I currently use FlexRAID for both drive pooling and snapshot RAID but the pooling is just not good enough for what I want. Here's an example of my folder layout and a description of the issues I have:
HDD 1: \Audio, \Data, \Backups
HDD 2: \Video\TV
HDD 3: \Video\TV
HDD 4: \Video\Sport
HDD 5: \Video\Sport
HDD 6: \Video\Films
HDD 7: \Video\Films
With FlexRAID's drive pooling, whenever I want to access \Video, it has to spin up all 7 drives one at a time (it always spins up the first HDD when the pool is accessed), which takes 30 seconds or more. Even if I go straight to \Video\TV, it still has to spin up 3 drives one at a time. It'd be much quicker if they all span up at the same time (or maybe in groups of 3 or something to prevent power spikes). Also, if I copy a new file into \Video\TV, it'll usually get written to HDD 1, even though that folder only exists on HDDs 2 & 3 and I've told FlexRAID to keep folders on single drives where possible. I've even seen the \Video\TV folder appear on HDDs 6 & 7 (not sure why it'd do this).
So basically, the option for keeping folders as separate as possible simply doesn't work (this is acknowledged by the author) and the time it takes to wake up numerous sleeping drives is way too long. It's also crashed on me a couple of times, although it's rare.
I know there are a few other pooling software out there but I'm looking for opinions from those that have used them. Do any of them allow folders to be properly kept separate? Do any of them spin up all needed HDDs at once rather than one at a time?
HDD 1: \Audio, \Data, \Backups
HDD 2: \Video\TV
HDD 3: \Video\TV
HDD 4: \Video\Sport
HDD 5: \Video\Sport
HDD 6: \Video\Films
HDD 7: \Video\Films
With FlexRAID's drive pooling, whenever I want to access \Video, it has to spin up all 7 drives one at a time (it always spins up the first HDD when the pool is accessed), which takes 30 seconds or more. Even if I go straight to \Video\TV, it still has to spin up 3 drives one at a time. It'd be much quicker if they all span up at the same time (or maybe in groups of 3 or something to prevent power spikes). Also, if I copy a new file into \Video\TV, it'll usually get written to HDD 1, even though that folder only exists on HDDs 2 & 3 and I've told FlexRAID to keep folders on single drives where possible. I've even seen the \Video\TV folder appear on HDDs 6 & 7 (not sure why it'd do this).
So basically, the option for keeping folders as separate as possible simply doesn't work (this is acknowledged by the author) and the time it takes to wake up numerous sleeping drives is way too long. It's also crashed on me a couple of times, although it's rare.
I know there are a few other pooling software out there but I'm looking for opinions from those that have used them. Do any of them allow folders to be properly kept separate? Do any of them spin up all needed HDDs at once rather than one at a time?