Windows Storage Space not Accessible after Hard Reboot

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  1. Posts : 45,697
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #11

    Also, it doesn't protect me from a ransomware attack which has happened to me in the past.
    For protection against that you need backup copies stored offline.. e.g. disk imaging... but you may need some other approach e.g. versioned incremental backup for data for large storage.

    That means backups would need to be triggered manually and backup storage disconnected, rather than using synched or scheduled backups as your ultimate backup method.

    Resilience is about hardware failure- that's completely different, and is meant to maintain function in the face of 1, perhaps 2 hardware failures.

    Of course if the controller itself, rather than an individual disk fails...
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 10
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #12

    I see what you all are saying now. I have been grouping my backup with my the main storage. In other words I thought you were suggesting I should just running a single RAID configuration with redundancy and NO backup. I apologize for my confusion.

    This is just data storage so performance is not a variable to consider. I will investigate the different RAID levels but looks like level 5 might be a good choice to save on the amount of disks. So my current thinking is to run a RAID 5 as my primary storage and then RAID 0 on the backup drives, better yet RAID 5 on them as well.

    After getting hit with the ransomware attack I built an system that would automate the task of bringing the backup on and offline. I used a USB controller relay that would control the 12v feed to the drives. I wrote a simple VB program that was scheduled to run once a day, it was setup so I had to click on a button to connect the drives, run the sync software then when finished it would disconnect the drives and exit till the next day. It worked flawlessly for over a year until one of the wires broke on the relay and I stopped using it. got lazy and went to a once a month manual backup.
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  3. Posts : 3,099
    Linux:Debian, Kali-Linux... 2xWin8.1,2x7Pro, Retro:1x2003server.1xXPpro, 1xW2k,1x98SE,1x95,1x3.11
       #13

    Yeah, many common folks do mix up Raid with Backups... That's why it is so popular to have in forum signatures and write it over the internet... "Raid is not backup" You is not the first one to mix it up and i promise you will not be the last... so no worry.

    as for your backup.. do not use Raid0 if one drive fails, the data is gone forever and i mean it, there is no data-recovery that fixes it.
    Have simple partitioning on them.. that way you can read your backup disks from any computer setup.... Say your computer dies.. you borrow a friends Mac laptop, just hook in the backup-drive with USB and the Mac can read it.. same goes with Linux if you ever would use that. Backups should not have dependency's on a raid setup or is bounded to one solution/computer.
    and if you ever uses disk-encryption on backup disks.. have at least two identical sets.. if your really unlucky and bit-rot or a bad sector hits the wrong bit on the drive.. it may be impossible to decrypt the disk.

    Raid5 is great.. I use that on 8harddrives in my server. I have had one hard-disk failure in 10years.. as i use Hardware Raid and i use Hot-swap-bays i just eject the broken drive och remove it and put in a new drive, then integrate it and it starts to rebuild without me even have to reboot my server.
    That is the power with hardware Raid.

    and always disconnect the backup disks.. as if lightning trike or you have a powerspike and they are connected it can damage the backup drives.
    as i wrote about the incident we had in the 90's.. 20disks in one millisecond and it was on two servers that blow up thanks to powerspikes thru the 220V outlets.
    It was before it got popular to use power-surge protectors.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 10
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #14

    In the interest of utilizing what I have on hand my thinking at this point is to have my main Windows box with (4) 10 TB drives in 'maybe' software RAID 5. The mother board has 6 SATA ports so I would like the ability to add a 5th 10 TB drive in the future, and could always move my operating system to a M2.0 drive and use the 6th port for another drive. If possible I would like whatever system i employ to be expandable without too much headache. I have an older PC that could be tasked just a my backup box. Again it has 6 SATA ports so minus the operating system I can run (5) drives in a RAID 5 configuration.

    Ideally I will automate my backup PC using some automation to start it up, do the backup and then shut it back down. I want to make the backup as easy to use as possible so that it gets done once a day. I am pretty good with programming mirco controllers to drive relays that can simulate just about any button push by a physical finger.

    So right now I would have to buy (4) more 10 TB drives to complete the setup above, about $600. I haven't priced current hardware RAID controllers so if i opt for that route it would be more money. My PC case can hold a total of 10 drives with the lil SSD just tucked in somewhere.

    Given all this info, if I went the route of (2) PCs with the backup being powered down except during the sync; what would you recommend as far as RAID software or hardware?

    I appreciate you help,
    Axis

    - - - Updated - - -

    marie, let me revisit what you said about simple partitioning on the back up... since my main storage is seen as one large drive how would that work backing up to multiple simple drives if I understand what you mean by that correctly. Being able to read the back ups from any system would be a huge plus.
    Last edited by AxisCat; 14 Mar 2023 at 11:33. Reason: fixed typos
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 3,099
    Linux:Debian, Kali-Linux... 2xWin8.1,2x7Pro, Retro:1x2003server.1xXPpro, 1xW2k,1x98SE,1x95,1x3.11
       #15

    I can describe my setup.
    I have 4 Desktops 2 as my work station.. this is as i often do multitasking and one computer just don't cut it. and 1 is for the web when I'm chatting here and is just social online. and 1 is my Media Center computer for movies, series and music.
    Then i have 4laptops. 1 for social things.. 2 for work and 1 for banking.
    Then i have one tower server. this use Hardware Raid 1 on the system. and Raid5 on the data-storage.

    I use Clonezilla to imaging my system drives for fast restore in case of hardware failure or if something software-wise goes bad so the computer don't start. This images is stored on my server so i can use PXE-boot to restore the system hard-drive thru the network.
    Then my personal data, i use File-Sync to backup that to my server and all computers has its own shared folder on the server so everything is separated. by computer... and no computer has access to the other computers share to minimize the effect IF i would get hit by a virus or if someone would manage to hack one of my computer.. and no computer has admin access to the server and can not connect to the system drives.

    Then i backup my server manually... The system drive is cloned to a disk image for fast restore in case two drives goes down or if a virus gets in. If so it's just wipe the system-drives and clone the drive and I'm back up in 10-15 minutes.
    The data-storage i use several external drives and i use File-Synk to backup the stored data, computer by computer... and my MediaCenter computer has more storage then my external drives. so i split the data on three external drives. But all my external drives i use is single partitioned. no raid or anything. Just to be sure my data is safe and i can get to it from any computer system.
    My really-really important data i have two backup copy's at home and one copy off-site. so it is spread on five places. 1,the computer in question, 2,on the server, 3 on the backup disk from the sever, 4.a separate external drive at home, and 5.one copy off-site.. (off-site as no backup can handle a big fire at home so to speak)

    That is how i do.
      My Computer


 

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