Duplicate full drive

[porkenstein]

I am just trialing stablebit drive pool on whs 2011. I have the os on one ssd.  I have 1 2tb red drive. I want to add a second 2tb drive. Can I duplicate the second 2td drive exactly like the first so have something similar to a raid drive. I won't include the ssd in the pool. I just want total duplication of the first drive. Thanks in advance.

[Umfriend]

Yes, that's exactly what I use it for. Add the 2nd drive to the Pool, then set duplication to x2 (Pool Options -> File Protection -> Pool file duplication), I am assuming you are using DP 2.x, not 1.x). It'll take a while but DP will ensure copies of each file are present on both drives.

 

I assume, of course, that the relevant files on drive 1 are alread in the Pool, not on the first drive but alongside the hidden poolpart folder. If you can see the files through explorer on the Pooldrive then it should be fine.

[porkenstein]

That's just what I wanted to know. I am running on a mini-itx board and with only one pci-e slot and it's already in use so there is no way I can add a raid card. Thanks for the information. This will be exactly what I need.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If you're only running two disks, then yes, this is what will happen.

 

However, if at some point you end up running more than two disks, then no. It will end up spreading the data out, but in such a way that the duplicated data exists on two different disks. The loss of one disk will mean that you still retain all the duplicated data.  

But if you only have the two disks, then yes, it will basically be mirrored.

[porkenstein]

Right now only 2 drives. Later their may be more but I kind of doubt it. So If I would end up with 4 2tb hd's mirrored I would have 4 tb actual storage and if I lose one drive I am still fine. IS that correct?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If you had 4x 2TB drives, and duplication enabled for everything, then yes, you would have effectively 4TBs (well, 3.6TBs actually, because each 2TB drive shows up as 1.8TB).

Files would be scattered all over the place, depending. But if you lost only one disk, you wouldn't lose any data. Just remove the missing/failed disk from the pool, and it will immediately start duplicating the missing files.