PoolFS Manager for Windows

Run poolfs-manager.exe from the extracted ZIP folder alongside poolfs-gui-native.dll, poolfs-mount.exe, poolfsctl.exe, and poolfs-partitions.ps1. Install the WinFsp runtime before mounting. The manager calls PoolFS through its native DLL. Mounting, disk inventory, and partition operations currently run only on Windows. Its partition controls verify that the helper script matches the native backend. Use a trusted copy of the manager, DLL, and helper when running as Administrator.

Create a pool

1. On Storage, tick Use for one or more formatted entries in Host volumes. The Disk / part column shows which physical partition holds each volume. Click a disk below to inspect its partitions; that selection is optional when creating a pool. Click Add selected volumes to pool. The manager queues a new PoolFS\member-N.img path on each selected volume and switches to Pool. It does not create the images yet.
2. On Pool, enter a name and choose an unused mount drive. Each queued image starts at 384 MiB. Select a new image in the member list, then drag the size slider or enter an exact size in MiB. The maximum uses current free space on that image's host volume after reserving the sizes of other planned images there; FAT32 also limits each image to 4095 MiB. Member sizes may differ. Repeat the Storage selection if needed. A pool may have 1 to 16 members on different partitions or disks. Free space is checked again when you create the pool.
3. New pools start unencrypted. Select Create pool to create the listed image files without a password. To protect the images, tick Encrypt new pool, select Create encrypted pool, and enter a new password twice. Review the paths and creation summary before formatting. Existing image files are never overwritten.
4. Save the suggested JSON config when the save dialog opens. Keep it with the images when transporting the pool. The config stores the pool name, drive letter, encryption requirement, and complete member list. The manager stores relative paths where possible and absolute paths for members on other drives.
5. Click Mount to open the pooled drive. Encrypted pools prompt for the password; unencrypted pools do not. All member images listed in the config must be present.

If image creation fails partway through, the manager reports the files already created and leaves them in place. Inspect those paths before starting again.

Expand an existing pool

Open its saved config, unmount the pool, and choose Grow images…. Enter a larger MiB size for one or more members. PoolFS makes a new copy of every member beside its original, checks that the copies can be opened and scrubbed, and saves a new -grown.json config. The manager switches to that config only after verification succeeds. The original images and config remain intact. Space for all new copies is required on their host volumes. Do not resize the image files with Windows tools; shrinking is not supported.

An unencrypted pool's member images have no PoolFS password protection. If you choose encryption, the password is not saved in the config, command line, environment, or log. Keep that password and separate backups. Any mounted drive is readable by Windows processes with access to it.

The pool name appears as the mounted Windows drive label when mounting from the config. It is stored in the JSON config, not the member images. Moving images without their config does not carry the name. A name must be a valid Windows volume label of 1 to 32 UTF-16 code units. Existing configs without a name display PoolFS.

The selected host volumes store image files. Selecting a disk or partition does not make its existing files part of the pooled drive. To use a partition without a drive letter, assign a letter first. New pool clears the current draft without deleting any image files or saved config.

Open and mount an existing pool

Choose Open config on Pool. The member list shows present and missing paths. Mount checks the saved config against the displayed member list and prompts for the password if the pool is encrypted. Unmount stops the selected drive's PoolFS mount. Verify data opens the complete member set read-only and scrubs live file data while unmounted. Verification does not repair damage. A wrong or incomplete member list cannot mount. Use Save config… to save a new JSON config after moving images or changing the pool name or drive letter.

On Images, choose Scan again to scan the PoolFS folders on mounted host volumes. The scan is bounded and does not follow directory links. Select an image and choose Add selected image to Pool to build or update a config. All member images must be listed before mounting.

Host disks and partitions

Storage lists physical disks and their partitions, including partitions without drive letters when Windows exposes them. Clicking a disk filters the partition list, which shows each partition's drive letter, file system, size, and label when known. Host volumes lists physical volumes with drive letters; tick several to queue new member images. This works without Administrator rights. If a host volume shows Unformatted, it cannot hold an image yet. Select its disk and partition above, use Run as admin, and choose Quick format after unmounting PoolFS drives. Formatting erases that partition's data.

To change a host disk, choose Run as admin, then select a disk or partition and use Initialize GPT, Create + format, Quick format, Remove, or Change letter. The manager shows a read-only preview with the exact disk and partition identity and requires you to type that target before it applies a change. It rechecks the identity and system safety guards immediately before using Windows' Storage cmdlets. Boot, system, page-file, EFI, reserved, and recovery targets are refused. A normal reserved partition elsewhere on a data disk does not stop you creating a new basic-data partition. Unmount all PoolFS drives before changing host partitions.

Create + format can leave a newly created partition unformatted if its second step fails. Refresh Storage and inspect that partition before deciding what to do next; the manager never removes it automatically. Quick format and Remove can erase data. NTFS or exFAT is suitable for larger member images; FAT32 limits one file to 4 GiB. The current v6 backend uses image files on host file systems; the older direct raw-partition backend is a separate v3 prototype and is not exposed for formatting in this GUI. The partition controls use Initialize-Disk, New-Partition, Format-Volume, and Remove-Partition.

The manager does not delete member images. Remove from list changes only the current config draft. See mount configs for the JSON schema and encryption for the protection boundary.