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Combine 2 Hdds Into 1 Windows XP Home

#1 deanpcmad

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Posted 31 January 2008 - 02:08 PM

Hey,

I was wondering how to combine 2 HDDs into 1 as I have 2 80Gb HDDs and I want it to appear as 1.
I am using Windows XP Home

Thanks
deanpcmad

deanpcmad

#2 hamluis

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Posted 31 January 2008 - 03:29 PM

Just out of curiosity...just why would you want to do this?

With two drives, you can backup the system to one. With just one drive, you need a different plan.

Or is backing up not a part of your approach?

In any case, a RAID setup will allow what you describe in your few words.

Basics of RAID - http://ezinearticles.com/?Basics-of-RAID&id=11919

Louis

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#3 garmanma

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Posted 31 January 2008 - 03:31 PM

I believe what you are referring to is a RAID array
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
http://www.pctechguide.com/tutorials/RAID.htm
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#4 usasma

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Posted 31 January 2008 - 08:04 PM

Depending on the specs of the hard drives, and the support that your system provides for RAID, this may be fairly easy to do.

But then you'll have to decide on what RAID level you want to use. If you use both in a striped array - the failure of one drive will result in the loss of data on both drives. If you use both in a mirrored array - if one drive dies, the other has everything duplicated on it. If you use JBOD to make it into just one drive - check out Concatenation in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID...JBOD_or_SPAN.29

Or, you can just put a shortcut to the second drive on the first drive - that way you can dump stuff where you need it without having to go through the hassle.

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#5 deanpcmad

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Posted 01 February 2008 - 01:30 PM

Thanks all of you for the replys.

I am going to create a Backup Server, which I am going to backup 4 PCs (2 laptops and 2 standard PCs) onto.
I have 2 80Gb HDDS that I want to turn into one 160Gb drive so I dont have different backups on differnet drives.
I don't want to go down the RAID route yet, but if I really have to then I will.

Also, I am thinking of getting new Drives. Which would be best SATA or PATA (aka IDE).

If you want to know how much storage I am going to backup then I am happy to let you know.

Thanks

deanpcmad

#6 hamluis

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Posted 01 February 2008 - 01:56 PM

SATA drives would be faster, PATA drives are useable but I see no advantage in using them if the system/motherboard supports SATA.

For your purposes, it probably doesn't matter.

Louis

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#7 deanpcmad

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Posted 01 February 2008 - 03:25 PM

Thanks hamluis.

But this doesn't answer the main question.

deanpcmad

#8 hamluis

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Posted 01 February 2008 - 05:10 PM

If you don't think it's been answered, I guess I don't know how to read.

Several people have provided the same answer...just because you don't like/accept that...doesn't change the nature of those replies.

Louis

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#9 deanpcmad

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 03:46 AM

So how can I put two HDDs together to create one 160Gb Drive?

deanpcmad

#10 Teenage.Zombiee

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 04:13 AM

No one is saying you can't do this by the way. They just wanna know why you would want to.

I'd leave the partions. Even though you will be using it as a backup server. Because you could always back up your backup (trust me you can never have enough back up).

Just a thought :thumbsup:

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#11 Wildabeast

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 04:51 AM

As far as I know, you cannot make a single 160gb hd from 2 80gb. That, to me, seems like taking 2 oranges and somehow merging them into 1. How can you make 2 seperate drives into 1? They have to be partitioned, therefore, each would have it's own partition and deleting the partition would render that drive unusable. If it is possible, I've never heard of it... :thumbsup:

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#12 deanpcmad

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 06:21 AM

Thanks.
I think I'll just leave it to two 80Gb drives.

Thanks for the help.

deanpcmad

#13 hamluis

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 10:35 AM

From Post #1 (which qualifies as the initial/main question, IMO) : <<I was wondering how to combine 2 HDDs into 1 as I have 2 80Gb HDDs and I want it to appear as 1.>>

Answers: RAID of some sort.

As previous poster noted...you cannot utilize hard drives in an additive manner for one partition.

If there were two partitions on one hard drive...you could add those together by various methods...but that is not what you are asking.

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#14 deanpcmad

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Posted 04 February 2008 - 12:47 PM

OK I think I'll leave it. Thanks for the replys.

deanpcmad

#15 kd7jit

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Posted 12 February 2008 - 01:47 AM

With NTFS there is a feature that seem to be what you are looking for, Spanned Volume. it puts two physical drives and makes it appear as a single drive to the OS.. Think you can set up in Disk Management Console.

Jason