What Is Windows Storage Spaces & How to Create/Resize/Delete It

This post illustrates what Windows Storage Spaces is and how to create/resize/delete it. The Storage Spaces Windows 10 shows you how to use multiple hard drives efficiently. Start reading this post of MiniTool to explore the details!

What Is Windows Storage Spaces

Storage Spaces, a technology built in Windows and Windows Server, helps you protect data from drive failures and increase storage space for the data. It usually stores extra copies of your data, so if one of your drives fails, you still have an intact copy of your data. If you run low on capacity, just add more drives to the storage pool.

The Windows 10 Storage Spaces feature in Windows 10 allows you to group three or more drives together into a storage pool and use capacity from that pool to create Storage Spaces. It is a software-configured RAID setup in OS. It is conceptually similar to RAID. Differently, RAID is implemented in software.

Tip: There are other differences between the Storage Pool Windows 10 and RAID. For more information, please read this post: Windows 10 Storage Spaces vs Raid: Difference and Data Protection

Storage Spaces are virtual drives that you can see in the File Explorer and use them like other drives. You can create spaces with an equal, smaller, or larger capacity than the physical capacity of your PC.

Further reading:

In addition to Storage Spaces, features like system image recovery, system restore, backup and restore, and file history can help you protect your important data as well.
You need to know the disks that have been added to the pool are not individually available anymore from within Windows as they are virtualized and dedicated entirely to the pool.

The Features of Windows Storage Spaces

As you can combine multiple hard drives into a pool, you don’t have to spread files across multiple drives in a disorganized manner. On the contrary, you can store the files in a single place with an organized way.

Besides, the Storage Pool Windows 10 can create a big network drive with a lot of space for storing data. It is more efficient than sharing multiple drives on the same network. With Storage Spaces, you can manage data better. For instance, if you have several USB drives connected to one PC, combine them into a single logical drive. Then you are able to organize these drives in a single place.

Resiliency is another benefit of Windows Storage Spaces. It means that you won’t suffer from data loss because of hard drive failure or other issues with one of drives in the Storage Pool. Here are 4 types of resiliency.

Simple: The data is stored only as one copy. There is no resiliency from data failures by itself. This type of Storage Spaces can be made with only one drive.
Two-way mirror: Two copies of data are written on two different drives so that data can be protected from a single drive failure. Two drives are required for it.
Three-way mirror: It writes three copies in three different drives. Hence, your data will be safe even if you encounter two drive failures.
Parity: Storage Spaces writes data with parity information on an available drive to protect against any single drive failure. This kind of resilience is similar to the standard RAID 5 technology.

How to Create Storage Spaces

The number of Storage Spaces Windows 10 that you can create depends on the physical storage of your computer. It means that you can’t create as many Storage Spaces as you like to store the data.

How to create Windows Storage Spaces? Detailed steps are shown as follows.

Step 1: Open Settings by pressing Windows and I keys and then click System.

Step 2: After clicking the Storage option in the left pane, move to the right side of the window. Scroll down the content to find and click on Manage Storage Spaces.

Step 3: In the pop-up window, click Create a new pool and storage space to continue the operation.

Tip: You can also navigate to the window below by opening Control Panel and then clicking Storage Spaces.

Step 4: In the next window, you should choose drives from the listed drives and then click Create pool. You can decide the number of drives for the creation of Windows Storage Spaces. Certainly, the total number will not exceed the amount of available drives. You need to know that the displayed drives are unformatted drives on your computer.

Step 5: You can see and configure some settings for the created Storage Spaces Windows 10 in the prompted window.

Choose a Drive letter and select the File system.
Pick a resiliency type according to the number of your drives. (Here you have two drives, so you should select Two-way mirror.)
Click on the Create storage space button.

Tip: By default, the drive letter will be granted in order and the file system is NTFS. In some cases, ReFS is also available. If so, you can choose one based on your need.

Step 6: Now, you need to wait for the finish of the process.

How to Resize Storage Spaces Windows 10

With the above steps, you can create Windows Storage Spaces with ease. If you want to resize the Storage Pool, you have two choices. You can do that via Control Panel or a professional partition manager – MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Option 1: Control Panel

Step 1: Press Windows and R keys to open the Run window, and then input control and hit Enter to open Control Panel. Alternatively, you can also type control in the search bar and click on Control Panel from search results.

Step 2: Navigate to the Storage Spaces. Then you will see the picture below. To extend Storage Spaces, click on the Add drives option. Then follow the on-screen instruction to finish the process.

Tip: You are allowed to make other Storage Pool Windows 10 changes like renaming the pool and optimizing drive usage. When the feature links are not available, you need to click the Change settings button under the Manage Storage Space section.

Option 2: MiniTool Partition Wizard

As mentioned earlier, Storage Spaces Windows 10 appears as a regular storage on the computer. Hence, you can also manage them as other partitions. As an all-in-one partition manager, MiniTool Partition Wizard allows you to manage Storage Spaces easily.

For instance, if you want to resize Windows 10 Storage Spaces, the Move/Resize Partition and Extend Partition features of this program can help you. To rename the Storage Spaces, use the Set Label option. How to resize the Storage Pool Windows 10? Here’s the tutorial.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to access its main interface.

Step 2: Right-click on your Storage Spaces from disk map and click the Move/Resize option in the pop-up menu.

Step 3: In the elevated window, drag the two arrows to change the position and size of Storages Spaces. Then click the OK and Apply buttons to execute the operation.

Further reading:

In addition to resizing partition, MiniTool Partition Wizard allows you to merge, split, wipe, format, and do other operations with Windows Storage Spaces easily.

How to Delete Windows Store Spaces

Though Storage Spaces Windows 10 brings you some benefits, it also has some drawbacks like slow write speed and space waste. Due to these reasons, you may want to delete Windows Storage Spaces. How to do that? There are 2 methods for you.

Method 1: Delete Storage Pool Windows 10 via Control Panel

Step 1: Open Run window by holding Windows and R keys, and then type control and click OK.

Step 2: In the next window, click on the Storage Spaces option.

Step 3: Click Delete behind the Storage Spaces.

Step 4: Click Delete storage space and then follow the on-screen instruction to finish the operation.

Warning: All the files in the Storage Spaces will be permanently deleted during the deletion of Storage Pool. Hence, you’d better back up the files in advance.

Method 2: Delete Storage Pool Windows 10 via MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard enables you to delete Windows Storage Spaces within a few clicks. It is very easy to operate.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard and go to its main interface.

Step 2: Click the Storage Spaces from disk map and then click the Delete Partition option in the left pane.

Step 3: Click the Apply button to carry out the operation.

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Conclusion

To sum up, this post tells you the definition and features of Windows Storage Spaces. Based on that, it shows you how to create, resize, and delete the Storage Pool Windows 10. In a nutshell, it is a full guide on Windows 10 Storage Spaces.

If you have any thoughts on the Storage Spaces Windows 10, please write down in the following comment area. For any questions during the use of MiniTool Partition Wizard, please directly send us an email via [email protected]. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Windows Storage Spaces FAQ

Is Windows Storage Spaces good?

Windows Storage Spaces indeed has some advantages, but it also has some drawbacks. The benefits are that it offers you much space and resiliency, while the drawback is the slow write speed.

How to enable Storage Space on Windows?

It is very easy to set up Windows Storage Spaces on Windows Server 2012. For that, you need to open Server Manager and then click File and Storage Service tab. After that, click the Storage Pools.

How much space does Windows 10 take?

As you know, games, applications, and systems have their requirements. Space is one of these aspects. To run the programs smoothly, you should learn the requirements and fulfill them. This post shows you how much space does Windows 10 take and how to extend space.

How to free up space without deleting apps?

To free up space without deleting apps, you can disable the hibernation mode, enable compact OS, turn on the OneDrive files on-demand, move files to another location, upgrade to a larger hard drive, etc.

About The Author

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Having writing articles about computer tech for a long time, I am rather experienced especially on the aspect of computer optimization, PC enhancement, as well as tech terms explanation. The habit of looking through tech forums makes me a great computer issues collector. And then, many articles related to these issues are released, which benefit plenty of users. Professional, effective, and innovative are always the pursuit of an editing worker.