combining two HDD's to make a larger single drive.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

So I have two 500gb drives I would like to turn into a single drive.
Win 8 will be on another drive.
both are already formatted and have disposable
data on them.

Is this a raid thing?

[incisor]

raid 0

RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Pedro_The_Swift]

ok,, but can I do that on a live system
I will only use the array for storage,,

[Eevo]

JBOD

[Aussie]

ok,, but can I do that on a live system
I will only use the array for storage,,

yes, create the array via the raid option before the OS boots then partition and format it in windows.

JBOD is good for combining drives of different sizes, but in this case better to go with RAID, I'd doubt his M/b will have jbod anyhow

[spudboy]

I'd suggest you just use them as 2 500Mb drives. If you start doing tricky things and one drive fails, you can lose all data on both drives. What is the problem with having them separate as 2 drives?

[djambalawa]

Windows 8 has a new feature called Storage Spaces that can do this live and is apparently pretty good.. I havent tried it tho...

How to Use Windows 8′s Storage Spaces to Mirror & Combine Drives (http://www.howtogeek.com/109380/how-to-use-windows-8s-storage-spaces-to-mirror-combine-drives/)

[loanrangie]

I'm no expert but for 2 small drives just keeping them as separate drives will work fine, one for the OS and one for storage and backups.
I would only use raid for a NAS arrangement or server .

[Eevo]

JBOD is good for combining drives of different sizes, but in this case better to go with RAID, I'd doubt his M/b will have jbod anyhow

sorry, i missed the bit about them being the same size.

[sheerluck]

I'd suggest you just use them as 2 500Mb drives. If you start doing tricky things and one drive fails, you can lose all data on both drives. What is the problem with having them separate as 2 drives?

500mb?! Wow, what I'd give for that kind of storage capacity on my machine.

You'll be telling me next that Intel brought out something new to replace that Pentium 2 thingy that people were raving on about. :D

[Eevo]

[I]
You'll be telling me next that Intel brought out something new to replace that Pentium 2 thingy that people were raving on about. :D

going to crack the 1ghz mark soon!

[Pedro_The_Swift]

when you two are quite finished----:D

spudboy, the problem is I am trying to use the two 500's as a backup for one 1TB drive,,

I must say the post by jdambalawa is very interesting!:eek:

[sheerluck]

when you two are quite finished----:D

spudboy, the problem is I am trying to use the two 500's as a backup for one 1TB drive,,

I must say the post by jdambalawa is very interesting!:eek:

The Win8 solution Is effectively just a software RAID Pedro. If your motherboard supports it, I'd go the hardware RAID route.

If you're just using the RAID 0 array as a backup, it shouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't want to rely on a RAID 0 array for my main storage.

[Red90]

You have to be careful. Setting up a bios raid after the OS is installed can be tricky.

[spudboy]

OK - I see why you want a combined drive.

I'd suggest just going out and buying a new (maybe not top shelf -> slower) 1TB drive. It will cost you around $100-$120 and surely your backups are worth that.

If you do a hardware "join" of the drives, and the MB fails, then there is no guarantee that the MB you replace it with will be able to read the split drives.

If it is not mission critical stuff then it doesn't matter, but if something fails and you can't read your split drives then they aren't worth a dime.

That's my $0.02, after having spent many hours trying to recover data from a so-called backup set where I couldn't get the array to be recognised by the replacement motherboard.....

Cheers
David

[Pedro_The_Swift]

yes red90,, its why this solution "just worked"
took all of 30seconds to "pool" the two drives,,
tried the raid 0 but the machine wouldn't boot afterwoods,,,,
and yes spudboy I did buy a brand new Black Cavier 1TB for this job,,

and its a brick.
format failed or something,, but g-parted wont see it.

Ta Muchly to djambalawa:clap2:


late edit;
also figured out I have a dead sata connection on the board,,
(luckily not a fast one)
maybe it died and took the HDD with it??

[loanrangie]

For less than $100 just get yourself a 2tb hdd and be done with it.