OS on SSD Games on HDD no RAID

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Jordan4

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Feb 19, 2017
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Hi!
Well the question is simple, I bought a motherboard which I thought had RAID but it doesnt.
So I'm not sure if I can run windows 10 on my SSD and some games on my hdd.
Im not planning on installing all the games on my hdd. Smaller quick games like rocket league go on the ssd and big games like ESO go on the HDD.
If i just plug the ssd in sata 0 and hdd in sata 1 will this then be possible?
 
Solution
EquineHero


You can RAID the disks inside Windows. I've done that very thing. I've got Windows on my 240GB SSD, 3x 500GB disks in RAID0 (S/W), and a single 160GB disk for temporary storage purposes.

Open the start menu and search for "disk management".

Click on "Create and format hard disk partitions".

In the window that pops up, you'll see all of...
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EquineHero

EquineHero

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You can RAID the disks inside Windows. I've done that very thing. I've got Windows on my 240GB SSD, 3x 500GB disks in RAID0 (S/W), and a single 160GB disk for temporary storage purposes.

Open the start menu and search for "disk management".

Click on "Create and format hard disk partitions".

In the window that pops up, you'll see all of your active disks.

Right click on the disks you want to RAID and select "New Striped Volume".

In the dialogue that pops up, select the disks you want to RAID and finish the RAID wizard.

There you go, you now have software RAID.

I have over 700GB of games on my 1.5TB RAID0 array. Skyrim loads in less than 10 seconds on it.

Have fun!
 
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Solution
faalin

faalin

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An OS on the SSD and games on a HDD is very common, having games on the SSD will only help with load times into the game or if there are a lot of cut scenes it will not help with FPS.

I run a 240GB SDD with a 6TB WD red pro drive for all my games. Got bored one day and installed all 300+ steam games, Origon, and Blizzard. then went through all my CD/DVD games and installed and ripped them to ISO's. Ive uninstalled and reinstalled games between HDD's and spare SSD and really cant tell a difference between them other then a few seconds of load times
 
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13thmonkey

13thmonkey

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What are the risks of aid0?
 
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EquineHero

EquineHero

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For software RAID, the only risk is failure of a disk in the array, and that shouldn't happen for a very long time if the disks are new (like 10 years). If a disk is failing you can actually just clone it to another drive before it completely fails! I had to do this once.

My disks have been in RAID0 since 2013 when Seagate's IronWolf drives were undergoing consumer testing. With Windows Software RAID, you can even import the foreign array into a new install/machine and keep your data! All of the RAID information is stored on-disk instead of in the BIOS, so even if your BIOS is reset you'll still have your array. Software RAID is far, far safer than hardware RAID, at the cost of a little speed. My disks are somewhat old so they aren't as fast as they once were, but I still get 300MB/s write speeds.

The only risk is losing your data, and if your data is important enough that you cannot lose it, keep it on a different non-raid volume or back up the array frequently.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Absolutely.

Just like this, no RAID needed or desired
Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder
GCel24U.png



For other stuff, read here:
Win 7 & 8: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1 & 10: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Which actually has nothing to do with the OP's config of 1 x SSD and 1 x HDD.
You do NOT RAID 0 an HDD and an SSD together.

Let's not confuse future readers of this thread.
 
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EquineHero

EquineHero

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"Well the question is simple, I bought a motherboard which I thought had RAID but it doesnt." - OP

Having the OP want to use RAID implies they have multiple disks of roughly the same caliber, namely not
an SSD paired with an HDD.

That was my mistake in assuming so though, so I provided an answer I thought would help (and OP selected it).

But props for clarifying (not sarcasm...).
 
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