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Windows Storage Spaces


Contents:

MiniTool Partition Wizard well supports Storage Spaces, which is a new feature in Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2. Well then, what is Storage Spaces, how to create such spaces, and how to manage them with MiniTool Partition Wizard?

What Is Storage Spaces


Storage spaces are virtual drives that appear in File Explorer and can be used like any other drive. It allows users to organize multiple physical disks into Storage Pools, which can be easily expanded by simply adding disks. These disks can be connected either through USB, SATA, or SAS. A storage pool can be composed of heterogeneous physical disks – different sized physical disks are accessible via different storage interconnects. It brings the safety of RAID to the desktop, creates an expanding space to store files, and provides these features at lower cost than other hardware options.

How to Create Storage Spaces


Here, we take creating Storage Spaces in Windows 8 for example. Firstly, open “Control Panel” to get the following interface:

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Then, choose “System and Security”.

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Next, select “Storage Spaces”.

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Then, choose “Create a new pool and storage space”.

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Then, select drives to create a storage pool and then click on “Create pool”.

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Here, make settings for this storage space and click on “Create storage space”. Note: there are 4 resiliency types to choose:

None: designed to increase performance and doesn't protect files from drive failure by keeping multiple copies. Require one drive at least.

Two-way mirror: make two copies of files and can tolerate one drive failure. Require 2 drives at least.

Three-way mirror: tolerate two drive failures and requires 5 drives at least.

Parity: designed for storage efficiency and protect files from drive failure by keeping more than one copy. It requires at least three drives to protect users from a single drive failure and at least seven drives from two drive failures.

After these operations we can see the newly created storage space in “Computer”:

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How to Manage Storage Space with MiniTool Partition Wizard


Launch the free partitioning tool and we can see its main interface below:

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In this interface as long as we select the space namely partition J, all performable functions will appear on the left panel, including Format Partition, Move/Resize Partition, Merge Partition, Split Partition, Copy Partition, Change Cluster Size, and so on. With these functions users can well manage storage spaces.