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I am curious to see if there is a way that I can merge my old desktop hard drive (640+ gb) with the new one (2tb)?
They both use the same connection, etc.
They both are being recognized by the desktop, but I am trying to see if there is some way to combine the 2?
Might be possible and an easy way of doing so, but I cant seem to locate anything.
If the 2 TB is your main one now, then install the 640 as a secondary for all the other less important programs. Call it the D or E drive.
Yeah, I was thinking that was my only real option. Didnt think I could merge it into the main one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
Only thing that sucks about our desktop, is it has space for 2 hard drives, but only hookup on the motherboard for 1. So I unhooked the dvd drive, and plugged it into the second hard drive. We dont ever use the dvd drive anyway, so it is no big deal there.
I swear I have seen 2 hard drives on one ribbon cable, but my memory isnt what it used to be, and I am no computer tech
Quote:
Originally Posted by MattInTheHat
They are both on the same power cable line, but there was only 1 slot for a hard drive, on the motherboard, so I improvised with the dvdplayer.
You might have to change out the ribbon cable for one with dual hookups. I know I've cut up bunches of them. That way just the single hookup on the MB will do. You might have to move the jumper also,,, not sure,, to make it a slave.
You can copy and paste everything from the smaller one(except the system files) to the larger one. It will probably take a while.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste
Did all of that already. Just didnt know if I could merge them together so in "computer" it would show just 1 hard drive at 2.6tb, instead of 2 different hard drives.
Yea, can't you drag and drop if you open both folders up??Quote:
Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste
Yeah, I think I have one, in one of the desktops I got laying around. Will be searching tomorrow. Got to break everything down, to prepare for the big event on the 1st.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
really not sure why you would want to "merge" them anyway.
1) install the CD drive back as it was. You may need that to install new programs etc in the future.
2) if you have a lot of info on the old drive...leave it as a backup drive and install the OS on the new drive. as long as you install the new drive with the same programs, you can access all the info from the old drive.
3) if they are IDE drives, the new drive should be plugged in on the top, or first plug, on the ribbon cable, and the second drive, on the next plug down. set the jumper on the old drive to "cable select". it should read it an assign it a new drive letter, probably "E" if "C" is the master, "D" is the default for the CD drive.
again, there really is no reason to try and put all the info on the new drive. should the OS fail, and you would have to do a reinstall, you will still have all the info on the old drive. jus my 2
Where did you find a 2TB IDE drive? I am guessing these are sata drives. There is a way to merge them GEO but you wouldnt want to do it. You could run them as an array but you would loose 1.4tb of space on the larger drive unless you partitioned it into 3 drives. This wouldnt be practical either. It can be done but I wouldnt suggest it and it would take way more know how then I can teach you over text chat.
It came from my last ewaste pickup. Your right, it is sataQuote:
Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper
Just buy one of these GEO if you dont have enuff sata ports on your motherboard.
Add 4 SATA Hard Disk Drives to PC Serial ATA PCI Controller Card Softwareraid | eBay
If it was my setup, I'd leave the Operating System (OS) on the smaller HD and use the TB for data storage/backup.
HDs can get 'pooched' in a flash,(Murphy's Law), so any VERY important data should also be copied to DVDs, as additional backup.
Thank PTS. Didnt know I could do something like that. Would need to check my motherboard first to ensure I can add that card.Quote:
Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper
That is one way to skin a cat.
I am not anywhere near as computer tech savvy as most others on here. We all know that by now lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by NewbyScrapper
However, I know enough to get by for the most part. My 600+gb hard drive will be used for storing certain things. I used password protected folders on my server to hold certain stuff, and then I use a few sizeable thumb drives to store other stuff as well.
I wanted to do this when this thread first started(im always wanting to play)but I didn't want to ruin his chance of getting a honest answer. but as soon as I read the title to the thread this is what popped into my mind and since he has some good answers this is the way I would merge two hardrives :)
http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...Press031-1.jpg
Go to Administrative tools/ computer management /disc management.....select the drive you want to merge and choose to use as a dynamic disc....follow the help instructions available or look up dynamic disc settings for your OS.
Charles has it right. If you want two hard drives to appear with one drive letter, you will need to convert them to dynamic disks. If you're using Windows 7, follow these instructions: Dynamic disks
Just make sure you have a good backup of everything before you start playing in disk management... You know, just in case.
Also, before tinkering, read through this: What are the benefits of using dynamic disks over basic? - Hardware - Storage
One downside is if one dynamic disk craps the bed, it's going to be a pain recovering data from any of them.
Backups, backups, backups.
That is physically not possible, I was about to say you can raid them together but I just remember that'd you can't raid two different data size drives together, now if you had 2 2tb hard drives, you'd be able to raid them together, on installation, You would not be able to raid them after your operating system is installed. In the bios I believe it would be raid 0.
That's not true.
He'd simply have to convert both to dynamic disks via disk manager. He would then be able to "span" one drive into the other. Drive size doesn't matter as all you're doing is merging the free space of the drives together.
You're likely thinking of RAID limitations but even then there's exceptions to the rules.