Shane

Hi, do you still need help with this or did Stablebit get back in contact with you?

It looks like the markers for the real-time placement limiters show the active limits; unless/until your "SSD" drives actually hit that 90% the "Archive" drives won't be receiving any files in real-time (so they have the marker at zero).

DrivePool uses the drive(s) you select to create a pool (virtual drive) that can use all of the (available) space of those selected drive(s). It doesn't import existing files, it just uses the free space; you have to manually move any files you want put in the new pool. So in your example, you have 9 HDDs and 2 SSDs. You created a Pool drive A that uses the available space of the 9 HDDs, and a Pool drive B that uses the available space of the 2 SSDs. Any existing files on those HDDs and SSDs remain where they are, outside the Pool drives. If you then create a Pool drive C using the available space of the A and B... it still only uses the available space of those drives, and the existing files in A and B remain where they are. If you look in one of the physical drives, say a HDD and let's call it G, you would find the hidden folder structure where DrivePool actually keeps its files, for example: G:\Poolpart.unique_string_associated_with_Pool_A\files_and_folders_that_are_actually_in_Pool_A <-- the bit in italics is the hidden folder for pool A Note that depending on how you've set up your duplication for A or B, the hidden folder for C might not show up inside the hidden folder for A or B in all of the physical drives, but it would exist in at least one of those drives and you would see it if you looked for hidden folders in Pool A itself, e.g. A:\Poolpart.unique_string_associated_with_Pool_C\files_and_folders_that_are_actually_in_Pool_C Each pool also has its own individual balancing and duplication settings; e.g. if you told A to dupe everything x3, and you told B to dupe everything x2, and you told C to dupe everything x2, then a file placed in C would - because it's made from A and B - end up using space in both A and B and so in turn use space in 3 drives of A and 2 drives of B. I hope this helps and isn't confusing! The important part is that a pool shares the available space of the drives (whether physical drives or pool drives) used to create it; it doesn't show any files placed directly in those drives (unless you start mucking with the hidden structures of those drives).

@Christopher (Drashna) Can you please elaborate on this - I'm guessing it's not a choice StableBit would prefer to make? I'd also suggest that it seems like the kind of change that should be officially announced in the forums sooner rather than later (also inb4 inevitable confusion of some users over "Google Drive" vs "Google Cloud Storage") and that some kind of warning message should be implemented in the CloudDrive product itself for those who have (or are adding) Google Drive as a provider. Edit: there is a warning message as of the 1.2.6.1706 beta. I need to read the notes more carefully. Thanks to msq for pointing this out and providing screenshots below.

Where are you getting that from?

I'd suggest searching for "unraid" in the forums here, as I've seen posts about people moving in the other direction - unraid to drivepool - after encountering problems with the former. Maybe run them side by side for a while, or at least be prepared for teething issues? In any case, best of luck!

Hi! You can use VSS-based backup methods to snapshot the physical drives that form the pool instead of the pool itself, though you may end up with redundant copies of files if you are using DrivePool's duplication. If you just want the ability to restore a recent version of a file, you may wish to look into (if you are using Windows 10/11 Pro) the built-in Windows File History utility as it can take regular snapshots (e.g. hourly). For non-VSS backup options, I use FreeFilesync to backup my pool (with versioning) to another machine; it can use but does not require VSS (except to optionally backup files that are in an open state). However I don't know how you would avoid a full initial backup with it.

What kind of error are you getting? I've just test and am able to download and install it from the Stablebit.com website.

That would indeed be a nice addition! In the meantime, if you can access "C:\ProgramData\StableBit DrivePool\Service\Logs\Service\" and open the corresponding day's log file, search for "missing pool part" and the line should include the missing pool part's identifier string; the corresponding hidden PoolPart.identifier folder will be on the drive that dropped out (if there are multiple entries with different identifiers, then multiple drives dropped out).

What sort of information are you wanting?

Yes, if you click Remove on the dying drive then it will automatically move everything (in the pool) that's on that drive to the other drives (in the pool). You may or may not wish to choose the option of "Force damaged drive removal (unreadable files will be left on the disk)." This will help if the drive has damaged files that can't be read. However, since you are using SnapRaid, you should instead be incorporating its instructions to safely transfer the files without messing up your parity (Disclaimer: I'm not great with SnapRaid, please double-check this): (turn off DrivePool balancing/placement if you're using it - which you probably aren't using if you're using SnapRaid) (stop DrivePool service) copy files from good Drive2 to good Drive3 check with diff, if good (identified as copies) proceed with a sync and continue to next step delete files on good Drive2 run a sync copy files from failing Drive1 to good Drive2 check with diff, if good (identified as copies) proceed with a sync and continue to next step delete files on failing Drive1 run a sync might as well take the failing Drive1 out of the machine at this point - run a secure erase on it if you need/want to - but remember to follow the SnapRaid procedure for removing a data disk from the array (start DrivePool service) (remove the "missing" Drive1) (might need to do a Manage Pool -> Re-measure if DrivePool doesn't do it automatically) (turn on DrivePool balancing/placement if you're using it - which you probably aren't using if you're using SnapRaid) You can still use Remove on a drive containing unduplicated files; it will still move them to another drive. DrivePool duplication, if enabled, is like RAID1 in that it ensures that duplicated files exist on two or more drives (so that if one drive dies unexpectedly you haven't lost any of the duplicated files that were on it as they will also be on at least one other drive). 2x duplication does use 2x the space of course, and so on. You can turn it on for the entire pool or customise it for specific folders.

If the drive's failing but stiil currently readable, then you could just tell DrivePool to Remove it and it will evacuate the data file by file to the rest of the drives in your pool (usually the one(s) with the most free space). If you're wanting to manually move the content as you describe (e.g. because you're using SnapRaid or because you want it done ASAP and don't have duplication), then as long as you turn off any Balancing and Placement, and stop the StableBit DrivePool service you can safely move* content between the poolparts so long as the internal structure is kept the same (e.g. don't change "pathX\fileY" in "Drive1:\PoolPart1342343\pathX\fileY" to "Drive2:\PoolPart324343\pathX\fileY"). Once you're done you can then restart the service, Remove the drive you manually emptied, and then turn back on any Balancing and Placement. *Note: for a failing disk with no duplication, instead of doing a "direct" move, I would copy the content to the destination and verify the copies before I deleted any content from the source. This minimises writes to the suspect disk while I'm getting data from it. "Also, the drives are SnapRaided, would it be safer to copy everything off and hope everything is in tact data wise, or restore from the parity drive ?" See the SnapRaid FAQ for the "100% safe way to proceed": https://www.snapraid.it/faq#move

If you are looking for a list of forum admins, then from the community.covecobe.com main page click Browse -> Staff. Alex and Christopher are the StableBit staff/admins, while Shane (myself) and saitoh183 are volunteer moderators. You can message any of them from the above page. I'd suggest Christopher first for general official responses/statements, myself if you just want some help re something on the forum? You can also contact StableBit re product sales/issues/feedback/development or the like via the Contact form.

As the old thread explains, DrivePool uses *.copytemp files in the process of balancing/duplicating files; if DrivePool is interrupted (e.g. power outage) during balancing/duplicating then both the original file and the temporary file.copytemp will remain. You can thus safely delete any *.copytemp files without losing data if DrivePool is not currently balancing or duplicating when you do so, and doing so will free up space occupied by the pool. (technically, a copytemp file from a previous balancing/duplication would be safe to delete during a current one, but as there's no easy way to distinguish between such it is best to wait until the current one completes)

The error message is not "there isn't enough space". The error message is "Make sure that you have enough disk space in order to satisfy your file placements rules and that they're not conflicting with other balancing settings" (emphasis mine). So since you have plenty of free space the problem is likely to be a conflict with other balancing settings, and in this case I suspect the SSD Optimizer. If you don't mind your File Placement rule over-riding the SSD Optimizer, try UN-ticking "File placement rules respect real-time file placement limits set by the balancing plug-ins." Edit: P.S. I would also not recommend a file placement rule that says to keep files on the same disk(s) that your SSD Optimizer has marked as "SSD" as the former would conflict with the latter wanting to empty files from there.

It might be a conflict between the file placement rules and the SSD Optimizer, as both do real-time placement. You may need to experiment with what you have (un)ticked in the File placement settings. Another option would be to have sub-pools for your cache disks and archive disks, so that you can have the file placement rules only apply to files as they move onto the archive disks.

You may need to tick "Balancing plug-ins respect file placement rules" in the Balancing Settings section. If you have duplication enabled, you will need to select the appropriate number of disks for a file placement rule (e.g. 2x duplication -> two disks).

If they're offline due to collision that suggests that somehow they've ended up with the same "unique" disk ID (a serial number assigned to a drive when initialised by Windows). Normally such collisions only happen when cloning a disk. ( @Christopher (Drashna) I can't imagine DrivePool having any need to change a physical disk's ID - any ideas what could cause this? Windows? ) You can use the Windows Disk Management utility and the DISKPART tool from an Administrator command prompt to view the ID. Find the disk numbers in the former, then use SELECT DISK number followed by UNIQUEID DISK in the latter, to select each disk in the pool in turn and view their IDs. They should be in the form of a long dash-separated hexadecimal string. The pool itself uses an eight character hex string. If you find two of your disks in the pool have the same ID, you can change one of them via selecting it (as above) and using UNIQUEID DISK ID=newstring command where newstring is a string chosen by you in the same format (e.g. just use the same string but change one of the characters); restart the computer afterwards. Be very careful here that you change only the ID of the particular disk you want. If you don't find two disks with the same ID then I would recommend opening a support ticket with StableBit. Regardless, your data should still be intact in the hidden poolpart folders on each disk and could be moved to a new pool if the old one can't be restored.

If the balance ratio slider for the Z: pool is set to 100% it should be balancing upon any discrepancy; if that is so set but not doing so, try un-ticking the "Or if at least this much data needs to be moved" box?

"Because my eternal USB hard drives are not brand new, I believe the scanner is essential in conjunction with DrivePool. Am I correct?" Scanner is good for detecting when drives are going bad, and DrivePool can detect Scanner's warnings to attempt to evacuate a bad drive to the rest of its pool before it fails. Both can also be configured to provide email (or with the paid cloud service, or via third party tools, push/SMS notifications) alerts. "How can I configure automatic backup from the local pooled drive to the cloud? Maybe, I can create two pooed drives, one is local using the external USB drives, and another is cloud pooled drive using my cloud services?" That would be an option, yes. You could then use a third-party tool to perform the backups from the local pool to the cloud pool. "Can the duplicate function work between pools? Or, duplication work only within folders in the same pooled drive? Duplication settings are per-pool (optionally per-folder within a pool). If you wished to have DrivePool duplicate "across" pools, you could create (for example) a "main pool", a "local pool" (consisting of your USB drives) and a "cloud pool" (consisting of your cloud drive*), add the local and cloud pools to the main pool, and then turn on duplication for the main pool (on which you would store your data). This would result in the main pool storing duplicates in the local pool and cloud pool storage devices. Note however that this would be a "mirror", not a "backup". *a cloud drive consists of both the remote storage service and a local cache drive (the latter acts as a buffer). "In summary, I would like our staff to save data into the shared folder on the local pooled drive, and it should be duplicated to the cloud in real-time." Note that "real-time" will always be throttled by the speed (and availability) of your internet connection, so I would recommend duplication on the local pool as well for local redundancy, and if what you are actually wanting is a "backup" rather than a "mirror" then I suggest using a third-party tool to backup the local pool to the cloud pool. Also, be aware that in the event of a sudden drive loss DrivePool will respond by switching affected pool(s) to read-only mode until the issue is addressed (e.g. removing it from its pool) to prevent data corruption; to mitigate this an option is to add drives to your pool as pairs of RAID1 mirrors, such that a minimum of two drives would have to fail before the pool switched to read-only mode. For whatever it's worth, I know of a practice that has been using a DrivePool+Scanner setup for some years now, with hourly local snapshots via File History and nightly remote backups via FreeFileSync (EDIT: making use of FFS's versioning function). They seem happy enough (and the setup has kept their data intact despite the occasional drive failure and accidental "oops deleted the wrong folder" events).

You may need to tweak the configuration of the new DrivePool to match your old computer's custom balancing/placement settings, if any, but otherwise yes.

Hi Cort, please see this post re a similar issue of wanting to directly move files into the pool from/using the same disk.

Based on my experiences, the difference may be that Stablebit Scanner continually monitors SMART in (close to) real-time whereas the ones you've mentioned only check when they're run, and hard drives have both an ability to repair bad sectors (somewhat) and a reserve of spare sectors that they can use to replace the bad sectors if they can't manage a repair. Generally the timeline goes something like this: HDD gets a bad a sectors -> HDD detects the bad sector, lists it in its SMART table -> Stablebit Scanner sees the SMART table change, alerts user -> HDD manages to repair it (or "repair" it), removes the problem from its SMART table -> "How come Scanner reported a bad sector but I can't find anything now?" The rare temporary bad sector does happen (that's why all modern drives have a reserve). However if one of your drives starts having it happen more often then that's probably an early hint that it's time to retire that drive from doing anything important.

There is a cloud management portal that you can create an account on to manage your StableBit licenses, although if you have any existing manual installations those have to be linked from their UI before they'll show up. Linking up to 8 devices (note: the limit is on "devices", not "licenses") is free.

Your guess is basically correct in most respects: DrivePool will prioritise its duplication settings (reliability) over the SSD Optimizer plugin's settings (performance) in any circumstance where they conflict. However, per the documentation, duplication will (or at least should) only write to separate physical disks so splitting the SSD into two logical volumes won't be effective (and even if it was, it would also halve the write performance of the SSD). Assuming only one SSD is available, the simplest workaround would be take advantage of DrivePool's ability to nest pools, each with their own settings: Create a pool (we'll call it "H") of the HDDs; set this pool to use duplication and to not use the SSD Optimizer. Create a pool (we'll call it "P") of the SSD and the "H" pool; set this pool to not use duplication and to use the SSD Optimizer. In the "P" pool set the SSD as your SSD and the "H" pool as your Archive. You would then use the "P" pool to do your work; files in this pool will be cached to the SSD and then offloaded to the HDDs as per your SSD Optimizer settings.