Native Software RAID in Windows (w7 or w10)

[Takuan]

Hi all

 

I am contemplating a windows machine with a 10 HDDs setup in a software raid. My hardware (motherboard) does support various raid setups but only with a maximum of 4? drives. This is not enough as I am aiming to use 10 HDDs in RAID 6 or perhaps RAID 10. I want to keep cost down using only what I have already lying around, rather than shopping for new/more hardware including controllers. Does anyone here have any experience with a software raid on Windows 7 and/or Windows 10? I prefer this on a Windows 7 machine, but I would also like to hear about Windows 10, if that is where your particular experience might be. Can Windows do this software raid out of the box natively, or will I need a Server version, or can this be done only by using 3rd party software? Obviously I have researched the subject myself, but it seems that info on the subject is scarce and at best inadequate unless I want to invest heavily (which I do not).

 

I know that Linux may offer a solution also, but as my Linux knowledge is limited, I would like to go the Windows way or at least explore that option first.

 

On the hardware side, my motherboard has two 1GbE ports, which will be enough for my use, as it is to serve on my home network with only a few users for watching movies using plex/kodi and for i.e. local cloud backups of photos etc.

 

Any input regarding your experience, suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Electronics Wizardy]

windows 10 has storage spaces, which is much better than the disk management raid in windows 7 and earlier(you can also use in 10, but don't)

 

10 can do this out of the box, if you want the more advanced functions, you need to use power shell. the gui in server is much better.

 

Are you making a nas? If so, id just put something like unraid or freenas on it, that should work well here. Linux isn't very hard and really with the web gui, there isn't much you have to learn.

 

 

[Takuan]

I was thinking about a NAS yes. I already have a Synology running, though the hardware on this is pretty slow so to speak. That is why I was thinking about making a box on Windows, which could first of all work as a place of storage, but eventually work as a NAS as my learning curve would reach its potential. A Synology is pretty easy to setup, but it is limited in power I think. As I have an unused fully functional workstation which is now a few years old with a 8 core CPU I thought I would use this instead of "upgrading" my Synology. They are expensive (12 bays) and as I have hardware available in my old workstation, I thought I would safe my money going the DIY way.

 

From what I understand from your post, Windows would actually be the worst choice for this purpose? Especially if we are talking NAS rather than simple storage? If that is the case, I would appreciate it, if you could elaborate a bit on your suggestions (not the specific software) in terms of why you would not choose Windows.

 

Thank you very much.

I very much appreciate it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

13 hours ago, Takuan said:

From what I understand from your post, Windows would actually be the worst choice for this purpose?

It will work fine, but windows 10 really isn't great here. WIndows server is pretty good with the better software raid features and the ad intergration, but for your use something like unraid.

 

13 hours ago, Takuan said:

why you would not choose Windows.

Cost - Windows is 100 bucks and you want pro here

 

Updates - You can't turn them off, there annoying in how they are applyied

 

Software raid - storage spaces is a pain in win 10 and server is better, but you still have to dive into powershell

 

Interface - Most nas oses have a nice web interface, that makes it much easier to configure.

[beersykins]

Something like freenas is easy to use and would do what you want in zfs, as an alternative solution.

[Takuan]

Thanks.

 

For Windows, is there anyone who have any experience using RAID as a "clean" storage, meaning without setting it up as a NAS?

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 hours ago, Takuan said:

Thanks.

 

For Windows, is there anyone who have any experience using RAID as a "clean" storage, meaning without setting it up as a NAS?

Yea you can do that. Just make a raid array and it works like a local drive. Thats what I do on my desktop 4 2tb hdds in a mirror with a ssd cache.

[Takuan]

My motherboard can handle 4 drives in a RAID (not raid 6/10 though, which is what I am actually aiming at), so is there a way to do this with more drives than that? Are you using your motherboard, software or other way?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, Takuan said:

My motherboard can handle 4 drives in a RAID (not raid 6/10 though, which is what I am actually aiming at), so is there a way to do this with more drives than that? Are you using your motherboard, software or other way?

dont use motherboard raid, it sucks.

 

Im using storage spaces in windows for raid, works well and is built into windows8 and newer. And has advanced features like ssd caching, multiple raid levels and easy expansion.

[Takuan]

"Storage Spaces" I have never heard about that before. Will research into that, but if w8 and newer is the only option, I guess this will apply for w10 only in my case. Have you had any issues with it, is it stable, fast etc.?

[jde3]

On 8/5/2018 at 4:22 PM, Takuan said:

Hi all

 

I am contemplating a windows machine with a 10 HDDs setup in a software raid. My hardware (motherboard) does support various raid setups but only with a maximum of 4? drives. This is not enough as I am aiming to use 10 HDDs in RAID 6 or perhaps RAID 10. I want to keep cost down using only what I have already lying around, rather than shopping for new/more hardware including controllers. Does anyone here have any experience with a software raid on Windows 7 and/or Windows 10? I prefer this on a Windows 7 machine, but I would also like to hear about Windows 10, if that is where your particular experience might be. Can Windows do this software raid out of the box natively, or will I need a Server version, or can this be done only by using 3rd party software? Obviously I have researched the subject myself, but it seems that info on the subject is scarce and at best inadequate unless I want to invest heavily (which I do not).

 

I know that Linux may offer a solution also, but as my Linux knowledge is limited, I would like to go the Windows way or at least explore that option first.

 

On the hardware side, my motherboard has two 1GbE ports, which will be enough for my use, as it is to serve on my home network with only a few users for watching movies using plex/kodi and for i.e. local cloud backups of photos etc.

 

Any input regarding your experience, suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you for your time.

Seems like a silly thing to do honestly. Generally an actual server OS would provide storage to client OS systems like Windows desktop systems. I mean.. if your going to go this route you might as well host your RAID array on Android.

[Takuan]

So in general, the Windows way of doing it would be the "worst" in regard to having it serve as a NAS, I get it. What if the "server" was only to be used as a place of storage, something like a file server perhaps? A place to store data, not to stream anything. Would you still choose another OS apart from Windows? Thanks.

[Electronics Wizardy]

16 hours ago, Takuan said:

So in general, the Windows way of doing it would be the "worst" in regard to having it serve as a NAS, I get it. What if the "server" was only to be used as a place of storage, something like a file server perhaps? A place to store data, not to stream anything. Would you still choose another OS apart from Windows? Thanks.

windows isn't the worst way to to it. Windows works fine. But for a home user there normally isn't a good reason to use windows over something like unraid. Unraid is easier to expand and provide plugins and vms.

 

On 8/7/2018 at 6:34 AM, Takuan said:

My motherboard can handle 4 drives in a RAID (not raid 6/10 though, which is what I am actually aiming at), so is there a way to do this with more drives than that? Are you using your motherboard, software or other way?

Thats only if your using motherboard raid. Don't use motherboard raid. With sofware raid you can have an array as big as you want.

 

On 8/6/2018 at 10:50 AM, Takuan said:

Thanks.

 

For Windows, is there anyone who have any experience using RAID as a "clean" storage, meaning without setting it up as a NAS?

You mean use a drive on the computer its in? Thats just having an internal drive. Tons of people do that.

[jde3]

21 hours ago, Takuan said:

So in general, the Windows way of doing it would be the "worst" in regard to having it serve as a NAS, I get it. What if the "server" was only to be used as a place of storage, something like a file server perhaps? A place to store data, not to stream anything. Would you still choose another OS apart from Windows? Thanks.

It's probably the worst way to be actually honest. Microsoft had two failed filesystem projects in the past 10 years or so and it's put them pretty far behind in this area. NTFS is dinosaur ancient old. (It originally came from DEC and Compaq if that tells you anything) That does not mean bad automatically. (UFS is still around and solid) but they haven't been able to keep up with the advantages of processors being so much faster than disks now so the implementations and assumptions about the system in NTFS's design are very dated. They know this is a problem and they failed twice trying to replace it.. they probably have something new in the works there now.. will it be strike three for them?

 

So for storage.. yeah probably anything other than windows would be better.

[Takuan]

Thank you all very much for your time and patience responding to my questions. I guess Windows is out the window on this project. I will take a closer look on FreeNAS and especially unRAID as it seems to be more flexible and less resource hungry from what I have read so far.

 

Thank you very much for your help.

I very much appreciate it.

[jde3]

9 hours ago, Takuan said:

Thank you all very much for your time and patience responding to my questions. I guess Windows is out the window on this project. I will take a closer look on FreeNAS and especially unRAID as it seems to be more flexible and less resource hungry from what I have read so far.

 

Thank you very much for your help.

I very much appreciate it.

FreeNAS has the best technology for storage that you can afford. ZFS competes quite well even with high end industry storage solutions. Simple storage isn't everything.. but if you want your data back some day, it's going to protect it the best.

[Electronics Wizardy]

20 hours ago, Takuan said:

Thank you all very much for your time and patience responding to my questions. I guess Windows is out the window on this project. I will take a closer look on FreeNAS and especially unRAID as it seems to be more flexible and less resource hungry from what I have read so far.

 

Windows is fine, you just have to know waht your doing.

 

But you haven't really listed a full plan and requirements so its hard to recomend things.

[Takuan]

I first of all wanted to start out with a place for storage. Just a place accessible over the network. But I see that it is actually better and perhaps easier to accomplish by using FreeNAS or similar especially as these have more options over time. In all I want to have a NAS, but thought that it would suffice with Windows, which obviously it will not or at least is a bad choice for it. I have done some testing now with FreeNAS, and it seems quite easy to work with. Will try unRAID as well before deciding.

 

Thanks for all your help and input.