How to get existing storage pool back to storage spaces

Question

How to get existing storage pool back to storage spaces

Jan 0

Hi all,

I have a computer serving as my NAS that has a OS drive and a windows storage pool of 4 disks. Till recently, my motherboard failed. I had to hook up a Pcie to SATA as my new motherboard used to have 6 SATA ports down to 4 now.

When I booted up to windows, I was able to access the files in the pool. Now one of my drives is failing. I tried to retire the drive and repair the pool as well as moving the files from the failing drive over to the rest of the drive.

I came to realise the pool became Primordial and there is no virtual disk in the pool.

How can I safely switch out the failing disk while retaining the data?

Ps: I couldnt remember if the pool is spanned or stripped.

Moved from: Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840

Hello @Jan

Thanks, these results clarify the configuration considerably.

Your E: backup volume is a Windows Dynamic Disk spanned volume, not Storage Spaces and not hardware RAID. DiskPart confirms this directly:

Volume 0 E backup NTFS Spanned 7451 GB Healthy

It also shows that the volume currently spans Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 4, and Disk 5, each approximately 1.86 TB. That explains why Windows reports roughly 7.45 TB for E:.

This is important because a spanned dynamic volume has no redundancy. Data is distributed across the member disks, and losing one member can make some or potentially all data in the volume inaccessible. It doesn't rebuild itself like RAID or a mirrored Storage Spaces configuration.

Since E: is currently shown as Healthy and accessible, I recommend copying the important data off E: now, while all four members are online. I would not remove, replace, initialize, convert, or format any of those four disks yet.

The earlier Toshiba disk concern also makes more sense now: the Toshiba disks shown in your DiskPart output are members of the same spanned E: volume. Replacing one isn't a normal RAID-style disk-replacement procedure.

Once the backup is complete, you have two practical choices:

Keep the existing spanned volume if all disks are healthy, understanding that it provides capacity but no fault tolerance.
If one disk is actually failing, back up the complete E: volume, delete/recreate the storage configuration with the replacement disk, and restore the data. For important data, I would strongly consider a redundant configuration rather than another spanned volume.

Before deciding that a disk needs replacement, however, let's verify which member Windows considers problematic. Please run:

Get-PhysicalDisk |
Format-Table FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -AutoSize
Get-Disk |
Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -AutoSize

If all four E: members continue to report Healthy/Online, I wouldn't replace a disk solely because Disk Management labels the volume as Dynamic; that is expected for this type of spanned volume.

Most importantly, don't break the span before backing up the data. There is no parity or mirror here to reconstruct the missing member afterward.

Please don't forget to "Accept the Answer" if this information helped you. This will help us and others in the community.

0 comments

2 additional answers

Your answer

Answer 1

AlexCodex 20

I’d treat this as a recovery situation until the original pool and virtual disk are identified.

Since the disks were moved to a different motherboard/controller, I would first verify that all four physical disks are detected consistently and that the Storage Spaces metadata is intact. Don’t initialize, format, recreate the pool, or retire the failing disk yet.

The most useful next step is to run the PowerShell commands above and check whether the original pool appears with IsPrimordial=False and whether a virtual disk still exists. The ResiliencySettingName will also tell you whether this was Simple, Mirror, or Parity.

If the data is important and the failing disk is still readable, I’d prioritize copying the critical data to another device before attempting repair. A Simple space in particular can’t tolerate losing a member disk.

The motherboard/controller change plus the disappearance of the virtual disk is the key clue here. I’d diagnose that first rather than immediately replacing the failing drive.

Jan 0 Reputation points

2026-08-15T15:58:43.4966667+00:00

Hi @AlexCodex

As seen from my discussions with Allan, I can access the files of the pool at the moment. However, when I checked on powershell, the pool that contains the 4 disks have become primordial and no virtual disk is detected. What I am trying to do is to try to see if I can move files in one of my failing disks over to the other disks as I have more than 1 disk (1.82TB) of free space remaining as I do not have spare set of disks at the moment.

Answer 2

Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840

Hello @Jan

I would not remove, initialize, reset, or retire the failing disk yet.

The most important detail in your description is this: “the pool became Primordial and there is no virtual disk in the pool.”

In Storage Spaces, Primordial isn't the name/state an existing user-created storage pool normally changes into. The primordial pool represents physical disks that are available to the storage subsystem. A normal Storage Spaces pool should appear separately with:

IsPrimordial = False

Microsoft's Storage Spaces documentation shows this distinction explicitly.

So before replacing the disk, we need to determine whether Windows still recognizes the original Storage Spaces metadata after the motherboard/SATA-controller change.

Please open PowerShell as Administrator and post the output of:

Get-StoragePool | Format-Table FriendlyName, IsPrimordial, OperationalStatus, HealthStatus, IsReadOnly, Size, AllocatedSize -AutoSize

Then:

Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName, SerialNumber, CanPool, OperationalStatus, HealthStatus, Usage, Size -AutoSize

and:

Get-VirtualDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName, ResiliencySettingName, OperationalStatus, HealthStatus, Size -AutoSize

Also run:

Get-Disk | Format-Table FriendlyName, SerialNumber, OperationalStatus, PartitionSize, Size -AutoSize

and:

Get-StorageJob

Please post those results before making further changes.

Don't recreate the pool

In particular, don't run:

New-StoragePool

and don't initialize or format any of the four disks.

Microsoft warns that incorrect removal/manipulation of disks belonging to a Storage Spaces pool can leave the pool or disks unusable.

The fact that you could initially access your files after changing the motherboard is encouraging, because Windows was apparently able to recognize the Storage Spaces configuration at that point.

The PCIe-to-SATA controller change is also significant. Make sure all four original physical disks are simultaneously visible to Windows, with the expected capacities and serial numbers. A missing/inaccessible member disk or controller/driver problem can change what Storage Spaces is able to assemble.

Whether the failing disk can safely be replaced depends on resiliency

You mentioned that you don't remember whether the space was “spanned or striped.”

That's critical.

If:

ResiliencySettingName = Simple

then the data is striped without resiliency. Losing one physical disk can mean losing data from the entire virtual disk.

If it reports "Mirror or Parity", then Storage Spaces may be able to reconstruct the data, assuming enough healthy members remain.

That's why I wouldn't issue: Set-PhysicalDisk -Usage Retired yet.

If the original pool and virtual disk are still recognized

If the output eventually shows something like:

StoragePool:

NASPool IsPrimordial=False

VirtualDisk:

NASData ResiliencySettingName=Mirror

then Microsoft's documented procedure for replacing a failing disk in a standalone Storage Spaces pool is essentially:

Set-PhysicalDisk -UniqueId "<failing-disk-ID>" -Usage Retired

then repair the affected virtual disk:

Repair-VirtualDisk -FriendlyName "<virtual-disk-name>"

monitor the repair:

Get-StorageJob

and only after the repair completes and the retired disk has no remaining virtual-disk footprint, remove it from the pool:

$disk = Get-PhysicalDisk -UniqueId "<failing-disk-ID>"

Remove-PhysicalDisk -PhysicalDisks $disk -StoragePoolFriendlyName "<pool-name>"

Microsoft's current standalone Storage Spaces guidance documents this retire → repair → verify → remove sequence.

Microsoft also recommends adding a replacement disk before removing the failing disk when the pool doesn't have sufficient free capacity to tolerate removal.

But I would not execute that procedure until your pool and virtual disk are actually visible again.

Back up what you can right now

Since the disk is already failing, if the volume is currently accessible, I'd prioritize copying irreplaceable data to storage outside this pool before attempting a repair.

Repair operations put significant I/O load on the remaining disks. If this turns out to be a Simple/striped space, or another disk fails during reconstruction, your options become much more limited.

If the data is important and the virtual disk has completely disappeared, I'd stop making configuration changes and consider imaging the failing drive before continuing.

What I'd like to see next

Please post the output of these four commands:

Get-StoragePool

Get-VirtualDisk

Get-PhysicalDisk

Get-Disk

The two most important things we need to establish are:

Does Windows still see a non-primordial storage pool, and what was the virtual disk's ResiliencySettingName?

Once we know that, we can determine whether the failing disk can safely be retired/replaced or whether this needs to be approached as data recovery rather than a normal Storage Spaces disk replacement.

Please "Accept the Answer" if this information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.

Jan 0

Hello @Allan Solomon Mejia

Thank you for the detailed response. All 4 drives in the pool are present. Here is my output in the PowerShell:

Windows PowerShell
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Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-StoragePool | Format-Table FriendlyName, IsPrimordial, OperationalStatus, HealthStatus, IsReadOnly, Size, AllocatedSize -AutoSize
FriendlyName IsPrimordial OperationalStatus HealthStatus IsReadOnly          Size AllocatedSize
------------ ------------ ----------------- ------------ ----------          ---- -------------
Primordial           True OK                Healthy           False 8449704345600             0
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName, SerialNumber, CanPool, OperationalStatus, HealthStatus, Usage, Size -AutoSize
FriendlyName         SerialNumber         CanPool OperationalStatus  HealthStatus Usage                Size
------------         ------------         ------- -----------------  ------------ -----                ----
ST2000NM0033-9ZM175  Z1X0DLYA               False OK                 Healthy      Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA C400-MTFDDAT128M 00000000124603545297   False OK                 Healthy      Auto-Select  128035676160
ATA TOSHIBA DT01ACA2 X7T11RJAS              False Predictive Failure Warning      Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA TOSHIBA DT01ACA2 X7T11RKAS              False OK                 Healthy      Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA ST3320820AS      9QF3PASN               False OK                 Healthy      Auto-Select  320072933376
TOSHIBA DT01ACA200   X7T11RGAS              False OK                 Healthy      Auto-Select 2000398934016
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-VirtualDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName, ResiliencySettingName, OperationalStatus, HealthStatus, Size -AutoSize
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Disk | Format-Table FriendlyName, SerialNumber, OperationalStatus, PartitionSize, Size -AutoSize
FriendlyName         SerialNumber         OperationalStatus PartitionSize         Size
------------         ------------         ----------------- -------------         ----
ATA C400-MTFDDAT128M 00000000124603545297 Online                          128035676160
ATA ST3320820AS                  9QF3PASN Online                          320072933376
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-StorageJob
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Jan 0 Reputation points

2026-08-09T01:09:37.78+00:00

Sorry this is a repeated content, I could not delete it.
Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-09T03:34:58.88+00:00

Hello @Jan

Hi Jan,

Thank you. This output is very helpful, and it changes what I'd recommend next.

From your screenshot, Windows currently reports only:

Primordial IsPrimordial=True

There is no non-primordial storage pool, and:

Get-VirtualDisk

returns nothing.

Microsoft describes the primordial pool as containing physical disks that haven't been added to a concrete storage pool. A normal Storage Spaces pool should appear separately with IsPrimordial = False.

The other important result is Get-PhysicalDisk. All four data drives appear to be detected, but one Toshiba drive reports:

OperationalStatus : Predictive Failure

HealthStatus : Warning

Microsoft defines Predictive Failure as the drive reporting that it is close to failing and recommends replacing the drive.

However, do not replace/remove it yet.

The bigger problem right now is that Windows isn't assembling the original Storage Spaces pool.

Don't run the normal disk-replacement procedure yet

Normally, replacing a failed Storage Spaces disk involves:

Set-PhysicalDisk ... -Usage Retired

Repair-VirtualDisk

Get-StorageJob

Remove-PhysicalDisk

But Microsoft's procedure assumes that the storage pool and virtual disk are still recognized.

In your case:

Get-StoragePool

doesn't show the original pool, and:

Get-VirtualDisk

doesn't show the original virtual disk.

Therefore there is currently nothing for Repair-VirtualDisk to repair.

I would also avoid:

Reset-PhysicalDisk

New-StoragePool

Remove-PhysicalDisk

Initialize-Disk

Clear-Disk

and don't format any of these drives.

Those operations could overwrite or alter metadata that might still be needed to recover the original Storage Spaces configuration/data.

There's another important clue in Get-Disk

Your screenshot appears to show only two disks under:

Get-Disk

while:

Get-PhysicalDisk

sees the OS disk plus all four data drives.

That discrepancy deserves investigation, particularly because you recently changed the motherboard and added a PCIe-to-SATA controller.

Before treating this as a Storage Spaces failure, I'd verify that Windows' storage stack can properly enumerate every original drive through the new controller.

Please run:

Get-Disk | Format-List Number,FriendlyName,SerialNumber, OperationalStatus,HealthStatus,BusType, PartitionStyle,IsOffline,IsReadOnly,Size

and:

Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-List FriendlyName,SerialNumber, UniqueId,OperationalStatus,HealthStatus, CanPool,CannotPoolReason,Usage,BusType,Size

Also:

Get-StoragePool -IsPrimordial $false

and:

Get-StorageSubSystem | Format-List FriendlyName,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus

Finally:

Get-PnpDevice -Class DiskDrive | Format-Table Status,FriendlyName,InstanceId -AutoSize

That should tell us whether this is partly a controller/driver/enumeration issue following the motherboard migration.

Check the Storage Spaces event log

I'd also check whether Windows is explaining why the pool isn't being assembled.

Run:

Get-WinEvent

-LogName "Microsoft-Windows-StorageSpaces-Driver/Operational"

-MaxEvents 100 | Select-Object TimeCreated,Id,LevelDisplayName,Message | Format-List

If that log isn't enabled or returns nothing useful, also check System events relating to disk/storage:

Get-WinEvent -LogName System -MaxEvents 500 | Where-Object {

$_.ProviderName -match 'disk|stor|space|ntfs'

} | Select-Object TimeCreated,Id,ProviderName,LevelDisplayName,Message | Format-List

Please post the relevant errors/warnings, especially anything generated during startup.

Most importantly: preserve the disks

Because one drive is already reporting Predictive Failure, this is no longer a situation where I'd experiment freely with Storage Spaces commands.

If the files are still accessible anywhere, copy the important data to completely separate storage immediately.

If they're no longer accessible and the data is valuable, the safest approach is to preserve/image the failing disk before doing anything that puts significant write load on it.

Microsoft's normal Storage Spaces repair procedure intentionally moves/reconstructs data and can generate substantial disk activity. With a drive already reporting predictive failure, I'd first establish why the pool disappeared.

One thing I'd also like you to confirm:

When you said you could access all your files immediately after installing the new motherboard, was that from the original Storage Spaces drive letter/volume, and did it contain the complete contents of the four-disk pool?

If yes, that's particularly useful because it means Windows successfully assembled the Storage Space after the hardware change at least once. That would make the subsequent disappearance of the pool an important clue.

Also, if possible, tell us which of the four drives are connected to the motherboard SATA ports and which are connected through the new PCIe SATA controller.

At this point, don't retire or physically disconnect the Toshiba drive yet. First we need to determine why four physical Storage Spaces members are visible to Get-PhysicalDisk, but the concrete pool and virtual disk have disappeared. Once we understand that, we'll know whether this is still a normal Storage Spaces repair or has moved into recovery territory. Please "Accept the Answer" if this information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.
Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-09T20:45:34.5933333+00:00

Hello @Jan

Let me know if need further assistance. Otherwise, please "Accept the Answer".

Thank you.
Jan 0 Reputation points

2026-08-10T04:37:05.0266667+00:00

Hello @Allan Solomon Mejia
Thank you for your helpful explanation. At the current moment I am still able to access the files using the original letter E. Unfortunately, I do not have a spare set of disks to copy all the data over. Hence, I was hoping the contents of the disk can be shifted over to other disks in the pool. As you can see my pool consists of 4 disks with 1.82TB each. Currently the pool has 3.93TB free. The output of the PowerShell is attached in this text file: PowerShell Session.txt
Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-10T17:19:24.4833333+00:00

Hi @Jan

Thanks for sharing the PowerShell output. The TOSHIBA disk with serial X7T11RJAS is reporting “Predictive Failure” with a Warning health status.

I would strongly recommend backing up the data and replacing that disk first. I wouldn’t attempt to force redistribution or make changes to the storage configuration while a physical disk is reporting predictive failure.

Please don't forget to "Accept the Answer" if this information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.
Jan 0 Reputation points

2026-08-11T23:13:52.3366667+00:00

Hi @Allan Solomon Mejia

In that case how would I go about backing up that disk? Or you mean copying all the contents in the pool over? What should I do after that?
Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-12T01:45:25.3666667+00:00
Hello @Jan

Yes, I mean back up/copy any important data currently stored on that pool to another healthy disk or external storage first. Since the disk is reporting Predictive Failure, I wouldn't rely on it during further storage operations.

Once your data is safely backed up:

Verify the backup and make sure important files can actually be opened.

Identify whether the failing TOSHIBA disk is part of a Storage Spaces pool and whether any virtual disks depend on it.

Replace the failing physical disk.

Add the replacement disk to the storage pool if required.

Allow Storage Spaces to repair/rebalance the affected virtual disk before making any other changes.

Before removing anything, please share the output of:

Get-StoragePool Get-VirtualDisk Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Usage,Size

That will help determine the safest replacement procedure for your configuration.

Don't remove the failing disk from the pool yet until we've confirmed the virtual disk resiliency and whether enough healthy capacity exists to repair the data. With a predictive failure, protecting the data comes first.

Please don't forget to "Accept the Answer" if this information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.

Jan 0

Hello @Allan Solomon Mejia

Thanks for your input, however I dont get what you are trying to do as these outputs has been previously shown. Would like your help to enlighten further, thanks.

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-StoragePool

FriendlyName OperationalStatus HealthStatus IsPrimordial IsReadOnly    Size AllocatedSize
------------ ----------------- ------------ ------------ ----------    ---- -------------
Primordial   OK                Healthy      True         False      7.68 TB           0 B


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-VirtualDisk
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Usage,Size

FriendlyName         SerialNumber         HealthStatus OperationalStatus  Usage                Size
------------         ------------         ------------ -----------------  -----                ----
ST2000NM0033-9ZM175  Z1X0DLYA             Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA C400-MTFDDAT128M 00000000124603545297 Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select  128035676160
ATA TOSHIBA DT01ACA2 X7T11RJAS            Warning      Predictive Failure Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA TOSHIBA DT01ACA2 X7T11RKAS            Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA ST3320820AS      9QF3PASN             Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select  320072933376
TOSHIBA DT01ACA200   X7T11RGAS            Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select 2000398934016

Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-15T19:46:38.5566667+00:00
Hello @Jan

The reason I wanted to confirm them is that the results show something important: Windows currently sees only the Primordial pool and no actual Storage Spaces pool or virtual disk. At the same time, the Toshiba disk X7T11RJAS is reporting Predictive Failure.

That means we should not use Storage Spaces repair/retire commands yet, because Windows isn’t currently presenting E: as a Storage Spaces virtual disk.

Since E: is still accessible, the safest next step is:

Back up E: to separate physical storage first.

Identify exactly which physical disk/partition hosts E:.

Replace the failing Toshiba disk only after confirming that mapping.

Please run just these two commands:

Get-Partition | Format-Table DiskNumber,PartitionNumber,DriveLetter,Type,Size -Auto Get-Disk | Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -Auto

This should let us map E: directly to the correct physical disk number and determine whether the Toshiba drive can simply be replaced after backup.

So at this stage, I’m not trying to rebuild or redistribute the pool. I’m trying to establish whether there is actually a Storage Spaces pool left to repair, or whether E: is now operating as a normal volume on the failing disk.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance. Otherwise, if the information provided has resolved your issue, please consider clicking “Accept Answer” to help others who may encounter the same problem.

Thank you!

Jan 0

Hello @Allan Solomon Mejia

Thank you for your explanation, I could not interpret anything useful based on my results as it does not show anything useful. However, I do know that my pool is made up of 4 x 2 TB drives as I bought the disks this way for building the pool. Also, I do notice that it appears as dynamic disks in Disk Management. Also, could I check how do I go about replacing the disk? Is it rebuilding the whole pool and copying everything from the backup over?

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Partition | Format-Table DiskNumber,PartitionNumber,DriveLetter,Type,Size -Auto

DiskNumber PartitionNumber DriveLetter Type            Size
---------- --------------- ----------- ----            ----
         2               1            IFS         52428800
         2               2           C IFS     127444278784
         2               3            Unknown    537223168
         3               1           D Basic   320071532544


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Disk | Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -Auto

Number FriendlyName         SerialNumber         HealthStatus OperationalStatus         Size
------ ------------         ------------         ------------ -----------------         ----
     2 ATA C400-MTFDDAT128M 00000000124603545297 Healthy      Online            128035676160
     3 ATA ST3320820AS                  9QF3PASN Healthy      Online            320072933376


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-17T13:35:20.3166667+00:00
Hello @Jan

Thanks, this output actually gives us something important.

Get-Disk is currently showing only Disk 2 (4 TB) and Disk 3 (3 TB) as normal online disks. That doesn't match the expected 4 × 2 TB Storage Spaces configuration, which reinforces that we should not remove or replace anything yet.

Also, seeing the pool as Dynamic in Disk Management isn't enough to determine how Storage Spaces is protecting the data. More importantly, replacing one disk does not necessarily mean rebuilding the entire pool and restoring everything from backup. If the Storage Spaces virtual disk has sufficient resiliency (Mirror or Parity) and the remaining members are healthy, Storage Spaces can normally repair/rebalance the data after a replacement disk is added.

Before we decide that, though, we need to see the Storage Spaces objects directly. Please run:

Get-StoragePool | Format-List FriendlyName,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,IsPrimordial,Size,AllocatedSize Get-VirtualDisk | Format-List FriendlyName,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,ResiliencySettingName,FaultDomainRedundancy,Size Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName,SerialNumber,CanPool,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Usage,Size Get-StorageJob

The key item is ResiliencySettingName. If it reports Mirror or Parity, we can determine whether the failed Toshiba disk can be replaced and the virtual disk repaired without recreating the pool.

If Get-VirtualDisk still returns nothing while your data remains accessible on E:, that's especially important. In that situation I would not initialize, format, remove, retire, or physically disconnect any disk until we understand exactly how that volume is currently assembled.

And yes, keeping a verified backup before touching the disks is still strongly recommended. Even with Storage Spaces resiliency, a disk replacement shouldn't be treated as a substitute for a backup.

Please post those four outputs and we can work out the safest next step from there.

Jan 0

Hello @Allan Solomon Mejia

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I do understand that a verified backup is important. However, I just wanted to clarify while I cant confirm whether the disks are spanned or stripped. I am sure that it is not mirror nor has parity. Hence is it true that the only way is to do a full restoration from another media given that the rest of the drives are good and files are accessible?

Here are my outputs:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-StoragePool | Format-List FriendlyName,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,IsPrimordial,Size,AllocatedSize


FriendlyName      : Primordial
HealthStatus      : Healthy
OperationalStatus : OK
IsPrimordial      : True
Size              : 8449704345600
AllocatedSize     : 0



PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-VirtualDisk | Format-List FriendlyName,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,ResiliencySettingName,FaultDomainRedundancy,Size
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName,SerialNumber,CanPool,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Usage,Size

FriendlyName         SerialNumber         CanPool HealthStatus OperationalStatus  Usage                Size
------------         ------------         ------- ------------ -----------------  -----                ----
ST2000NM0033-9ZM175  Z1X0DLYA               False Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA C400-MTFDDAT128M 00000000124603545297   False Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select  128035676160
ATA TOSHIBA DT01ACA2 X7T11RJAS              False Warning      Predictive Failure Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA TOSHIBA DT01ACA2 X7T11RKAS              False Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select 2000398934016
ATA ST3320820AS      9QF3PASN               False Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select  320072933376
TOSHIBA DT01ACA200   X7T11RGAS              False Healthy      OK                 Auto-Select 2000398934016


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-StorageJob
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-18T00:18:01.62+00:00
Hi @Jan

Thanks for the outputs. Before attempting any restoration, I think we should first confirm how these disks were originally configured.

The current output shows only the Primordial Storage Pool with AllocatedSize : 0, so this does not appear to be an active Windows Storage Spaces configuration. However, that alone doesn't confirm whether the disks were previously independent, spanned, striped (RAID 0), mirrored, or part of a hardware/firmware RAID.

Also, one Toshiba disk is already reporting:

HealthStatus: Warning

OperationalStatus: Predictive Failure

Because of this, I would avoid initializing, formatting, running CHKDSK /f, converting disks, or recreating any RAID configuration for now.

Could you please run the following from elevated PowerShell and post the results?

Get-Disk | Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,SerialNumber,PartitionStyle,OperationalStatus,HealthStatus,Size -AutoSize Get-Partition | Format-Table DiskNumber,PartitionNumber,DriveLetter,Type,Size -AutoSize Get-Volume | Format-Table DriveLetter,FileSystemLabel,FileSystem,DriveType,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -AutoSize

Then run:

diskpart list disk list volume

For the relevant volumes/disks, please also provide:

select volume <number> detail volume select disk <number> detail disk

A screenshot of the full lower graphical section of Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) would also be very helpful. It may show whether the volumes are Simple, Spanned, Striped, Mirrored, or otherwise configured.

Lastly, was RAID ever configured through the server/PC's BIOS/UEFI, motherboard RAID utility, or a dedicated RAID controller? If so, please let us know the RAID/controller type if you know it.

Once we establish the original disk layout, we can determine whether it's safe to copy the accessible files directly or whether the original array/volume structure needs to be preserved for recovery first.

Jan 0

Hello @Allan Solomon Mejia

Thank you for your detailed explanations. I am sure that I did not configured RAID through BIOS or motherboard utility and I also do not have a RAID controller, that only pool was through windows. Here are my outputs:

User's image

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Disk | Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,SerialNumber,PartitionStyle,OperationalStatus,HealthStatus,Size -AutoSize
Number FriendlyName         SerialNumber         PartitionStyle OperationalStatus HealthStatus         Size
------ ------------         ------------         -------------- ----------------- ------------         ----
     2 ATA C400-MTFDDAT128M 00000000124603545297 MBR            Online            Healthy      128035676160
     3 ATA ST3320820AS                  9QF3PASN GPT            Online            Healthy      320072933376
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> ^C
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Partition | Format-Table DiskNumber,PartitionNumber,DriveLetter,Type,Size -AutoSize
DiskNumber PartitionNumber DriveLetter Type            Size
---------- --------------- ----------- ----            ----
         2               1            IFS         52428800
         2               2           C IFS     127444278784
         2               3            Unknown    537223168
         3               1           D Basic   320071532544
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Volume | Format-Table DriveLetter,FileSystemLabel,FileSystem,DriveType,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -AutoSize
DriveLetter FileSystemLabel FileSystem DriveType HealthStatus OperationalStatus          Size
----------- --------------- ---------- --------- ------------ -----------------          ----
          E backup          NTFS       Fixed     Healthy      OK                8001453813760
            System Reserved NTFS       Fixed     Healthy      OK                     52424704
          C                 NTFS       Fixed     Healthy      OK                 127444275200
                            NTFS       Fixed     Healthy      OK                    537219072
          D Data            NTFS       Fixed     Healthy      OK                 320071528448
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.6466]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.3636

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: TOOLS

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *
  Disk 1    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *
  Disk 2    Online          119 GB      0 B
  Disk 3    Online          298 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 4    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 5    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   backup       NTFS   Spanned     7451 GB  Healthy
  Volume 1         System Rese  NTFS   Partition     50 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 2     C                NTFS   Partition    118 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition    512 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4     D   Data         NTFS   Partition    298 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> select volume 0

Volume 0 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> detail volume

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *
  Disk 1    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *
  Disk 5    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *
  Disk 4    Online         1863 GB      0 B   *    *

Read-only              : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No
Offline                : No
BitLocker Encrypted    : No
Installable            : No

Volume Capacity        : 7451 GB
Volume Free Space      : 4052 GB

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

ST2000NM0033-9ZM175
Disk ID: 3979ED8A
Type   : SATA
Status : Online
Path   : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1C05)#PCI(0000)#ATA(C00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : No
Pagefile Disk  : No
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : No
Clustered Disk  : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   backup       NTFS   Spanned     7451 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

TOSHIBA DT01ACA200
Disk ID: 3979ED8B
Type   : SATA
Status : Online
Path   : 1
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1C05)#PCI(0000)#ATA(C01T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : No
Pagefile Disk  : No
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : No
Clustered Disk  : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   backup       NTFS   Spanned     7451 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> select disk 5

Disk 5 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

TOSHIBA DT01ACA200
Disk ID: 3979ED8C
Type   : SATA
Status : Online
Path   : 3
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C03T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : No
Pagefile Disk  : No
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : No
Clustered Disk  : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   backup       NTFS   Spanned     7451 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> select disk 4

Disk 4 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

TOSHIBA DT01ACA200
Disk ID: {449A205D-642B-4297-B727-ABEB4822D271}
Type   : SATA
Status : Online
Path   : 2
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C02T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : No
Pagefile Disk  : No
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : No
Clustered Disk  : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   backup       NTFS   Spanned     7451 GB  Healthy

DISKPART>

Allan Solomon Mejia 3,840 Reputation points

2026-08-18T03:48:57.4166667+00:00
Hello @Jan

Thanks, these results clarify the configuration considerably.

Your E: backup volume is a Windows Dynamic Disk spanned volume, not Storage Spaces and not hardware RAID. DiskPart confirms this directly:

Volume 0 E backup NTFS Spanned 7451 GB Healthy

It also shows that the volume currently spans Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 4, and Disk 5, each approximately 1.86 TB. That explains why Windows reports roughly 7.45 TB for E:.

This is important because a spanned dynamic volume has no redundancy. Data is distributed across the member disks, and losing one member can make some or potentially all data in the volume inaccessible. It doesn't rebuild itself like RAID or a mirrored Storage Spaces configuration.

Since E: is currently shown as Healthy and accessible, I recommend copying the important data off E: now, while all four members are online. I would not remove, replace, initialize, convert, or format any of those four disks yet.

The earlier Toshiba disk concern also makes more sense now: the Toshiba disks shown in your DiskPart output are members of the same spanned E: volume. Replacing one isn't a normal RAID-style disk-replacement procedure.

Once the backup is complete, you have two practical choices:

Keep the existing spanned volume if all disks are healthy, understanding that it provides capacity but no fault tolerance.

If one disk is actually failing, back up the complete E: volume, delete/recreate the storage configuration with the replacement disk, and restore the data. For important data, I would strongly consider a redundant configuration rather than another spanned volume.

Before deciding that a disk needs replacement, however, let's verify which member Windows considers problematic.

Please run:

Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -AutoSize Get-Disk | Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,SerialNumber,HealthStatus,OperationalStatus,Size -AutoSize

If all four E: members continue to report Healthy/Online, I wouldn't replace a disk solely because Disk Management labels the volume as Dynamic; that is expected for this type of spanned volume.

Most importantly, don't break the span before backing up the data. There is no parity or mirror here to reconstruct the missing member afterward.

Please don't forget to "Accept the Answer" if this information helped you. This will help us and others in the community.
Jan 0 Reputation points

2026-08-18T03:57:35.61+00:00

I see. Thank you for your explanation. Looks like I have no other way out other than recreating a pool as a whole from backup. By breaking the span do you mean to individualise the disks or is it this cant be done?