you can format with this mod drives as ReFs like in win 8 server but not bootable medias or external mediums
Not booting from ReFS is not really "booting". You still have the 100MB partition or the UEFI partition. That one is the real boot partition and doesn't need to be ReFS. If support for ReFS can be hacked into the bootloader (not necessarily the windows bootloader) then there's no problem in having your windows partition being ReFS I think.
I tried to use imagex /apply \xxxxx\install.wim to an ReFS partition, and it showed an error and quit. Maybe the easier way is to install your system on a VHDX which is partitioned as NTFS, and put that VHDX file in an ReFS partition, then edit the BCD store to boot, again, it depends on whether the bootmgr can read from ReFS partition. But the problem may be the performance on SSD, because the allocation unit size of ReFS is 64KB, whereas NTFS default is 4KB, aligned with the SSD 4KB block size. So using ReFS on SSD may be as horrible as the infamous alignment problem of WinXP on SSD.
by the way refs is really good filesystem. I have test it in two different sataIII mechanical hard disks, and the read/write speed... was... EXCELLENT!!!! Very speedy filesystem, and with... Storage Spaces of Windows 8, the speed is doubled.... I recommend it with closed eyes!!!! Storage Spaces+REFs is competive to ZFS of OpenSolaris/FreeBSD. Perfect for file server, video production, etc.... (storage spaces exept the protection in your data, he stripping too, like raid0, and you can imagine... the speed)
That's pretty cool. But I'm wondering whether the HDD is readable if you move it to another windows 8/server 2012 machine. And if one of them is broken, will you lose all the data, like in RAID 0 mode?
No you will not loose any data if one or more disks of your storage pool in storage spaces implementation has failed. You can rebuild the data as soon you will put the new hard disks. Its like raid1 rebuild proccess. You will not loose ANYTHING. Refs+integrity stream+storage spaces and you will never worry about power down, drive failure etc, and you will have the benefits of speed which providing the new filesystem, the protection in your data, the speed of stripping (raid0) and the protection of raid1. And last, yes, if you move a single hard disk which are Refs on another computer with Windows 8 (until microsoft for example make Refs available and for windows) you will able to read and write the data normally! Im guessing if you will move a storage pool of storage spaces (ntfs or refs) in another windows 8 computer you will still can read/write normally. I have not test it, but you should can do it.. Go for REFS+integrity stream or REFS+Integrity Stream+Storage Spaces (if you have two or more hard disks). You will not regret it!!!! @JamesG269 I have not see yet slow writing speed, after enabling integrity stream with REFS in a hardware raid0 (AMD 990FX/SB950) which containing two WD Black hard disks, 640GB each. I will continue in the investigation on this, but i didnt see it yet. Maybe the caching making me blind but i will look into more carefully
Actually, I'm not 100% on the expected write speed now that I think about it. Maybe 90MB/s is normal, and I'm thinking of read speed which are usually higher (which I haven't tested on ReFS yet, I'm in the middle of copying a couple of terabytes to a ReFS Parity Storage Pool, and the Parity SS has really slow write speeds so it will take me until late tomorrow). You seem knowledgeable on ReFS, so let me ask you a question, will enabling integrity streams provide much benefit on Windows 8? Because I read in that msdn link that there is a service that checks the data integrity on ReFS when the computer is idle, but I would guess the service is not on Windows 8, only on 2012 server. I guess getting a warning that their is an integrity error when you read the data is better than nothing, though I don't even know how/where you will get notified, I'll have to reread that MSDN link again. And I wonder if it will tell you which HDD in a Parity SS is causing problems..
personally, my opinion is you will benefit from integrity streams. In two-way mirror or up (storage spaces) integrity stream are enabled by default on Refs. I have not test Storage Spaces yet (i dont have test parity or mirror, only simple type, like software raid0) and intergrity streams was off. Anyway i can still manually enabled it. Now im using hardware raid0, refs, integrity streams on, and im sure about protection of my data. Storage Spaces actually is for File Servers, video production, etc. Its not for normal every day use. So i dont use it, im using only plain refs with little more extra security : intergrity streams By the way intergrity streams are not a common service like others. its not service at all. Actually is feature inside on the new file system. (oh i forgot. Windows 8 client , dont have integrity.exe which with windows server 2012 are included. I have manually take it from a vm, and its working.)
If it's no trouble, could you post integrity.exe from 2012 as well? And I know ReFS is not a service, but supposedly there is something such as a service that runs occasionally (maybe it's just a scheduled task?) that checks the integrity streams against the files, purpose being so you find out if something's corrupt sooner rather than after a long period of time when the backup might have gone south, and I'm guessing it's not on Win 8, only 2012 Server.
integrity.exe is not included in Windows Server 2012 (9200.16384.120725-1247_x64frev_Server_Datacenter_VL_HRM_SSS_X64FREV_EN-US_DVD.iso). I didnt found it in install.wim or boot.wim and the command was not recognized in a cmd of a running server. It's confirmed here: social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserver8gen/thread/4c1f7ffc-0fdc-438b-a59b-c549a62b3d60/
I wouldn't use ReFS for the moment unless it's out of curiosity. It could well be that Windows 'blue' next year is Windows 8 with boot support for ReFS...