Drivepool writes files on old hdd.

[billis777]

I added a new hdd to the pool and drivepool still writes files on the old hdd, I have specified in ordered file placement plugin for my new hdd to be first to write files on but drivepool still writes files on older hdd. Can you guys help me with this problem?

[Shane]

Check that the ordered file placement plugin isn't being out-prioritised by another plugin that would prefer to write to the older hdd.  Also check the Balancing options (Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Settings), particularly the "Plug-in settings" and "File placement settings" sections.

[billis777]

4 hours ago, Shane said:

Check that the ordered file placement plugin isn't being out-prioritised by another plugin that would prefer to write to the older hdd.  Also check the Balancing options (Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Settings), particularly the "Plug-in settings" and "File placement settings" sections.

I disabled all other plugins except the file placement plugin and it still doing it.
I have attached a picture of my settings.
Do you think doing a remeasure could fix my problem?

[Shane]

Hmm. You've got the "respect real-time file placement" ticked, and I was under the impression that the OFP plugin was real-time for new files. Try a Remeasure.

But if it's not real-time, then you'd need to choose an Automatic balancing setting other than "Do not balance automatically" so it can be triggered.

Edit: I've made a feature request to have the DrivePool GUI explicitily indicate which balancers are "real-time" and/or can force immediate balancing.

[billis777]

6 hours ago, Shane said:

Hmm. You've got the "respect real-time file placement" ticked, and I was under the impression that the OFP plugin was real-time for new files. Try a Remeasure.

But if it's not real-time, then you'd need to choose an Automatic balancing setting other than "Do not balance automatically" so it can be triggered.

Edit: I've made a feature request to have the DrivePool GUI explicitily indicate which balancers are "real-time" and/or can force immediate balancing.

Thanks i'll try remeasure, i had added an hdd in the past and drivepool did remeasure and i didnt have this problem only now that no remeasure was done.
Also when drivepool does remeasure it deletes duplicate files without telling me which files it deletes. Is it possible to view what drivepool deletes automatically during remeasure? As i have files with same name but are different and i'm afraid drivepool deletes them.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

2 hours ago, billis777 said:

Also when drivepool does remeasure it deletes duplicate files without telling me which files it deletes. Is it possible to view what drivepool deletes automatically during remeasure? As i have files with same name but are different and i'm afraid drivepool deletes them.

It should only delete files that are duplicated and shouldn't be.  Or if you've changed it. 

However, it only delets the files if they have identical file paths (and therefore would be treated as the same file, by the pool).   You can have the same name for every file, but unless they're at the same file path, they're considered different files. 

[billis777]

12 hours ago, Christopher (Drashna) said:

It should only delete files that are duplicated and shouldn't be.  Or if you've changed it. 

However, it only delets the files if they have identical file paths (and therefore would be treated as the same file, by the pool).   You can have the same name for every file, but unless they're at the same file path, they're considered different files. 

Sounds great, thanks for the info Christopher.

[billis777]

I tried remeasuring and it didnt fix the problem, but this did for few seconds

Unchecking in plugin settings the "Allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing" , then drive pool started writing on new hdd but after a minute it went back to the old one.
What plug in setting could have drivepool keep preffering to write on old hdd instead of the new one i have pointed to write in ordered file placement plugin?

[billis777]

After doing remeasure drivepool found a corrupt folder that i cannot delete, i tried the cmd way and couldnt delete it either, is there any other way?

[fluffybunnyuk]

Try a reboot first. Sometimes i find drivepools tiny brain gets overloaded, and that seems to help.

view hidden files, go into the poolpart , thennavigate to the folder location and delete it manually, then remeasure. I had a problem moving dozens of files drivepool kept flagging as viruses (incorrectly)(stopping my rebalancing).

If that doesnt work. chkdsk fix all the drives, reboot then try again.

I also had a permissions problem. Thats was too much hassle to fix so i just did a force remove, formatted the removed drive, and readded it.

Its why i keep my pools with just  a simple drive mirror. like 8x8tb hardware raid-6 pooled with 4x12tb , or 12tb single drive+mirror. Adding rules and complexities just makes it more breakable , and complex in my mind.

Big pools sound nice in principle, but i like keeping track of where my data *actually is*.

Hope it helps.

I forgot to add drivepool hates me, it has a preference for using certain drives in my system (annoyingly) the hot temp drive in a mirror, so i have to hotswap them round to make the hot drive  the cool one it loves.

[billis777]

thanks i have the stablebit scanner scanning the drive right now, should i stop it and do a checkdisk from properties instead?
also i wanna try removing my old hdd from the pool temporarily and add it again later to see if that fixes the drivepool's behavior, should i check the boxes "force damaged drive removal", duplicate files later and force close any open unduplicated files so drive pool dont start moving or copying files while removing the drive?

[fluffybunnyuk]

Do a checkdisk instead. or open a cmd prompt and run for example "chkdsk D:\  /F"

Regards removing your drive. You should tread carefully. If you have space in the pool, you can do a normal removal (not forced), wait for the disk to empty, and then it'll remove itself safely.

Forcing a removal is likely to lead to data loss unless your 100% sure your files are duplicated, or the removal drive is near enough empty already.

If your not sure dont do it, until you are 100% sure.

If your normal drive removal works out okish but halts before removal because of the corrupted folder, you should end up with just the corrupted folder on the disk, and in the disk properties it'll show the disk space used as a few hundred MB. At which point all files should be duplicated elsewhere (check , and sure), then, and only then should it be forced removed.

 

Theres nothing like watching data vanish, and having to spend the next week breaking out 50 LTO tapes for a restore. I always like being 100% sure before i do something, and double checking it.

[billis777]

doing checkdisk fixed my corrupted file, i'm doing remeasure again as drivepool didnt finish remeasure because of the corrupted file.
Any ideas what may be causing drivepool to prefer to write on older hdd?

[fluffybunnyuk]

Maybe it hates you too , like it hates me

Glad to hear it fixed it. The remeasure should go fine now.  You should make a note to check the corrupted file, and maybe restore it from a backup if necessary.

I've noticed drivepool has a preference for disks used to create a pool. So like in my example i had 2 disks hot, and cold. I used hot to create the pool, and it loved hot ever after. Sadly i needed it to prefer cold. My only solution was to hotswap them around in my chassis so hot became cold , and vice versa thus conning drivepool into using the cold one.

The short answer is probably "love".

[billis777]

6 minutes ago, fluffybunnyuk said:

Maybe it hates you too , like it hates me

Glad to hear it fixed it. The remeasure should go fine now.  You should make a note to check the corrupted file, and maybe restore it from a backup if necessary.

I've noticed drivepool has a preference for disks used to create a pool. So like in my example i had 2 disks hot, and cold. I used hot to create the pool, and it loved hot ever after. Sadly i needed it to prefer cold. My only solution was to hotswap them around in my chassis so hot became cold , and vice versa thus conning drivepool into using the cold one.

The short answer is probably "love".

Thanks for the info, i can at least stop searching for a solution now knowing the only way to fix it is to do the same thing you did.

[billis777]

doing remeasure fixed my problem, hip hip hooray!