Ok so I currently have 3 hdds installed. 1 parity and 2 storage

 

I have my shares setup like so:

    - Media

        I- Movies

        I- TV

        I- Music

 

So they are all under one share, Media. With Split Level 2 and High-Water. I have left "Included disks" blank as to include all available disks

 

The folder setup I have is on both disk 1 and disk 2 and is identical.

- Media

        I- Movies

        I- TV

        I- Music

 

 

I copied files from my Nas to the share Media

 

But when I look on disk 1 and disk 2 the data is only on disk 1.

 

Im probably wrong here but I thought the folders containing each film and all the other data for that film would go to each disk one at a time. One going to disk1, then the next going to disk2

 

For example if I dragged the folders "Alien" and "Bobby" into the Share folder called "Media" that "Alien" would copy to disk1 and "Bobby" would go to disk 2 as the High-water setting fills up the disks with the greatest amount of free space first in a step-wise manner

 

Am I not getting it right or is there a problem with the share?

 

Sorry for the description as English is not my first language

I believe High Water will fill the largest disk to 50% then start writing to the second disk, until it reaches 50%, and so on.

You didnt say what size your data disks were.  This explains the high water mark config:

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual#Allocation_method

 

I am by no means an expert, and I THINK i understand allocation methods, so if I am wrong, please someone jump in.

 

But it won't copy one file to this disk, then the next file to the next disk. 

 

From the above link:

"The idea is to progressively fill each disk but not constantly go back and forth between disks each time new data is written to the array. Most times, only a single disk will be needed when writing a series of files to the array so the array will only spin-up the needed disk. The high water level is initially set equal to one-half of the size of the largest disk. A new high water level is again set to one-half of the previous high level once all the disks have less free space than the current high water level."

 

It will copy your files up to a certain amount (determined by half the size of your largest disk).  So if your largest disk is 2 tb, the first pass will write to each disk until there is 1 TB free on each one.

 

If you have smaller disks (say a 500 GB disk), they will not be written to on this pass as it already has less than 1 tb free.

 

Does that make sense?

 

althor

 

EDIT:  sureguy beat me to it! 

Also remember that split level 2 means no directory under the structure you described will split to multiple disks. So, a complete TV series has to remain on a single disk. If you sorted movies by type then the type directories can not split either.

 

Thanks alotsureguy and althoralthor that makes sense so.

 

I have 2tb wd EARX drives so explains why they are copying to disk one still.