File Placement vs. Duplication

[Edward]

I've replaced a failing 2tb drive (nearly 10 years old ) with a new 8tb drive. I previously removed the failing drive from my DrivePool.   

I would like to have essential folders/files currently in my pool duplicated to the new drive. This is so that I can be confident that in the event of a failure of any current drive in my pool failing or the DrivePool software failing I have one clean whole copy of those essential folders/files to use (either in the existing machine or elsewhere).

How do I go about this please?

I've looked at the File Placement options and Duplication options. It is not clear which I could use for my purpose.  In both cases it *seems* that I can't be assured a clean whole copy being on the new drive. 

Or do I need to investigate creating a second pool, adding my existing Drivepool and the new drive to the new pool? And then from there doing some sort of placement or duplication?

Cheers  

Edward

[Edward]

Anyone?

 

[Umfriend]

You *could* use Hierarchical Pooling but as the new drive ages as well and so at some stage you'd want another HDD to serve this purpose, I don;t think it is tenable long-term. Not sure what you mean by "(either in existing machine or elsewhere)". If you want transportability of certain files or drives then it becomes even harder I think.

I would say the whole idea of duplication is that you need not worry about which drives contain which duplicate. Just have a decent backup solution and it should be almost perfect.

[Edward]

Many thanks.  I'll have a closer look at Hierarchical Pooling to see if that serves my purpose.   

I had hoped that by using a balancer or file placement rule (or combination) that the new drive could simply be a clean backup of certain folders/files that reside in the existing DrivePool such that that backup could be used 'in the existing machine or elsewhere' - for example if the machine breaks. 

I want to have confidence that if the existing machine fails (as it did some time ago) I can simply grab the backup drive and use that quickly in a spare machine rather than having to source a machine that can hold many drives, rebuild pools etc. 

[Umfriend]

So to be sure, duplication *is not a backup*. But I think I get what you mean.

Yeah, Hierarchical Pooling could help in the sense that you could have one underlying pool with just clean/new/trustworthy disks and be certain that they contain exactly one duplicate of (more than x1) duplicated files. The thing is, once a Pool grows larger and has more disks, the "clean/new/trustworthy" property becomes opaque over time so such a setup would require management (not that much, possible to plan but still).

If what you need safeguarded fits on a single HDD then I would suggest to consider actual backup-solutions. You could even rotate such backups offsite. Then, not only do you have pretty good protection against drive failure but theft, fire etc. as well.

[Edward]

Thanks again.  Yes, to be sure, I understand the difference between backup and duplication.  Apols if I was sloppy.

I've yet to dig into hierarchical pooling. For now I'm simply doing a sync of essential files approximating 2tb. 

Ideally I want to implement a set and forget solution.