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How should I configure these HDD's?

Last response: in Storage
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Hello!

So I have a question as to the best way to go about configuring some hard drives that I have.

Here's what I have:

Hitachi 2TB HDD (1.06TB used including W7 x64)

2 x WD Caviar Green 2TB (just bought from newegg)

Gigabyte P55A UD3

External 1.5TB HDD (Approx. 1.02TB free) I can move all my data to this if need be

What I ultimately want to do is keep adding HDD to have more space for my growing Movie/Music collection and then have a good SSD for the OS and Programs... I plan on buying a SSD after summer

What I would like to know is what's the best way to start a RAID 1 array with the 3 x 2TB drives (with OS) but also make it easy to upgrade/change to a RAID 1 array (Movies/Music) + SSD (with OS) later?

I know starting the RAID array will lose my data so that's why I'm thinking about storing all my stuff on the external and build the array with 2 drives and have 1 separate for the OS. Then when I save up more money buy an SSD and another Caviar Green to have a total of 4 x 2TB and 1 SSD. Is this how I should go about this?

I'm really just confused on how I should go about doing this to preserve data and keep it open to upgrading in the future and is RAID 1 the best way to go? Or should I just keep stuffin drives in there and have separate drives to browse?

Thanks for all the help guys

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Storage Authority

For a RAID 1, you would usually have 2 drives only. So your 1st RAID 1 array would be 2 x 2TB drives, 2TB effective storage. Your next array would repeat this - just give it another drive letter.

To have more drives in 1 array, and 1 logical drive, you could try RAID 5 or RAID 10. Some controllers may or may not be able to dynamically add drives to these arrays, check the docs with yours.
 
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