[SOLVED] RAID across one whole drive and a partition on another?

[sivakanthsharma]

Hey guys

I currently have a 120gb SSD for c drive, and a 240gb HDD for the rest. I'm looking to add a 2tb HDD to my system.

Now, I'm curious if I can repurpose the old 240gb HDD, like creating a RAID with it and a equal sized partition on the new 2tb drive.

I'd be glad for any other suggestions too. Keeping it as another storage drive is not worth it for me, so any other options to use it to increase the performance of my pc is welcome.

 

[RealBeast]

Hey guys

I currently have a 120gb SSD for c drive, and a 240gb HDD for the rest. I'm looking to add a 2tb HDD to my system.

Now, I'm curious if I can repurpose the old 240gb HDD, like creating a RAID with it and a equal sized partition on the new 2tb drive.

I'd be glad for any other suggestions too. Keeping it as another storage drive is not worth it for me, so any other options to use it to increase the performance of my pc is welcome.

That would not be a good idea. Your 2TB drive would only be 240GB (you can only RAID a whole drive) and RAID 0 is at a high risk of data loss especially with an older drive in the set.

Just clone your current SSD to it and then remove it and save it for backup, or use it for a paperweight. But don't keep it in the computer as it is of no use and will just consume power.

 

[USAFRet]

Hey guys

I currently have a 120gb SSD for c drive, and a 240gb HDD for the rest. I'm looking to add a 2tb HDD to my system.

Now, I'm curious if I can repurpose the old 240gb HDD, like creating a RAID with it and a equal sized partition on the new 2tb drive.

I'd be glad for any other suggestions too. Keeping it as another storage drive is not worth it for me, so any other options to use it to increase the performance of my pc is welcome.

Supremely bad idea.
Not just the complexity of getting it to work, but the actual functionality if you DO ever get it to work.

You've not said which RAID type, but for the 2 most common with only 2 drives...RAID 0 and RAID 1:

RAID 0, striped. Ostensibly for a speed boost. Even if you can eventually get a 240GB partition to RAID with the 240GB HDD (and I'm not sure you can), it doesn't give THAT much benefit.
And of course there is the fragility of a RAID 0.

RAID 1, mirror. Physical drive redundancy. Again, trying to get this RAID working with only part of the 2TB is hugely problematic.
If it works, you'd have a 240GB RAID 1 array.
And the supposed benefits of a RAID 1 are much better handled with an actual backup routine.


"RAID" sounds like a good idea. In the consumer space, it rarely is.

 

[sivakanthsharma]

@RealBeast @USAFRet ah, well it was worth a query. Thank you both, for confirming that.

Are you guys sure there isn't any other way I can use the spare HDD for any kind of performance increase (not storage. We've already established that it's a lost cause)? Any small advantage is good enough.

 

[USAFRet]

@RealBeast @USAFRet ah, well it was worth a query. Thank you both, for confirming that.

Are you guys sure there isn't any other way I can use the spare HDD for any kind of performance increase (not storage. We've already established that it's a lost cause)? Any small advantage is good enough.

What do you use this system for?
How full is your 120GB SSD?

A 250GB HDD is what it is. Small and slow. There's little if anything that will result in a performance boost.

 

[RealBeast]

@RealBeast @USAFRet ah, well it was worth a query. Thank you both, for confirming that.

Are you guys sure there isn't any other way I can use the spare HDD for any kind of performance increase (not storage. We've already established that it's a lost cause)? Any small advantage is good enough.

^Agree with USAFRet.

Set it aside in your spare parts closet. Mine is overflowing with pretty much any computer part you can imagine, that I will probably never need again.