Windows 10: Storage space seems to only have less than half the capacity it should.

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:)

 

Understanding Storage Spaces capacity descriptions

I have a Storage Spaces array in Windows 10 consisting of 7 SATA HDDs ranging from 3TB -> 8TB each (-edit- for completeness, those drive capacities are: {3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 8, 8}).

I'm trying to understand the Storage Spaces capacity values, shown below:





The section above the drive Name & Letter makes sense in isolation:

• 15 TB
  
  • defined size, with thin provisioning allowing it to exceed actual
    available capacity
    
• Using 14.6 TB pool capacity
  
  • the actual available configured capacity
    

And the 31.8 TB "Total pool capacity" makes complete sense as the sum of the actual disk capacity from each drive.

But...

1. Why is only 14.6 available?
   
   • I've defined my size as 15 TB
     
   • It says I have 17.2 TB available
     
2. What's the relationship here of the 22.5 TB "Including resiliency"?
   
3. What is my actual real max configurable usable capacity?
   
   • I expected to have around 20 TB (66% of 32) - so I'm guessing it's actually only 17.2, but then see question #1
     

 

Windows Storage Spaces Capacity Issue

I have an issue with Windows Storage Spaces. I have roughly 6.5TB worth of data. I have a Storage Space with 4 drives in a 2-way mirror. This is my ‘F’ drive. 2 of the drives are 2TB. 2 drives are 5TB. Windows reports this as 9.27TB. Windows is reporting
2TB free. Storage is reporting space is full on the F drive. Storage Spaces is correct and Windows is confused because 2 way mirror with 4 drives/different capacities.

So I was playing around with Storage Spaces and expanded the ‘drive’ from 9 to 12TB. This was an error and will come to haunt me later. I realize now you cannot reduce the storage size. I am not sure why I did this but Storage Spaces on the F drive now
wants more drives for more capacity. Most likely to meet my unwanted 12TB expansion.

I then had an idea. I will just build a new Storage Space with a 6.5TB worth of capacity. So I went ahead and brought 3 4TB drives. This should in theory give 7 – 8TB. So installed these drives. Then I attempted to create a new 8TB – ‘K’ drive. Then
I would assign these 3 new drives just to this Storage Space. Then copy my data over from the F to the K drive. This all worked out nicely in my head.

I attempted to do the above and Storage Space Creation failed at an 8TB creation of the Space. Probably because it does not have nearly enough space because – I expanded the F drive from earlier, even if everything is thin provisioned.

So I said maybe if I just create a Storage Space – K and then expand the capacity of this Space it will work. This is not working either. So now I have a 9.7 but really 12TB – F Storage Space. Then a 2TB K drive – I cannot expand.

I realize now when you add disks to Storage Spaces you cannot assign the drive to ‘X’ Storage Space. All disks basically become party of the ‘pool’. So these drives basically appear to belong to both the F and K Storage Spaces.

So what are my options?

• Backup the data on the F drive. (I use Veeam – and my backup is an 8TB external drive) Destroy both the F and K drive. Then start over and use parity. Restore the data back to the new storage space. This is probably the easiest option but my data only
  exists in 1 spot locally. (I also backup my data to the cloud)
• Create a RAID – hardware or software with these 3 new drives. Copy the data over to this new RAID – K drive. Destroy the F drive from Storage Space. Recreate the ‘F’ drive using parity from Storage Spaces. I will have plenty of capacity – between 9
  – 10TB. Then copy the data over from the RAID – K drive back to the F drive. This plan would work to just lots of time and riskier with moving this much data multiple times.
• The reason I am posting here… someone knows more about Storage Spaces than I do and can offer a different/better solution.

Thanks.

 

Storage Spaces capacity error

Hi,

I am using Storage spaces in Raid 5 (parity).

Storages spaces is telling me that my capacity is full and I need to add more drives. However, in 'This Pc' (my computer) it is telling me I still have over 7.5 tb available?

I have checked the data in my pool and it confirms that i should still have 7.5tb available.

Why is storages spaces telling me otherwise? Is it wrong? Is it malfunctioning? Have I done something wrong?? Can i correct this???

Details:

OS - Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

8x 3tb WD Green harddrives (data) - Raid 5 (parity)

1x 120gb Kingston SSD (OS)

Storage spaces indicating:

Pool capacity 21.8 tb

Using 21.5 tb

This Pc indicating:

Capacity 21.7 tb

Used 14.2 tb

Free 7.51 tb

I have checked the size of the data in the pool and it is matches with what 'This Pc' is reporting. Why is Storage spaces saying otherwise?

Please help!

Much appreciated!