Using 3 SSD/HDD's, RAID or Not?

CmdrJeffSinclair

Reputable
Aug 29, 2014
785
1
5,010
Hi everyone,

I want to use my 2x 1TB Samsung Pro 850s as main drives. Obviously only one drive will have the OS on it, but they are too small for all of my games to use only one, so I'd like to know how to get Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 to simply recognize both of these drives as the C: since that is essentially what they are.

Also, and very importantly is that I have a 3TB Seagate Barracuda SATA III 7200rpm as a backup and I was wanting to set it up as some sort of backup but not necessarily as a mirrored drive. For example, in the event that I need to reinstall Windows I'd like to rest assured that all of my programs and documents, music and pictures are backed up but nothing else.

So is there any way to:
1) Set up my 2x 1TB Samsung 850 Pro's both as C: ?
-------not as two different drive letters, unless there is a way for Windows to recognize both letters as the "main drive")
2) Have both of those drives above automatically backup Programs, music, documents, and pictures to the third drive?

#1 is the most important, and #2 I can do myself if need be.

All of my games are digital so program registry nonsense isn't an issue making Ghosting not required. It's all automatically connected to steam and origin just by logging in since my game Key codes are stored on those servers.

Thanks everyone!!!!
 
Solution
You need a hardware RAID card/chip to run hardware. In your BIOS enable RAID/set your SATA ports to RAID mode. During boot you should see a message about your drives with a key combo to press for RAID setup. Once in that setup select your drives and create a RAID 0 array.
Depending on your version of Windows, you can also use the Disk Management utility in the Computer Management control panel to create a "new spanned volume". This will work similar to RAID 0 but may not have quite the same performance.

When you run windows backup, it allows you to select which folders you want to back up. I think the default is to back up everything in your home folder. You only need to set this once. Any new files or folders you add within the...
You can use RAID 0 in hardware or software to make windows see your two drives as one. This does have the drawback that if one fails, you will lose everything on both. It can also potentially lower performance-could increase it too-you would have to test to know just how much difference it would make.
You can use the built-in windows backup utility to backup your media to the 3tb drive. You can set it to run how ever often you want and select which folders you want backed up.
 

CmdrJeffSinclair

Reputable
Aug 29, 2014
785
1
5,010


that's cool, so how doo I select raid 0 for the two ssd's hardware-wise? In the bios (uefi, asus x99 deluxe) or via hdd/ssd switch? My old laptop had this little switch I was read that if I moved it to a different position, it would alter its method of use. That was 7 years ago I learned that though. This new x99 platform and this mobo have more features than a haystack has proverbial needles.

As for the backup drive how would I set "which" folders to backup rather than everything? I could probably just do it manually but it does become a pain and I often forget. thanks for the great reply, I await your response!
 
You need a hardware RAID card/chip to run hardware. In your BIOS enable RAID/set your SATA ports to RAID mode. During boot you should see a message about your drives with a key combo to press for RAID setup. Once in that setup select your drives and create a RAID 0 array.
Depending on your version of Windows, you can also use the Disk Management utility in the Computer Management control panel to create a "new spanned volume". This will work similar to RAID 0 but may not have quite the same performance.

When you run windows backup, it allows you to select which folders you want to back up. I think the default is to back up everything in your home folder. You only need to set this once. Any new files or folders you add within the folders being backed up will automatically be backed up as well.
 
Solution

CmdrJeffSinclair

Reputable
Aug 29, 2014
785
1
5,010


Two final questions: Should I just avoid the raid 0 array altogether and simply manually divide my programs between the two drives when one fills up? Next gen games are averaging 50GB and more so it would not be a hassle. At 1TB//s copy speed I could copy hundreds of GB is moments.

And how will the raid 0 work anyway if one drive does not ever fill up? Does that mean the second drive will constantly be empty until the drive in the first volume is filled or will both drives be filled in tandem?

Such an awesome answer either way. Thanks so much and I await your reply!
 


You can certainly use the drives separately. I know that Steam, at least, easily allows you to set the location where it will store your games.
RAID 0 will work by writing half of your data to each drive. Each drive will have the same amount of data.
 

CmdrJeffSinclair

Reputable
Aug 29, 2014
785
1
5,010


That's so cool. I'm definitely going to use RAID 0 then. I wish I could give you more doobey points somehow. Out of the 57 posts I've made for my new computer, you've been the most helpful responder