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Can I move files directly from a HDD into the PoolPart directory of that same HDD?


gtaus

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I am adding movies files from USB HDDs to my DrivePool. For example, I have a 5TB USB HHD full of movies that I want to add to my DrivePool to build up a Plex/Kodi server directory on my DrivePool. I know I can move the movies files off that USB HDD to the DrivePool directory of my Plex/Kodi server, but transferring all 5TB via the DrivePool interface will take more than 1 day to complete. Can I simply add the new USB HDD to my DrivePool, and then move the files directly from that USB HDD to the PoolPart directory on that same USB HDD? If I can, that transfer on the same HDD would take place almost instantaneously.

But, I don't want to break my DrivePool in my effort to save time on file transfers. I am concerned that a direct file transfer into the PoolPart - not using DrivePool as the interface - will somehow corrupt the brains/tracking of DrivePool and I may end up losing files and/or creating other problems that might take even longer to correct. Since I have a number of USB HDDs that I would like to move to DrivePool, I think I better ask up front if a direct transfer is possible or not. Thanks for any response.

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Just a quick update.... I transferred 15TB of movies over to my DrivePool Plex/Kodi server directory using the direct transfer on the same HDDs and DrivePool handled everything without any problems. This direct transfer took me less than 5 minutes as opposed to an estimated 3-4 days the way I started doing it using the DrivePool interface. The more I use DrivePool, the more I like it. Also, I find this forum invaluable. Again, thanks for the response.

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34 minutes ago, Michael B. Duff said:

Just be sure to decide your file placement strategy ahead of time if you want certain directories on certain drives. If you don't specify, your files will spread out EVERYWHERE arbitrarily across all your drives and it will take a lot of manual work if you ever need to break up your pool.

Yes, I have been considering that.

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6 minutes ago, Michael B. Duff said:

Yes, I did this eight times with eight different hard drives when I first moved over to DrivePool.

I was shocked at how easy it was and how well it worked.

Once you move the files into the hidden directory, the software will index them and add them to your pool. Then you can let the system rebalance between drives over time.

Thanks. This will save me days of time.

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I have 11 drives in a 100TB pool, 4 of them are in a USB enclosure, also used for a Plex server. I don't even try to place directories on specific drives anymore. I've surrendered completely to DrivePool and it's been totally stable for years now.

I only allow Duplicated files on the USB drives so the content will usually be pulled from faster ones in the main box, but that's the only micromanagement I do. You can also change your file balancing rules later if you need to move things out for some reason.

I love this software. Fast, reliable, solves a real problem, so much better than Storage Spaces or any of the other sketchy block-based methods I tried.

I've had drive failures and NAS failures, but DrivePool has always recovered gracefully, especially if you get StableBit scanner and let it catch bad drives early.

 

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30 minutes ago, Michael B. Duff said:

I have 11 drives in a 100TB pool, 4 of them are in a USB enclosure, also used for a Plex server. I don't even try to place directories on specific drives anymore. I've surrendered completely to DrivePool and it's been totally stable for years now.

I have just started using DrivePool, seriously, for a short while. It crashed once after a MS Windows 10 update, but tech support showed me how to reset the DrivePool and everything came back online with no data loss.

33 minutes ago, Michael B. Duff said:

I only allow Duplicated files on the USB drives so the content will usually be pulled from faster ones in the main box, but that's the only micromanagement I do. You can also change your file balancing rules later if you need to move things out for some reason.

I'll have to look at that option, but in my case, all my DrivePool HDDs are in external USB 3.0 boxes - except for the new SSD which I added to my desktop computer and use it as cache for my DrivePool. 

 

39 minutes ago, Michael B. Duff said:

I love this software. Fast, reliable, solves a real problem, so much better than Storage Spaces or any of the other sketchy block-based methods I tried.

I've had drive failures and NAS failures, but DrivePool has always recovered gracefully, especially if you get StableBit scanner and let it catch bad drives early.

I was running Windows Storage Spaces for years. When it works, it was great. However, after my third catastrophic failure of Storage Spaces with massive file loss, I came over to DrivePool. In Storage Spaces, I was running 24 HDDs in the pool with 2 disc failure (in theory) recovery. What happened is my oldest, smallest, USB HHD failed and it wiped out my entire Storage Spaces pool. As you said, I too am no longer a fan of block-based pools. I was fortunate with DrivePool to have it crash in my first weeks of trial. I was able to reset the DrivePool and all my data was still there. That made me a believer in DrivePool - data recovery after a crash is much better in DrivePool. It proved to be impossible in Storage Spaces.

At first, I was disappointed in DrivePool write speeds compared to Storage Spaces, but was willing to give up some of that speed for a more reliable system. Now, I have added an SSD cache to my DrivePool and have faster write times than I ever had with Storage Spaces. Having said that, most of my file transfers are from one computer to another on my home network and the bottleneck is the transfer rate of the files from slower drives to my DrivePool. But local transfers on the server computer are as fast as the bus will allow using the SSD cache in DrivePool. The SSD Optimizer add-on works great for me. Just love it.

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