VapechiK

hi
yes, what DaveJ suggested is your best bet.
and Shane is correct (as usual).  you have (in)effectively mounted your pool drives into a folder on the pool and this is causing Everything to fail and WILL cause other problems down the road.  to quote Shane:   "Late edit for future readers: DON'T mount them as folders inside the pool drive itself, nor inside a poolpart folder. That risks a recursive loop, which would be bad."
 
1.  on your C (Bears) drive, recreate the D:\DrivePool folder where you mounted your drives 301 302 etc.  so you now have C:\DrivePool with EMPTY folders for all your drives that are in the pool.  DO NOT try to drag and drop the DrivePool folder on D to C  mmm mmm bad idea.  just do this manually as you did before.
2.  STOP the DrivePool service (win + R, type 'services.msc' find StableBit DrivePool Service and Stop it).
3.  go to Disk Management and as in https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624   remount all the drives from D:\DrivePool into the drive folders in C:\DrivePool.  windows may/will throw some warnings about the change.  ignore them and remount all 16 from D:\DrivePool to C:\DrivePool. 
4.  reboot
now your file explorer should show Bears C:, DrivePool D:, and maybe G X and Y too, idk...
enable show hidden files and folders and navigate to C:\DrivePool.  doubleclicking any of the drive folders will show the contents of the drive if any and a hidden PoolPart.xxxx folder.  these PoolPart folders are where the 'POOL' lives.  and this is where/how to access your data from 'outside' the pool.  be careful they are not deleted.
5.  go to the folder DrivePool on D and delete it.  totally unnecessary after the remount from D to C and now it is just a distraction.
6.  life is good.
 
some advice:
for simplicity's sake, i would rename C:\DrivePool to C:\Mounts or something similar.  having your pool and the folder where its drives are mounted with both the same name WILL only confuse someone at some point and bad things could happen.
hope this helps
cheers

Thanks VapechiK
You gave me back the courage ! I am not sure if I will remove my drives during the re-installation process but I decided to re-install the OS
and also Thanks Shane
to double check and give me the fact that encryption option was in stablebit cloudrive (not drivepool) and I've never used bitlocker option so I think I am safe from that encryption key problem 

no need to fear...
as long as you have backups all is good.
DrivePool does not use encryption by default.  no 'encryption keys' exist so no worries there.  it is a non-issue.
CloudDrive provides encryption, but if you are not using it, there is no need to even consider it in this discussion.

refering to my initial reply:

step 1.  for your convenience.  nothing else.
step 2.  DUH!
step 3.  is an all-around good idea.  self-explanatory.
step 4.  this is the best practice.  mostly just to ensure no screw-ups.  no 'real need' to do so.  if you are confident you know which drive to re-install to... go for it.  if you manually format your C:\ drive (or when asked during installation process) make sure you choose GPT partition (should be selected by default).  
step 5.  self-explanatory.
step 6.  self-explanatory.
step 7.  self-explanatory.
step 8.  if you care, reset your settings the way you had them before the reinstall.  if you are good with the default settings, don't worry about it.  a REBOOT is a good idea here.
step 9.  anytime you reinstall/reset/change settings etc. in DrivePool, it is best practice to remeasure after you save changes.  if you go with the default settings, it will probably remeasure all by itself upon reboot.  if not...  Manage Pool ^ Remeasure > Remeasure.
very simple procedure actually.  nothing to fear  

DrivePool does not use encryption (that's CloudDrive). However, in the event that you have used Windows Bitlocker to encrypt the physical drives on which your pool is stored then you will need to ensure you have those key(s) saved (which Bitlocker would have prompted you to do during the initial encryption process).

hello
1.  make note of or take screenshots of your DrivePool settings if you have changed them from the default settings in any way.  if you take SSs step 2 is important.  DP saves your pool data in Alternate Data Streams on the drives themselves but doesn't save any customized balancer/file placement rules etc.  from Manage Pool ^ Balancing... under the pie chart in the GUI.  also take note of Manage Pool ^ Performance > settings as well.
2.  make sure all your user data (i.e. all docs, pics, DLs, etc.) from your C:\Users\[your user name]\ have been saved/backed up elsewhere.
3.  yes deactivate your license - cogwheel with downpointing arrow in upper right corner/Manage license/deactivate.  in fact you should do this for all licensed 3rd party software on your machine.  if you are reinstalling on the EXACT same hardware it *shouldn't* much matter but better safe than hassled later.
4.  power OFF machine, and unplug/detach ALL drives EXCEPT your win10 drive from the mobo and any USB ports.  IOWs ONLY the win10 boot drive where you want to clean install win11 is attached.
5.  install windoze 11 and update to latest version, all new windows update security patches, etc etc.
6.  DL and install the latest version of DP from https://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Download and reactivate the license.
7.  power OFF your machine and reconnect your DrivePool drives and power ON.
8.  in the DP GUI Manage Pool ^ Balancing... ensure all is reconfigured and set up as it was before the reinstall.  SAVE.  Manage Pool ^ Performance > as well.  if it were me, i would reboot here.
9.  it is important to remeasure the pool before using it normally.  Manage Pool > Remeasure... Remeasure.
*NOTE*  if you never messed with the settings and all was left at default before, steps 1 and 8 can probably be omitted/ignored.  my own pool is fairly customized, so i included them as part of the procedure I would follow.
cheers

hello
1.  make note of or take screenshots of your DrivePool settings if you have changed them from the default settings in any way.  if you take SSs step 2 is important.  DP saves your pool data in Alternate Data Streams on the drives themselves but doesn't save any customized balancer/file placement rules etc.  from Manage Pool ^ Balancing... under the pie chart in the GUI.  also take note of Manage Pool ^ Performance > settings as well.
2.  make sure all your user data (i.e. all docs, pics, DLs, etc.) from your C:\Users\[your user name]\ have been saved/backed up elsewhere.
3.  yes deactivate your license - cogwheel with downpointing arrow in upper right corner/Manage license/deactivate.  in fact you should do this for all licensed 3rd party software on your machine.  if you are reinstalling on the EXACT same hardware it *shouldn't* much matter but better safe than hassled later.
4.  power OFF machine, and unplug/detach ALL drives EXCEPT your win10 drive from the mobo and any USB ports.  IOWs ONLY the win10 boot drive where you want to clean install win11 is attached.
5.  install windoze 11 and update to latest version, all new windows update security patches, etc etc.
6.  DL and install the latest version of DP from https://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Download and reactivate the license.
7.  power OFF your machine and reconnect your DrivePool drives and power ON.
8.  in the DP GUI Manage Pool ^ Balancing... ensure all is reconfigured and set up as it was before the reinstall.  SAVE.  Manage Pool ^ Performance > as well.  if it were me, i would reboot here.
9.  it is important to remeasure the pool before using it normally.  Manage Pool > Remeasure... Remeasure.
*NOTE*  if you never messed with the settings and all was left at default before, steps 1 and 8 can probably be omitted/ignored.  my own pool is fairly customized, so i included them as part of the procedure I would follow.
cheers

hello
i do not use StableBit CloudDrive, but i think i see the problem here, after many years reading these forums before licensing and using SB products.
existing data on a cloud provider (files, folders, etc.) will not be seen by a SB CloudDrive once it is created.  something to do with how the drive is created and obfuscated at a block/chunk level.  all data on a new CloudDrive must be uploaded from the user to the newly created CloudDrive before it is seen in the CloudDrive, regardless of whether the data already exists and is accessible by logging on to Google Drive and using their browser/whatever UI.
when/if Shane or Christopher respond, i'm quite sure they will tell you the same thing, albeit providing much more useful technical info.  in the meantime, reading the manual and the FAQ may help.

https://stablebit.com/Support/CloudDrive/Manual 
https://stablebit.com/Support/CloudDrive/Faq 
 
IOW, this is just telling you what to expect while you are scratching your head wondering
cheers

USB so-called DAS/JBOD/etc units usually internally use a SATA Port multiplier setup, and is likely the source of your issues.

A SATA Port multiplier is a way of connecting multiple SATA Devices to one root port, and due to the way that the ATA Protocol works, when I/O is performed it essentially takes the entire bus that is created from that root port hostage until the requested data is returned.
it also is important to know that write caching will skew any write benchmarks results if the enclosure uses UASP or you have explicitly enabled it.

these devices perform even worse with a striping filesystem (like raidz, btrfs raid 5/6 or mdraid 5/6), and having highly fragmented data (which will cause a bunch of seek commands that again, will hold the bus hostage until they complete, which with spinning media does create a substantial I/O burden)


honestly, your options are either accept the loss of performance (it is tolerable but noticeable on a 4 drive unit, no idea how it is on your 8 drive unit), or invest in something like a SAS JBOD which will actually have sane real world performance. USB isn't meant for more than a disk or two, and between things like this and hidden overhead (like the 8/10b modulation, root port and chip bottlenecks, general inability to pass SMART and other data, USB disconnects, and other issues that aren't worth getting into) it may be worth just using a more capable solution

ok, just curious... first of all... (per the last paragraph of your first post), why are read striping and real time duplication enabled on your pool if duplication (as inferred) is not enabled?  seems to me your settings are complicating things.  kill them both (disable) for starters.
i too have a SYBA 8bay exactly like yours.  it is where my DrivePool lives.
i also have an Oyen Mobius Pro 5C where my backups live.  writing/reading speed from this enclosure can vary greatly (70MBps from the Oyen to the SYBA... 160MBps from the SYBA to the Oyen).  and they're both attached to the same USB3 adapter card.  *shrugs* go figure.
if you are actually seeing the speeds you mentioned, consider yourself lucky.  18+ TB and 7200 rpm speed = R/W speed i wish i had.  all of my drives max out at 8TB 128MB cache, so i have to be happy with what i have.
cheers

I guessed as much, it was half feature request, and half checking with the forum that I hadn't missed a checkbox in advanced settings to enable it.

VapechiK is correct; StableBit's DrivePool is not a parity RAID system, it will not "self-heal" a damaged file.
StableBit's Scanner is able to detect and attempt to repair damaged files, and if you have that plus DrivePool's duplication you can manually replace a non-repairable file with its good duplicate when alerted.
Some users combine DrivePool with SnapRAID to get parity healing capability (albeit not fully automated).
As VapechiK indicates, you can also pool sets of RAID volumes to let those provide duplication/parity.

i would add that, the most sensible option is as Shane said DP will ask... fix it yourself.
long ago when i was experimenting with pool duplication, there was a conflict between 2 movie files on my drives.  when DP popped up and asked me what to do, i left the question/notification/error box sitting there...  i went to the underlying DP drives and compared the 2.  it was the NEWER version that was corrupt and would not play.  moral of the story:  always check it out for yourself.
cheers

hello.
i don't know what the solution to your issue might be, but i do know that the AIO plug-in is outdated.  the code is old and one of the plug-ins (Drive Space Equalizer) it was originally designed to replace has been updated so... using the AIO may cause conflicts .
see here for a bit more info:
https://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/12857-all-in-one-plug-in/#comment-45314
 
if i were in your place i would consider disabling the AIO.  until the original programmer @methejuggler gets around to updating his code or @Alex will actually do something about this issue it seems more of a liability than any kind of enhancement.
tl;dr:  your plugins are banging heads.
all this said, i would wait for an 'official' reply from Shane or Christopher before attempting anything drastic.  just my .02 cents
cheers
 

Based on my own experiences, neither. Likely it means the drive's own firmware found something wrong (thus the S.M.A.R.T. flag) and then dealt with the problem itself, it's just that Scanner noticed the warning inbetween detection and resolution.
You might find further info in the logs (C:\ProgramData\StableBit Scanner\Service\Logs), or if you enable Scanner's email notifications and it happens again the email would mention which particular S.M.A.R.T. warning/error occurred.
As I use both duplication and nightly backups I'd just double-check that those are on and wouldn't worry about it; I'd only consider replacing the drive if the issue kept happening (more) often or became a permanent error rather than a temporary warning. YMMV.

I duplicate all HDD's, except the ones that have the OS's on them, with those, I use 'minitool partition wizard'.
The 4 bay enclosures I linked to above, I have 2 of the 8 bay ones, with a total of 97.3TB & I now have only 6.34TB free space out of that.  It works out cheaper to get the little 4 bay ones, and they take HDD's up to 18TB - sweet
If you like the black & green, you could always get a pint of XXXX & put green food dye into it, you don't have to wait till St. Patrick's Day.  That would bring back uni days as well     🤣   🍺   👍
" A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel down his daks
 He walks up to the bar & orders a drink
 The barman looks over the bar and says, "do you know you have a steering wheel down your daks?"
 The pirate goes, "aye, and it's driving me nuts""   🤣   🤣   🤣
🍺   👍   🍺   cheers
 

Pretty much as VapechiK says. Here's a how-to list based on your screenshot at the top of this topic:
Create a folder, e.g. called "mounts" or "disks" or whatever, in the root of any physical drive that ISN'T your drivepool and IS going to be always present: You might use your boot drive, e.g. c:\mounts You might use a data drive that's always plugged in, e.g. x:\mounts (where "x" is the letter of that drive) Create empty sub-folders inside the folder you created, one for each drive you plan to "hide" (remove the drive letter of): I suggest a naming scheme that makes it easy to know which sub-folder is related to which drive. You might use the drive's serial number, e.g. c:\mounts\12345 You might have a labeller and put your own labels on the actual drives then use that for the name, e.g. c:\mounts\501 Open up Windows Disk Management and for each of the drives: Remove any existing drive letters and mount paths Add a mount path to the matching empty sub-folder you created above. Reboot the PC (doesn't have to be done straight away but will clear up any old file locks etc). That's it. The drives should now still show up in Everything, as sub-folders within the folder you created, and in a normal file explorer window the sub-folder icons should gain a small curved arrow in the bottom-left corner as if they were shortcuts.
P.S. And speaking of shortcuts I'm now off on a road trip or four, so access is going to be intermittent at best for the next week.

hi
yes, what DaveJ suggested is your best bet.
and Shane is correct (as usual).  you have (in)effectively mounted your pool drives into a folder on the pool and this is causing Everything to fail and WILL cause other problems down the road.  to quote Shane:   "Late edit for future readers: DON'T mount them as folders inside the pool drive itself, nor inside a poolpart folder. That risks a recursive loop, which would be bad."
 
1.  on your C (Bears) drive, recreate the D:\DrivePool folder where you mounted your drives 301 302 etc.  so you now have C:\DrivePool with EMPTY folders for all your drives that are in the pool.  DO NOT try to drag and drop the DrivePool folder on D to C  mmm mmm bad idea.  just do this manually as you did before.
2.  STOP the DrivePool service (win + R, type 'services.msc' find StableBit DrivePool Service and Stop it).
3.  go to Disk Management and as in https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624   remount all the drives from D:\DrivePool into the drive folders in C:\DrivePool.  windows may/will throw some warnings about the change.  ignore them and remount all 16 from D:\DrivePool to C:\DrivePool. 
4.  reboot
now your file explorer should show Bears C:, DrivePool D:, and maybe G X and Y too, idk...
enable show hidden files and folders and navigate to C:\DrivePool.  doubleclicking any of the drive folders will show the contents of the drive if any and a hidden PoolPart.xxxx folder.  these PoolPart folders are where the 'POOL' lives.  and this is where/how to access your data from 'outside' the pool.  be careful they are not deleted.
5.  go to the folder DrivePool on D and delete it.  totally unnecessary after the remount from D to C and now it is just a distraction.
6.  life is good.
 
some advice:
for simplicity's sake, i would rename C:\DrivePool to C:\Mounts or something similar.  having your pool and the folder where its drives are mounted with both the same name WILL only confuse someone at some point and bad things could happen.
hope this helps
cheers

hello
i cannot speak to the functionality of the All In One plugin when running the latest beta, as i do not run beta software of any kind (all software is beta lol).  i am running 2.3.2.1493 release final.  i will upgrade to the latest and greatest release when it is available i suppose.  that said, here's what happens when i tinker with the AIO settings in DrivePool...
 
I
 
click OK and the DP UI crashes.
 
this happens when the AIO is selected (ticked or unticked), then any another plug-in is selected (again either ticked or unticked), then finally reselecting the AIO plug-in.  sometimes it will error when 'cancel' is clicked and only AIO was selected, though not always.  it's saving UI error reports; dark mode using the AIO is barely readable, the contrasts are way off and only running the light theme in the DrivePool gui does it look 'normal' but it still fails the above.  in the past i have un/reinstalled it with reboots etc. to no avail.  i will give it another go when i upgrade DP; for now the OFP & DUL plug-ins do all that i need.   
another thing: 
DrivePool 2.3.3.1505 gave us an update to the Disk Space Equalizer
 .1501 * [Issue #28751] Added an option to equalize by used disk space to the Disk Space Equalizer balancer.  
&
 .1504 * Added an explicit placement limit setting to the Disk Space Equalizer balancer.  
the AIO in its current state does not include these options.
 
perhaps @methejuggler will update their code soon  or maybe  @Alex  will take over its maintenance? 
i will be adding another pool of 3 or 4 ssds soon and would love to have the AIO updated and stable.
cheers

hi.  the quick and easy way is as follows...
in windows/file explorer, enable 'show hidden files and folders.'
open DP gui go to 'Manage Pool^'  'Balancing...' 'Settings' tab and tick 'do not balance automatically' and UNTICK 'allow balancing plug-ins to force blah blah.'  SAVE
ensure the drive you want to remove is mounted either as a drive letter or in a folder somewhere so it can be accessed in explorer.  power down your computer, add the new drive, power back up and format/mount it however you want in 'Disk Management.'  go to DrivePool gui and add the new drive to the pool.  while still in the DP gui click 'Remove' on the drive you wish to remove.  leave all the removal options UNCHECKED and remove it.
run 'services.msc' and stop the DrivePool service.  the DP gui will disappear.  then in explorer, in the old/small hdd, navigate to inside the hidden 'poolpart.xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx' folder and highlight/select all the folders and files within.  right click > select 'Copy.'  then navigate to the new hdd and 'Paste' your data on the root level.  when it finishes copying and you are satisfied that a 'bit for bit' copy of all the data has occurred,  drag/drop the newly copied data into the hidden poolpart folder on the new drive.  restart DrivePool service/gui.  Manage Pool^ > Re-measure > Re-measure.  when re-measuring has completed and you have a solid green 'Pool Organization' bar, go back to the above second step and reset your balancing settings to however they were.  SAVE.  reboot.  viola... done.  
you may find this link useful to understand the seeding process.
https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489 

TL;DR
1.  show hidden
2.  disable automatic balancing, SAVE
3.  add/remove drives to/from pool
4.  STOP DrivePool service
5.  copy data from old drive to new drive and move it to the poolpart folder on new drive
6.  restart DrivePool service
7.  re-measure pool
8.  reset whatever balancing settings, SAVE
9.  reboot
10. enjoy DrivePool goodness
if you have any custom balancing plug-in settings enabled (i.e. Disk Space Equalizer) DrivePool will probably begin balancing in the background after you reboot.  this is normal, just let it do its thing.  the above process is really only practical with unduplicated pools, and i have used it many times swapping out 4TB drives for 8TB.  i also run my pool with no duplication and have no balancers enabled so all my data stays exactly where i put it on the underlying drives.  hope this helps...
cheers
 

oh you're welcome
just as an afterthought and to perhaps clarify, if DrivePool is the only StableBit product you are trialing, simply turning off bitlocker SHOULD solve the sleep issue and allow windows to handle normal drive/sleep control duties.  since Scanner is a drive health monitoring utility, it must occasionally communicate with the drives, thereby potentially waking them up.  yes there are settings within that allow user control over them and that is all fine and dandy but, if it's not installed then it's not there to further complicate things initially.
perhaps just get DrivePool up and running as you like and the sleep issue handled first, then see about Scanner.  i myself wouldn't run a pool without it; the wealth of info it provides about my system in general is well worth the price of admission, and the occasional alert i've received has nipped any real trouble in the bud.  long story short here, the second link provided while very interesting and helpful indeed, is mostly moot unless StableBit Scanner is actually installed.  and, i can't imagine any scenario where one MUST have Scanner installed in order for drive sleep to happen simply because DrivePool is installed.  if you already have both DP and Scanner installed, well great.  you can't go wrong there.
let us know how it goes and how you finalize your setup

 

@VapechiK Thanks for your replies and advice, I will work through your suggestions tomorrow when I have time, I really appreciate your response and the links I should be able to get somewhere with all that information🙂
 
@Shane Thank you that is all very useful to know. I am not sure if DrivePool will be suitable if all the disks are spinning up for each access but I will try and resolve the sleep issue first and then test to see how it works out with Plex.

Note that hdparm only controls if/when the disks themselves decide to spin down; it does not control if/when Windows decides to spin the disks down, nor does it prevent them from being spun back up by Windows or an application or service accessing the disks, and the effect is  (normally?) per-boot, not permanent. If you want to permanently alter the idle timer of a specific hard drive, you should consult the manufacturer.
An issue here is that DrivePool does not keep a record of where files are stored, so I presume it would have to wake up (enough of?) the pool as a whole to find the disk containing the file you want if you didn't have (enough of?) the pool's directory stucture cached in RAM by the OS (or other utility).

hello
even if you're not using bitlocker, you MUST change the setting value from null to false in the DrivePool json file.  otherwise DP will ping your disks every 5secs or so, and your disks will never sleep at all anyway.  then you begin messing around with windows settings to set when they sleep.  folks here have had varying degrees of success getting drives to sleep, some with no luck at all.  in StableBit Scanner there are various Advanced Power Management (APM) settings that bypass windows and control the drive through its firmware.  i have read of success going that route, but have no experience at all since i am old school and my 'production' DP drives spin constantly cuz that's how i like it.
to change the json:
https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings 
there are many threads here on this topic as you have seen, but of course i can't find them easily now that i'm looking lol...  perhaps @Shane or @Christopher (Drashna) will provide the link where Alex (the developer) explains the APM settings in Scanner and the whole drive sleep issue in general in greater detail.
tl;dr
you must turn off bitlocker detection first before your drives will ever sleep.  BTW if you ever trial StableBit CloudDrive you must change the same setting in its json as well.
good luck
Edit:  found the link:  
https://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/48-questions-regarding-hard-drive-spindownstandby/
 
 

hello
even if you're not using bitlocker, you MUST change the setting value from null to false in the DrivePool json file.  otherwise DP will ping your disks every 5secs or so, and your disks will never sleep at all anyway.  then you begin messing around with windows settings to set when they sleep.  folks here have had varying degrees of success getting drives to sleep, some with no luck at all.  in StableBit Scanner there are various Advanced Power Management (APM) settings that bypass windows and control the drive through its firmware.  i have read of success going that route, but have no experience at all since i am old school and my 'production' DP drives spin constantly cuz that's how i like it.
to change the json:
https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings 
there are many threads here on this topic as you have seen, but of course i can't find them easily now that i'm looking lol...  perhaps @Shane or @Christopher (Drashna) will provide the link where Alex (the developer) explains the APM settings in Scanner and the whole drive sleep issue in general in greater detail.
tl;dr
you must turn off bitlocker detection first before your drives will ever sleep.  BTW if you ever trial StableBit CloudDrive you must change the same setting in its json as well.
good luck
Edit:  found the link:  
https://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/48-questions-regarding-hard-drive-spindownstandby/
 
 

Uh, yes, I'd agree, it's not a task for DrivePool - because it doesn't do that. DrivePool just pools files, the specific content of those files is irrelevant to it. Post screenshot (redact specifics if necessary)?