how to make 2 drives into 1 bigger one

I have 2 SS 840 Pro 256Gb SSDs. I want to install Windows 7 in AHCI but when I use the installation DVD it's only showing 1 drive. Is there any way to increase the size to 1 512Gb partition? Thanks

 

I can't help you, but I would suggest you kerp them seperate. That way you can manage the free space better. SSDs perform much better when they are not full. If you merge them, one could end up full with the other nearly empty.

 

That is only true if he merges them in JBOD mode. If he used RAID0 data would be distributed evenly across both drives.
SSDs perform much worse when they are full, not better, hence the overprovisioning.

 

Ugh, thanks for the correction. I forgot the not, ie better when not full. ugh. I wouldn't really recomend raid with SSDs either, as not much of a performance gain. But I guess if you must have one drive, then maybe. You double the chance for failure though.

Check the bios for raid...

 

I would advise against any RAID-0 config, just because if something happens, you lose all your data. And since you won't be using SSD's for storage, JBOD is also not an option for you.

My personal preference - use a big enough SSD for your OS and heavy programs and have your regular HDD for storage (movies, pics, songs, random stuff and light programs like winrar).

 

The OP already has two drives and they're both SSDs. In this case the most optimal way to make 2 drives visible as one is RAID0, despite its disadvantages.

To the OP: instead of setting SATA to AHCI in BIOS, set it to RAID and then configure the array to RAID0 (upon booting up). You may have to install RAID drivers during Windows installation. On Clevo's website, in the download section, the appropriate driver for your laptop will be described as 'RAID driver'.

 

As mentioned RAID 0 is what you want to do. When doing so you will also get faster read/write times but lose redundancy.

What are you trying to accomplish by combining the drives?

 

I wanted to be able to use Samsung Magician software but from what I understand it only works in AHCI; I am now in RAID 0. But in AHCI mode I wouldn't be able to combine the 2 drives as now.

 

There is no way of linking drives in AHCI mode when one of the drives is the boot partition.

 

I thought, not sure, that I read that Samsung Magician will only work with one drive. Either way, depending on your usage it may not be helping. You might post in the SSD to get more info...

 

I assume that you are referring to the RAPID mode, recently able to support 840 Pro SSDs (initially it only worked on 840 EVOs). Samsung Magician software explicitly states:
'Limitation: RAPID mode accelerates one SSD even though the system may have more than one 840 EVO SSDs'.

Anyway, RAID0 built from two 840 Pro SSDs will be faster and more consistent than 840 Pro SSD operating in RAPID mode.

 

Thanks for the clarification, that was what I was thinking of.

 

I'd always rely on raw performance over any such gimmicks.

 

True, I couldn't agree more, but such gimmicks help sales.

 

Speaking of raid, i've seen some cheap 512GB vectors going (what with the OCZ financial issues) and i'm tempted to pick one up for some raid 0.