Can you create RAID 10 in Windows Storage Spaces via PowerShell?

[maka0]

As per the title 

 

I have 4 (1.6TB server grade SSDs) in my gaming PC. I know how to create parity RAID 5 and optimise in PowerShell (set columns to 3, and mess around with interleave) 

 

Though is it possible to create a Raid 10? I was thinking of creating two pools in mirror in the GUI and then using Powershell to somehow combine the two pools together, is that even possible? 

 

I guess the columns would be set to 2 and interleave to 256KB or 128KB and then Allocation Unit Size to 512KB or 256KB (dependant on file sizing) 

 

I know raid 10 compared to raid 5 will give me more storage, though it will provide better speeds. 

 

Currently with parity on 4 x 1.6TB drives, columns set to 3 it gives me a total usable space of 3.8TB out of 4.8TB... I'm unsure how I am losing 1TB 

 

I also have a 1TB M.2 for games that disabled two SATA ports on my motherboard. I happen to have more of these server grade 1.6TB SSDs. Should I swap the 1TB M.2 for two more 1.6TB SSD and use one for gaming and use the other as part of initial 4 in parity, thus allowing me to set columns to 4 instead of 3? Or even combine the two in RAID 0 for 3.2TB gaming SSD... Or just leave the 1TB M.2 as is.

 

If I opt to replace the 1TB M.2 I can use it to replace my mother 256GB M.2 that has Windows 10 running my gaming PC 

[Shimejii]

You lose one drive due to Parity, When you have 4 drives, 1 drive becomes the "fail safe" drive, where you can lose one drive in the event of a failure, you plug a new one in and it can rebuild the raid array.

 

Often times RAID is pretty pointless on a gaming pc. It serves 0 purpose for most people. If it was a back up server or something like that, sure it makes sense. But for a Gaming pc, RAID makes very little sense at this point. You can just have the 4 drives, OS, Games, Video Files, and then a Back up Important files drive. Since you dont really need to backup the games ( only the local saves if you need to) that can just be its own drive. Videos/shows/movies etc as its own drive, and then a backup drive and misc for w/e other stuff.

 

To answer your question, Can you create RAID 10 Via powershell, i dont recommend it as if you have to go in a round about way to create a RAID array, its more then likely going to fail on that end when a windows update bricks it, that happens a LOT more often then youd think.

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, maka0 said:

 

Though is it possible to create a Raid 10? I was thinking of creating two pools in mirror in the GUI and then using Powershell to somehow combine the two pools together, is that even possible? 

Yup, create a mirror, and set the number of collmns correctly and you have a raid 10 basically

 

7 minutes ago, maka0 said:

I know raid 10 compared to raid 5 will give me more storage, though it will provide better speeds. 

 

Riad 5 gives you more storage, but raid 10 is faster.

 

7 minutes ago, maka0 said:

Currently with parity on 4 x 1.6TB drives, columns set to 3 it gives me a total usable space of 3.8TB out of 4.8TB... I'm unsure how I am losing 1TB 

 

That seems too high spae usage wise, I'd expect about 4.2 usable with number of columns set to 3 with those drives.

 

 

8 minutes ago, maka0 said:

I also have a 1TB M.2 for games that disabled two SATA ports on my motherboard. I happen to have more of these server grade 1.6TB SSDs. Should I swap the 1TB M.2 for two more 1.6TB SSD and use one for gaming and use the other as part of initial 4 in parity, thus allowing me to set columns to 4 instead of 3? Or even combine the two in RAID 0 for 3.2TB gaming SSD... Or just leave the 1TB M.2 as is.

 

Really depends on your goals, but I'd typically take more storage of a slightly faster m.2

[leadeater]

Storage Spaces RAID 10 is simply Two-Way Mirror with more than 2 storage devices. There are configuration options you can use to change the performance and underlaying data layout etc as @Electronics Wizardy mentioned but the main thing is Storage Spaces is not "RAID" and it's not tied to or provisioned on storage devices. It's all data chunks and software rules as to where to store them.

[maka0]

29 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

You lose one drive due to Parity, When you have 4 drives, 1 drive becomes the "fail safe" drive, where you can lose one drive in the event of a failure, you plug a new one in and it can rebuild the raid array.

 

Often times RAID is pretty pointless on a gaming pc. It serves 0 purpose for most people. If it was a back up server or something like that, sure it makes sense. But for a Gaming pc, RAID makes very little sense at this point. You can just have the 4 drives, OS, Games, Video Files, and then a Back up Important files drive. Since you dont really need to backup the games ( only the local saves if you need to) that can just be its own drive. Videos/shows/movies etc as its own drive, and then a backup drive and misc for w/e other stuff.

 

To answer your question, Can you create RAID 10 Via powershell, i dont recommend it as if you have to go in a round about way to create a RAID array, its more then likely going to fail on that end when a windows update bricks it, that happens a LOT more often then youd think.

The reasoning for me wanting to create a raid on my gaming PC is to have redundancy for my photos, the video files I don't care about so much. I do have my photos on external drives and the cloud. I do plan to build a NAS in the future too 

 

Would RAID 0 via Windows Storage Pool not make sense in a gaming system? Or am risking it by losing all the data on the drives? 

 

Also would you remove the M.2 and add the additional 2x 1.6TB SSDs? 

 

I could in theory but a PCIE M.2 PCIE and still use the 1TB M.2 I have 

 

 

 

[Shimejii]

6 minutes ago, maka0 said:

The reasoning for me wanting to create a raid on my gaming PC is to have redundancy for my photos, the video files I don't care about so much. I do have my photos on external drives and the cloud. I do plan to build a NAS in the future too 

 

Would RAID 0 via Windows Storage Pool not make sense in a gaming system? Or am risking it by losing all the data on the drives? 

 

Also would you remove the M.2 and add the additional 2x 1.6TB SSDs? 

 

I could in theory but a PCIE M.2 PCIE and still use the 1TB M.2 I have 

 

 

 

Raid is pretty pointless on a gaming pc as  mentioned before. If you just want redundancy, just get a backup SSD or  an HDD if you want long term shelf storage of them.

 

Raid 0 is ABSOLUTELY a no go, you do not do raid 0 as there is nothing to gain on NVME drives.

Honestly speaking it just depends on how much storage you are actually using. How much space are all your photos taking up? Do you NEED that much space? Are you using X amount of storage space every month and that is enough wiggle room to last you a while or not so much?

 

 

[maka0]

@Shimejii @Electronics Wizardy @leadeater

 

6 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Raid is pretty pointless on a gaming pc as  mentioned before. If you just want redundancy, just get a backup SSD or  an HDD if you want long term shelf storage of them.

 

Raid 0 is ABSOLUTELY a no go, you do not do raid 0 as there is nothing to gain on NVME drives.

Honestly speaking it just depends on how much storage you are actually using. How much space are all your photos taking up? Do you NEED that much space? Are you using X amount of storage space every month and that is enough wiggle room to last you a while or not so much?

 

 

It's not raid 0 on NVME they are Intel 3150 server grade SSDs

What would you do in my situation? 

 

Overall goal is just have another location for my photos, along side my external and cloud backup. As my external backup is not on RAID format.

 

I wanted to consolidate my former drives I had, that where a 500GB SSD, 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD 

 

Should I remove my M.2 NVME so I can get the additional 2 SATA ports? Look at getting a PCIE expansion slot for the M.2?

 

Should I run the server grade SSDs as a pool to have one big drive in either simple, mirror or parity and only have random programs and games on there or just use them as 4 x individual drives + the 1TB M.2. 

 

 

[Shimejii]

51 minutes ago, maka0 said:

@Shimejii @Electronics Wizardy @leadeater

 

It's not raid 0 on NVME they are Intel 3150 server grade SSDs

What would you do in my situation? 

 

Overall goal is just have another location for my photos, along side my external and cloud backup. As my external backup is not on RAID format.

 

I wanted to consolidate my former drives I had, that where a 500GB SSD, 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD 

 

Should I remove my M.2 NVME so I can get the additional 2 SATA ports? Look at getting a PCIE expansion slot for the M.2?

 

Should I run the server grade SSDs as a pool to have one big drive in either simple, mirror or parity and only have random programs and games on there or just use them as 4 x individual drives + the 1TB M.2. 

 

 

I would just have 4 separate drives like i mentioned above inside the PC. Upt o you whether or not you want to remove the M.2 to get additional storage via SATA ports. They max out at 4 TB, and are more then adequete for pictures and such. 

 

RAID is moreso a server thing rather then what youd use on a every day PC. Are there some people that still use it? Sure. In your case its not needed. If you have the one drive with them, a backup drive, An external drive, AND a cloud drive, you have enough failsafes at that point.