Most efficient way of cleaning up/merging hard drives

[mbilal2]

Hey all,

I am what one would call a data hoarder just because I am a content creator (hobby) and I like to keep my old files just in case I need them in the future. I have a total of 5 hard drives attached (facepalm) out of which, one is a 1Tb SSD for OS and important softwares like Adobe CC and whatnot but it's split into two partitions. Since my OS partition is running low on space, I want to merge the two partitions together (both are on the same physical drive).

Also I would love to have the others organized. I want to merge the other four physical drives into sets of two, so at the end I will have only 3 local disks showing up in my computer (1 SSD and 2 HDD).

What would be the best way to do this if possible at all? Also, I would prefer to keep my files on the current hard drives as is (to save downtime because of copying files) but if I have to erase the drives, that's fine. I made backups of pretty much everything. If I have to buy a third party software for this, I'm willing to do that as long as the price is reasonable.

Appreciate the help

 

[IAmAZ3R0]

I recommend Macrium Reflect. It's very easy to use. I can send you a tutorial if you need it.

 

[mbilal2]

I recommend Macrium Reflect. It's very easy to use. I can send you a tutorial if you need it.

Sure. As long as it gets the job done.

 

[why_wolf]

Well your most obvious choice is setup a RAID (this will require wiping the drives of all data). If you have Windows 10 you can also use "Storage Spaces" (links below), which is probably the easier way to it. Though there is probably a performance hit with storage spaces since its a software solution vs RAID which is a hardware solution. But for just data storage, especially for just a single user that really isn't an issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12438/windows-10-storage-spaces
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-set-up-storage-spaces-in-windows-10/

 

[USAFRet]

1. 5 physical drives is not problem. That is how my system is set up
Each physical drive has a specific use.

2. RAID, of any type, is probably not the road you want to go down.

3. Macrium Reflect is a great backup/imaging/cloning tool...but probably not for what you're looking to do right now.

 

[USAFRet]

My current drive config is thus:
(all SSD)

500GB - OS and applications
250GB - photo work (Lightroom and PaintShop Pro)
250GB - CAD/Video/3D work
960GB - Games, docs, everything that does not fit into the above
120GB - scratch/cache space for all of the above applications

OK...actually "6" drives - 10TB NAS box, that holds all the movies/music/backups


You just need to be a bit more organized as to where things are.

 

[mbilal2]

1. 5 physical drives is not problem. That is how my system is set up
Each physical drive has a specific use.

2. RAID, of any type, is probably not the road you want to go down.

3. Macrium Reflect is a great backup/imaging/cloning tool...but probably not for what you're looking to do right now.

Why not RAID? Could use some more detail there. And yeah if nothing works, I'll probably have to spend a few hours organizing everything into proper drives.

 

[USAFRet]

1. 5 physical drives is not problem. That is how my system is set up
Each physical drive has a specific use.

2. RAID, of any type, is probably not the road you want to go down.

3. Macrium Reflect is a great backup/imaging/cloning tool...but probably not for what you're looking to do right now.

Why not RAID? Could use some more detail there. And yeah if nothing works, I'll probably have to spend a few hours organizing everything into proper drives.

The question is "Why RAID?" (And of course, no particular RAID level was mentioned)
What specific condition will it fix?