Question If I transfer 2 HDDs that are configured as a single drive to my new PC, will they work ?

[Jorge24]

In my current PC I have 1 SDD where my Windows OS is installed.
Additionally, I have 2 internal HDDs that are just for storing media and I configured them as a single drive in Windows Disk Management but it's not RAID.

If I transfer these 2 HDDs to my new PC build, will they work like before?
If not, is it possible to convert them back to a single drive after the transfer?

 

[JayGau]

It depends. If you transfer also your C drive it should work just fine since you gonna have the same Windows so the OS will recognize the drive configuration and mount them just like they were on the old computer.

If you transfer them to a computer with a different Windows installation, it may work but it's not sure since the other Windows version may not accept your old dynamic drive configuration.

In any cases, I would make a backup of everything you have on them on an external drive before trying it. Then, if it doesn't work you could just format the drives and copy your stuff on them from the backup.

By the way, it not good to extend a partition on two drives. If one drive fails, you loose everything on both.

 

[Jorge24]

If you transfer them to a computer with a different Windows installation, it may work but it's not sure since the other Windows version may not accept your old dynamic drive configuration.

I forgot to mention that the HDDs are currently on a Windows 11 PC and I want to transfer them to a new PC with a fresh install of Windows 11, in case that makes a difference in your response.

By the way, it not good to extend a partition on two drives. If one drive fails, you loose everything on both.

Are you sure? I thought that was only the case in a RAID setup and not a spanned volume like mine that was just extended using the built-in Disk Manager in Windows. I thought that if I had issues it would most likely be that Windows does not recognize it as a single drive but would still let me browse through both HDDs individually. This is what it looks like in case it helps:

 

[SkyNetRising]

If I transfer these 2 HDDs to my new PC build, will they work like before? If not, is it possible to convert them back to a single drive after the transfer?

Should work.
They will be detected as foreign disks. And you'll have to import foreign disk, before data becomes accessible.

To convert drives back to basic from dynamic/spanned, you'd have to:

move all data to a different drive,​

delete spanned volumes,​

convert drives from dynamic to basic,​

create new partitions and format them,​

then copy all data back.​

Are you sure?
I thought that was only the case in a RAID setup and not a spanned volume like mine that was just extended using the built-in Disk Manager in Windows.
I thought that if I had issues it would most likely be that Windows does not recognize it as a single drive but would still let me browse through both HDDs individually.

Spanned volume is kindda pseudo raid.

The main disadvantage of spanned volumes is that if any drive in the spanned volume set fails, you lose access to all of the data in the spanned set.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-dynamic-disk-storage-simple-spanned-striped-jasmin-kahriman

 

[USAFRet]

It might work.
It might fail.

Have a known good backup before you go down this road.

 

[Jorge24]

Spanned volume is kindda pseudo raid.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-dynamic-disk-storage-simple-spanned-striped-jasmin-kahriman

Is there a configuration where I can combine two disks into a single partition without the downside of losing data on both disks if one disk fails?

 

[USAFRet]

Is there a configuration where I can combine two disks into a single partition without the downside of losing data on both disks if one disk fails?

No.

Spanned in Windows Storage Spaces, or RAID 0...lose one drive, all is lost.

Why the need to combine?
The ONLY benefit you might gain is a single drive letter.

Windows and applications have gotten really good at working with multiple drive letters.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is there a configuration where I can combine two disks into a single partition without the downside of losing data on both disks if one disk fails?

You can mount second drive as a sub-folder.

 

[Jorge24]

Why the need to combine?
The ONLY benefit you might gain is a single drive letter.
Windows and applications have gotten really good at working with multiple drive letters.

It's not for applications, just for my own files (videos, photos, games, projects) and I like to keep everything organized under a certain folder structure. With separate partitions I would need to create a lot of junctions for that and when one the disks starts to get too full I'd have to constantly make sure I keep making more junctions to divide the files across the 2 disks... unless you know a better solution?

 

[USAFRet]

It's not for applications, just for my own files (videos, photos, games, projects) and I like to keep everything organized under a certain folder structure. With separate partitions I would need to create a lot of junctions for that and when one the disks starts to get too full I'd have to constantly make sure I keep making more junctions to divide the files across the 2 disks... unless you know a better solution?

I meant applications accessing the data on those drives.
Not 'running from...'

You have 2 drives, simply have 2 drive letters.
No multiple partition or junctions....

My main system has 6x physical drives. Each physical drive has (mostly) their own type of data.
1 - OS and applications
2 - Photo work
3 - CAD work
4 - Games
5 - Docs, mostly. Also, scratch space for CAD/Video/photo applications.
6 - Random junk

Each application mostly knows where its data lives.

 

[JayGau]

It's not for applications, just for my own files (videos, photos, games, projects) and I like to keep everything organized under a certain folder structure. With separate partitions I would need to create a lot of junctions for that and when one the disks starts to get too full I'd have to constantly make sure I keep making more junctions to divide the files across the 2 disks... unless you know a better solution?

You can't separate your files into categories and put categories on different drives? Like games and projects on D and videos and photos on E?

 

[Jorge24]

You can't separate your files into categories and put categories on different drives? Like games and projects on D and videos and photos on E?

I could, but the drives are close to full and not sure that I'd be able to split the data evenly across the 2 drives if I do that

 

[Jorge24]

I meant applications accessing the data on those drives.
Not 'running from...'

You have 2 drives, simply have 2 drive letters.
No multiple partition or junctions....

My main system has 6x physical drives. Each physical drive has (mostly) their own type of data.
1 - OS and applications
2 - Photo work
3 - CAD work
4 - Games
5 - Docs, mostly. Also, scratch space for CAD/Video/photo applications.
6 - Random junk

Each application mostly knows where its data lives.

what I meant is that I dont use those drives for storing files that applications use. I have an NVMe SSD for that. These are just mostly media and old projects that I dont touch. If I had 6 drives like you, I could easily split it like that but with 2 drives, I would end up with one drive fuller than the other and since they are pretty close to being full I might not be able to fit it all while keeping the categories.

 

[Rokinamerica]

If I had 6 drives like you, I could easily split it like that

So, add another drive or 2? Get larger size drives and just add to the PC. I run similar to USAF. And have an active backup system in place. Externals are also a consideration for storage of non-essential but important data.