Resilient File System (ReFS) is the next-gen file system after NTFS. Though Windows supports in NTFS file system, as it offers performance, reliability, features which we cannot get in the ancient file systems that Windows supported.. Microsoft introduces ReFS file system support starts from Windows 8.1 and Windows 2012 onwards. Since ReFS supports Long file & file path,low data corruption against power outages, and well works with Windows storage spaces introduced on Windows 2016.
You can create ReFS file system with various levels of resiliency to protect data against corruption, and are given below with details.
Simple (no resiliency)
A simple storage space writes one copy of your data and does not protect you from drive failures. A simple storage space requires at least one drive.
Two-way mirror
A two-way mirror storage pace writes two copies of your data, helping to protect you from a single drive failure. A two-way mirror storage space requires at least two drives.
Three-way mirror
A three-way mirror storage space writes three copies of your data, helping to protect you from two simultaneous drive failures. A three-way mirror storage space requires at least five drives.
Parity
A parity storage space writes your data with parity information, helping to protect you from a single drive failure. A parity storage space requires at least three drives.
We are going to see how to create a Two-way mirror.
To create two-way mirror we need at least two hdds. Open start and type storage space and press enter to open storage space wizard.
Click on Create a new pool storage space and select storage pool.
After selecting the storage drives click create pool, now we have to give a name, drive letter, and file system, resiliency type, and storage size.
After configuring click create storage space. Now we have successfully created a two-way mirror storage space in ReFS file system.
Open explorer to check the drive has been created. To verify the file system select the drive and right and go to properties and verify.
Advantages of ReFs:
- High availability for data,reduces data corruption.
- Large volume support up to 1 yobibyte (that’s 1.2 trillion terabytes).
- Maximum file size of 16 exabytes (16 million terabytes).
- Disk scrubbing (error correction) periodically scans the volume, identifying latent corruptions and proactively triggering a repair of corrupt data.
Disadvantages of ReFS:
- We cannot use ReFS for boot drive ( atleast now )
- We cannot use ReFS for USB flash drive, not sure they extend support for external drive.
Conclusion:
ReFS is very easy to deploy and use, and can be used as storage with redundancy and hence data loss due to various issues like power outage,corruption etc is limited.
