Different sized drives mirrored unallocated space not visible

[lyenokio]

I have run into a peculiar problem. I have 2 Samsung SSD`s of 2 different sizes that I mirrored . One drive is 120gb and the other drive is a 256. I mirrored the drives successfully and removed the smaller drive from the computer. The 256 is now the boot drive (C) but it only shows that it is a 120 gb drive. I went to disk management and the unallocated space does not even show. Any ideas please help.I know a fresh copy of windows would do the trick but I have to many programs to reload and some settings that will take until next XMAS to set..lol

Intel CPU
GIGABYTE GA x38ud4 MOBO
8gb ram
Samsung 930 SSD 256

 

[RealBeast]

That is the way mirroring works -- the size of the smaller drive is all you get on the first drive.

It would be better to clone the smaller drive to the unallocated larger drive and then resize the drive to fill the unallocated space if that option is available in your cloning software, such as Ghost 15, Acronis True Image, or the free Easeus Todo backup all allow resizing to fill the empty space, so you get the full new drive size.

And it is always best to make a system repair disc first (just type that in the start button search box and follow the wizard).

 

[lyenokio]

Beast
My drives are not in raid Mirror. I just copied the data from one drive to the other and now the new 256 drive shows in Disk management only 120 and the unallocated space does not show at all. I removed the original 120 drive entirely from the computer and am only using the new 256gb drive . The bad thing is I am missing the other 136 gb so to speak. Usally windows disk management will show the unallocated space on the drive but mine is missing. I think reinstalling windows will solve this...

 

[RealBeast]

So when you said "2 different sizes that I mirrored," what did you mean? If you mirrored them to do the copy, you mirrored them. How did you do the copy? Do you still have the first SSD?

Sure you can do a clean reinstallation, and that would be best if there were any issues, but if everything was fine, you can clone the smaller drive onto the larger to save the time of all the program installs, etc. Your call.

 

[lyenokio]

I used acronis to copy the drives and all went well except that the unallocated space on the new drive doesnt show in windows disk management. Thats the problem. I have never encountered this before in all the times I have cloned drives. The OS is win 7 too. Im very familar with the technique but this is unusual.

 

[RealBeast]

You needed to check the box to expand into the additional space on the larger drive when you did the clone. If you do, then the additional space will show up. The other choice, that I try to avoid, is to create a partition to clone into that is the same size as the old drive if your software doesn't support the extend feature. Then when you are done you can extend the drive into the unpartitioned space in disk management.