Is it possible to use part of hard drive with storage spaces?

I'm trying to create a storage pool for parity with 4 3TB drives and use 3TB of a 4TB drive that also has my OS.


When I go to create the pool the 4 3TB drives show up but the unallocated space on the 4TB with my OS doesn't show up.

I have done some research and heard that this might be possible but it seems to be a case-by-case situation.

I'm running Windows 10 Home.

Hi there

@donldmn

Don't include the OS as part of a Storage space.

Ideally use an SSD for the OS (cheap enough for a 120GB one -- plenty of space for programs and apps while keeping your whole Disk pool for the storage space.

You "Might be" better off with that configuration of HDD's to think about using RAID (either software or better hardware with a reasonably cheap hardware RAID controller -- simply insert RAID card into a slot and connect HDD's to the controller).

If you use a RAID controller - and if it allows 5 connections then you can also connect the SSD to it -- but create the SSD as a single logical drive in RAID 0 config. I would prefer though with an SSD to connect that directly to the mobo and just connect the other HDD's to the RAID controller.

Cheers
jimbo

Youse guys are way above my paygrade! You're high-end computer people!
The only suggestion I have concerning backups:
When at a moment peace and quiet reigns...PRETEND: that nothing software, OS-wise works, no internet, no internal HD boot, one or two of the internal HDs and/or one or two partitions within a particular internal HD - completely offline, computer posts but does not Windows boot at all, nothing normal is working.
Like the fish in plastic bags in Finding Nemo -- What now? Exactly what are you going to do to restore your now non-working OS partition/OS software? Remember, nothing normal is working, no internet, no OS, posts but no boot, period. Again, what now?

Because I have faced several times, over the years, What Now?!?!, I have two usb external 1TB HDs dedicated to each of my three computers. Assuming no hardware failures at the time, I make at least one full image each of OS and data partitions onto each dedicated usb ext HD -- sometimes weekly, sometime bi-monthly, sometimes in rapid succession if critical changes were being made to Windows 7 Pro. Assuming no hardware failures, I have reached for one of the two usb ext HDs and restored my OS partition [and once yearly my Datapartition] onto my desktop or onto one of my two laptops. The above is the only reliable methodology I have for: What now?!?!

Hardware failure, like HD failure? Sure, I replace the HD, and then restore from my dedicated backups.

Hi there

@donldmn

Don't include the OS as part of a Storage space.

Ideally use an SSD for the OS (cheap enough for a 120GB one -- plenty of space for programs and apps while keeping your whole Disk pool for the storage space.

You "Might be" better off with that configuration of HDD's to think about using RAID (either software or better hardware with a reasonably cheap hardware RAID controller -- simply insert RAID card into a slot and connect HDD's to the controller).

If you use a RAID controller - and if it allows 5 connections then you can also connect the SSD to it -- but create the SSD as a single logical drive in RAID 0 config. I would prefer though with an SSD to connect that directly to the mobo and just connect the other HDD's to the RAID controller.

Cheers
jimbo

I don't want to include the OS itself as part of the storage space. I just want to 1TB of the drive for the OS and 3TB for storage spaces. I was going to install the system on an SSD but my SSD died as I upgraded from Windows 10.

My main goal now is to shove as much storage into my system as I can. My motherboard has 6 SATA connections and I added two SATA PCI-E cards to push it up to 10. I don't want to invest any more money and just use what I have laying around the house.

Summary: OS drive is 4TB = 1TB OS + 3TB storage spaces

Because I have faced several times, over the years, What Now?!?!, I have two usb external 1TB HDs dedicated to each of my three computers. Assuming no hardware failures at the time, I make at least one full image each of OS and data partitions onto each dedicated usb ext HD -- sometimes weekly, sometime bi-monthly, sometimes in rapid succession if critical changes were being made to Windows 7 Pro. Assuming no hardware failures, I have reached for one of the two usb ext HDs and restored my OS partition [and once yearly my Datapartition] onto my desktop or onto one of my two laptops. The above is the only reliable methodology I have for: What now?!?!

Hardware failure, like HD failure? Sure, I replace the HD, and then restore from my dedicated backups.

I was thinking of mirroring the OS partition as a backup in case of any problems.

...I was thinking of mirroring the OS partition as a backup in case of any problems.

Tell me more, I'm interested. I tried the cloning of HD0 onto HD1, I ran into Windows boot problems, so I converted over to making full images of HD0's OS and data partitions onto HD1, no more cloning. Is your mirroring the same as cloning? If yes, where would the clone reside?