# Cannot create a Storage Pool of drives "Win 10 Software Raid



## MS2121 (Sep 13, 2019)

I added 2 new exact same 4 TB drives that I want to set up as a software raid 1 to prevent loss of data if a single drive fails. It should write the data to both drives at the same time. This should be straightforward to set up - under control panel - storage spaces - create a new pool - select the drives then add them to a "storage pool" and select what type of raid.

These are blank drives - after I select them and try to add them to a pool I get the error "Can't prepare drives" - "Close all applications that are accessing the drive, and then try again." "Access is denied. (0x0000005)"

Nothing is accessing the drives........... 

I went into control panel - administrative tools - computer management - storage - disk management - and deleted the volumes from both drives, so they are no longer formatted - now I get a different error message "Can't create pool" - "Check the drive connections, and then try again." - "The request is not supported. (0x00000032)"

I use this computer personally at my house - I just have important data that I don't want to lose and this is a great feature built into Windows 10 - but I cannot get past this point of adding the drives to the pool.

These were initialized as GPT disks because of the capacity. Bitlocker is off, and no other encryption. 

Any help would be appreciated....


Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit Version 1908 Build 18362.356
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 10
Processor Count: 12
RAM: 32434 Mb
Graphics Card: DisplayLink USB Device
Hard Drives: C: 930 GB (726 GB Free); E: 3725 GB (3725 GB Free); F: 3725 GB (3725 GB Free); H: 7451 GB (4863 GB Free);
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., Z390 DESIGNARE-CF
Antivirus: Norton Security Online, Enabled and Updated


----------



## MS2121 (Sep 13, 2019)

Disk Management works fine... I don't want to use disk mirroring or convert these into dynamic disks and set up Raid 1 or Mirroring that way - because if the pc fails they would be difficult or impossible to read in another machine. I already found that out the hard way... So I wanted to use some other type of raid 1 that left the disks intact as basic disks (so they can be read by any other pc) but would write the data to both of them at the same time, either hardware or software solution would work. The hardware Raid on the motherboard had known issues and when enable I had trouble booting to the OS most of the time (so that solution is out). I found that Windows 10 has a built-in software Raid (Windows 10 Storage Spaces a.k.a. drive pooling) - which would leave the disks intact as basic disks and accomplish what I want. Right under control panel - storage spaces (more info http://techgenix.com/windows-10-storage-spaces/ and https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12438/windows-10-storage-spaces ). What I need help with is adding the drives under storage spaces, I don't know what's preventing it - I keep getting those errors mentioned earlier.


----------

