I'm using window 11 storages spaces and have a two way mirror using 6 drives, does this mean my data has two copies across 6 drives and is this a correct setup?

Question

Answer 1

Yes, your understanding is correct. When you use a two-way mirror with Windows 11 Storage Spaces across 6 drives, it means that your data is stored with two copies across these drives.

Data Redundancy: In a two-way mirror, each piece of data is written to two different drives. This redundancy protects your data against drive failure. If one drive fails, you still have a copy of your data on another drive.

Usage of Drives: With 6 drives in a two-way mirror configuration, your data will be spread across all these drives, but for each piece of data, there will be two copies. Essentially, you can think of it as having two sets of drives mirroring each other.

Storage Efficiency: In a two-way mirror setup, you get about 50% of the total raw capacity of your drives as usable storage. This is because half of the storage capacity is used for redundancy.

For example, if you have 6 drives, each with 1 TB capacity, the total raw capacity is 6 TB. In a two-way mirror setup:

• Usable storage capacity will be around 3 TB.
• The remaining 3 TB is used to store the redundant copies of your data.

Suitability

• Data Protection: This setup is highly suitable if you want to ensure data protection against drive failures. With two-way mirroring, you can tolerate one drive failure without losing any data.
• Performance: Storage Spaces manages the drives and distributes the data efficiently. Two-way mirroring can also help with read performance since data can be read from any of the two copies.

Considerations

1. Drive Failures: In a two-way mirror, you can sustain the failure of one drive at a time. If more than one drive fails simultaneously, you risk data loss.
2. Backup: While two-way mirroring provides redundancy, it's still essential to maintain regular backups of your critical data in case of catastrophic failures or other issues.

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hth

Marcin

Answer 2

Hi Carlos,

Hope you're doing well.

Your understanding is correct.

1. A two-way mirror provides fault tolerance by creating two copies (mirrors) of your data. If one drive fails, you still have access to your data from the other drive. It's a reliable setup for safeguarding against drive failures.
2. With six drives, you can create a two-way mirror using pairs of drives. Each pair contributes one copy of the data. If any two drives fail (from different pairs), your data remains accessible.
3. Your data isn't spread across all six drives; rather, it's distributed across the pairs. Each pair holds a mirror copy, ensuring redundancy. This setup balances storage capacity and redundancy effectively.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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