Enarlging current C: drive using additional disks

[tommibot]

Hello Everyone.

 

I currently have a 2TB SSD on which my OS is installed. I have not set up any partitions and do not want to.

Looking at disk management it is visible that there are some hidden partitions created by windows 10 (ie, not assigned a drive letter), bu there is only 1 drive that is visible by the system that my OS is installed on. Drive C:/. This disk is labeled as disk 0

 

I have another spare SSD of 500GB which i installed in the PC also. this is labeled as disk 1

 

I would like to combine this 500GB with the current C:/ drive to have a C:/ drive that would be 2.5GB in size. The way I would like to do this is to create a spanned volume that would incorporate the 2 physical SSDs, and be visible in windows 10 as C;/

 

I have been reading on the net, and unfortunately cannot find clear information, and additionally there is conflicting information out there.

I have read in some places that you cannot have the operation system (in this case Windows 10) be installed on a spanned volume, however I have also seen some information that says its entirely possible with no problems, and other places where its said its possible but not recommended (although without a reason for not recommending it).

 

I would like to get a clear answer on this, because i am running in circles now. I do not want to start from scratch either, so my approach would be the following (please let me know if this is possible, and if it is but its not a good idea please provide the reason behind it. Please keep in mind that i want to increase the capacity of my C:/ drive because i want to be able to install more programs etc. I am not looking for a solution that separates my C:/ drive and then has an additional drive (eg.D:/) that is the spanned volume

 

The approach would be this:

 

1. Convert current disk 0 (the physical SSD with the system C:drive located on there together with recovery, and other non-lettered sections) into a dynamic disk

2. Convert the additional disk 1 (the empty unallocated SSD) into a dynamic disk: an option to do this together with the disk 0 conversion should be available.

3. Once the conversion to dynamic disks is done for both disks i right click on the volume on disk 0 where system (windows 10) is installed and choose to extend it.

4. I select the available space on disk 1 (in this case all of it) to add it, and then click finish or complete, and then the C:/ drive (with the OS installed on there) now incorporates the storage space from both physical drives under the single drive letter of C:/ system

 

 

I really hope I can get a concrete answer on this, and perhaps an updated one, as I see most of the information avialble is for older versions of windows or 3-4 years old.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

[Allupyourfinger]

Here is a good guide to get you going. 

 

I have done this before so if you need any help or have any further questions let me know.

 

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

[schwellmo92]

As far as I know you will need to wipe both drives to create a spanned volume.

[tommibot]

14 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

As far as I know you will need to wipe both drives to create a spanned volume.

Actually, from what i have been able to gather so far, in windows 10 there is no need to wipe drive before changing to dynamic and then spanning them (and doing so doesnt wipe data either

[tommibot]

14 hours ago, Allupyourfinger said:

Here is a good guide to get you going. 

 

I have done this before so if you need any help or have any further questions let me know.

 

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

Hey, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, i have seen this guide already. There is one section in there that actually mentions that what i want to do would not be possible (and in other guides it says the opposite) The sections states:

 

"Another difference between these two solutions is that you can easily add more hard 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 you cannot use hard drives containing a Windows installation as the operating system can't boot from a Dynamic disk."

 

So considering that I want to change my system drive disk to a dynamic one and then make it a spanned volume incorporating the 2nd SSD, this statement would suggest its not possible. But like I said, in other guides I have read that wndows can boot from dynamic discs and spanned volumes...

 

 

So when you say that you have done this before, do you mean that you have done what i am attempting to do: have a spanned volume (consisting of the combination of 2 dynamic drive SSDs) as the system drive?

 

[UncleJarvis]

Lotta work to add 500GB...

[tommibot]

56 minutes ago, UncleJarvis said:

Lotta work to add 500GB...

500GB worth of programs that could be installed. Also beats having it just sit around doing nothing when i could utilize it in an unobtrusive way.

[schwellmo92]

3 hours ago, tommibot said:

500GB worth of programs that could be installed. Also beats having it just sit around doing nothing when i could utilize it in an unobtrusive way.

You can still install programs on the disk if you map it to another drive..

[tommibot]

35 minutes ago, schwellmo92 said:

You can still install programs on the disk if you map it to another drive..

Hey. Yeah i know that is possible, but its just messy.

I would prefer to have only 1 drive letter where my OS and all programs are installed.

 

I have a NAS from which i have mapped other drives for my data. So i would like to only have 1 for my system.