Make a Hybrid Drive?

[Clayton Murphy]

So I'm building myself a new rig which mean's my gf is getting a new PC from my old parts. Right now I have a 160GB Intel SSD that I plan on giving to her and pair it with the 500GB HDD that she already has.

Problem is, she plays a lot of games and buys a lot of digital content but has no discipline to manage where the data's stored. I completely expect her to fill up that SSD while ignoring the 500GB drive all together until she wonder's why the disk is full.

This led me to an idea, is it possible to combine the SSD and HDD to make the 2 act as a hybrid drive? The ultimate goal would be just to have one big drive that she doesn't have to manage, but still take advantage of the SSD. I was thinking just set them up in a jbod configuration and then use disk management software to intelligently sort the data that's used most frequently. From my understanding this is exactly what hybrid drives do except the software is proprietary and built into the HD.

Can this be done? I did a quick google search but couldn't find what I was looking for. As long as SSD's have been around I would think that someone has designed some software that would combine 2 disks and prioritize the data.

 

[Emerald]

In Linux and Mac there is something cold a fusion drive which allows you to merge the two drive as one.

However, this option does not exist for Windows. Microsoft does not offer this option. You are stuck with two separate drives.

 

[foscooter]

If you have an Intel based motherboard (chipset), you can use Intel Rapid Storge Technology to make the SSD cache the HDD.

Look up iRST.

Make sure you get the correct version for you motherboard (chipset).

I've done it a lot. Make sure you set the SATA ports to RADI in BIOS.

Here is the general website: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/sftwr-prod/imsm

 

[Clayton Murphy]

If you have an Intel based motherboard (chipset), you can use Intel Rapid Storge Technology to make the SSD cache the HDD.

Look up iRST.

Make sure you get the correct version for you motherboard (chipset).

I've done it a lot. Make sure you set the SATA ports to RADI in BIOS.

Here is the general website: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/sftwr-prod/imsm

Well the board was pulled from a Gateway FX6800-01e. http://www.ascendtech.us/gateway-fx6800-01e-core-i7-motherboard_i_mb7gatwtbgm0110.aspx

I just looked in the bios and it has RAID options for the onboard SATA and ESATA. What you're suggesting sounds like a great option but I don't see the X58 chipset listed in the compatibility list. Does this fall under the "Intel® Desktop Boards with Intel® 5 Series Chipsets" category?