Windows 10: Questions about Windows Storage Spaces

I am planning on putting together a home built file server/NAS/Plex server system for personal use, and I am interested in using the RAID-esque qualities of Windows Storage Spaces.

From what I've gather from watching YouTube videos, I gather there are three things that make it particularly useful (and correct me if any of these are wrong).

1. 
   You can use drives of different sizes added to a storage pool
   
   
2. 
   You can use drives attached via USB to add to a storage pool.
   
   
3. 
   You can physically remove a drive that was part of a storage pool and then when you put it back in, or even on another Windows machine, it will recognize that as a storage pool drive automatically.
   

So my question/scenario is this. Say I have three hard drives connected to the PC using SATA directly to the motherboard, typically installed drives. Two of them are 6TB drives and one is a 2TB, and they are all part of a storage pool using the Parity redundancy option. At some point you want to remove the 2TB and replace it with another 6TB. When you 'prepare drive for removal' Storage Spaces will move all of the data and parity bits off the drive you're removing, and put them on the other drives, assuming you have space. Once it's done, you remove the drive from the pool and then physically remove it.

My question is, what if you already had your new 6TB and plugged it in via one of those SATA-to-USB hard drive enclosures. Windows sees it as a removable USB drive. Could you add that 6TB to the storage pool, then prep the 2TB for removal, and since Storage Spaces sees that empty 6TB in the pool, it would presumably start moving data and parity bits to it via USB. Could you then remove the 2TB from its SATA connection, take the 6TB out of its USB enclosure and plug it in to the motherboard via the now unused SATA port, and will Storage Spaces automatically see that it was already part of the storage pool and then just carry on as normal now with three 6TB drives? I know there can be some wonky things that happen when you move a drive between USB and SATA, sometimes partitions aren't seen, sometimes the drive shows up as unallocated or uninitialized, etc. If a USB drive was part of a Storage Pool and then becomes a SATA drive, will it still be remember as part of that storage pool and all the data will still be there and immediately accessible?

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:)

 

Storage Space and Space Pooling in x32Win10ProV20H2

Thank you very much for your reply.


You don't show a screenshot, so I am uncertain to which part of the process of creating a storage space you are referring. I pointed you to the tutorials. I now provide you with a screenshot of part of one of them, which shows a warning which might be what you are referring to.





Your question about double storage / redundancy appears to relate to the normal operation of storage spaces once configured, so seems obscure.

My impression is that few here have used storage spaces.

Note too the warning in
Create a New Pool and Storage Space in Windows 10

 

Low Storage Space - couple questions

Hi Claire,

The low storage space that you are experiencing might occur due to an automatic backup files that consume your hard disk space when creating a restore point. To turn it off, follow the steps below:

• Open Settings, and click/tap on the
  Update & security icon.
• Select Backup on the left side, and turn off Automatically back up my files on the right side.

To disable hibernation option, you may check the following steps:

• Right-click on the Start button, and choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the pop-up menu. If you are prompted by the User Account Control asking if you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer, click
  Yes to proceed.
• In the Command Prompt window, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off and press
  Enter. Exit the Command Prompt window.

We would appreciate it if you could get back to us and provide us your feedback.

 

Windows 10 - Storage Space with Parity Issue

Hello,

The troubleshooting steps that we can provide for issues with Storage Spaces in Windows 10 is limited to what our support articles can provide since some issues on this subject is beyond the scope of this forum.

You may check the Storage
Spaces Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, there are some information contained in this article that might help you with your concern.

Also, the issue that you have encountered with Storage Spaces is more suitable, and is usually being asked in
TechNet.
We highly suggest that you post your question there, or search for a similar thread which might contain the resolution to your issue should the article given above does not provide you the information that you need.

Regards.