Building Raid 1 on Windows 11 Pro Workstations

Question

Hi, I've found two ways to build Raid1 on windows 11 （using 2 NVMe SSDs）, in the "Disk Management" or "Storage Spaces". I want to store my important data and make sure most data should be recoverable when volume went wrong or a single disk failed. Which way is better for me ? And also which FS is suggessted, NTFS or ReFS？

Answer 1

Hello WZ Anna,

Thank you for your question and for reaching out with your question today.

Both Disk Management and Storage Spaces can accomplish this task, but there are considerations for both:

1. Disk Management:

Disk Management provides a straightforward way to create a mirrored volume (RAID1). It's easy to set up, and you can do it directly within Windows without installing additional software.

Mirrored volumes created using Disk Management use NTFS as the file system, which is highly compatible with Windows and widely used for data storage.

With Disk Management, you have more control over the specific settings and formatting options.

2. Storage Spaces:

Storage Spaces offers more flexibility in terms of creating storage pools with various types of drives (not limited to just NVMe SSDs) and creating more advanced configurations like parity spaces or tiered storage.

Storage Spaces can handle larger arrays and provide more advanced fault tolerance options. It's designed for scenarios where you want to scale and manage storage across multiple drives.

Storage Spaces can use both NTFS and ReFS (Resilient File System). ReFS is designed with data integrity and resilience in mind, making it a good choice for RAID configurations. However, NTFS is also a valid option.

In your case, both will do what you need. If you prefer simplicity and just want to set up a mirrored volume with NVMe SSDs, Disk Management with NTFS is a suitable choice. However, if you anticipate expanding your storage setup in the future or want more advanced features, Storage Spaces with ReFS might be a better long-term solution.

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Answer 2

Hi WZ Anna,

Please note ReFS is currently only officially supported on Windows Server. You can still use NTFS on Windows 11.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/refs/refs-overview

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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