I've been playing ARK, and that's HUGE game taking several minutes to load/save. I did a test for performance by copying the game folder to my nvme drive (100GB game) and then making a symlink back to the launcher (so not to mess with config settings or such). Time to load dropped tremendously down to seconds. Now from launch to loaded is around 1 minute. So looking up caching, I came across your site/video. I will be giving this a shot and see how things play out. Thanks for the work and scripts and explanation of how it works. 👍
I have a question. It seems as if your scripts are designed to create a new pool with SSD caching. But what if I already have a 3 hdd pool without redundancy and I want to add a SSD for caching but I don't want to rebuild all the data already in my pool. Can an SSD be added to an existing pool for caching?
To the best of my knowlege, adding a tier to a constructed pool is a destructive operation. Additionally be aware that the number of columns (i.e. striping that increases user perceived "speed") is locked on creation, and modifying this will also require a destructive operation. In other words you may have to re-create the setup from scratch and re-transfer the data back to the end-use storage partition.
I have few question regarding to storage tier.. 1. What if I try to shutdown my pc, will my data corrupted after shutdown? Since it may still otw running the progress of moving data between ssd/hdd tiers? 2. Nice scripts provided. However, how I should modify tiers and replace old with new physicaldisk into hdd/ssd tier? resize the tiers as well ? Did your script cover these...??
Joe this work wonderful for me. Thank you so much. I have a 10GB Network and the HDD just were not keeping up and I was trying to figure out how to do this in Windows 10. I know in Server you can. Thanks.
Simply amazing! Thanks for the script. I was able to make this work with Windows 11.. But I have encountered some problems, I am using two 1TB HDD and one 120GB SSD. Whenever I try to install a more than 100GB game, the game detects that I don't have enough storage space. Is this expected since I'm using a 120GB SSD?
Thanks for this :) I dunno how the script will know what hdds etc to use hopefully theres a way to select them? but I'll try this out now with 1xssd 2xhdds parity, hope it works - do you know if itll be easy to add a third or fourth drive and keep 1 ssd for cache?
I just found out this could be done. My question is how do you go about expanding a storage pool? Do you need to just add new drives like you normally would to a pool thru the windows 10 gui? Or do you have to run the script and do something else when it’s time to expand the pool to new drives? Does it also wipe the drives when creating a new pool with the script? I have an existing pool I want to do this with and need to make the necessary changes now before it starts to grow too much. Making a PLEX server/media storage pc was the best thing I’ve ever done. No more cloud storage fees for me
if you transfer storage spaces from win 10 to win server, will all the ssd need to be dedicated to the cache drive. I have 16 drives with a mix of ssd and hdd
Very cool, I do have a question. Now that my drives are in the virtual disk, when I check on Storage Spaces in Windows, the pool is showing as almost completely full, despite no data being on there at all. I have 6 HDD's and 3 SSD's, when I try copying data onto the volume it'll randomly run out of space, any ideas where I messed up?
A serious drawback of using SSDs as cache drives is that it's wearing them down much faster. If you want this at least make sure to use SSDs with MLC memory chips, not the cheap SSDs with TLC, QLC etc.
great work. however. i have 4 rust spinners and want to run them in parity instead of mirror. is there a way to set them to parity? i changed the -name mirror to -name parity and it still does mirror.
Thank you for this valuable information I just implemented this on my Win10 system. What is the best way to test the cache/ssd impact on throughput? thanks again
Joe what about Windows 10 Pro for Workstations? Does that version have SMB direct and the Tiered Storage Spaces? What I need in the machine is SMB Direct, and Tiered Storage Spaces with REFS
You might be able to add a device to a storage tier. I don't know if you can add storage tiers where none existed before. It feels like the flow for adding would be something like the following but I haven't played with it. 1. Create a new storage tier when you don't have one with New-StorageTier 2. Add a physical device with Add-PhysicalDisk 3. Increase the size of the SSD storage tier. with Resize-StorageTier
Does anyone know if Storage Spaces support TRIM for SSD's`? I know that the regular disk manager don't support TRIM on SSD's when you have software raid. It's because they are turned into dynamic disks instead of basic disks
I have a question. I have a 15 hdd pool (8, 8TB + 4, 4TB, 1, 3TB, 1, 6tb with double parity I want to add a 1TB SSD for caching but I don't want to rebuild all the data already in my pool. 46TB OF ARCADE GAMES and I dont have another storage to place them! Can an the SSD to the existing pool for caching? Please Note when I created the pool Originally with 6, 8tb windows 10 allowed me to add a 128GB SSD as a catch drive I removed it to add the larger cached drive but I see know that I dont have those options in the GUI and it seems as I have to do it via power shell. I do have a backup of my data in the cloud.... But it will take me weeks to recover.... Need to make this work. If it helps my current configuration Hp z420 2 4Bay usb 3.1 hard drive enclosures (One of the enclosures is running from a PCI USB card) Pool is used for Arcade games only.... 7 internal drives make the 15 hard drives in the pool Internal 2TB SSD hard drive for high end PC Games Internal 2 512GB SSD in raid stripe for OS (Had them raided to test and left them....)
SSD caching is implemented when we have tiered storage SSD and HDD. I do not know how to convert an existing Virtual Disk to one using tiered storage. The Windows 10 GUI , as of the last time I played with it, does not support tiered storage.
Can this be done with a parity setup. I'm looking to have some failure tolerance and maximum space? I want to use a 5 2tb drives and the a single ssd for tiered storage.
@@FreemanSoft I did get it to work however I found it easier in the long run to just pick up a raid controller then run a raid 5 and then run Primo cache to accelerate it. I don't need too much redundancy and I can hotswap with the raid controller.
So basically, if i installed windows 10 pro on my single hdd, my programs and applications over time then buy a ssd i install the ssd into the pc, run this script on powershell and it will automatically create a tiered storage system of both drives with cache acceleration?
@@FreemanSoft So if i want accelerated storage do i need more than two empty drives or i can just use the ssd with the script and essentially create a large ssd cache for the HDD that has the OS and Programs?
@@ig33ku A storage pool is created from empty drives. You might be able to use Intel Smart Response to add a cache for an O/S disk. The maximum amount of cache there is 64 GB en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Response_Technology
@@FreemanSoft I'll just use one ssd and make a storage pool from it... it should accelerate the commonly accessed data from the OS and programs on the hdd. If i understand this right lol. Edit: My Bad... so I need basically 3 disks. I am such a moron.
Thanks for the work. Looking at the documentation, it seems that we can do all the commands used in New-VirtualDisk when using New-Volume, even straight from a Storage Pool. Any reason to make a VirtualDisk first, and then making a new Volume? Edit: Looking at the documentation, it seems that those commands that are in New-Volume are simply making a Virtual Disk in the background that creating a volume on top of that. So same thing you were doing, but Microsoft just added some tools to make life easier :)
you all better use SLC SSD/NVME for this kind of cache. because SLC TYPE is 100,000 times more rewritten capacity that has highest life cycle than normal cheap cheap ssd/nvme
These almost don't exist. SLC is not necessary. I have two Samsung TLC drives rated for .8 complete drive writes per day for 5 years. This is common for Enterprise drives; many are made with TLC (not even MLC). Yes, cheap drives can definitely have endurance issues, but SLC is definitely not necessary to avoid endurance issues.
@@CharlesBurnsPrime Indeed its not necessary for 1 company but not all company. when it comes to 2nd hand used parts its important to have SLC for long terms instead of waste money to buy new parts. So many datacenter almost 70% of it using used part such as hdd,board,pci etc for cust server. This is the world now unlike before we only depend on NEW Unit ... Anyway I'm waiting for the next vids. Peace now war :)
If I have a storage pool that I created through the windows 10 GUI, can I go into Powershell and add SSD's to cache the pool, or do I need to wipe all drives and create a new pool?
Tiered storage is a delicate process, you can only do it via PowerShell for Windows 10 and you can't convert a standard storage space to a tiered one AFAIK. Which means you start clean :-)
@@FreemanSoft I wonder if I'll get some performance boost with only 13,4 (16) GB intel optane + 1tb 7200rpm hdd == probably 13,4GB is to small to cache some games on 1tb hdd, right ?
@@santory666 Waste of money. Optane(-caching) does work, but even the cheapest SSD made from pure chinesium will give you better overall performance than spinning rust plus a tiny bit of miracle nand.
@@protator I already have some 16gb Intel optane stick with m.2 adapter plugged to pciexpress. I was using it before with primocache 30 days trial paired with 1tb HDD - it was working OK for games storage - steam folder. But Primocache license cost sth like 30$ so not worth it for my use ;-) By the way I have bought this optane stick for 5$ just for fun and test how primocache caching works... Thought that I can achieve similar performance with windows storage spaces...
![BAK Jay - Find Out (For Your Love) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/10FJO_XBCvY/mqdefault.jpg)
I've been playing ARK, and that's HUGE game taking several minutes to load/save. I did a test for performance by copying the game folder to my nvme drive (100GB game) and then making a symlink back to the launcher (so not to mess with config settings or such). Time to load dropped tremendously down to seconds. Now from launch to loaded is around 1 minute.
So looking up caching, I came across your site/video. I will be giving this a shot and see how things play out. Thanks for the work and scripts and explanation of how it works. 👍
Currently, I have 4TB x 4 (RAID 5) on windows 10 pool.
How can I add a cache SSD for that ?
Kudos Joe, very nice work! Really appreciate it!
I have a question. It seems as if your scripts are designed to create a new pool with SSD caching. But what if I already have a 3 hdd pool without redundancy and I want to add a SSD for caching but I don't want to rebuild all the data already in my pool. Can an SSD be added to an existing pool for caching?
I don't know the answer to your question. I was unable to find a way of adding a storage tier to an already constructed pool.
@@FreemanSoft I have been unable to figure that out as well. I hope win 10 will implement a better GUI with better options.
To the best of my knowlege, adding a tier to a constructed pool is a destructive operation. Additionally be aware that the number of columns (i.e. striping that increases user perceived "speed") is locked on creation, and modifying this will also require a destructive operation. In other words you may have to re-create the setup from scratch and re-transfer the data back to the end-use storage partition.
I have few question regarding to storage tier..
1. What if I try to shutdown my pc, will my data corrupted after shutdown? Since it may still otw running the progress of moving data between ssd/hdd tiers?
2. Nice scripts provided. However, how I should modify tiers and replace old with new physicaldisk into hdd/ssd tier? resize the tiers as well ? Did your script cover these...??
Joe this work wonderful for me. Thank you so much. I have a 10GB Network and the HDD just were not keeping up and I was trying to figure out how to do this in Windows 10. I know in Server you can. Thanks.
Simply amazing! Thanks for the script. I was able to make this work with Windows 11.. But I have encountered some problems, I am using two 1TB HDD and one 120GB SSD. Whenever I try to install a more than 100GB game, the game detects that I don't have enough storage space. Is this expected since I'm using a 120GB SSD?
thanks joe, this seems really interesting, i'll try it
Thanks for this :) I dunno how the script will know what hdds etc to use hopefully theres a way to select them? but I'll try this out now with 1xssd 2xhdds parity, hope it works - do you know if itll be easy to add a third or fourth drive and keep 1 ssd for cache?
Oh you're the one that made the scripts!? Ty so fucking easy to use
On your main page the link to the github goes to blogger instead.
I just found out this could be done. My question is how do you go about expanding a storage pool? Do you need to just add new drives like you normally would to a pool thru the windows 10 gui? Or do you have to run the script and do something else when it’s time to expand the pool to new drives? Does it also wipe the drives when creating a new pool with the script? I have an existing pool I want to do this with and need to make the necessary changes now before it starts to grow too much. Making a PLEX server/media storage pc was the best thing I’ve ever done. No more cloud storage fees for me
if you transfer storage spaces from win 10 to win server, will all the ssd need to be dedicated to the cache drive. I have 16 drives with a mix of ssd and hdd
Very cool, I do have a question. Now that my drives are in the virtual disk, when I check on Storage Spaces in Windows, the pool is showing as almost completely full, despite no data being on there at all. I have 6 HDD's and 3 SSD's, when I try copying data onto the volume it'll randomly run out of space, any ideas where I messed up?
A serious drawback of using SSDs as cache drives is that it's wearing them down much faster. If you want this at least make sure to use SSDs with MLC memory chips, not the cheap SSDs with TLC, QLC etc.
Totally true!
Does anyone know if you can add storage spaces tiering to an existing storage spaces configuration created on Server 2019 Standard?
Is it possible to tier a partition of an ssd or does it have to use the full disk?
great work. however. i have 4 rust spinners and want to run them in parity instead of mirror. is there a way to set them to parity? i changed the -name mirror to -name parity and it still does mirror.
Thank you for this valuable information I just implemented this on my Win10 system. What is the best way to test the cache/ssd impact on throughput? thanks again
Joe what about Windows 10 Pro for Workstations?
Does that version have SMB direct and the Tiered Storage Spaces?
What I need in the machine is SMB Direct, and Tiered Storage Spaces with REFS
I don't know. I haven't used Win 10 Pro for workstations in a long time.
You might be able to add a device to a storage tier. I don't know if you can add storage tiers where none existed before.
It feels like the flow for adding would be something like the following but I haven't played with it.
1. Create a new storage tier when you don't have one with New-StorageTier
2. Add a physical device with Add-PhysicalDisk
3. Increase the size of the SSD storage tier. with Resize-StorageTier
can I do this to my 65tb storage spaces pool that is half full already?
I do not believe you can change the storage pool structure for tiering if you already have data on the drives.
Does anyone know if Storage Spaces support TRIM for SSD's`?
I know that the regular disk manager don't support TRIM on SSD's when you have software raid.
It's because they are turned into dynamic disks instead of basic disks
Doesn't work for me on Windows 11. It creates a pool then the script errors.
I don't currently have a windows 11 machine with enough drive bays to test.
@@FreemanSoft have you tested with win 11?
I have a question. I have a 15 hdd pool (8, 8TB + 4, 4TB, 1, 3TB, 1, 6tb with double parity I want to add a 1TB SSD for caching but I don't want to rebuild all the data already in my pool. 46TB OF ARCADE GAMES and I dont have another storage to place them! Can an the SSD to the existing pool for caching?
Please Note when I created the pool Originally with 6, 8tb windows 10 allowed me to add a 128GB SSD as a catch drive I removed it to add the larger cached drive but I see know that I dont have those options in the GUI and it seems as I have to do it via power shell.
I do have a backup of my data in the cloud.... But it will take me weeks to recover....
Need to make this work.
If it helps my current configuration
Hp z420
2 4Bay usb 3.1 hard drive enclosures (One of the enclosures is running from a PCI USB card) Pool is used for Arcade games only....
7 internal drives make the 15 hard drives in the pool
Internal 2TB SSD hard drive for high end PC Games
Internal 2 512GB SSD in raid stripe for OS (Had them raided to test and left them....)
SSD caching is implemented when we have tiered storage SSD and HDD. I do not know how to convert an existing Virtual Disk to one using tiered storage. The Windows 10 GUI , as of the last time I played with it, does not support tiered storage.
Can this be done with a parity setup. I'm looking to have some failure tolerance and maximum space? I want to use a 5 2tb drives and the a single ssd for tiered storage.
The documentation implies you can but I haven't tried it. I only had two drives so I hadn't thought about it.
@@FreemanSoft I did get it to work however I found it easier in the long run to just pick up a raid controller then run a raid 5 and then run Primo cache to accelerate it. I don't need too much redundancy and I can hotswap with the raid controller.
So basically, if i installed windows 10 pro on my single hdd, my programs and applications over time then buy a ssd i install the ssd into the pc, run this script on powershell and it will automatically create a tiered storage system of both drives with cache acceleration?
No. The storage pool must. Be built from empty drives.
@@FreemanSoft So if i want accelerated storage do i need more than two empty drives or i can just use the ssd with the script and essentially create a large ssd cache for the HDD that has the OS and Programs?
@@ig33ku A storage pool is created from empty drives. You might be able to use Intel Smart Response to add a cache for an O/S disk. The maximum amount of cache there is 64 GB en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Response_Technology
@@FreemanSoft I'll just use one ssd and make a storage pool from it... it should accelerate the commonly accessed data from the OS and programs on the hdd. If i understand this right lol.
Edit: My Bad... so I need basically 3 disks. I am such a moron.
Thanks for the work. Looking at the documentation, it seems that we can do all the commands used in New-VirtualDisk when using New-Volume, even straight from a Storage Pool. Any reason to make a VirtualDisk first, and then making a new Volume?
Edit: Looking at the documentation, it seems that those commands that are in New-Volume are simply making a Virtual Disk in the background that creating a volume on top of that. So same thing you were doing, but Microsoft just added some tools to make life easier :)
I'm not sure. I haven't tried it.
you all better use SLC SSD/NVME for this kind of cache. because SLC TYPE is 100,000 times more rewritten capacity that has highest life cycle than normal cheap cheap ssd/nvme
These almost don't exist. SLC is not necessary. I have two Samsung TLC drives rated for .8 complete drive writes per day for 5 years. This is common for Enterprise drives; many are made with TLC (not even MLC).
Yes, cheap drives can definitely have endurance issues, but SLC is definitely not necessary to avoid endurance issues.
@@CharlesBurnsPrime Indeed its not necessary for 1 company but not all company. when it comes to 2nd hand used parts its important to have SLC for long terms instead of waste money to buy new parts. So many datacenter almost 70% of it using used part such as hdd,board,pci etc for cust server. This is the world now unlike before we only depend on NEW Unit ... Anyway I'm waiting for the next vids. Peace now war :)
If I have a storage pool that I created through the windows 10 GUI, can I go into Powershell and add SSD's to cache the pool, or do I need to wipe all drives and create a new pool?
I believe you can only add "tiered storage" when you set up the pool. The video / blog pretty much sums up everything I know.
Tiered storage is a delicate process, you can only do it via PowerShell for Windows 10 and you can't convert a standard storage space to a tiered one AFAIK. Which means you start clean :-)
@@FreemanSoft I wonder if I'll get some performance boost with only 13,4 (16) GB intel optane + 1tb 7200rpm hdd == probably 13,4GB is to small to cache some games on 1tb hdd, right ?
@@santory666 Waste of money. Optane(-caching) does work, but even the cheapest SSD made from pure chinesium will give you better overall performance than spinning rust plus a tiny bit of miracle nand.
@@protator I already have some 16gb Intel optane stick with m.2 adapter plugged to pciexpress. I was using it before with primocache 30 days trial paired with 1tb HDD - it was working OK for games storage - steam folder. But Primocache license cost sth like 30$ so not worth it for my use ;-)
By the way I have bought this optane stick for 5$ just for fun and test how primocache caching works...
Thought that I can achieve similar performance with windows storage spaces...
found your video and scripts that are nice and easy to follow but my windows 10 gives me a error when i try to use it New-VirtualDisk : Not Supported.
try lowering $UsableSpace
server only bah.
This works on windows 10. I'm not sure what you mean by "server only"