How To Combine 2 Hard Drives Windows 10

When you have multiple difficult drives on your figurer, information technology can apace go hard to keep track where your files are located. Nevertheless, like to previous versions, Windows 10 includes two features that can enable you to combine all the drives on your PC into a unmarried large volume.

These 2 features are known as "Spanned" and "Striped" volumes, and both offering similar functionality, simply they employ different methods to write data to the hard drive.

If yous use a Spanned volume, you can combine two or more difficult drives of different sizes to create one big volume. On Spanned, drives are utilize sequentially, meaning data won't exist written to the second hard bulldoze until the first hard drive is full.

On the other hand, if y'all use a Striped volume, you lot can likewise combine two or more than difficult drives to create one large volume. However, if you desire to use the entire available space, you'll demand to employ hard drives of the same size. On Striped, data is written beyond all participating drives, offering better functioning than the Spanned pick.

In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk yous through the steps creating one large book combining multiple difficult drives.

How to combine multiple difficult drives into 1 large volume

It'southward important to note that you volition erase the content of the hard drives participating of the Spanned or Striped volume, as such brand sure to backup the data before proceeding.

1. Apply the Windows primal + X keyboard shortcut to open up the Power User menu and select Disk Management.
2. Correct-click the difficult drive volume and select Delete volume.

3. Click Yep to confirm the deletion of the electric current volume and all its content.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 on the hard drives you want to combine.
5. Right-click the unallocated space of the bulldoze and select New Striped Volume (or New Spanned Volume).
6. Click Side by side.

7. Select the boosted disks, one by one, and click Add.
8. Click Side by side.

9. Leave the default drive alphabetic character assignment and click Next.
10. Make sure the file system is fix to NTFS, resource allotment unit size is set to default, and choose a book label.
11. Check the Perform a quick format option.
12. Click Side by side.

13. Click Finish.

14. You lot'll be prompted to convert the hard drive from basic to dynamic, click Yeah to complete the chore.

Another difference betwixt these ii solutions is that you can easily add together more difficult drives to your computer to extend a Spanned volume, something that is not supported on Striped volumes.

The only caveat with these solutions is that yous cannot utilise hard drives containing a Windows installation every bit the operating system tin't boot from a Dynamic deejay. In improver, both Spanned and Striped volumes exercise not use parity, which ways they the don't provide error tolerance — if one drive fails you will lose the information on all hard drives —so brand sure to create regular backups of your computer.

The best solution for you will depend on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're looking to combine dissimilar hard bulldoze sizes to create a big book, and so your better option may be Spanned volume. If you're looking to increase read and write performance, while creating a large book from multiple drives, perhaps Striped volume is the best solution.

While you tin can use Spanned or Striped volume on Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, you tin can also use these instructions on Windows 8.one and fifty-fifty Windows 7.

Finally, it's worth pointing out that thanks to Windows 10 flexibility, you can also use Storage Spaces to create a single volume using multiple drives.

More Windows 10 resources

For more help articles, coverage, and answers on Windows 10, y'all tin visit the following resource:

• Windows 10 on Windows Key – All you lot need to know
• Windows x help, tips, and tricks
• Windows 10 forums on Windows Central

Mauro Huculak is technical writer for WindowsCentral.com. His principal focus is to write comprehensive how-tos to assist users become the nearly out of Windows ten and its many related technologies. He has an IT background with professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA, and he's a recognized member of the Microsoft MVP community.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-one-large-volume-using-multiple-hard-drives-windows-10

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