Im currently using storage spaces on windows and im trying to move over to a real Storage solution need help.

[LIGISTX]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Storage spaces lets you mix drive sizes in parity raid and still get the full capacity. So this config will work fine in storage spaces.

 

Interesting, so its more like unraid in that regard. Thats actually pretty neat.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

Interesting, so its more like unraid in that regard. Thats actually pretty neat.

Yea storage spaces has its quirks, and you need to know powershell to do most of the config. But its pretty darn powerful and works very well if setup right. I use it a good amount on my windows boxes

[SomethingUnique22]

31 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

How does this work,,,, are you sure your actually getting all your usable space? RAID (unless its not RAID.... like UnRAID, thats why its named that...) requires all drives to be the same size, if they are not, all drives will "drop down" to the lowest size in the array. So if you have a RAID 5 with 8 TB's and a 2 TB, they all will act as 2 TB.

So i checked my array cause i wasnt sure.

This is what it reads I have a 30.9 TB pool capacity dont know what that refers to maybe the total before making the array.

Im then using 18.5 TB of that pool capacity.

Its a 3 way mirror array and comes out to 10.2 TB.

u might be right but @Electronics Wizardy said otherwise so im lost now

Quote

What? What exactly do you want to do with the Pi? Why not just have the separate PC be a network attached storage (NAS)? You don't need anything on your main PC, you just add the server as a network share and thats that.

could u elaborate on this a bit more? I've never touched network stuff cause its always confused me. If its that easy tho that sounds as promising as the HBA card thing.

[SomethingUnique22]

25 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

 

This. Also, OP, this is why a HBA is the best option. HBA's are SAS cards, SAS is high performance and you can split a single SAS port out into 4 SATA ports. Enterprise solutions use SAS... Don't worry about slow downs, if there are any, it won't be due to the HBA. 

This seems like a good possible solution so far. 

25 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Just need to flash it to IT mode which is not difficult, plenty of guides online show you how. But if you don't feel comfortable with that (which is fair) folks sell them already flashed to IT mode for like 50-60 bucks. This will last you forever, will not be flaky, and will grow with you when you eventually get a more robust solution like unRAID or FreeNAS. This is one of the cards of choice for FreeNAS. Just NEEDS to be in IT mode.

flashing is a bit scary but i imagine its similiar to flashing a bios rit?? 

If not as long as there are guides i should be fine. 

[LIGISTX]

2 minutes ago, SomethingUnique22 said:

This seems like a good possible solution so far. 

flashing is a bit scary but i imagine its similiar to flashing a bios rit?? 

If not as long as there are guides i should be fine. 

Is your ryzen 1600 machine your normal desktop? If you set up a NAS, what hardware would run it? I am confused as to how you plan to do this.

 

The HBA is just used to add more drives to the machine, can be used either on your machine running storage spaces if you need more SATA ports, or can be used on your NAS if your NAS needs more ports. I don't quite understand what hardware you have access to and what hardware is running what. 

 

Its not that similar, it requires a linux terminal (I don't know if you can do it from within windows... I have only ever done it in linux.) You can google flash HBA to IT mode and see what it takes, if you think you can do it, there ya go. If not, buy one already flashed. Its not like a BIOS.

10 minutes ago, SomethingUnique22 said:

could u elaborate on this a bit more? I've never touched network stuff cause its always confused me. If its that easy tho that sounds as promising as the HBO card thing.

Its just like sharing a file on Windows. Same idea. You can network share a folder in Windows by right clicking and going to share. You don't do it the same way on a NAS.... but its the same idea, its all just using SMB. If you have a NAS, it lives on the network, and you access ti by goign to its IP address (you can add iti as a network location on your windows PC so you don't need to remember the address....).

 

I really do think its time to start googling and watching YouTube videos. That will help make a lot of this start to make more sense

[SomethingUnique22]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

Is your ryzen 1600 machine your normal desktop? If you set up a NAS, what hardware would run it? I am confused as to how you plan to do this.

Ya thats my main pc.

i can get used hardware from my friends and family for a pc it wouldnt be the newest but i imagine it would work was what i was trying to say sorry.

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

The HBA is just used to add more drives to the machine, can be used either on your machine running storage spaces if you need more SATA ports, or can be used on your NAS if your NAS needs more ports. I don't quite understand what hardware you have access to and what hardware is running what. 

The R5 1600 is my main pc it is then connected to my 5 hdds. I have the 4 8tb ones in a drive enclosure that i can plug sata power and sata data cables into. The HBA card would help with my sata ports being all used up for the other ssds i currently am using and want to add in the future. 

 

i hope that clears it up.

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

Its not that similar, it requires a linux terminal (I don't know if you can do it from within windows... I have only ever done it in linux.) You can google flash HBA to IT mode and see what it takes, if you think you can do it, there ya go. If not, buy one already flashed. Its not like a BIOS.

gotcha.

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

Its just like sharing a file on Windows. Same idea. You can network share a folder in Windows by right clicking and going to share. You don't do it the same way on a NAS.... but its the same idea, its all just using SMB. If you have a NAS, it lives on the network, and you access ti by goign to its IP address (you can add iti as a network location on your windows PC so you don't need to remember the address....).

gotcha

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

I really do think its time to start googling and watching YouTube videos. That will help make a lot of this start to make more sense

yaaa sorry ill look into the stuff u two have mentioned. i appreciate the help.

[SomethingUnique22]

37 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea storage spaces has its quirks, and you need to know powershell to do most of the config. But its pretty darn powerful and works very well if setup right. I use it a good amount on my windows boxes

any thoughts on my specs of the storage spaces i have. 

U mentioned it shouldnt use the lowest drive capacity but its 10 tbs which is in theory what 5 drives at 2tb would be rit?

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, SomethingUnique22 said:

any thoughts on my specs of the storage spaces i have. 

U mentioned it shouldnt use the lowest drive capacity but its 10 tbs which is in theory what 5 drives at 2tb would be rit?

What drives are you using currently? I don't remeber it being listed in the thread.

 

What raid level do you have setup? 5 2tb drives should be 8tb usable max with parity.

[SomethingUnique22]

35 minutes ago, SomethingUnique22 said:

So i checked my array cause i wasnt sure.

This is what it reads I have a 30.9 TB pool capacity dont know what that refers to maybe the total before making the array.

Im then using 18.5 TB of that pool capacity.

Its a 3 way mirror array and comes out to 10.2 TB.

u might be right but @Electronics Wizardy said otherwise so im lost now

could u elaborate on this a bit more? I've never touched network stuff cause its always confused me. If its that easy tho that sounds as promising as the HBA card thing.

this one

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What drives are you using currently? I don't remeber it being listed in the thread.

 

What raid level do you have setup? 5 2tb drives should be 8tb usable max with parity.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, SomethingUnique22 said:

this one

 

What drives are you using?

 

THat size is expected for a three way mirror. But why are you using a three way mirror here?

[SomethingUnique22]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What drives are you using?

 

THat size is expected for a three way mirror. But why are you using a three way mirror here?

four 8 tb wd reds

one 2tb seagate 
 

 

u lose 20 tbs from raid 5?

idk what a 3 way mirror is even when i said it up it said raid 5 is that not raid 5?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, SomethingUnique22 said:

four 8 tb wd reds

one 2tb seagate 
 

 

u lose 20 tbs from raid 5?

idk what a 3 way mirror is even when i said it up it said raid 5 is that not raid 5?

Your not using raid 5, your using a 3 way mirror, so you get one third of the hdd space. Basically each file is stored 3 times in the array.

 

Switch to parity for a raid 5 like setup and you should get around 25TB usable.

[SomethingUnique22]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Your not using raid 5, your using a 3 way mirror, so you get one third of the hdd space. Basically each file is stored 3 times in the array.

 

Switch to parity for a raid 5 like setup and you should get around 25TB usable.

wtf damnit windows!

umm can u do that? I dont see the option is it a powershell thing i have to do?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, SomethingUnique22 said:

wtf damnit windows!

umm can u do that? I dont see the option is it a powershell thing i have to do?

Yea just make a new virtual disk in storage spaces. Powershell is better as you can set number of collumns to use the space better and get more speed. 

[SomethingUnique22]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea just make a new virtual disk in storage spaces. Powershell is better as you can set number of collumns to use the space better and get more speed. 

do u have a guide i can follow i dont have backups of the movies so i dont wanna lose them by doing this.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, SomethingUnique22 said:

do u have a guide i can follow i dont have backups of the movies so i dont wanna lose them by doing this.

Take a look at the microsoft guides https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/storage/new-virtualdisk?view=windowsserver2019-ps. 

 

Just add a virtual disk, copy the data between the virtual disks, then delete your old virtual disk.