[SOLVED] Question about RAID0-ing existing drives

bumblebee953

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Aug 15, 2011
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Hello, I have 2 NVME m.2 SSDs. One holds the Windows install and one I use for games. Am I able to put the 2 drives in a RAID-0 at this point? My understanding is that the drives will need to be wiped to configure RAID. The 2TB one I use for games I can easily wipe it. But I'd rather not wipe the Windows drive if I can help it, since I'd rather not reinstall bunch of drivers and tools and re-organize start menus and whatnot.

What's the best path forward?

My specs:

ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair Dark Hero
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Seagate Firecuda 520 1TB (Windows drive)
Seagate Firecuda 520 2TB (games drive)
Gigabyte RTX 3070 Visions OC


Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
  1. RAID 0 + NVMe is NOT a good idea. Gives no user facing benefit
  2. RAID 0 for the OS drive was never its intention, no matter what drive type
  3. No, you can't just make them a RAID 0. It will require a full format and reinstall.
  4. You can't RAID 0 a 1TB and 2TB. RAID 0 +1TB + 2TB = 2TB RAID 0 array.


"What's the best path forward? "
Leave them as they are.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
  1. RAID 0 + NVMe is NOT a good idea. Gives no user facing benefit
  2. RAID 0 for the OS drive was never its intention, no matter what drive type
  3. No, you can't just make them a RAID 0. It will require a full format and reinstall.
  4. You can't RAID 0 a 1TB and 2TB. RAID 0 +1TB + 2TB = 2TB RAID 0 array.


"What's the best path forward? "
Leave them as they are.
 
Solution

bumblebee953

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Aug 15, 2011
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Thanks for the recommendation guys, appreciated!

Are there ways to "virtually" combine the two drives as a single volume without RAID? Really just for clealiness reasons more than anything else.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Thanks for the recommendation guys, appreciated!

Are there ways to "virtually" combine the two drives as a single volume without RAID? Really just for clealiness reasons more than anything else.
Combining them is the opposite of "cleanliness".

Currently, you have 2 drive letters.
1 for Windows and applications, 1 for games.

Merging at this point would be a major pain, and to me....far too clunky. You never know what lives on each physical drive.
In case of a needed reinstall or drive replacement, its gets messy very quickly.
 

bumblebee953

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Aug 15, 2011
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Combining them is the opposite of "cleanliness".

Currently, you have 2 drive letters.
1 for Windows and applications, 1 for games.

Merging at this point would be a major pain, and to me....far too clunky. You never know what lives on each physical drive.
In case of a needed reinstall or drive replacement, its gets messy very quickly.

Understood, thanks very much!