Windows Storage Pool killed my HDD

[hilfordjames]

Recently I read about the benefits of Windows Pooling system from this excellent article

https://arstechnica.com/information...aces-explained-a-great-feature-when-it-works/

So I implemented a 3 HDD pool using Parity to combine my 3 separate HDD which each contained Documents on one drive, Music on the other and Photos on the other.

What I liked about the Pool idea was data security in the event of a drive failure.

Within 1 week of creating the pool I got an error messages stating that the Pool had no resilience, and it looked as though it had changed from Parity to a Simple volume, it did not identify a device failure or need of replacement, but I could not get the pool to work again, so thankfully relying on a backup of all my files I sort about reformatting each drive and then breaking up the Pool back into separte drives.

However I could not format or restore the ADATA HV620 drive using various methods such as cmd prompt and NIUBI and AOMEI and then finally I attempted to format the drive using SeaTools from Seagate.

Every test before the SeaTools showed no issues except about 1/3 of the drive having bad sectors - which would explain things, however after finally getting SeaTools to format the drive after every other method failed the drive has come back to life and no method used since has been able to find bad sectors or drive issues.

I'm now back to using the drives separately as this Pool scenario is the biggest pain in the backside and did not at all preserve data in case of a drive failure.

Windows Pool does no appear to work as promised like a lot of Windows systems.

 

[hilfordjames]

I combined 3 HDD together using Windows Pool using Parity for the simple reason that Pools is supposed to protect data by copying data between drives in case of drive failure, they call it 'resilience' but within a week of implementation the entire pool system failed and lost all the data on all drives even though its sold as being able to protect data, and even though the other 2 drives have never shown any errors.

Thankfully I had everything backed up!!

One of the drives was fully inaccessible except for using a Seagate recovery software which somehow after many attempts found the unmountable drive and formatted the disk and then after a sector scan showed 1/3 the drive was said to be 'bad sectors'.

However after doing a zero's and one' wipe the drive has come back as having no bad sectors and is working perfectly again.

Whether or not this drive actually caused the issue is irrelevant because even if it did - Pools was supposed to have the data protected and accessible through the other drives, but the entire pool system shut down and no data could be recovered from any drive within it.

I have since gone back to having 3 separate Hard Drives and simply backing them up using Windows Backup.

The members on another forum kept trying to tell me that the HDD was the issue, but as can be seen in the screen shot the drive is now fine and is still fine and has never been a problem until windows pool near killed it. They also attempted to blame me for the failure of the Pool and/or the HDD, however I simply used the Pool System as written about in https://arstechnica.com/information...aces-explained-a-great-feature-when-it-works/ and am guessing the full on writing mode of the Pool corrupted data somehow on one drive and destroyed the entire pool (which defeats its purpose).

I think people should be aware of the risks of Windows Pool or at least be able to read about the issues it creates without being gas lit from geeks who clearly want to blame everyone else except the programmers who created the dodgy software in the first place.

If software doesn't work as promoted and as it should it should be shut down and removed from service just like anything else that is faulty and people should be made aware of the issues it can cause.






I can evidentially prove that Windows Pool both nearly killed a HDD and also lost 40 years worth of data!!

Windows Pool is not what it promises and should be avoided if data security is a concern, its great to combine HDD into what looks like one drive but really who cares about that.

 

[hilfordjames]

And before anyone again attempts to tell me Windows Pool doesn't kill drives here's another persons experience.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/9wf6kh

 

[The Shadow 2023]

Never, EVER, EVER, trust Microshaft to protect your data. I learned that simple lesson, ages ago.

It sounds like you have too, even if you're not ready to admit it.

 

[hilfordjames]

There's nothing to admit - that's my point exactly

 

[kittensinurface]

Never, EVER, EVER, trust Microshaft to protect your data. I learned that simple lesson, ages ago.

It sounds like you have too, even if you're not ready to admit it.

I agree, always have a backup. It is Windows' fault for having bugs, it is our responsibility to prepare.