Windows 10: Storage Spaces Confusion and poor performance with 4x 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD drives

Hello,


I am having problems understanding Microsoft Storage Spaces. I created a 4-disk array using Two-way mirror. This is what it looks like in Storage Spaces:





And here is the disk usage from ~4TB total you get 1.8 TB Useable:







Question 1: Why does the Storage Spaces window indicate I am using 3.42 TB but the actual usage is more like ~25 GB? This is a brand-new array and there is only ~25 GB data on it.



The disk performance is also very poor. This array is 4 identical Western Digital Black 1 TB NVMe M.2 disks connected using PCIe adapters. The drive optimization panel routinely returns erratic data and optimizing the drive either in that panel or in the Storage Spaces tool seems to do nothing.





Question 2: What is the best way to optimize drives apply the TRIM function when using a "sort of software RAID 10" 4-disk two-way mirror in Storage Spaces?



Read and Write speed are very poor for this 4-drive two-way mirror as implemented in Storage Spaces on a Windows 10 Pro for Workstations operating system. There is only minor read speed improvement compared to a single drive, and the and the write speed of the 4-disk array is actually worse than a single disk. Theoretically, a "software RAID 10" should see improvements in both read and write speed over a single disk. The performance was worse for the 4-disk array configured as "Parity" sort-of software RAID 5. I confirmed that the drives could reach double the write and read speed by setting up a 2-disk striped volume software RAID 0 in the disk manager. It was not possible to reproduce this result in Storage Spaces. Creating a Simple no resiliency storage space did not improve read or write speed.


Question 3: Is Storage Spaces just not prepared to take advantage of the speeds that should be attainable using small arrays of M.2 drives? Are there specific drivers that I need for either the PCIe bus or the drives themselves? Is anyone else having a similar problem?


Thank you in advance for you time; if you think you have some info that could help it is greatly appreciated.


Best,

ConfusedaboutStorageSpaces

:)

 

Thinking about getting a 1TB m.2

My first thought was that using a 1TB SSD in what is basically a caching scheme is crazy.

On further thought, it's crazy.*Smile

I'd suggest getting this Sabrent Rocket Q 1TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High Performance Solid State Drive R/W 3200/2000 MB/s (SB-RKTQ-1TB) - Newegg.com or this Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High Performance Solid State Drive (SB-ROCKET-1TB) - Newegg.com as an alterative to Samsung. If you had a PCI-E 4.0 CPU + motherboard (you do not, at least in your My Computer listing), I'd suggest this: Sabrent 1TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD Maximum Performance Solid State Drive With Heatsink (SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-HTSK-1TB) - Newegg.com.

 

about intel optane memory + NVMe™ M.2 SSD

nitially

intel optane memory M10(16,32,64gb)PCIe NVMe M.2 3.0x2 was for accelerating 2.5'SATA mechanical HDD regardless of which generation intel CPUs.

also note :

not talking about Intel® Optane™ Memory H10 with Solid State Storage (32gb+1tb, 32gb+512gb ,16gb+256gb)PCIe NVMe3.0x4 that comes as a single m.2 drive which is mounted on single m.2 slot

but now why

intel optane memory M15(16,32,64gb)(PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4)is-- paired with --PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSDs {which is mounted on two differnt m.2 slots on 7th ,8th and 9th gen intel CPUs}

what is the purpose

ex: 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD + Intel® Optane™ memory 32 GB on (Intel® Core™ i7 9750H) seen from HPs Omen X 2S - 15 Gaming Laptop.

 

Clone present nvme pcie ssd to replacement nvme pcie ssd?

I have a 500GB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe SSD (boot drive) that I want to replace with a higher capacity M.2 card.

Where do I put the new SSD during the NVMe to NVMe cloning process? My mobo only has one M.2 slot for NVMe SSD's so do I want to use an external adapter for one of the M.2 cards? If so, do you have a recommendation?

If you have solved this issue for your desktop or laptop I would like your advice on if and what extra hardware you needed during the cloning.

please remember that I am dealing with PCIe NVMe drives ONLY. NO Sata is involved except possibly for a connecting cable from the desktop to an adapter. I am experienced with cloning SATA III drives but cloning NVMe is a little
new to me.

Computer: Dell XPS 8920, 32GB ram.

Present SSD: KXG50ZNV512G NVMe Toshiba 512GB

New SSD: CT13049074 Crucial P1 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD 1TB (or 2TB if available soon) or similar storage device.

Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, version 1809.