Any way to "force" DrivePool to balance?

[dfleiss]

I'm running DrivePool in Windows 11. I have 14 HDDs, and DrivePool has combined them into a single "drive".

Most of the drives are 75% full, but one is over 90% full. (The combined drive is about 75% full.) Every time DrivePool starts balancing the drive, something interrupts it -- usually Windows 11 stops recognizing one of the HDDs -- and the balancing starts again. The bottom line is that DrivePool isn't moving the data it needs to in order to balance the drives.

Is there any way I can move files from the 90% drive to one of the other drives to balance the files manually? If I move files, will DrivePool be able to find them?

If I can't do that, any suggestions about how to force DrivePool to start moving files from the 90% drive to some of the other drives?

Thank you.

[Shane]

Windows ceasing to recognise a HDD during balancing suggests you have flaky hardware/drivers. You might be able to narrow the cause down by observing which drive(s) drop out and rearranging them to see if that changes (e.g. if it's always the same drive regardless of port then it's probably the drive, if it's always the same cable or port regardless of drive then it's probably the cable or port or the port's controller/driver, etc). If that doesn't seem to be it, then it might be a power delivery issue (e.g. if you have a lot of drives and/or USB-powered ones).

If balancing is interrupted (in the GUI, the organization bar should be incomplete with an upward-pointing triangle on the right) then you can resume balancing by  clicking the triangle and then clicking Re-balance.

You can also "force" a balancing check by using Manage Pool -> Balancing, clicking "Balance immediately" (even if it's already set) and then just click Save - but note that DrivePool still won't start balancing unless it finds something to balance.

You can manually "balance" files between the hidden poolpart folders that DrivePool creates on the drives that form a pool. You should ensure you maintain the folder structure within the poolparts (e.g. it is fine to manually move a file from d:\poolpart.1\exampleX\ to e:\poolpart.2\exampleX\ but manually moving a file from d:\poolpart.1\exampleX\ to e:\poolpart.2\exampleY\ should only be done if you understand what you're doing). You should manually stop the DrivePool service before doing so, start the service afterwards and then use Manage Pool -> Re-measure so that DrivePool can rebuild its pool and drive metrics. Note that DrivePool will still perform its own balancing (if set) afterwards. But personally I'd want to sort out whatever's causing the drives to drop out before trying this.

[dfleiss]

Thank you for your suggestions and assistance. The drives are plugged into a USB hub, and I think that may be where the problem is (although I replaced the hub a few months ago).

[dfleiss]

On 12/26/2023 at 6:09 PM, Shane said:

You can manually "balance" files between the hidden poolpart folders that DrivePool creates on the drives that form a pool. You should ensure you maintain the folder structure within the poolparts (e.g. it is fine to manually move a file from d:\poolpart.1\exampleX\ to e:\poolpart.2\exampleX\ but manually moving a file from d:\poolpart.1\exampleX\ to e:\poolpart.2\exampleY\ should only be done if you understand what you're doing). You should manually stop the DrivePool service before doing so, start the service afterwards and then use Manage Pool -> Re-measure so that DrivePool can rebuild its pool and drive metrics. Note that DrivePool will still perform its own balancing (if set) afterwards. But personally I'd want to sort out whatever's causing the drives to drop out before trying this.

The PoolPart folders on my drives have long hex names (like PoolPart.c8ca7767-4b41-45b9-8fa4-ee8a15763b37). If I wanted to move some of the subfolders to another drive, how would I figure out the equivalent poolpart.2 to that poolpart.1?

I think part of the reason DrivePool won't balance (that is, move files off the 90% full drive to the other drives) is that there's something fishy going on with the drive. Windows says there's an error that needs to be repaired, but chkdsk doesn't see any error and all the SMART results are reasonable. At the same time, both Windows and chkdsk say the drive is write-protected, which isn't true. I think these problems may be related to the disk being so full, so I'm trying to get data off of it as quickly as I can.

Thanks again.

[Shane]

Each drive (technically each volume) has only one poolpart, so you only need to worry about what comes after the poolpart.longhexname section in the path (the exampleX vs exampleY).

If Windows is seeing the drive as write-protected then it might not be possible to move the files off it (copy yes, move no). You might try using diskpart as an administrator to list volume and then select volume # to select the volume, then use the attributes disk command to see whether the readonly flag has been set on the disk, and attempt to clear it if so (attributes disk clear readonly) before using exit to exit diskpart. Another possibility is that the file system on the drive has been corrupted in a way that Windows can't fix without formatting the drive.

[dfleiss]

Thank you once again. Everything seemed okay when I looked at the drive in Windows (Properties, Security, Advanced), but diskpart showed that it had been set to readonly. As soon as I cleared that, Drivepool started balancing the drive the way it should have.

I can't tell you how relieved I am to see DrivePool working the way it should again. Thank you.

(I'm going to replace the drive as soon as DrivePool finishes what it's doing.)

[everydayz]

What worked for me was manually moving some files from the stuffed drive to another one. Just drag and drop.

[VapechiK]

whoah nelly

ever tried to drag n drop files/folders between the  DP underlying drives while the service is still enabled?  you may think you are 'copying' the files but since DP treats all member drives as part of the 'conglomerate whole' you will soon find that your 'drag n drop' is actually a 'move.'  pay attention to the transfer dialogue box.

and... OOOPS!! ...

ever tried to do the same thing while the DrivePool service has been stopped, and accessing the underlying DP drives (you might be transferring files between a DP pooled drive and some other drive somewhere) have the same thing happen?

LOL the DrivePool driver is still loaded.  you run the same risk.  again, pay attn to the transfer box.

i say all this because we want to be able to compare the data, right? however you wanna do that?  make sure it's all the same?

SOLUTION

right-click and drag/drop...  you will get a pop-up from Windows asking to move or copy.  choose COPY.  when satisfied, delete from the source.   

yes... everyone knows about this (windows) feature.  but it holds court in its own special way when using DrivePool.  unless you are a cmd line user and know exactly what you are doing (i am not), don't just drag n drop willy nilly within DrivePool.

TLDR   your DrivePool installation will sometimes make Windows behave unexpectedly when you are not thinking too deeply about DrivePool.  or maybe it's the other way around.  lol   cheers