Patent attributes
A subset of drives with protection groups that have D data members and P parity members is created with (W+1) drives each having W partitions where W=(D+P). A single partition protection group is created in the lowest numbered partition of the W lowest numbered drives. Spares are created at drive X partition Y that satisfy X+Y=W+2. Members of additional protection groups with W members are symmetrically distributed on remaining partitions such that the protection group member at drive X partition index Y belongs to protection group N: if (X+Y)<(W+2), then N=(X+Y−2); and if (X+Y)>(W+2), then N=(X+Y−W−2). The spares are used to rebuild partitions in the event of drive failure. When a new drive is added the first W protection group members in the lowest numbered unrotated partition are rotated onto the new drive. The single partition protection group is excluded from rotation. Partitions vacated by rotated protection group members and a rotated spare are used to create a new protection group. The drive subset is split after enough new drives have been added.
