To pool drives using Windows Storage Spaces, first prepare two or more empty, connected, and initialized drives, ideally of similar size; then open the Storage Spaces control panel via Win S and select "Create a new pool and storage space"; next, in the wizard, select the desired drives and click "Create pool" to combine them, noting that all data on the selected drives will be erased; after the pool is created, configure a new storage space by setting a name and drive letter, choosing a resiliency type—Simple (no redundancy), Two-way mirror (requires 2 drives, survives one failure), Three-way mirror (requires 5 drives, survives two failures), or Parity (requires at least 3 drives, slower but space-efficient with failure protection); then set the virtual size of the storage space, optionally using thin provisioning; finally, click "Create storage space" to complete setup, after which the new drive appears in File Explorer for normal use, and can later be expanded or enhanced by adding more drives to the pool, though drives cannot be removed without deleting the pool, and regular backups and health monitoring are strongly advised since Storage Spaces is not a substitute for backup.

Windows Storage Spaces is a built-in feature that lets you combine multiple physical drives into a single storage pool, which you can then use to create virtual drives (called "storage spaces") with options for redundancy and better capacity management. It's useful for home servers, NAS-like setups, or anyone wanting to simplify managing multiple drives.

Here’s how to use Storage Spaces to pool drives in Windows.

1. Prepare Your Drives

Before setting up Storage Spaces, make sure:

• You have two or more internal or external drives connected (USB, SATA, NVMe, etc.).
• All drives you want to include are empty — the pooling process will erase them.
• Drives should be online and initialized (usually as GPT, though MBR may work).
• It's best to use similar-sized drives, especially if you want redundancy.

? Tip: You can mix drive types and sizes, but performance will be limited by the slowest drive, and space is allocated based on the smallest drive in mirrored setups.

2. Open the Storage Spaces Control Panel

1. Press Win S, type "Storage Spaces", and click on "Manage Storage Spaces".

   

2. Or go to:
   Control Panel > System and Security > Storage Spaces

3. Click "Create a new pool and storage space" (you’ll need administrator rights).

3. Create a Storage Pool

1. In the wizard, select the drives you want to add to the pool (they’ll be listed under "Available drives").
2. Check the box next to each drive.
3. Click "Create pool".

?? Warning: This will erase all data on the selected drives. Back up first!

After creation, Windows combines the drives into a single pool. You’ll see the total pooled capacity.

4. Create a Storage Space (Virtual Drive)

Once the pool is created, you’ll set up a storage space — a virtual drive that uses space from the pool.

You’ll configure:

Name and Drive Letter

• Give your storage space a name (e.g., "Data Pool").
• Assign a drive letter (like D:, E:, etc.).

Resiliency Type (Important!)

This determines how your data is protected:

• Simple (no resiliency)

  • Best for temporary or backed-up data.
  • Maximizes capacity.
  • One drive failure = total data loss.

• Two-way mirror

  • Requires at least 2 drives.
  • Two copies of your data.
  • Survives one drive failure.

• Three-way mirror

  • Requires at least 5 drives.
  • Three copies of data.
  • Survives up to two drive failures.

• Parity

  • Good for archival data.
  • Uses drive space to store parity info (like RAID 5/6).
  • Slower write speeds.
  • Survives one (or two, with dual parity) drive failure(s).
  • Requires at least 3 drives.

Size

• Set how much virtual space to allocate (can be larger than actual physical space — this is thin provisioning).
• Example: You can create a 10TB space on a 6TB pool, but don’t exceed total physical capacity in practice.

Click "Create storage space" when done.

5. Use and Manage Your Storage Space

After creation, the new drive appears in File Explorer like any other drive.

You can:

• Save files to it normally.
• Expand the storage space (if more physical space is available in the pool).
• Add more drives later to grow the pool (via Storage Spaces settings > "Physical drives" > "Add drives to pool").

? Note: You can’t remove a drive from a pool without deleting the entire pool (unless using specialized tools or scripts).

Tips and Warnings

• Back up your data — Storage Spaces is not a backup. Use external backup software or cloud storage.
• Use ReFS with mirroring for better data integrity (optional, but recommended for critical data).
• Don’t use on system drive — Storage Spaces is for data drives only.
• External drives: Can be used, but avoid unplugging them — it can break the pool.
• Monitor health: Check Storage Spaces in Control Panel regularly for warnings.

Basically, Storage Spaces gives you a simple way to get RAID-like benefits without extra hardware. Just remember: plan your resiliency type carefully, back up your data, and don’t rely on it as a backup solution.

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