You can start the StableBit DrivePool user interface from the start menu. One of the first things that you'll notice is the compact nature of it.

This is the Vertical UI. But if you prefer a more horizontal experience, then just expand the window in width and the UI will automatically change into the Horizontal UI.

In addition to having a different layout, the horizontal UI also has some additional features:

• The ability to sort your pooled disks in various ways.

• The Performance UI pane.

Feedback gives you information about actions that you perform in the application, and any errors that you may encountered.

Each Feedback item is color coded according to how severe the message is:

Click the X next to each feedback message in order to dismiss it. Task complete messages will be dismissed automatically after 24 hours.

Click the X with the down arrow on the feedback bar in order to dismiss all of the feedback messages.

This menu allows you to control the following settings:

• Allow remote control

  • This completely disables or enables the remote control feature of StableBit DrivePool.

• Updates

  • When Check for new versions is enabled, StableBit DrivePool will periodically check for new versions and notify you if a new version is found.

    You will be given the choice to download and install the newer version.

    You can also force a manual update check at any time by clicking Force update check now....

• Manage license...

  • This opens the licensing system which allows you to activate or deactivate your current copy of StableBit DrivePool.

• Notifications

  • Notifications show up in the Windows system tray menu on the desktop and you can set up email notifications from here as well.

    Email notifications are dispatched using our paid account with Amazon cloud services and we do not save the email address that you enter on our servers.

• Troubleshooting

  • Enable boot time logging...

    • Generates a binary trace file for submission to technical support.

  • Enable file system logging

    • Generates a binary trace file of file system activity while this is checked for submission to technical support.

  • Recheck duplication...

    • This will force a recheck of file duplication consistency across all of your pools.

  • Reset all settings...

    • This will reset all StableBit DrivePool settings to their defaults. Pool / folder duplication settings will not be affected.

  • Service log...

    • This opens the service log window.

  • Verify after copy

    • After a file is copied due to some background process, like file balancing or background duplication, it will be read back and checked for consistency. Enabling this option will have a negative impact on the performance of background file copy operations.

The service log shows the activity of the StableBit DrivePool background service in real-time.

From the toolbar, you can enable or disable logging, toggle auto scroll, as well as select the amount of information to log for each module.

There are 4 logging levels available for each module:

• Errors

  This will only show errors that cause the application to crash.

• Warnings

  This will show any conditions that cause an operation to abort, or an unusual or noteworthy condition, in addition to Errors.

• Information

  This will show trace data, in addition to Warnings.

• Verbose

  This will show detailed trace data, in addition to Information.

When Remote Control is enabled, the bar on top brings down a list of computers on the LAN that are running StableBit DrivePool. Selecting a computer will allow you to remotely manage the copy of StableBit DrivePool that's running on that system.

The bar will pulse with a blue color when you're controlling a remote peer.

The pool selection bar allows you to switch the UI among the various pools that you've created. The last item in the pool selection bar is always the option to create a new pool.

The pool usage pie chart shows you how the disk space of the current pool is being used.

Pie slices:

• Unduplicated

  • The amount of disk space being used by unprotected files.

• Duplicated

  • The amount of disk space being used by files with a duplication level of at least 2x.

    Note that this measurement includes all of the file parts of a protected file.

• Other

  • This includes the disk space occupied by non-pooled files and things such as file system metadata.

• Unusable for duplication

  • This is the amount of disk space that can't be used to store protected files.

    A simple example of a pool that has this listed would be a pool made up of 2 disks, a 250GB and a 1TB disk. In this case, only 250GB is usable for duplication and 750GB is not.

    The balancing system tries to minimize this number. See About Balancing for more information.

If the pie chart is not current (i.e the pool has not been measured yet), then you will see this icon:

You may see one or more tags displayed to the left of the pie chart. This is what they mean:

Tags
	If the pie chart is not current (i.e the pool has not been measured yet), then you will see this tag.
	There is currently no drive letter assigned to this pool.
	File duplication is enabled for the entire pool.

A file system tag will be visible to the right of the pie chart. This is the file system type that this pool drive reports to other applications.

The file system that the pool reports will be the file system of the disks that are part of the pool.

The manage pool menu controls per-pool settings. Each pool has its own set of pool options.

• Performance

  • This controls I/O performance related settings. See Performance Options for more information.

• Balancing...

  • This controls balancing related settings. See About Balancing for more information.

• Drive letter...

  • This toggles the drive letter assignment of the pool.

• File protection

  • This controls file duplication related settings. See File Protection for more information.

• Re-measure...

  • This will recompute all of the file statistics on the selected pool.

StableBit DrivePool allows you to easily toggle the drive letter assignment of your pool.