Windows' Storage Spaces lets you combine your hard drives

Windows 11 includes Storage Spaces, a powerful disk management tool offering advanced control over your computer's storage. This utility allows you to consolidate multiple hard drives into a single, easily manageable pool.

The core function is combining drives, presenting them as one unified disk. This allows for file duplication across multiple drives within the pool, providing data redundancy. If one drive fails, your data remains safe thanks to the existing copies.

Important Note: While Storage Spaces enhances data safety, it's not a complete backup solution. Maintain separate backups of crucial files to protect against catastrophic events like fire, theft, or natural disasters.

This guide covers Storage Spaces setup in Windows 11, but the process is identical in Windows 10.

Understanding Storage Spaces

Storage Spaces seamlessly integrates drives, presenting them to Windows as a single unit. Compatibility is broad, encompassing various drive types and connection methods, including both SSDs and traditional HDDs.

[Related: Repurpose Old Computer Parts: Build Your Own External Hard Drive]

Once your storage pool is created, adding or removing drives is simple, facilitating easy storage expansion. Compared to RAID arrays or NAS drives, Storage Spaces offers a more user-friendly approach to data backup and redundancy.

Setting Up Storage Spaces

1. Open the Windows 11 search bar (magnifying glass icon), type "storage spaces," and select "Manage Storage Spaces."
2. Click "Create a new pool and storage space." Windows will scan for compatible drives. Remember: the program will erase data on selected drives, so ensure no important files reside there.
3. Select the drives to include in the pool and click "Create pool."
4. Assign a name, drive letter, and resiliency type to your pool. Options include:
   • Simple: Single copy of files.
   • Two-way mirror: Two copies of files.
   • Three-way mirror: Three copies of files.
   • Parity: Hybrid approach, storing one copy plus recovery information. Slower but efficient for infrequently accessed data.
5. Specify the pool size. Windows will indicate the maximum size based on drive capacity and chosen resiliency. Creating a space larger than your current drives is possible; Windows will alert you when expansion is needed.

[Related: Hard Drive Crash? Determine Drive Health and Safe Usage.]

6. Click "Create storage space." In File Explorer ("This PC"), your new storage pool will appear under its assigned drive letter, ready for file transfers.

Return to the Storage Spaces screen to manage existing pools. Add or remove drives, and regularly optimize storage for peak performance.

The above is the detailed content of Windows' Storage Spaces lets you combine your hard drives. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!