The article written by the MiniTool team focuses on the error 0x00000032 that occurs when working with the Windows Storage Pool service. It provides four potential solutions that have helped numerous users, and one of these could work for you!

About Error 0x00000032

You may encounter the error 0x00000032 when attempting to add a drive to your Windows Storage Pool. The full error message reads:

Cannot add drives
Check the drive connections, and then try again.
The request is not supported.
(0x00000032)

You might also face similar errors with the same error code, such as "Cannot create the pool" when trying to set up a new storage pool. Alternatively, you might see another related error stating "Cannot prepare drives. Close all applications that are accessing the drive, and then try again. The system cannot find the file specified. (0x00000002)."

A storage pool is a collection of drives forming the Windows Storage Spaces to protect data against drive failure. Conceptually, it's similar to RAID but implemented in software. Storage pool saves additional copies of your data so that if one of your drives fails, you still have an intact copy of your data. If you run low on capacity, simply add more drives to the storage pool.

However, you might encounter the aforementioned error when attempting to add a disk to your storage pool. The most likely cause is that the drive is not "clean." For a drive to be usable by storage spaces, it should not have any volumes or partitions on it and should preferably be a raw drive.

So, how do you resolve the storage pool creation error code 0x00000032? Keep reading!

Solution 1. Reset Faulty Disk with PowerShell (Helped Many Users)

In most cases, resetting a faulty disk helps to re-attach the fixed disk. The following Reset-PhysicalDisk cmdlet resets the status of a physical disk. For storage spaces, it is a destructive operation that removes the storage pool configuration and pool data from the specified physical disk.

Running Reset-PhysicalDisk on a physical disk that appears as lost communication or split attempts to reintegrate the disk into the storage pool if the target disk is discoverable. After resetting the disk, use Repair-VirtualDisk to recover its resiliency.

Running Reset-PhysicalDisk on a disk that isn't part of a storage pool clears any lingering storage space data and metadata on the disk.

Note: If you have important data on the disk you're about to reset, it’s advisable to move them out or back them up before resetting.

Step 1. Open Command Prompt (CMD) as an administrator. Search for CMD in Windows Search, right-click on the best result, and select Run as administrator.

Step 2. Type powershell and hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

Step 3. Type this command and press Enter to get the list of your disks with names and IDs:

Get-PhysicalDisk | ft FriendlyName, SerialNumber, UniqueId -auto

Step 4. Reset the problematic disk by its FriendlyName or UniqueId. Below are examples for resetting the first hard drive by its FriendlyName and UniqueId respectively. You just need to choose one command order to reset your bad disk with your disk name or ID.

Reset-PhysicalDisk -FriendlyName “WDC WD5000AAKX-08U6AA0”

Reset-PhysicalDisk -UniqueId “50014E2E0C679D36”

If there is another disk that shares the same FriendlyName as the target disk, you have to use the UniqueId to perform the reset. Alternatively, you can first rename your disks in Storage Spaces, and then reset the target disk using its FriendlyName.

Tip: You may need to reboot to complete the reset task to get rid of the error 0x00000032.

Step 5. Try to add the target drive to your storage spaces again (re-attach the disk).

If there are more than one bad disks that need resetting, you can rely on the below command to reset them all in one time.

$BadDisks = Get-Physicaldisk | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.HealthStatus -Eq “Unhealthy”}

Foreach ($BadDisk in $BadDisks)

{

Reset-PhysicalDisk -UniqueId $BadDisk.UniqueId

}

Solution 2. Restart Computer

If you receive error 0x00000032, whether you're trying to add extra drives or create a new storage pool, restarting your machine might solve your problem. There may be some background apps using the storage pool or the disk you're trying to add. This prevents you from adding more drives to the storage pool or adding the disk to a storage pool.

Solution 3. Unformat Target Disk

As mentioned earlier, unformatting the target drive might be another way to deal with the 0x00000032 error. Here’s how to delete target disk partitions and unformat it.

Go to Disk Management, right-click on one partition on the target disk and select Delete Volume. If there are multiple partitions on the target disk, just repeat the process. Alternatively, you can delete all partitions at once using a professional program called MiniTool Partition Wizard. Just download it to try freely.

Solution 4. Add a New Drive in Safe Mode

If your target disk is a new drive, you can try to add it into your current Storage Pool in computer safe mode. The guide is as below and it is based on Windows 10/11 operating system (OS).

Step 1. Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.

Step 2. In the right area, under Advanced startup, click Restart now button.

Step 3. Then, your computer will restart to the Choose an option screen. There, just choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart. You may be required to provide the BitLocker recovery key.

Step 4. When your machine restarts up, it will offer a list of options. Just select 4 or press F4 to start in Safe Mode. If you need to access the network, you should select 5 or press F5 to start in Safe Mode with networking.

Step 5. Finally, try to add the new disk into your storage pool in the Safe Mode.

Other methods might help you handle the error 0x00000032, such as cleaning the target drive with Diskpart, reinitializing the target disk, adding drives to the storage pool with PowerShell, factory resetting Windows, etc. For different situations, the methods are unlike. So, no solution is almighty. You may need to try all possible solutions one by one until you solve your issue.

Windows Storage Pool Alternative

Generally, people create a storage pool to build storage spaces for saving mirrored data. With files stored in storage pools, even if one drive fails, the files are still safe and available from other drives. Thus, data loss is reduced greatly.

If you can’t create a storage pool or can’t add more drives to the current storage pool with error code 0x00000032, luckily, there is another way to prevent crucial data from losing – creating backups. As for making a backup of important data, a professional and reliable program is necessary like MiniTool ShadowMaker, which allows you to back up files/folders, systems, partitions/volumes, and hard drives even with a schedule.

With at least one backup, once the original files are damaged or lost, you can restore them immediately with the tool.

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