Christopher (Drashna)

No, it dosen't have any preference.  But if you have read striping enabled, it should use that to optimize the reads.  
However, you might be able to use the file placement rules to hack this.  Eg, add a rule for "\.covefs\*" should work (or at least, dosen't error out).  This should allow you to specify a drive (and testing this, it looks to be respected)
 

You can also do this with power shell, and with "two" commands. 
In both cases, this gets a list of disks -> checks for any items that have the "read only property" -> and for each, run the command to disable read only.  
These are safe to run, and I have verified that they cause no issue on my personal system/server.  

Ah, okay. So just another term like "spinning rust"  
And that's ... very neat! 
You are very welcome! 
And I'm in that same boat, TBH.  Zfs and btrfs look like good pooling solutions, but a lot that goes into them.  Unraid is another option, but honestly, one I'm not fond of, mainly because of how the licensing works (I ... may be spoiled by our own licensing, I admit).  
And yeah, the recovery and such for the software is great. A lot of time and effort has gone into making it so easy, and we're glad you appreciate that!  And the file recovery does make things nice, when you're in a pinch!
And I definitely understand why people keep asking for a linux and/or mac version of our software.   There is a lot to say about something that "just works". 

Ah, okay. So just another term like "spinning rust"  
And that's ... very neat! 
You are very welcome! 
And I'm in that same boat, TBH.  Zfs and btrfs look like good pooling solutions, but a lot that goes into them.  Unraid is another option, but honestly, one I'm not fond of, mainly because of how the licensing works (I ... may be spoiled by our own licensing, I admit).  
And yeah, the recovery and such for the software is great. A lot of time and effort has gone into making it so easy, and we're glad you appreciate that!  And the file recovery does make things nice, when you're in a pinch!
And I definitely understand why people keep asking for a linux and/or mac version of our software.   There is a lot to say about something that "just works". 

For StableBit DrivePool,  the only setting that can impact this is the "BitLocker" detection setting. 
https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings
The setting in question is the example for how to edit and disable the setting, actually (and coincidentally). 
Also, make sure that you do not use A:\ or B:\ for the pool's drive letter, as Windows has some hard coded behavior that pings these drive letters frequently under the assumption that they're floppy drives.
 
If you have StableBit Scanner installed, then in the Scanner Settings, enable the "throttle queries" option in the SMART tab, as this can cause the drives to wake up or stay active. 

For any and all licensing requests, you should always head to https://stablebit.com/Contact first.
And for these, we should get to licensing tickets within the day or so.  And for support tickets, within a business day or so.
I say "or so", given time zones, scheduling, etc.  It may not be exactly a day.
 
If it takes longer than that, please feel free to bump the ticket, or email me directly at christopher@covecube.com. 
 
(sorry, this may/does get a bit ranty)
Some of those threads, we've looked into the issues, and can't reproduce.  So without being able to do so, it is very hard to a) verify that the issue exists, b) verify that the issue is actually related to our software, and c) address the issues.   
And there is only so many ways to say that before it sounds canned and/or condescending.   
That said, if we could "wave our hands and make the issues go away", we'd absolutely do so (and not in a "delete the thread and pretend it never happened" sort of way). 
Also, in general, I have personally found forums and other public places a bad place to to do support.  Too much dogpiling of issues that may not actually be related.   And this isn't something that is strictly related to StableBit DrivePool.  I've seen it in open source projects I've worked on too, for instance.   It makes things messier and harder to actually deal with real issues.  One on one is always ideal for support.  If there are paterns that emerge, that can be reported on internally, and much more naturally/organically.  Eg, "Hey, I have these few tickets that are exhibiting the same or very similar behavior, so there definitely looks to be an issue here" sort of thing (which has happened a number of times).
 

uninstalling doesn't remove or reset the settings, so you should be fine with just uninstalling and reinstalling. 
Specifically, no need to delete the ProgramData folder.   The "covefs failed to start" is the crux of the issue here, and is the driver for the pool.  Without this, the pool can't run.  And if it's not started/installed, then the service will generate a version mismatch, and stall out. 
Specifically this version should work: 
https://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/release/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.3.8.1600_x64_Release.exe

2.3.11.1663 should be safe for people with existing pools. 
However, if you're an older version ow Windows, then you may need to use 2.3.8.1600 due to signing issues. 
As for folder enumeration issues, there isn't a specific fix for this, and ChatGPT is *not* a reliable source of information, ever.  LLMs are incredibly prone to "halluciating" (a nice way to say "making shit up with no basis in reality").  
And the absolute latest release is: 
https://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/release/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.3.12.1680_x64_Release.exe
If you're having issues on the newer versions, please open a ticket at https://stablebit.com/Contact
 

It's flaky because multicast detection can be flaky.  
That said, you can manually add entries, if you need to: 
https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings#RemoteControl.xml

It's flaky because multicast detection can be flaky.  
That said, you can manually add entries, if you need to: 
https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings#RemoteControl.xml

Unfortunately, no, not currently.   The Windows apps (including XBOX apps) do some weird stuff that isn't supported on the pool.  And adding support for it isn't trivial (it's likely some very low level file system implementation that may be very difficult to implement).
That said, you *could* use StableBit CloudDrive and the local disk provider to create a drive on the pool, and install the games to that.  Because it's emulated at the block level rather than the file system level (like StableBit DrivePool), it shouldn't have the issues with the Windows/XBOX Apps

Yes, it is supported. 

Yes, it is supported. 

Namely, that Microsoft's support for the OS's ended October 2023, and we generally keep in lockstep with that.  That's primarily due to the lack of updates and fixes that may negetively impact our software.    
It may continue to operate without issues, but we don't guarantee that. 

Unfortunately, no.   It would take some code changes to facilitate that. 

I'll post it here too.  
There is a fix in the latest betas involving memory corruptions of file IDs.  
However, ... the issue may also be the wrong API being used: 
 
 

Hard Disk Sentinel Pro found an additional three HDD's that were "bad" or failing, on top of the 2 i already replaced, all due to bad sectors & running out of space to replace them.  Some were over 10 years old & all were over 5 years.  Pulled out the bad ones and went shopping.    Got my money's worth from them.  All new drives are server grade refurbs from the same company I bought one of the old drives from, they're online now, but still stand by their products & honor warranties so I feel pretty secure.  And as I read in another post, a sever crash/issue is a great excuse to upgrade your hardware.  My pool "accidentally" grew by 12Tb after I got it fixed.  😁  Best news was I turned on Pool Duplication and when I looked at was duplicating at the folder level, I found 2 miscellaneous folders that were not duplicating, changed them manually and YAY!  Measuring, Duplication and Balancing all finished OK.  Amazing what a hundred bucks or so of new equipment will do.  So my original issues were all equipment related after all. 

Yup, something broke on our end.  This should be fixed now, and updating should get the fixed version.

Yup, something broke on our end.  This should be fixed now, and updating should get the fixed version.

Yup, something broke on our end.  This should be fixed now, and updating should get the fixed version.

Thank you for the investigation!  That definitely helps a lot!
And there looks like there were UI fixes in 1600, so likely something broke there, accidentally. 
That said, I've created an issue for this: https://stablebit.com/Admin/IssueAnalysis/28956

Thank you for the investigation!  That definitely helps a lot!
And there looks like there were UI fixes in 1600, so likely something broke there, accidentally. 
That said, I've created an issue for this: https://stablebit.com/Admin/IssueAnalysis/28956

Are you sure that this was with StableBit DrivePool, and not Drive Bender?  
The reason I ask, is that we don't disable duplication, and we don't use the term "mirror" for file protection (it's always duplication).  
And because of the section in the licensing FAQ, and experience: 
https://stablebit.com/Support/DrivePool/Licensing
 
This is a topic that has come up from time to time, and we do have plans on if this were to happen.  Obviously, we don't want it to ever happen, but the future is uncertain. 
I believe the plan in that case was basically, disable the licensing altogether, and stop support completely for the software.  

To clarify, Windows 7 (and 8,) are no longer supported by Microsoft, and no longer receiving updates.
We follow suite with the Microsoft support lifecycles, since we can't ensure stability of the OS outside of the support lifecycle. Additionally, key components (such as .NET Framework and Visual C++ runtimes) may not be supported, anymore.  Especially in the case where we need/want to update this components. 
However, we haven't done anything to explicitly disable support for these OSes, so they may still work just fine.  However, the longer it's been since they've exited the support lifecycle, the more likely you are to have issues.
 
Additionally, Windows 10 leaves extended support Oct 2025. Yay....

Due to an unexpected glitch while updating the site, the Contact site is broken.
 
We're working on fixing this issue as quickly as possible.
 
 
We have fixed the issue with the Contact site. 
However, if you experience any issues with it, please let us know know right away.
You can do so, by contacting me directly at "christopher@covecube.com".
Just let us know what the issue with the site is, and what the issue that brought you to the site was.
 
 
We apologize for any trouble that this may have caused.