JBAUD under W10-Pro-64, Storage Spaces OR USB attached Docks.

[Mike-Lynch]

Friends,

I am in need of a answer that I am unable to find myself.

The first is about JBAUD.

I have used RAID-0 and I learned that RAID-0 will Format all the Drives in the Array first.

I’m hoping that JBAUD works differently.

I am out of Drives that do not have Data on them.

If JBAUD would somehow utilize Drives with Data on them I’d be golden.

Somehow, I’d try and use ALL the Unused Space on them to create a JBAUD Array.

My suspicion is, like RAID-0, JBAUD will want to Format all the Drives in the Array.

Is this in fact what JBAUD will do?

If there is a way around this, PLEASE let me know.

My intent is to use JBAUD, in any flavor there might be, like Spanned, under, Storage Spaces.

Best regards,

Mike Lynch

[resistencia]

Hi @Mike-Lynch 

I imagine you're referring to JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks). When you create the first array, you need to format the disks, but if you want to add a new disk later, you only need to format that disk (via the JBOD RAID menu) and add it to the JBOD array.

[Mike-Lynch]

I want to avoid formatting any disks.

I want to start off with disks that have some data on them and some unused space.

I want to use the unused space as a portion of the JBOD Array.

[resistencia]

You need to format it as JBOD so that the system recognizes the drives as independent; this way, when one drive is full, it will automatically switch to the second drive and so on.

You only do that once

Remember that JBOD is different from RAID-0. For example, in JBOD, if you have three drives of 100, 200, and 300 GB, you have a total of 600 GB. In RAID-0, you have 300 GB, because it uses the smallest drive, which in this case is 100 GB (x3). That’s why you must format if you switch from RAID-0 to JBOD.

[Mike-Lynch]

So, the answer is JBOD, regardless of any defecation of JBOD, will insist on Formatting ANY Drives it sees the very first time. This will wipe out any and all of my Backup images and defeat my project. Bummer!

PS

I have used RAID-0 and I learned that RAID-0 will Format all the Drives in the Array first.

I’m hoping that JBAUD works differently.

I am out of Drives that do not have Data on them.

If JBAUD would somehow utilize Drives with Data on them I’d be golden.

[resistencia]

You cannot use disks that contain data, because when you add a new disk, you must format it for it to be recognized, If the drive you're adding comes from a JBOD array, you can probably keep the data on the drive.

[DGroves]

your best solution is to simply add a new physical drive to your computer the information below is not really someting that you can use it's provided simply to show you that there are ways to do what you ask but again are not really suited for your current needs.........buy a new drive

all hardware based raid arrays need to write custom low level information to all the drives in a created array this information is what allows the raid controller to "merge" all physical drives  into a single storage device that can be used by a operating system

depending on the raid controller physical drives may or may not need to be the same size and may or may not support hot swapping of drives

software based raid can be quite a bit more flexable and is capable of using free space on diffrent drives to create a software defined raid drive from existing disks with data on them within the limits of the software and hardware IE- system the software array is run on

please note that doing this is not a trival matter it requires reading the documentation and backing up existing data as it's quite likely that in trying to create a array on existing drives with free space will result in several failed attempts that kill the existing data

spend time reading the docs on "openZFS" or if your system is intel based and the bios has support for intel based software raid raid you can select the existing free space on the current array drives and create a new logical device 

https://openzfs.org/wiki/Main_Page

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058748/server-products/server-boards.htm...

[resistencia]

Hi @DGroves 

The problem is that the user wants to switch from RAID-0 to JBOD without formatting the disks and while keeping the data currently on RAID-0, and that's not possible. JBOD views the array very differently from RAID-0, which allows you to add disk it only formats the drive you add, but you don't have to format the other disk

With RAID-0, every time you add a drive, you have to format all the drives; we're not talking about RAID-10 or RAID-1.

[Mike-Lynch]

"Windows Storage Spaces lets you combine multiple drives into a single storage pool to protect data from drive failures and expand storage over time. You can create virtual drives—called storage spaces—from the pool and choose resiliency options such as mirroring to keep data available if a drive fails. When you need more capacity, you can add additional drives to the pool without replacing existing storage."

I'm still unable to determine if Windows Storage Spaces WILL or WILL NOT format the Drives used to create the Pool. I'm hoping a Forum has the answer.

[resistencia]

ummm ..This isn't JBOD; I think we started off on the wrong foot when explaining it,

Windows Storage Spaces  You need to format the drive when you start from scratch, but not afterward.

You have three options to choose from: Simple spaces, which is like a RAID—0 but this does not protect against failures; Mirror spaces, which is like a RAID-1; and Parity spaces, which is roughly equivalent to a RAID-10.