DrivePool/Bender - Alternatives with Parity protection?

Monty Burns

Prominent Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2005
Messages
3,887
Reaction score
144
Points
809
Age
50
Location
Londoner living in Bahrain
Hi Guys



I currently use Storage Pools but having had a minor issue that needed googling I've discovered how unstable Storage Pools are and so want to get away from it ASAP!

I've been looking at Drive Bender and DrivePool but they both only seem to offer mirroring protection? To me this is a major waste of space and I'd much rather use Parity checking. Do these products offer this or are there any others that will work with any current MS operating system? (I need to be able to expand the array easily and swap in/out disks without losing data. My disks are also on two different controllers so can't use "onboard" hardware RAID)



Thanks in advance!!!

(need it to be MS op system and have an MSDN subscription so have access to all of them)
 
Hi Guys



I currently use Storage Pools but having had a minor issue that needed googling I've discovered how unstable Storage Pools are and so want to get away from it ASAP!

I've been looking at Drive Bender and DrivePool but they both only seem to offer mirroring protection? To me this is a major waste of space and I'd much rather use Parity checking. Do these products offer this or are there any others that will work with any current MS operating system? (I need to be able to expand the array easily and swap in/out disks without losing data. My disks are also on two different controllers so can't use "onboard" hardware RAID)



Thanks in advance!!!

(need it to be MS op system and have an MSDN subscription so have access to all of them)

Redundancy seems abit yesterday to me, parity protection is the way to go IMO. Take a look at FlexRAID, it works very well.

FlexRAID

David
 
Last edited:
Thought I would also mention that FlexRAID's parity protection will also work with Drive Bender and Drivepool. FlexRAID's parity protection and storage pooling are an integrated solution but they are also available as separate products.

David
 
I also used FlexRAID (good program) but I'm fine using Storage Pool but then I use 2-way mirror rather than parity.
 
Thanks guys!

I stumbled across FlexRAID just after I posted and it does indeed look ideal :smashin:

They've also answered my post on there forums, settling my nerves and told me exactly how to setup my disks.

I think for me, given the horror stories on the net for Storage Pools, the thing that scares me the most, is that should anything go wrong there doesn't seem to be a way to access the data - at least FlexRAID leaves them intact as NTFS readable files. It seems that the simple File level parity system is perfect and does seem to follow the "Simplest is best" saying.


Now I just need to wait for some hardware to turn up and I can crack-on and get it done :thumbsup:
 
Oh, if only I knew I'd be back here 3 years later.... asking the same question.

FlexRAID (Snapshot) is now failing me ERROR: Invalid state - Unexpected EOF & WARN : Incomplete and i'm not getting any help from them, I suspect as they are towards EoL for FlexRAID Snapshot.

So, VERY sadly, back to the original question! I need a non-destructive (i.e. files/NTFS remain) way of accessing various drives (not 35+tb) over 9 drives as a single letter that can be shared on the network. This also needs to include PARITY (NOT duplication) protection. Two or more separate programs can be used to create the required result.

Any ideas?
 
Does it have to be windows? I've gone from FlexRAID to DrivePool and now I'm looking at unRAID. As far as I know if the array falls to pieces you can mount the drives in a Linux machine (I have a couple of Raspberry Pi's that might do the job for me should I ever need them).

Version 6 of unRAID allows virtualisation which means I can leave unRAID to the handle the storage pool while I spin up Windows VM's for another other tasks I need.

Just saw your sig - bet you have fun in the dunes with that 690. Had a 640 Adv once myself but flogged it for an 1150GSA.....
 
Thanks for the info but yes, it does need to stay Windows as it's also my everything computer, including games.
 
Thanks for the info but yes, it does need to stay Windows as it's also my everything computer, including games.

Unless you spun up a Windows VM for all that stuff (which is what I'm thinking of doing). A lot of work to swap over though. With unRAID you can assign graphics cards to VM's so I'm thinking of a Windows HTPC VM out to my Marantz AVP, a Windows desktop VM for work/home stuff and so on.
 
If you come back years later ... perhaps SnapRaid is what you need ... it seems like a good choice for MS Windows ... by the way ... if you found a solution I would like to know as I am also researching what options I have. DriveBender could possibly be another solution.

Oh, if only I knew I'd be back here 3 years later.... asking the same question.

FlexRAID (Snapshot) is now failing me ERROR: Invalid state - Unexpected EOF & WARN : Incomplete and i'm not getting any help from them, I suspect as they are towards EoL for FlexRAID Snapshot.

So, VERY sadly, back to the original question! I need a non-destructive (i.e. files/NTFS remain) way of accessing various drives (not 35+tb) over 9 drives as a single letter that can be shared on the network. This also needs to include PARITY (NOT duplication) protection. Two or more separate programs can be used to create the required result.

Any ideas?
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom