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    Question about HDD mixing

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by dodgehemi0, Jan 4, 2010.

  1. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    Can I put a 320gig 7200 in with a 500gig 5400 how can I run them like that.. IN raid 0 or 1 how? or is it not possible..
     
    dodgehemi0, Jan 4, 2010
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  2. SoundOf1HandClapping

    SoundOf1HandClapping Was once a Forge

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    They ened to be the same speed and same capacity to run them in RAID.
     
    SoundOf1HandClapping, Jan 4, 2010
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  3. mc1

    mc1 Notebook Guru

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    As I understand it you can use different drives and end up with:

    Raid 0 being stripped with no redundancy would have a size of 640gb with speed an average of the two disks.
    (ultimately will depend on which disk it has to access for that bit of data, with the size being 640gb as it will treat each disk as 320gb)

    Raid 1 being a mirror have a size of 320gb with the speed of the slowest one.

    Identical disks is not a fundamental requirement of raid, but very much recommended.
     
    mc1, Jan 4, 2010
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  4. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    ok, I just want the 320 to store like songs and video how can I set that up, kind of like a external hdd but internal. Is there a way to do that without having to re-install windows?
     
    dodgehemi0, Jan 4, 2010
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  5. mc1

    mc1 Notebook Guru

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    If you just want it as an extra disk in your system, then just install it, boot windows, run disk management to partition, format and allocate it a drive letter.

    If you wanted to raid it you would need to re-install windows.
     
    mc1, Jan 4, 2010
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  6. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    Hardware RAID requires identical drives, so you are limited to software RAID, which offers very little in terms of I/O performance and adds a small amount of CPU overhead to manage the software. RAID on laptops isn't practical.
     
    Bog, Jan 4, 2010
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  7. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    Sure, you can clone the 320GB to the 500GB drive, make sure that the cloning was successful and then format the 320GB drive and use it as data storage.

    Acronis is one way to clone.

    I would still recommend a clean install of Windows though... but that is much more involved.

    For this to work 'internally' not only do you need a notebook chassis that has dual HD bay's, but you also need the appropriate connectors and wiring in the second bay too. This might seem obvious, but most manufacturer's today seem to like to skimp out on the second wiring (even if there is a second HD bay) harness to save a few pennies.

    Cheers!
     
    tilleroftheearth, Jan 4, 2010
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  8. dodgehemi0

    dodgehemi0 Notebook Evangelist

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    thanks for all the help guys just put the HDD in it showed up as E and I formated it because it had windows on it and now I have a 320gig storage I put my music on thanks guys..
     
    dodgehemi0, Jan 4, 2010
    #8