Windows 10: Recover from Storage Spaces drive failure

There must be a very simple answer to this question so I am hoping ........... I've been researching the internet for days for a solution.


Some time ago, I came across W10 Storage Spaces utility and thought this would be a good solution to protect my data. I bought 2 3TB drive and set them up in a pool in a "mirror" configuration and assigned them as drive m: Recently drive m: disappeared from view and no longer accessible - no warning or messages. Eventually I found in Control Panel that one of the physical drives was marked with a warning as possible problem recommended to replace.


Now here comes the drama. Do you think I can find some instructions in Microsoft as to how replace the drive? Eventually, I found some forum somewhere that lead me to a possible solution. I bought a new 3TB drive and installed it in my 4th Sata port so that I can add this to the pool and then I should be able to remove the "faulty" drive, right? However, when I tried to add this drive it came up with an error message to close all programs accessing the "new" drive before adding. There were no programs using this drive but I close all apps anyway and same error message came up.


This should be simple. I am using this Microsoft utility for exactly what it was designed for but I have searched on the internet for days trying to fix what I would have thought a simple problem. What I don't understand is - if one of the drives is faulty, why isn't the other "good" drive which is mirror be still readable so I can copy data out of there? If this utility is working the way it should it should make the "good" drive readable only and give me warning to get my data out of there so I can "repair" the storage pool - that would be logical right?


I am sure I'm not the first one with this problem so any help would be appreciated.


Cheers, Ian

:)

 

Recover from Storage Spaces drive failure

Hi IanC657, I am Rob, an independent and a 14 time and dual award MVP specializing in Windows troubleshooting and Bluescreen analysis. Please remember as independents we are not responsible for the development of Windows or the computer hardware and drivers.
If you will work with me I will be here to help until the issue is resolved.

Please check the "How do I remove a drive from a Pool" section in this link.

Storage Spaces in Windows 10

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12438/...

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Also, as needed check these :

How to Remove Drive from Storage Pool for Storage Spaces in Windows 10

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/83777-remov...

How to Add Drives to Storage Pool for Storage Spaces in Windows 10

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/83700-add-d...

Check the "Related Tutorials" at the end of each above two articles for more.

Here to help,

Rob

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External Drive using storage spaces does not work on my new Win 10 PC?

Hi Leo,

Storage Spaces not only increase storage over time as you add drivers to your PC, it will also help you in protecting your data from drive failures. To isolate your concern, we'd like to know if you were getting any error messages when trying
to connect the external drive to your new PC. Also, can you tell us what troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

In the meantime, we suggest that you run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter to perform a diagnostic process on your system that will check and fix issues related to Storage Spaces. To do this, please follow the steps below:

• Type troubleshooting in the Search bar, then press
  Enter.
  
• Click View all from the left pane.
  
• Locate and click Hardware and Devices to run the troubleshooter then follow the next steps.
  

Furthermore, here is a link for more information about the Storage
Spaces in Windows 10.

We'll be looking forward to your response.