attention

Fixed: Apply button now works (and settings save) when wireframe scale slider is changed

Fixed: Wireframe scale value is now read on each refresh of wireframe image

Added: Added routine to descramble HP EX74x hard drive serial numbers (it appears that the SiS 0182/1182 RAID Controller mangles disk serial numbers)

Added: Editable disk names - open the Disk Info window (double-click the disk), edit the disk's name in the drop down at the top

Added: Disk SMART status and temperature in the Disk Info window

Added: Perpendicular/Y-Axis stacking disk bays

Changed: Significant reworking of external/empty disk bays - check the appropriate boxes in the Settings dialog when adding a drive bay

Changed: Main tab list view now has disk categories (Attention Required, Storage Pool, and Unmanaged Disks)

Changed: Main tab sort order is now by Disk number

Fixed: Apply button in Settings dialog now works as expected

Added: Right-click menu for disk operations

Added: Disk information detail. Select a disk and click the info button, double click a disk, or right click a disk and select Details

Added: Non-storage pool disks with drive letters now show details (accurate free space, drive letter etc)

Added: External disks now show in wireframe (make sure you put external disks in the last column for proper drawing)

Added: Vertical internal drive bays

Changed: Color scheme for wireframe changed

Fixed: Now allow backspace in column/bay text box on Settings dialog

Fixed: Misc UI elements now disabled/enabled correctly

Fixed: Misc redraw issues with server wireframe

Fixed: Bug when opening Settings for the first time. Invalid trackbar value caused the Type drop down box to fail to build.

Fixed: Potential dataloss issue when removing disks from the storage pool.

Added: Server case wireframe diagram + customizable case configuration (see below for instructions)

Added: Progress bar for disk information refresh

First release