[Urgent Help Please!] Raid 0 between 2 SSDs not working (pics)

Remmib

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Jan 5, 2013
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Hey guys...appreciate any help I can get with this annoying problem.

So I just formatted my two Crucial M4 drives (one 64GB and one 128GB). I want to combine them in Raid 0 so that I can have a ~180GB SSD drive so that I have more room for games. Otherwise the 64GB drive is pretty useless to me.

I just installed Windows on my OCZ SSD 256GB (I like to have two copies of windows on different drives - one for work and one for gaming), then I went into the bios to switch from AHCI mode to RAID mode.

So here is what I did:

I selected my drives that I wanted to make into Raid 0:

TqxUs.jpg


And after that I thought it was weird that the Capacity only said 119.2GB:

R9gJF.jpg


So I changed it manually....59.6GB + 119.2GB = 178.8GB (which is what I entered below)

p1nnt.jpg


I pressed confirm to create the Raid and it gave me this error:
(Not enough capacity to create volume.)

adBUI.jpg


Here is the screen from my bios:

FBRu0.jpg


I have no idea what is going wrong here...please help me. :??:
 
Solution
Right-click where it says Disk 0 (bottom pane) select Convert to Dynamic Disk then create a new spanned volume from Disk 0 to Disk 1 (unallocated space). This should work.

Remmib

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So what you are telling me is that I cannot take a smaller drive and a larger drive and Raid 0 them together to have a larger drive?

I'm pretty sure that's what my dad did with two HDDs... :??:
 

Remmib

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Ah okay, sorry for the confusion then.

When my dad explained Raid 0 to me and his set up - he made it sound like he had taken a smaller drive and a larger drive and combined them to make one larger drive. I can see that this is not possible with Raid now.

He mentioned something called JBOD that might give me the solution that I want.

Do ya happen to know about this/can ya tell me any more about it?
 
JBOD = Just a Bunch Of Disks.
Its the same as just having both drives in the system without any RAID involved, im guessing if you have an SSD you have a storage HDD on the system? That is a JBOD configuration, where you have multiple drives on a system where they aren't linked or tied together in any way.

Basically, to set up a JBOD just connect the drives to the mobo, boot into Windows, format them and you have yourself a JBOD.
 

Remmib

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Doh :( Okay I already have it set up that way, heh.

Sorry I am being a pain in the butt.

Let me just ask it this way plain and simple.

Is there any possible way for me to take my 64GB and 128GB SSDs and combine them into a larger drive? I already tried going into Disk Management in the Control Panel and trying to right-click -> 'Expand Volume' but the option is grayed out...
 

Remmib

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From what I read that requires 3 disks, I only have two for this.



Well thanks for the help man, and everyone else as well. I'm really surprised there is nothing that does what I want. Guess I am all out of luck.

I guess one last thing...I remember reading about you being able to use an SSD as a 'cache' to increase speed for another drive.

Could I use my 64GB drive as a cache to increase speed for my 128GB SSD (which is where I will have my OS + games on)?
 
Caching an SSD with an SSD is pointless, I recently answered another thread on this very subject so i'l just link to that than explain again.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/378501-31-benefit-cache-primary
If anything performance would decrease. Due to the technology behind SSD's, the higher capacity they are, the faster they perform.

You could cache a HDD with the SSD and see good results. Might be a good upgrade for an older system if it supports that capability.
 

Remmib

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Okay, thanks, I'll check that out.




You have all the answers, heh.

Okay, so let me ask this then.

As an aside - any chance you have ever used Steam before (because the following explanation will make a lot more sense if so)? Let me explain how I've got it set up. So, I have a 300GB partition on my 2TB HDD that I have allocated for games to be installed that aren't made by Valve - when these games are installed they are installed to a folder called 'common' on the main SSD drive - when I set the 300GB partition up I specifically linked the 'common' folder to the 300GB partition (I am not sure what this option is called in Disk Management, maybe Symbolic Link? I can't remember right now). So my question is, can I use the SSD as a cache for a part of a partition?

I really hope that all made sense, also do you have any opinion on the above mentioned 'dynamic disk' setup?

-edited for clarity-
 
My Steam folder is 295GB in size. Yep, I know what Steam is :lol:

I think you can setup a cache for a specific partition using Intel SRT, which is available on Intel motherboards later than Z68 (with the possible exception of B75). Not sure (with a suspicion you cant) set up the cache for a folder within the partition.
Im guessing that your using the 300GB partition for just general programs? I dont see any downside to caching the whole partition. SRT will figure out what data is requested the most and cache it for fast access later, so you will get the best performance for the programs you use the most. Also remember that its going to be a 64GB cache on a 300GB partition. There are fairly large performance boosts when you do something along the lines of 32GB cache and a 2TB HDD. I suspect you will get great performance from the programs in there afterward.

Considering that I only just learnt that Dynamic Disk even existed, I cant really give a valid opinion until I understand what it is. So for now I'm nuetral, will look it up tomorrow (its 3AM here in Aus, I need to go to bed).
 

Remmib

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Oh alrighty, then. I will just go ahead and do the SSD Cache for the entire 2TB drive.

Before you go would you pretty please give me a link or something to a guide on how to do that?

I just pulled an all-nighter trying to trouble-shoot, but I understand it's late there. Thanks for all of your help.
 

Remmib

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So I redownloaded the Intel SRT app.

But here is what mine looks like:

aWjZj.png


and here is what his from the video looks like:

BwEcp.jpg



See how mine is missing the 'Accelerate' option...what's the dealio with that? Pressing 'Manage' basically does nothing...
 

richy_g

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Oct 14, 2012
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If you do into Disk Management you can combine two drives of any size into a single logical volume, i.e. it will appear to Windows explorer as a single disk.

Its called a spanned volume in windows 7, you will need to backup the content of both disks as you will lose all data during the process. Once you've done that go to Disk Management, right click on one of the drives and delete volume, do the same for the 2nd. Then right click again and choose create new spanned volume.
 

Remmib

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Hmm, okay.

I just tried what you told me...but, well the screenshot speaks for itself.

I rightclicked on the 64GB drive to do 'New Spanned Volume' as that option was grayed out on the 128GB drive.

It never lets me click the 'next' button and it stays grayed out no matter what I do...

a0VB2.png


What's the issue?
 

Remmib

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These are the only options I am given...

http://i.imgur.com/rPEEU.png

edit - DOOOOOOHHH - you have to click on the left side.

:pfff: