Best practice to format PC

[Glauco]

Hi everyone.

I'm planning to format my PC, and I was wondering what I should do to rebuild my drive pool after reinstalling windows.

Thanks

[Saphir]

Hi Glauco

I just changed my Server from WHS 2011 to Win 10 with deleting from my OS drive the old partitions and installing Win10 frech from an USB Stick. The drives with my data which were in a Pool I disconnected in this time. Afterwards I installed DrivePool new on the new OS, switched the PC of and connected the data drives. after starting Win 10 I looked in DrivePool and the Pool was there. It worked with my Backup Pool too. Only the drive letter was changed.

You only have to install DrivePoll and connect all your Pool drives. DrivePool scannes the drives and will find the information it needs.

[Shane]

Saphir is correct; so long as you avoid formatting any of the disks that form your pool(s), they will automatically be detected when you reinstall DrivePool.

If you have manually edited DrivePool's config file, you will need to backup that file and restore it afterwards to keep your edits.

[Glauco]

Ok, good to know!

Where are the config files so I can back them  up?

Just to make sure I'm gonna do everything right, all I have to do is backup the config files, format my PC without touching my pool drives, reinstall windows, reinstall drivepool, restore my config file and everything will be back up and running, right?

Thanks!

[Shane]

If you've never edited the config file (which involves renaming the default template file and then editing it in something like notepad) then you don't need to back it up, because it won't exist. See https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Advanced_Settings if you want more information on that.

Basically, if the file "C:\Program Files\StableBit\DrivePool\DrivePool.Service.exe.config" does not exist on your PC, then you don't need to back it up. 

Otherwise, yes, you've got it right.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Also, should be noted that it's a good idea to disconnect the pooled disks.  The reason is two fold:

1. To prevent the accidental installation of windows on that drive
2. To prevent Windows from installing the bootloader on that drive (the number of times I've experienced this ...)

 

And yeah, once the system is reinstalled, the software reinstalled and the pooled drives reconnected, it will automatically rebuild the pool from the available disks.   Duplication settings are stored in the pool's folder structure, so that will be maintained. 

However, balancing settings won't be retained and will require that you reconfigure them on the new installation, if you need them setup. 

[Glauco]

Thanks!

My computer is just reinstalling! And I didn't disconnect my drives, as they are internal to my tower. I don't think windows will install anything on them, beucause they are in my RAID interface, and the system is in a M2 drive. Anyway, I'll pray... rssss

 

[Saphir]

That's what I would like to do too, my OS on a M2 drive :-)

I keep my fingers crossed for your installation.

 

@Christopher (Drashna): Would be nice to save the settings from PoolDrive like it is for the scanner possible.

[Glauco]

It went well! It's all up and running!!!! Thank you all!

[Christopher (Drashna)]

6 hours ago, Saphir said:

@Christopher (Drashna): Would be nice to save the settings from PoolDrive like it is for the scanner possible.

If you use StableBit Cloud, it should actually do that.

Also, if you copy the contents of "C:\programData\StableBit DrivePool\Service\Store\JSON" to the new system, that should copy most (if not all) of the settings.  Some UI settings may be lost, but balancing settings and the like should be retained, this way. 

[Saphir]

I'm not using the Cloud version but the hint withe the JASON I will try next time. Thanks.