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First, thank you for your interest in our product(s)! The default file placement strategy is to place files on the drive(s) with the most available free space (measured absolutely, rather than based on percentage). This happens regardless of the balancing status. In fact, it's the balancers themselves that can (will) change the placement strategy of new files. For what you want, that isn't ideal.... and before I get to the solution: The first issue here is that there is a misconception about how the balancing engine works (or more specifically, with how frequently or aggressive it is). For the most part, the balancing engine DOES NOT move files around. For a new, empty pool, balancing will rarely, if ever move files around. Partly because, it will proactively control where files are placed in the first place. That said, each balancer does have exceptions here. But just so you understand how and why each balancer works and when it would actually move files, let me enumerate each one and give a brief description of them. StableBit Scanner (the balancer). This balancer only works if you have StableBit Scanner installed on the same system. By default, it is only configured to move contents off of a disk if "damaged sectors" (aka "Unreadable sectors") are detected during the surface scan. This is done in an attempt to prevent data loss from file corruption. Optionally, you can do this for SMART warnings as well. And to avoid usage if the drive has "overheated". If you're using SnapRAID, then it may be worth turning this balancer off, as it isn't really needed Volume Equalization. This only affects drives that are using multiple volumes/partitions on the same physical disk. It will equalize the usage, and help prevent duplicates from residing on the same physical disk. Chances are that this balancer will never do anything on your system. Drive Usage Limiter This balancer controls what type of data (duplicated or unduplicated) can reside on a disk. For the most part, most people won't need this. We recommend using it for drive removal or "special configurations" (eg, my gaming system uses it to store only duplicated data, aka games, on the SSD, and store all unduplicated data on the hard drive)Unless configured manually, this balancer will not move data around. Prevent Drive Overfill This balancer specifically will move files around, and will do so only if the drive is 90+% full by default. This can be configured, based on your needs. However, this will only move files out of the drive until the drive is 85% filled. This is one of the balancers that is likely to move data. But this will only happen on very full pool. This can be disabled, but may lead to situations where the drives are too full. Duplication Space Optimizer. This balancer's sole job is to rebalance the data in such a way that removes the "Unusable for duplication" space on the pool. If you're not using duplication at all, you can absolutely disable this balancer So, for the most part, there is no real reason to disable balancing. Yes, I understand that it can cause issues for SnapRAID. But depending on the system, it is very unlikely to. And the benefits you gain by disabling it may be outweighed by the what the balancers do. Especially because of the balancer plugins. Specifically, you may want to look at the "Ordered File Placement" balancer plugin. This specifically fills up one drive at a time. Once the pool fills up the disk to the preset threshold, it will move onto the next disk. This may help keep the contents of a specific folders together. Meaning that it may help keep the SRT file in the same folder as the AVI file. Or at least, better about it than the default placement strategy. This won't guarantee the folder placement, but significantly increases the odds. That said, you can use file placement rules to help with this. Either to micromanage placement, or ... you can set up a SSD dedicated for metadata like this, so that all of the SRT and other files end up on the SSD. That way, the access is fast and the power consumption is minimal.