Question Combining another SSD with the C: partition

[T_Payne]

Hey all,
First post in the forum, but definitely not my last (I use this as a reference a ton). So, question is... I built a budget desktop PC (MB- Pro 4, 1500x, 1060 3Gb, 16Gb, 120Gb M.2, 1TB HDD), and am running out of room on my main (C:/ drive. I have moved many apps over to a Barracuda 1TB HDD, but I was wondering if I purchase a 500Gb SSD...can I merge the C:/ partition of the 120Gb M.2 SSD to the new SATA III SSD? I'm looking at one of the cheaper Team Group or PNY 500Gb SSDs. I have a 120Gb Adata SX8000NP M.2 installed as my C:/ right now.

I may look at just buying a 500Gb or 1Tb M.2 or SATA SSD and cloning the C: onto the new device, but I was wondering if it was possible to combine the partitions of an M.2 and SATA SSD. I'm not too worried about the lower transfer speeds, just need more storage.

 

[jojesa]

You could clone the 120GB C: drive into the new 500GB SSD .

 

[Dashman9000]

Yes, I have cloned existing boot partitions onto a new SSD using Marcrium Refelect free. Pretty simple and straight-forward to use. If you buy a Samsung SSD you can download their data migration software for free from their website that is super easy to use to clone an existing partition to a new one.

Not sure what you ending question is.....you can not combine / clone two Windows boot partitions onto a new drive, only one active Windows boot partition can be cloned / copied to the new drive.

 

[T_Payne]

Ok. I wasn't wanting to just clone it if I could add the storage of the new device to the existing C: partition. But, if that's the best route I will do it and use the 120Gb M.2 for specific apps

 

[jojesa]

You cannot combine two hard drives when one of them contains the Windows operating system installation.
You will have to delete the current drive C: content to create a RAID and it is recommended using same model hard drives, with the same capacity and identical firmware.

 

[T_Payne]

You cannot combine two hard drives when one of them contains the Windows operating system installation.
You will have to delete the current drive C: content to create a RAID and it is recommended using same model hard drives, with the same capacity and identical firmware.

Thank you. That is exactly the question I was trying to figure out. I think my best option is just to clone the C:/ onto a new (and much bigger) SSD. I should have never got a 120Gb to begin with.

 

[jojesa]

I always try to direct people away from using 120GB-128GB SSDs as OS disks, since after formatting them, 111GB-118GB capacity remains.
Then around 20% of empty space might be required to maintain peak performance. So we're left with 80GB to 90GB of usable capacity, which in a Windows environment fills up mighty fast.

 

[T_Payne]

I always try to direct people away from using 120GB-128GB SSDs as OS disks, since after formatting them, 111GB-118GB capacity remains.
Then around 20% of empty space might be required to maintain peak performance. So we're left with 80GB to 90GB of usable capacity, which in a Windows environment fills up mighty fast.

I understand and agree with that assertion. Unfortunately, I was trying to build a "budget" desktop and opted for a 120Gb main drive. I ran out of storage room quickly. Even my 1TB HDD is at about 60% usage.

 

[USAFRet]

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[AllanGH]

I think I get what you are trying to do?

On Unix-based systems, it's possible to mount a separate hard drive partition into the filesystem on the "boot" drive. In fact, doing so has been the normal way of doing things on UNIX and Linux servers and workstations.

This article may be of assistance to you, if I have read your intent properly--evidently, it is possible with windows 10 installations:


Assign a mount point folder path to a drive

 

[USAFRet]

I think I get what you are trying to do?

On Unix-based systems, it's possible to mount a separate hard drive partition into the filesystem on the "boot" drive. In fact, doing so has been the normal way of doing things on UNIX and Linux servers and workstations.

This article may be of assistance to you, if I have read your intent properly--evidently, it is possible with windows 10 installations:

How to combine multiple hard drives into one volume on Windows 10

It's "possible", but can bring significant drawbacks. Especially when using SSD's.

Spanned:
"If you use a Spanned volume, you can combine two or more hard drives of different sizes to create one large volume. On Spanned, drives are utilize sequentially, meaning data won't be written to the second hard drive until the first hard drive is full. "

That last is significant, because you don't want the SSD to get 'full'. It needs some free space for the TRIM function to work. So you'd have to purposely shrink that volume down to leave some physical space free.

Striped is even worse. Basically, RAID 0. Both drives need to be the same size and performance.
A small NVMe drive and a large SATA III drive brings the worst of both.


With the ever falling SSD prices, neither of those configurations is a real need.

 

[AllanGH]

OK....I linked to the wrong article...bad me. I had several articles open at once and C&P'd the wrong one. I'll try to re-locate the article I actually wanted to link to and re-post.


######### UPDATE #############

Assign a mount point folder path to a drive

I'll modify my original link, above, as well.