What are RAID 0 failures and can you fix it?
Here you will find out:
- what is ReFS
- how to work with it
- can ReFS protect your data?
- ReFS Data Recovery with DiskInternals RAID Recovery
- can ReFS protect your data
Are you ready? Let's read!
What is ReFS
ReFS (Resilient File System) - came to replace the NTFS file system. This latest file system is more resistant to data corruption. It also performs better with high workloads and scales better for very large file systems. Whenever a file is read and written, ReFS checks the checksum to make sure it is correct. This is the so-called built-in automatic method of detecting data corruption, as well as its subsequent correction, so ReFS can truly be called an automatic correcting file system.
ReFS was first released in 2012 in Windows Server 2012, and is now included in Windows 8 and 10. However, in recent operating systems, it can only be used as part of the Storage Spaces feature for a disk pool. Over time, ReFS has been improved for Windows Server 2016 and is now part of Windows 10 Pro for Workstations.
In this file system, the maximum volume size is 280 bytes, and the maximum file size is 264-1 bytes.
How to Work with it
On a Windows 10 computer, you can only use ReFS through the Disk Spaces feature. To do this, you need to format your storage spaces as ReFS and you will automatically benefit from the data integrity features of the ReFS file system.
On a Windows Server computer, you can choose to format some volumes as ReFS using Disk Management. This is especially useful if you are using virtual machines on these disks.
However, the boot drive cannot be ReFS formatted because you will lose access to some of the NTFS functionality.
It should also be noted that ReFS is now available as part of Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise for Workstations.
Can ReFS Protect Your Data?
As mentioned above, ReFS is excellent at protecting against data corruption. To do this, it uses checksums for metadata and can optionally use checksums for file data. ReFS always checks the checksum to make sure it is correct. This built-in method of detecting data corruption on the fly does its job well.
ReFS is integrated with the Disk Spaces feature, and if you've configured mirrored storage with ReFS, Windows 10 or 8.1 can easily detect file system corruption and automatically fix problems.
If it happens that when it detects corrupted data, ReFS cannot find an alternate copy of the data, the file system immediately deletes the corrupted data from the disk. The Data Integrity Scanner regularly checks all files on the disk, so you don't need to use CHKDSK.
In addition, the ReFS file system is resistant to data corruption due to features such as copy-on-write. It would seem that if there is a power outage, etc., data corruption is possible. However, when you update the file's metadata, the ReFS file system creates a new copy of the metadata and only points the new metadata to the file after the new metadata has been written. As a result, there is no risk of file metadata corruption.
ReFS vs NTFS
The functionality of ReFS is off the charts, but at the moment, you can't just switch to ReFS from NTFS. At startup, Windows still requires the NTFS file system.
In addition, Windows 10 does not allow any old partition to be formatted as ReFS and ReFS is only possible with disk spaces. If you are using Windows Server 2016, then you can choose to format volumes with ReFS instead of NTFS, however, this does not apply to the boot volume.
It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will improve it or not, but until then it completely replaces NTFS in all versions of Windows.
ReFS and RAID
The ReFS resilient file system is excellent for storing data and can be used in the following situations:
- Disks RAID
- RAID controllers
These storage options can be used in Windows and Windows Server, but at the software level. The storage mechanism is as follows: blocks of data are collected in pools, and, to increase space, you can simply add one or more pools. Also, this file system can provide redundancy through RAID support.
ReFS Data Recovery with DiskInternals RAID Recovery
DiskInternals RAID Recovery can perform data recovery from any RAID. It is designed with cutting-edge technologies and advanced features for smooth and secure data recovery, including from the ReFS file system. DiskInternals RAID Recovery supports automatic and manual detection of important parameters such as array type, RAID controller type, disk order, and stripe size.
Below you can learn how to use this application:
1. First download RAID Recovery to your computer or server and then install the software.
2. Open the app and enable the Recovery Wizard, then select the array you want to recover.
3. Then you will be prompted to select a mode:
- Fast recovery,
- Full recovery with deeper scan.
All search results can be viewed for free in real time.
After that, buy a license for RAID Recovery on the company's website and with a license key you will get unlimited access to your files and the ability to save files anywhere.