Windows 10: Storage Spaces: "Check physical drives" not fixable

Hello,


I set up my storage space for 3x4TB HDDs. After a reboot I get this message without any further advice. I can't click on anything so there is no hint on what is wrong. In CrystalDiskInfo all drives are fine. I guess one briefly disconnected USB and now the error persists after serveral reboots and a couple of days.


What can I do to resolve this issue?

Thanks in advance!

:)

 

Storage Spaces on Windows 10 Single Physical Drive Failure Causes entire virtual disk to fail

I have the following current situation:

• an old Asus R1F notebook running Windows 10 Professional 64-bit;
• 10 external USB disks of varying sizes;
• one Storage Space (using all 10 external disks) called “Spacelab”;
• set to a total virtual capacity of 14TB;
• total external physical disk space of 19TB;
• set to use mirror resiliency;
• a single external disk (of 1.36TB called “WolfmanASMT”) showing in the Storage Spaces GUI as disconnected;
• the Storage Space showing in the GUI as inaccessible.

My issue is, since I have 9 drives out of 10 showing as connected and healthy, why does the one disconnected physical drive (WolfmanASMT) stop the entire Storage Space (Spacelab) from connecting?
I thought that the whole point of mirror resiliency was that I could lose up to two disks and still have a working virtual disk.

I thought the issue might be that the one drive that is disconnected (WolfmanASMT) makes the difference between the Spacelab virtual disk as a whole having enough space for resiliency.
The trouble with that theory is that the disconnected disk contributes only 1.36TB of the entire setup, which is a 14Tb space with total physical drives of over 19Tb.
I have tried forcing the virtual disk to reconnect using a powershell command “connect-virtualdisk” but it gives the error that it cannot connect because too many drives have disconnected or gone missing.

By way of history, the notebook has only 3 USB 2.0 ports. As a result, I have been tinkering mercilessly with the means of connecting up the drives.
That included adding a 3-port Express card to the notebook. It included using a variety of different USB hubs.
As I tested out each different physical configuration the Storage Spaces GUI would show varying degrees of success from no Storage Space at all (not even disconnected) to disconnected with only one physical drive disconnected.
That is the current position.

I could try marking the disconnected disk as retired and then repairing the virtual disk but I would need to be confident that this will work.
If not. I will have to be patient and find a way to resurrect the one disconnected disk.
I think I might be able to do that by cloning it to a spare disk.
However, I am concerned that I have actually reached a limit of my old notebook and that even if I replace the disk, it will never connect properly because of some elusive limitation in the USB capabilities of my notebook.
Any suggestions gratefully considered.

I have included a screenshot of the Storage Spaces GUI.

 

How to remove a bad drive in Windows 10 storage spaces pool

Could someone list the steps involved in replacing a bad drive from a Windows 10 storage spaces pool? I cannot find any info on the Microsoft support site that is specific to Windows 10. Also, could you list the steps to remove a 'good' drive and replace
it with another drive if the process is different?

 

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.