Duplication - Sorting/Reconciling Files outside of WHS/DP

[JeffZ]

While I've used DrivePool for quite a few years on my WHS system, I've never used duplication - mostly due to capacity limitations. Now that I am upgrading drives, this will be a possibility. Otherwise, I backup my WHS system regularly so any drive failure issues should be minimized, in the event this happened.

I'm wondering though - the way it is now (unduplicated), I can take these drives out anytime (if needed) and be able to access the files direct from my computer. Or, if I were to decide to go a different direction such as a NAS, these drives can be inserted and up and running quite simply.

What happens if my files are duplicated and I take these out of the WHS/DP environment? Do I have 2 of every file across the drives? How would I reconcile this? 

I guess I'm looking for native file format that I can read from my computer - if the event should arrive or be able to move into another system without issues with sorting out duplicate files across the drives.

How does the duplication work in this way? Is it best to remain unduplicated with my regular backups?

[Umfriend]

Duplication just means two copies stored on different physical HDDs. And all files are stored in plain NTFS format, that does not change with duplication. If you transferred the Pooled HDDs to a system not running DP you'd be able to read them. It might be a bit of a mess working out that you have duplicates though. I run x2 duplicates for continuity and Server Backup for Backup.

So if you ever transfer to a non-DP running machine (perhaps a linux-based NAS?) then I would consider to first go back to x1 duplication. Hope this helps.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

^

And the files are placed semi-randomly.  So, they may be "scattered" all over the place.