Storage Space Optimisation not working

megatech1966 · Apr 22, 2022

Hello all.
I’m using Microsoft Storage Space on Windows 11
1 x 4Tb HDD
1 x 2Tb HDD
2 x 1Tb HDD

I have filled it up half way and it says there is no free space left. I see the 2 x 1Tb HDD’s are 99.9% full.
I select optimise. But it doesn’t do anything. I need it to rebalance the usage. Any ideas?

AddRAM · Apr 22, 2022

If it`s 99.9% full you don`t have any room to move things around.

Haydon · Apr 22, 2022

megatech1966 said:
Hello all.
I’m using Microsoft Storage Space on Windows 11
1 x 4Tb HDD
1 x 2Tb HDD
2 x 1Tb HDD

I have filled it up half way and it says there is no free space left. I see the 2 x 1Tb HDD’s are 99.9% full.
I select optimise. But it doesn’t do anything. I need it to rebalance the usage. Any ideas?

Welcome to elevenforum.com !

How did you configure your Storage Spaces?

If you had all 4 HDDs in a mirror configuration, then the overall capacity of the mirror configuration is only 1 TB, the smallest capacity of the 4 HDDs (1 TB, 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB)

If the assumption in the previous paragraph is correct, then you could remove the two 1 TB HDDs from the mirror configuration (via the Storage Spaces control panel) and the overall capacity of the remaining mirror configuration would increase to 2 TB, the smallest capacity of the remaining 2 HDDs (2 TB, 4TB) However, your redundancy would drop from 4 HDDs to only 2 HDDs (the two 1 TB HDDs having been taken out from the mirror configuration) so be careful.

megatech1966 · Apr 22, 2022

Haydon said:
Welcome to elevenforum.com !

How did you configure your Storage Spaces?

If you had all 4 HDDs in a mirror configuration, then the overall capacity of the mirror configuration is only 1 TB, the smallest capacity of the 4 HDDs (1 TB, 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB)

If the assumption in the previous paragraph is correct, then you could remove the two 1 TB HDDs from the mirror configuration (via the Storage Spaces control panel) and the overall capacity of the remaining mirror configuration would increase to 2 TB, the smallest capacity of the remaining 2 HDDs (2 TB, 4TB) However, your redundancy would drop from 4 HDDs to only 2 HDDs (the two 1 TB HDDs having been taken out from the mirror configuration) so be careful.

Simple (no resiliency)

megatech1966 · Apr 22, 2022

AddRAM said:
If it`s 99.9% full you don`t have any room to move things around.

The 4Tb is about 25% full
The 2Tb is about 40% full

I have had the configuration working perfectly before. I accidentally deleted one drive so I had to wipe them all and start again.

Haydon · Apr 22, 2022

megatech1966 said:
The 4Tb is about 25% full
The 2Tb is about 40% full

I have had the configuration working perfectly before. I accidentally deleted one drive so I had to wipe them all and start again.

Storage Spaces may be remembering your past configuration (perhaps the one just before you 'start again') and applies that to your current configuration. I'm not sure, though, how to make Storage Spaces un-remember, perhaps clean re-install the OS? Good luck!