SSD for original files, HDD for dupes. Give it to me straight and simple.

[tiredflex]

I've done so much digging about this topic and I still can't figure out how to do it right. So please explain to me as simply as possible if what I'm asking is feasible:

I have an exactly equal amount of SSD space and HDD space. All my data is on the SSDs. How do I make it so that DrivePool maintains an EXACT copy on the HDDs, but only ever reads from the SSDs?

• With the SSD Optimizer:
  • It tries to move ALL my data to the HDDs.
  • I tried checking "prioritize the placement of duplicated files on archive disks" but then it started sending my files everywhere without any real pattern to it.
• With the Drive Usage Limiter:
  • I set my SSDs to "unduplicated" and HDDs to "duplicated", but that doesn't tell me where the duplicates are going vs the originals, or where files are being read from when I'm using them. It just shows that both drives have duplicated data.

Would appreciate any and all ELI5 advice!

[Shane]

Hi! To have your data duplicated between two sets of disks, you'll need to create two pools (one containing each set) and then add each of those pools to a third (which has duplication enabled) and put your data in the third pool. DrivePool should then read that data from the fast set but write to both sets.

Step by step:

• Create a pool, we'll call it S for slow. Add your HDDs to it.
• Create another pool, we'll call it F for fast. Add your SSDs to it.
• Create a third pool, we'll call it D for data. Enable x2 duplication on it. Add the S and F pools to it.
• Put your data in the D pool. DrivePool should duplicate each file to one SSD and one HDD, and will try to read from the fastest (which should be the SSD).

To see what drives are being accessed, you can use DrivePool's Performance section (main GUI, select the pool to observe, click on the "Performance" drop-down) or also the Windows Task Manager (Performance tab) or Windows Resource Monitor (Disk tab).