To set up a Storage Spaces drive with RAID 10 and write cache support on Windows 11 Pro using a Workstation, follow these steps:
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Connect all the drives you want to include in the RAID 10 array.
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Open the Start menu and search for "Create and format hard disk partitions". Click on the result to open the Disk Management tool.
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In the Disk Management tool, right-click on an unallocated space larger than the desired size of your RAID 10 volume and select "New Simple Volume".
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Follow the wizard to create the new volume. Make sure to assign it a drive letter and format it with the NTFS file system.
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Right-click on the newly created volume and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths". Click on the "Change" button and uncheck the "Assign the following drive letter" option. Click "OK" to close the dialog.
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Still in the Disk Management tool, right-click on an unallocated drive you want to include in the RAID 10 array and select "Convert to GPT disk". Confirm the conversion by clicking "Yes".
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Repeat step 6 for all the drives you want to include in the RAID 10 array.
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Download and install the Storage Spaces Management Powershell module from Microsoft's website.
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Open PowerShell as Administrator and run the following command to create a new Storage Pool:
New-StoragePool -FriendlyName "My RAID 10 Pool" -StorageSubSystemFriendlyName (Get-PhysicalDisk | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -like "* drive*"} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FriendlyName)
- Run the following command to create a new Storage Space with RAID 10 layout and write cache support:
New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName "My RAID 10 Pool" -FriendlyName "My RAID 10 Volume" -Size 1TB -ResiliencySettingName "Mirror with write cache"
Replace "1TB" with the desired size of your RAID 10 volume.
- Assign the new RAID 10 volume a drive letter by running the following command:
Add-Volume -FriendlyName "My RAID 10 Volume" -Letter Z
Replace "Z" with the desired drive letter.
References:
For more information about Storage Spaces, refer to the official documentation.