My laptop has 3 storage slots, can I combine them into one huge storage?

[cwgzz]

I am not sure if this is possible or not, but there is a video of Linus’s where he makes a hard drive from a bunch of micro sd cards, video down below. So my laptop has 3 storage slots, 2 are NVMe slots, and the other is just a normal hard drive slot. I have a total of about 2TB (1TB, 500GB, 500GB) combined, but I was wondering if I am able to merge the partitions from all of my drives into like one huge 2TB storage so I don’t have to always keep picking and choosing where I put things and stuff, also all 3 are internal. Not connected via USB adapter or anything. thanks  

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

What os are you using? 

 

Windows can't run raid/exteneded partitions on the boot drive, but you can do as you like on the other drives.

 

Id just keep the drives seperate.

[cwgzz]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What os are you using? 

 

Windows can't run raid/exteneded partitions on the boot drive, but you can do as you like on the other drives.

 

Id just keep the drives seperate.

I’m in windows 10. And I don’t like having 3 separate drives… it’s so annoying to me… 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, cwgzz said:

I’m in windows 10. And I don’t like having 3 separate drives… it’s so annoying to me… 

You can make a extended partition for the non boot drives, but you can't merge the boot drive with the others in this setup.

 

Also have good backups, if one drives dies, all the data is gone too.

[cwgzz]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can make a extended partition for the non boot drives

What does this mean exactly? Can you explain a little bit what you mean? I really appreciate it. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, cwgzz said:

What does this mean exactly? Can you explain a little bit what you mean? I really appreciate it. 

You can make on big partition between 2 drives. 

 

Right click on the partition, then convert to a dynamic volume, then delete the partition on the other drive, then extend it to the other drive. 

[cwgzz]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can make on big partition between 2 drives. 

 

Right click on the partition, then convert to a dynamic volume, then delete the partition on the other drive, then extend it to the other drive. 

Ah okay, but I can’t do that to my C: drive, just the 2 extra storages I have right? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, cwgzz said:

Ah okay, but I can’t do that to my C: drive, just the 2 extra storages I have right? 

Nope, just the other drives you have.

 

If you want one big drive, its easiest to just buy a single 2tb ssd and sell the other drives.

[cwgzz]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Nope, just the other drives you have.

 

If you want one big drive, its easiest to just buy a single 2tb ssd and sell the other drives.

I see. Thank you for helping me. Just out of curiosity, is it even possible to extend an SSD and a HDD since they have different R/W speeds? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, cwgzz said:

I see. Thank you for helping me. Just out of curiosity, is it even possible to extend an SSD and a HDD since they have different R/W speeds? 

Yup you can extende a ssd to hdd or vice versa, but half the drive will be ssd speed and half will be at hdd speed. Caching/tiering would work much better.

 

But for a hdd + ssd setup its normally best to just use them as separate drives.

[cwgzz]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yup you can extende a ssd to hdd or vice versa, but half the drive will be ssd speed and half will be at hdd speed. Caching/tiering would work much better.

 

But for a hdd + ssd setup its normally best to just use them as separate drives.

Your answers are just so spot on and easy to understand. Thank you for helping me!! 

[cwgzz]

14 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can make on big partition between 2 drives. 

 

Right click on the partition, then convert to a dynamic volume, then delete the partition on the other drive, then extend it to the other drive. 

I don’t see the “convert to a dynamic volume” option… 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, cwgzz said:

I don’t see the “convert to a dynamic volume” option… 

Should be on the left, so if you right click the spot where it says disk 4 for example. Its also convert to dynamic disk, not volume oops.

 

ALso Id really not do this. Its much better to just use them as separate drives.

[cwgzz]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Should be on the left, so if you right click the spot where it says disk 4 for example. Its also convert to dynamic disk, not volume oops.

 

ALso Id really not do this. Its much better to just use them as separate drives.

Why would you not do this? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, cwgzz said:

Why would you not do this? 

Much more chance of data loss as either drive can cause all the data to be lost. 

 

Id just use one drive for games, and the other for other files, and manage the files manually.

[cwgzz]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Much more chance of data loss as either drive can cause all the data to be lost. 

 

Id just use one drive for games, and the other for other files, and manage the files manually.

Is it easier for the drives to just be corrupted since they’re merged storage? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, cwgzz said:

Is it easier for the drives to just be corrupted since they’re merged storage? 

Corruption isn't as big of a issue as if one drive failed, all the data is gone.

 

Its really not that hard to manage multiple drives on the system

[cwgzz]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Corruption isn't as big of a issue as if one drive failed, all the data is gone.

 

Its really not that hard to manage multiple drives on the system

I don’t think they will fail any time soon. They’re all SSDs and fairly new. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, cwgzz said:

I don’t think they will fail any time soon. They’re all SSDs and fairly new. 

Failure is pretty random. Drives can fail at any time with no warning. 

 

If you want a big volume id really suggest you just get one bigger drive.

 

Whats your backup plan for the laptop?

[cwgzz]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Failure is pretty random. Drives can fail at any time with no warning. 

 

If you want a big volume id really suggest you just get one bigger drive.

 

Whats your backup plan for the laptop?

I don’t have a back up plan… just kinda going on risk I guess haha 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, cwgzz said:

I don’t have a back up plan… just kinda going on risk I guess haha 

Yea Id backup the laptop.

 

And just keep the drives seperate. Its really not hard to manage it that way.

[OddOod]

If the issue is bulk storage then I'd go with a home built NAS because wow those are educational to learn to run (Ubuntu and MDADM is good to cut your teeth on, UnRAID is fine if you just want stuff to mostly work but not be rock solid)
If you're annoyed that you have to shift data around, you could just upgrade the drive sizes. 2TB ssds are almost winning the $/TB war, though honestly 3 1TB drives is a lot for a laptop

I guess I would like to know what's annoying you about managing multiple drives