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Creating Virtual Hard Drive on Windows 10
On Windows 10, you can easily create a new virtual hard drive using Disk Management.
1. Press the Windows + X key combination to open the Power User Menu, then choose Disk Management.
2. Click on the Action menu and select Create VHDX.
3. Click on the Browse button to locate the VHDX file storage location.
4. Give a name to the new drive and click Next.
5. Set the size for the hard drive, for example, 10GB.
6. Choose VHDX.
7. Select Fixed size (Recommended).
8. Click OK to complete the process.
Repeat the steps above to create a second virtual hard drive. Notice that there are 2 drives listed as Unknown and Not Initialized.
To complete the setup of the 2 virtual drives, follow these steps:
1. Right-click on Disk, then select Initialize Disk.
2. A list of all available drives for initialization will appear on the screen. Ensure you have selected 2 drives, then click OK.
Once initialized, the hard drives will appear as Online. Now you can utilize Resilient File System to create storage pools.
Using ReFS to Create Storage Pools on Windows 10
After connecting the required drives, the next step is to use Storage Spaces to create a new storage pool using Resilient File System (ReFS) on Windows 10:
1. Open Start.
2. Type Storage Spaces in the Search box, from the search results list, click to open Storage Spaces.
3. Click on the link Create a new pool and storage space.
4. Select 2 hard drives you wish to use with ReFS.
5. Click on Create pool.
6. In the Create a storage space window, give a name to the new drive in the Name box.
7. Choose a drive letter from the Drive letter box.
8. Under File System, select REFS from the menu.
9. This is a crucial step, under Resiliency, you must select Two-way mirror to correctly format the storage pool with ReFS.
While you can choose options like Simple (no resiliency) or Parity, both options will encounter errors during the process. And the system files do not support Three-way mirror.
10. In the Size section, you can set a larger capacity to add more free space.
11. Click on the Create storage space button to complete the process.
To confirm that you are using ReFS, simply open This PC in File Explorer, right-click on the new drive you have created, and select Properties.
The Purpose of ReFS
Microsoft developed the new file system for the following purposes:
- Compatibility: Maintaining support for NTFS features to ensure compatibility since NTFS is a widely used file system. Refer to how to Convert FAT32 to NTFS here.
- Availability: In case of data corruption, ReFS can isolate damaged portions and provide access to files without disrupting the remaining portions of the partition.
- Data Integrity Checks and Automatic Repair: To minimize data corruption, the file system offers mechanisms for checking and repairing data on the fly.
- Scalability: ReFS has been developed to scale storage capabilities.
- Recovery Capabilities: New file systems can provide recovery capabilities when using Storage Spaces on Windows.
Main Features of FeFS
Microsoft developed ReFS with several key features including:
- Data recovery capability through integrated mechanisms.
- Integration of data and metadata.
- Support for large data volumes up to 1 yobibyte (1.2 trillion terabytes).
- Maximum directory size of 18.4 x 10^18.
- Maximum file size of 16 exabytes (16 million terabytes).
- Improved data allocation performance and fault tolerance.
- Error correction to protect against and mitigate potential drive errors.
- Data stored on ReFS drives can be easily accessed using mechanisms similar to those used by any operating system capable of accessing files on NTFS partitions.
Thus, Mytour has just provided you with a complete guide on using Resilient File System (ReFS) on Windows 10. Wishing you all success.
