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Understanding DrivePool on the boot drive


Bill

Question

Can you install a DrivePool on the same hard drive as the OS?

 

On an older Vista 32 bit system, I will install a new 2TB hard drive, and recover the OS using WHS.  Then install DrivePool.

I want to then create a D: partition (simple volume). May I place  the D: drive into the pool?

 

Eventually, I plan to add a second physical drive and place this drive into the pool. 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have done this.  Drivepool works at the Partition level, so you can add a partition to the pool regardless of the drive it is on.  This is different from the pooling in Windows 7 and 8, for example, where pooling only occurs at the physical drive level.  

 

I personally do not like to use the extra space on the OS drive for anything but duplication.  I set the drive to only allow it to be used to duplicate other files.  It just makes it easier if you need to replace the system drive for any reason. 

 

But what you describe is doable and fine.  Though, why do it until you get a second drive???  Not sure what benefits you will see until then.  

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Yes, you absolutely can add the system drive to the pool.

 

However, we recommend against that for a couple of reasons:

  • Performance. Since the system disk is basically always in use, it may adversely affect the read and write speed on that drive and to the pool in general (read striping should help prevent that for duplicated files).
  • Backup: If you do backup the system, the contents of the pool on this drive can change rapidly and without warning. It may cause your backup program to bloat the backups.
  • Reliability: If you restore the drive, it may cause issues.... basically, see above.

 

Also, I personally recommend a small system disk for just the OS. This makes backup and restore simple, as there shouldn't be too much on it. And there should be minimal impact to performance.

Also, this setup is a good use case (or just excuse) for running a SSD in your server (which seriously does make a significant difference).

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I have done this.  Drivepool works at the Partition level, so you can add a partition to the pool regardless of the drive it is on.  This is different from the pooling in Windows 7 and 8, for example, where pooling only occurs at the physical drive level.  

 

I personally do not like to use the extra space on the OS drive for anything but duplication.  I set the drive to only allow it to be used to duplicate other files.  It just makes it easier if you need to replace the system drive for any reason. 

 

But what you describe is doable and fine.  Though, why do it until you get a second drive???  Not sure what benefits you will see until then.  

 

 

 

Elaborate on how to point the duplication folders to a specific physical hard drive.

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Open up the StableBit DrivePool UI. Click on "Pool Options" (underneath the pie chart), and select "Balancing".

 

Find the "Balancers" tab, and open that. Find the "Disk Usage Limiter" balancer, and open it. From there, you can check and uncheck (or tick and untick) the option to place duplicated or unduplicated data on each drive in the system.

 

I've attached an image of what it looks like. Just keep in mind,  my drives are mounted to folders. Yours may show drive letters instead of the "C:\DrivePool\i00". And it will show the disk labels.

Disk Usage Limiter Options.png

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