Chris Downs

I see, so then you need the opposite option in the balancer - "Equalize by free space remaining", I think? This should then give you what you want, for incoming new files?

I'm confused - if you have real time balancing turned on, then this option has existed since... forever? Just make sure the disk space equalizer is above all other plugins besides Scanner (if you use that).

No, that won't work at all. You can't duplicate and then force reads to only come from one disk. You would need a second SSD, and some file placement rules so that only your game folders are allowed on those disks. edit: why not just make a scheduled task to run a backup of the relevant game folders on the SSD, and copy them to the Drivepool in a "Game Backups" folder? Just a little batch file with some copy commands, then Task Scheduler to run it once a week?

[1] Yes, it will only move the data from disk 2 if a balancing rule causes it to be moved (if you have disk space equalisation turned on, for example). Otherwise, it will stay put. [2] You could just set the drive-overfill plugin to 75-80%? Then if any disk reaches that capacity, it'll move files out? Personally, I assign a pair of landing disks for my pools. Two cheap SSDs where incoming files get dumped. DP then moves them out later, or if it fills up. Note that the disks should be larger than the largest single file you would put on the pool. If cost is an issue, you could try the following setup with existing hardware instead: Install the SSD optimizer plugin Tell DP/SSD Opt. that Disk 2 is an SSD and un-tick the "archive" setting Make Disk 1 and 3 "Archive" drives Change your file placement rules so that only unduplicated files go on Disk 2, and only duplicated files go on 1 and 3 That way, all new incoming files get put on "Disk 2", then later when your duplication/balancing rules engage, it will move the data off of Disk 2 entirely, and duplicate to 1 and 3. This assumes you do not have "real-time duplication" enabled. If you still need the total capacity of the 3 disks, then perhaps a small investment in a 120/240GB SSD to use as a landing drive might be a good idea, and substitute "Disk 2" with "SSD/Disk 4" in the above setup?

You should be able to pass the iGPU, but I am using old Xeons so I can't test it. Keep in mind that you then lose the host video if you do that. I'm no Hyper-V expert though, I use Proxmox. I do know that all four of these options need to be ticked when adding a PCIe GPU in proxmox: Is the Hyper-V equivalent obvious to you? I've only ever used Hyper-V on my local PC for testing and no passthrough. I have been testing VM pass-through of my HBAs for over a year now, and just moved my bare-metal machines over to VMs as the setup passed my testing to my satisfaction. Remember to de-activate your bare-metal Drivepool/Scanner licenses FIRST though... or you'll end up pestering Mr Drashna to get that mess fixed.

No problem. Here is a somewhat old thread on ReFS: https://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/3296-refs/#comment-22766 There seemed to be some concern over different ReFS versions not being compatible (yikes!), so not sure if that is still a concern?

I pass through the HBA for Drivepool. I use Dell Perc H310 cards and the SMART data is all visible, as it should be because my Windows VM has direct access to the HBA. edit: Wrong Chris I know, but hopefully helpful?

Just move the files you see in "E:", to the new drive "K:". You only have one disk in the pool so far?

It's odd that the form isn't working for you - I literally just used it the other day. Try another browser to be sure? But just tag @Christopher (Drashna), or use one of the contact methods in his profile: He will help you sort it out.

It literally duplicates the data, so a 30TB pool has space for 15TB of data if you select 2x, 10TB if you selected 3x, etc. It will still show as 30TB in Explorer though. So yes, if you have 30TB of actual data, you need 60TB of disks for 2x duplication. The files in the pool are stored in a hidden folder in the root of each drive. Change your Explorer options to show hidden files, and navigate into the long-named folder starting with "PoolPart." and you will see all your files and a ".covefs" folder at the top. Simply move everything except the ".covefs" folder out to another location. Where did it used to belong? If the old home of the data is still available, you can copy the content of each PoolPart folder to the same place, and it will all merge in the usual Windows Explorer manner - ie, with that popup to confirm merge/overwrite. If the old home is not available, just copy the file to the root of each disk. When you are done with that part, you can delete any remaining hidden folders. Hopefully that's clear?

These two options leave your data on the removed drive:

Huh? You just tick "fast removal", and it leaves the data on the disk alone.

Just configure the metadata to be stored elsewhere - it should really be on an SSD anyway, for speed. It should be defaulting to using the system (C:/) for metadata. Personally, I use a dedicated cheap and small (120GB Sandisk Plus) SSD for mine.

Disk manufacturers use the definition of a kilobyte as 1000 bytes vs 1024 bytes on the computer side. That's where your "missing" space is. There is no way to unlock more space, nor has there ever been a way.

Yes, Drivepool creates a new drive for the pool. It's auto-assigned a drive letter but you can change it using the usual Windows method. It appears as a (mostly) normal drive, though disk management might only show it as "2048GB", as it has to report a value, and since the pool can grow and shrink, it supplies a fixed value. You still see the correct values in anything that isn't a partition manager though. The physical drives can have their letters removed if you want, or mounted to folders instead - I use C:\DP\ to mount all mine in case I want to access them (unlikely). Keeps the drive letter clutter down. I have no idea about ReFS, I will tag in @Christopher (Drashna) for that part Or maybe someone else can answer.