How do I combine two Hard Drives to become one drive?

[Guest]

Hi, I originally asked for help in the RAID section but I realized it doesn't work like I want it to because my HDD's are of different sizes and it only gives me 298GB if I RAID them.

So I have a 250GB Hitachi HDD and a 160GB Samsung HDD both 7200rpm, 250 being C: and 160 being D:. I want to combine the two so that C: will end up having 410GB (or around there). I've tried using Easeus, but I can't extend the partitions or anything because they are two seperate disks.

How do I do this? Frustrated...

Thanks.

Oh and my OS is Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

[nhasian]

You didn't mention what operating system you are using which is kind of important. Since you refer to your drives as C and D then I'll assume you are running some version of Windows. Both drives will need to be formatted as NTFS. In the Disk Management tool you can mount the secondary drive as a folder in your primary filesystem, or you can make both drives dynamic disks and extend the partition to include the 2nd drive.

 

[cin19]

If you do the RAID using two different size, then the combination will be default to the 2X smaller one, in your case is 2X160gb. There is no way you can get the 410gb, if you want to have total 410gb size then don't the RAID.

 

[Guest]

You didn't mention what operating system you are using which is kind of important. Since you refer to your drives as C and D then I'll assume you are running some version of Windows. Both drives will need to be formatted as NTFS. In the Disk Management tool you can mount the secondary drive as a folder in your primary filesystem, or you can make both drives dynamic disks and extend the partition to include the 2nd drive.

Ok so now I converted them both to dynamic, With System Reserved, (C:/), and New Volume (D:/). I right click on C: but the extend volume button is greyed out.

 

[Guest]

If you do the RAID using two different size, then the combination will be default to the 2X smaller one, in your case is 2X160gb. There is no way you can get the 410gb, if you want to have total 410gb size then don't the RAID.

I already said above that I know that I can't do it because my disks are different sizes, and hence I don't want to raid.

I'm trying to extend C: so that it takes up both drives.

 

[Guest]

I already said above that I know that I can't do it because my disks are different sizes, and hence I don't want to raid.

I'm trying to extend C: so that it takes up both drives.

You can only extend the C: volume into unallocated space.

Delete the D: drive partition and give it another go. And make sure you are logged on with a local admin account


Stuart

 

[Guest]

You can only extend the C: volume into unallocated space.

Delete the D: drive partition and give it another go. And make sure you are logged on with a local admin account


Stuart

I deleted the D: partition so it comes up as disk 1 with 149.05 unallocated space, but it still won't let me extend C:. And both drives are dynamic.

 

[Guest]

Sorry - Brain Failed there (don't ever get old, and Always Read The Whole Question).

No - you can't do that. You cannot merge partions on two separate disks.

How did you RAID your disks originally when you got 298GB? Does your RAID solution support JBOD?

Stuart

 

[Guest]

Sorry - Brain Failed there (don't ever get old, and Always Read The Whole Question).

No - you can't do that. You cannot merge partions on two separate disks.

How did you RAID your disks originally when you got 298GB? Does your RAID solution support JBOD?

Stuart

I read somewhere that you can't extend it onto another drive if you are trying with your boot partition unless you are using 3rd party software, something which I am downloading.

RAID 0 was my original option, but because they are different sizes, they don't give me nearly enough space.

I don't think JBOD is supported in motherboards these days, because I am almost convinced that 3rd party software have managed to take over.

 

[ram1009]

Why do you want to do this anyway. Space is space. What difference what letter drive it's on?

 

[Guest]

Why do you want to do this anyway. Space is space. What difference what letter drive it's on?

I want it as one drive instead of 2 because I don't want to keep track of installing to different drives.

 

[Dereck47]

Purchase a RAID controller card that supports JBOD and you can create a C: drive with 410GB (unformatted) capacity.
Just realize that the only benefit you get with JBOD is size, nothing else.

Here's one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132008

 

[Guest]

Purchase a RAID controller card that supports JBOD and you can create a C: drive with 410GB (unformatted) capacity.
Just realize that the only benefit you get with JBOD is size, nothing else.

Here's one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132008

Does my motherboard not support JBOD? It's a Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3

Yeah I was mainly just looking for a size increase benefit.

 

[Dereck47]

Does my motherboard not support JBOD? It's a Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3

No, it does not; it supports RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, & RAID-10.

 

[Guest]

No, it does not; it supports RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, & RAID-10.

Is there a software based solution available?

 

[Dereck47]

Sorry, I don't know.

 

[jsrudd]

If you combine the disk using JBOD, then if one hard drive fails you will lose the data on the other.

You should just use the smaller drive for Windows and then use the larger drive as a Data drive.

 

[Guest]

If you combine the disk using JBOD, then if one hard drive fails you will lose the data on the other.

You should just use the smaller drive for Windows and then use the larger drive as a Data drive.

That's a risk I'm willing to take, I mean everyone with only one hard drive is taking the same risk as I am.

 

[nhasian]

ugh no one listens to me:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727122.aspx#XSLTsection125121120120

Read the section titled Creating Spanned Volumes

Spanned volumes, formerly called volume sets in Windows NT allow you to combine areas of unformatted free space on several disks in order to create one logical drive. For example, let's say that you have three hard drives, each containing 1 GB of unallocated space. You can combine those three 1 GB areas of unformatted space on each disk to create one drive that is 3 GB in size.

 

[Guest]

ugh no one listens to me:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727122.aspx#XSLTsection125121120120

Read the section titled Creating Spanned Volumes

Spanned volumes, formerly called volume sets in Windows NT allow you to combine areas of unformatted free space on several disks in order to create one logical drive. For example, let's say that you have three hard drives, each containing 1 GB of unallocated space. You can combine those three 1 GB areas of unformatted space on each disk to create one drive that is 3 GB in size.

Ok I'm reading the guide and it's telling me to click on an unallocated portion of a disk, which in my case, is my second disk itself. Then it tells me to go to actions, then all tasks, then create volume. I don't see this option, all I can select is create simple volume. When I create a simple volume, it doesn't give me the option of a volume type, as it is already "simple".

This is a picture of the options that I have.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/jbod.png/

 

[Guest]

bump

I'm still 100% sure it can be done, but I have no idea how. I tried using GParted on a USB stick but after I click the makefile.bat to turn it into a boot drive and set the boot order to USB first and the first boot device to USB-FDD/HDD/ISO/ZIP, etc, it just says "missing operating system".

 

[Mudgel]

Why don't you just create a folder on your c drive that points to your d drive using symbolic links. Check out symbolic links on google