meperera
asked on
Combine two physical hard drives to one logical drive
Hi All,
I have a 250GB hard drive where my company's client data is stored and this drive is mapped as the O: drive on all company computers. However now we are running out of space on this drive and I've got another 500GB hard drive that I will be using to make my disk space 750GB. My question is how do I combine the two physical drives to the one logical drive so I can still share the O: drive and let everyone have access to the full 750GB instead of having two drive letters.
I have a 250GB hard drive where my company's client data is stored and this drive is mapped as the O: drive on all company computers. However now we are running out of space on this drive and I've got another 500GB hard drive that I will be using to make my disk space 750GB. My question is how do I combine the two physical drives to the one logical drive so I can still share the O: drive and let everyone have access to the full 750GB instead of having two drive letters.
You can indeed to this by converting the disks to dynamic disks and creatinf a spanned volume, alternativly you could create a volume mount point http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/prork/prdf_fls_ogex.mspx?mfr=true
Be aware that both of these methods share a fundamental weakness - if either drive fails you lose all data so regular backups are essential.
Be aware that both of these methods share a fundamental weakness - if either drive fails you lose all data so regular backups are essential.
ASKER
Thanks,
I failed to mention that this machine is a WIN XP SP2. Both the above articles talk about Win 2000 and 2003. how do I implement this in XP ?
I failed to mention that this machine is a WIN XP SP2. Both the above articles talk about Win 2000 and 2003. how do I implement this in XP ?
XP Professional supports spanned volumes.
XP Home I would doubt it does.
Please NOTE after converting to a dynamic disk which spanned volumes needed, the road back to a simple disk if you need to is not easy. Make sure you have a backup regiume in place.
Converting to Dynamic disks in XP
http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_10.htm
Creating the spanned volume.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/dm_spanned_volume.mspx
.
Terry
XP Home I would doubt it does.
Please NOTE after converting to a dynamic disk which spanned volumes needed, the road back to a simple disk if you need to is not easy. Make sure you have a backup regiume in place.
Converting to Dynamic disks in XP
http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_10.htm
Creating the spanned volume.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/dm_spanned_volume.mspx
.
Terry
A word of warning though with spanned volumes.
If any one single disk in the whole entire spanned volume fails, all the data in the entire volume is lost.
If any one single disk in the whole entire spanned volume fails, all the data in the entire volume is lost.
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ASKER
Are there any software packages that can do this without failure ?
The only good way to do RAID (what you want to do) is with a hardware RAID controler, all software RAID controlers are less reliable and will fail on you. I agree with the others DO NOT SPAN YOUR DRIVES.
Copy everything to the 500GB and use that. If you want the aditional 250GB install it as a secondary drive. You can then map that second drive to a folder on the main drive if you want http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307889
SPANED VOULMES ARE BAD... IF EITHER DRIVE FAILS YOU WILL LOOSE EVERYTHING ONCE AGAIN YOU WILL LOOSE EVERYTHING.
eb
Copy everything to the 500GB and use that. If you want the aditional 250GB install it as a secondary drive. You can then map that second drive to a folder on the main drive if you want http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307889
SPANED VOULMES ARE BAD... IF EITHER DRIVE FAILS YOU WILL LOOSE EVERYTHING ONCE AGAIN YOU WILL LOOSE EVERYTHING.
eb
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here some info on raid : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
if you want redundancy, i would select a raid 1 or raid 5 setup, for fault tolerance.
if you want redundancy, i would select a raid 1 or raid 5 setup, for fault tolerance.
Can't do raid 5 with only 2 drives, and raid 1 would only get 250GB as it takes the size of the smallest drive. I don't think RAID is what the asker is looking for.
yes he can buy drives . . .
And a RIAD controler that can do RAID 5, that can get quite costly.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/efdfa6aa-4077-45c7-a24c-894df9102b6a1033.mspx?mfr=true
Create a Spanned Volume
Here is a page about dynamic disks:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/efdfa6aa-4077-45c7-a24c-894df9102b6a1033.mspx?mfr=true
Dynamic Disks and Volumes