Drive Pooling

[Sazzy]

Back in January, I built a dedicated machine to act as a media center. Couldn't be happier making this decision! Since I also have steam and other things running on it, I've decided to just go with Win8.

Since it's a machine built around low power usage and I had not yet invested in a NAS, I've decided to just have this media center act as one. Sort of a second role. (Lowest power usage + no network usage when watching a movie / listening to music / ... )

Ever since I built the machine, I've been very curious about drive pooling. I have not yet set up anything so far, but I've been dying to. The biggest caveat for most solutions is that it's not just a simple NTFS based solution, meaning it will be a pain in the ass to recover stuff when something goes wrong.

After letting the subject rest for quite a while, I accidentally stumbled upon Stablebit's drivepool page again. In theory, the product seems amazing and I like how simple the setup seems. (E.g. a sort of "pool" folder on an ntfs drive where the magic happens)


Another major contender in this range of pooling is drivebender, which is currently having a sale (which doesn't make the choice easier). drivepool seems to always be ahead of them, though. The community seems more active as well. And the fact that their site is almost nearly identical to poolHD (the third big contender in this type of drive pooling) is somewhat concerning to me.

What do you guys think?
Does anyone have experience with drive pooling? Is it worth the trouble?

So far drivepool seems the best, or should i go the "real" way and go with something like flexraid / unraid?



tl;dr

• drivepool
• drivebender
• poolhd
• flexraid
• unraid
• something else?
• nothing at all?

[Sazzy]

In case anyone ends up here, I ended up with drive pool.

It's pretty amazing and hardly has any overhead. I have no complaints whatsoever. Worth every penny!

[Instab]

how about rescue, can you read the disks somewhere else?

[Sazzy]

Define "somewhere else"?

It is readable on a different computer as the software creates a poolpart folder that has the data on the drive in plain NTFS format. (I should note that this is windows software that was built after MS discontinued Drive Extender on Windows Home Server) It also links with their "Scanner" software, which looks out for dying disks. The pool will automatically rebalance and evacuate the data from the dying disk.

The fact it's just ntfs and thus easily readable (even one disk rather than the entire pool), was the main reason I choose this over e.g. flexraid/unraid, which pretty much fucks you over with their own filesystem if something goes wrong.


Here's a snippet from the site which might interest you:

Pooled Data is Stored in Standard NTFS Files

• All your data is stored in standard NTFS files on each individual disk in the pool. The data is simply stored in a hidden folder under the root directory.
• This means that if something goes wrong with your computer, you can simply connect any of the pooled drives to a different PC to gain full access to the pooled files stored on that drive. No need to install StableBit DrivePool or anything else to access your original data.
• No databases are involved, no special RAID like formatting is involved that requires the original software / hardware to function, just plain NTFS that is compatible with virtually all computers.

Easy and Flexible File Duplication

• You can enable or disable file duplication on any existing folder.
• Existing files are duplicated in the background.
• Any future changes to duplicated files are applied in real-time*, in parallel, to multiple disks at the same time.
• With real-time duplication, there is no need for periodic duplication in the background.
• Background duplication only runs when you make an administrative change (such as changing the duplication level of a folder) or when a problem is detected.
• Files are never locked by duplication at any time. This means that other programs can continue to use the pool even while existing files are being duplicated.
• * Real-time duplication can be turned off in DrivePool settings, if the user wishes.

Data Recovery Options

• If something goes wrong with your computer, you can simply plug in any pooled disk to any computer that can read NTFS and all of your pooled files that are stored on that disk are fully accessible under a special hidden folder. Everything is stored as standard NTFS files.
• Alternatively, simply connect all or some of your pooled disks to any other system running StableBit DrivePool and that disk will instantly show up as being part of that pool.

I have my pool up and running for almost 3 weeks now. It's just great, I can highly recommend DrivePool. I was hesitant at first as I was managing my drives separately just fine but I'm happy I took the (rather small) step of setting up the pool. (e.g. 15-20 mins of work).
I hardly notice any speed loss when reading/writing in the pool rather than just direct IO. The balancing works well and the pool is easily managed remotely so I don't even have to get to the 'puter and hook up a keyboard.

It's easy to use and can do far more than I wished.

Happy customer :)

[Instab]

Define "somewhere else"?

It is readable on a different computer as the software creates a poolpart folder that has the data on the drive in plain NTFS format.
...
it's just ntfs and thus easily readable (even one disk rather than the entire pool)

thanks, that's what i meant.

flexraid/unraid, which pretty much fucks you over with their own filesystem

yeah that has pros and cons but depends on each case.

[Sazzy]

True enough. I wasn't implying that they are bad systems, they are pretty good. Recovery is just a hassle. Since DrivePool is just NTFS though, you're also allowed to add a usb drive to the pool. (maybe for duplication?) and hotplug it. When you get to another location, you can just work with your stick :) It will automatically be added back into the pool when you get home. Pretty cool, if you ask me!

Myself, I mainly wanted to go for pooling. Duplication is not interesting for me as it's a size over safety thing. I don't have enough important documents to justify pooling with redundancy. I just have a hoarding problem, coupled with disk management lazyness :(

[Instab]

I just have a hoarding problem, coupled with disk management lazyness :(

then you should have it a little easier now with the help of pooling

[Sazzy]

Yes :) Just added a new disk, so now it's sit back and enjoy.

[ozymandis]

sazzy how much disk space do you have in total?