Computers with several HDD's - Why W8.1 might be a good choice

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

In the general "rubbishing" of W8 ( we need now to consider W8.1 as it's the current version) a few really interesting features have been seriously overlooked.

For instance if you have several volumes (especially good say if you have 4 or 5 HDD's of 250 - 400 GB each you can aggregate them all into a single volume known as a STORAGE SPACE. (You can aggregate several POOLS of volumes too if you want to have more than 1 storage space).

This is infinitely better than the W7 SPANNED volume system (similar but an extension of it).

Many music / video libraries grow and usually these have problems when a volume gets full up. Using Storage spaces means the whole "space" is treated as a single volume so your 5 X 250 GB HDD's can be treated as a single 1.2 TB drive - windows just sees it as a single volume.

What's more - if you need to ADD more volumes this can be done DYNAMICALLY - you don't need to clean everything out and start again.

IMO an excellent and overlooked feature.

W8.1 isn't all bad BTW - I wish W7 actually had this feature in it - it's much easier than having zillions of volumes.

(You can also add USB HDD's to a storage pool too - although if you do that you'll need to have them all connected when you need to access that particular storage pool).


Cheers
jimbo

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Win 7's Libraries accomplishes pretty much the same thing.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Libraries actually don't work as seamlessly as the Storage pool - plus you have various optional "safety" options too which simulate various RAID options such as Mirroring / partial mirroring etc.

Unlike RAID the volumes can be all different sizes and a mix of SATA / IDE or even USB's.

Libraries aren't a bad idea but I think the storage pool system is better. Dynamically adding and removing volumes is also fine too.

Of course it's peoples choice - I was just pointing out a feature which will certainly get improved / expanded on in W9 too.

I wasn't saying people should abandon W7 - just if and when they upgrade (or perhaps change is a better word than "upgrade") some of these newer facilities are well worth looking at.

Another one is the built in Virtual ISO mounting - that's quite useful too - but not a mega problem -- I have found though the storage pool idea great as I have around 10 physical HDD's online now.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Indianatone]

The only issue with drive pooling is that old favourite the failed hard drive with no backup. Then what? I suspect you lose everyting as the system is too stupid to just go OK one of my drives is dead I'll make it all work. Windows 8.1 is DEAD. Good features or not M$ killed by not listening to users and removing the start menu and aero. Punters did not and are still not buying into the new Windows. Windows 9 may or may not change that.

 

[Alejandro85]

Really nice feature, but I still have to see a computer with that many physical HDs to make use of it. In my entire life, counting own, friends' and work computers, I've seen PCs with just 2 HDs at maximum, maybe an USB thing at most, and nothing else. Not including servers, of course. But anyway, my point is that most home users will probably not make use of it because its use case is rare in home and offices environments.
Built-in ISO mounting is by far a more useful ability, but again, many programs already do that. Not sure if that's worth a downgrade to Win8, considering the many features removed/crippled in relation to Win7.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Multiple HDDs in a computer is more common than you think, especially with people with large video collections. many people with older computers will have multiple HDDs because, when an existing HDD fills up, it's cheaper and easier to buy another drive and just add it instead of buying a larger more expensive one and copying data from the old drive to the new one.

 

[Indianatone]

I use this free program to mount ISO files on my machines. It is free and very good. Right click the ISO, choose drive letter and there you go.
WinCDEmu - the easiest way to mount an ISO. And more...

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I use VirtualCloneDrive to mount ISOs. It's also a freebie.