I have a new WHS box and an existing external USB disk with about 40 DVDs on it.  Copying these over the network is proving to be VERY SLOW.   It takes 3 times longer to copy them over than it would to re-rip them on the whs box.  Can anyone recommend a method which allows me to mount this existing USB disk and copy them natively to the box.  or better yet, use the disk as is on WHS without copying it to managed storage (i don't feel the need to put them on redundant storage as I can always re-rip them).  I just want them to be available via the network on the "server" as opposed to the Vista MCE machine.

Thanks,
Chris

All you have to do is plug it in to the USB port. voila

Make sure you have PP1 and the HP update installed first. Then you can add it as external storage and not part of the pool.

Thanks for your response.

Can you ease my fears a bit.  Everything I've read has said that any disk you plug in will be reformatted and everything erased.  Has this changed with PP1?  I've read the PP1 release notes and didn't notice anything mentioning this.  Also, I have a custom WHS box, not an HP box.  It IS running PP1 though.

Thanks,
Chris

Disks are only reformatted if you add them to the WHS Storage pool.  If you just plug it in, it will initially show up as a separate drive just like on any other machine.

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