So I'm finally about to move up to Windows 8, and I was initially considering storage spaces....but it seems to have far too many caveats to trust my data to it. So after a little googling, I stumbled upon drivepool. I used to use WHS back in the day, loved drive extender...but that's no longer a thing, and my needs have changed considerably since then. My current setup:
Main PC
120GB SSD - Main OS/Apps drive
240GB SSD - Gaming performance drive
2TB WD Green - Gaming/misc archive drive
64GB SSD - Caches the 2TB drive using intel smart response, so reads and writes are super quick despite the mechanical HDD backing it.
Synology NAS
2TB WD Green - Primary storage drive
1TB WD Green - Backup drive (manual sync from NAS 2TB drive and the main PC over network)
Ideally, what I'd like to do, is move all the drives into the PC and drop the NAS. The 120GB drive would remain the OS drive, all the HDDs would merge into a single storage pool, and the 240GB SSD would serve as a cache. Maybe there's still a place for the 64GB, I dunno?Ideally I'd be able to pick and choose which folders would be mirrored onto the SSD for full performance but backed by a HDD (a few select games), which folders would be mirrored between HDDs for data protection, and which folders wouldn't be duplicated at all to save space.
So how realistic is this? I see that drivepool has an option to use a fast drive as a "landing pad", to increase write speeds...but I'm more concerned with having a "launch pad" for specific games to run at full SSD speed. I know you can choose on a folder by folder basis which drives are mirrored, but can you choose amongst which drives they'll be mirrored TO? And will the read speeds off the SSD be hindered at all by drivepool and the backing HDD? Furthermore, any chance a SSD can be made to function as a cache, similar to fusion drive? Where only the most frequently or recently read files are automatically mirrored or moved onto the SSD?
Beyond that, if I give the drivepool trial a try, how difficult will it be to revert to regular ol single drives?
bd2003 got a reaction from Tardas-Zib in A few Qs regarding SSDs, caching, read speeds and duplication...