Confusing Storage Puzzle

[Tmt97]

So I have a slight problem that I'm not sure how to deal with relating to storage. You see I just built my new computer, and for hard drives I salvaged 5 out of other computers I either scrapped, or once used. I'm trying to reorganize the data on them, but I'm a bit overwhelmed and confused as to how to proceed.

 

First let me explain the current state of my storage. I have about 3-4 different operating systems spread out amongst the drives. Windows 7 is on one drive, Ubuntu and Elementary OS are on another, and I think one has Lubuntu. In addition to the operating systems, I have files(research) I might want to save on two of the drives.

 

Now here's what I'm trying to do. I want to move all the operating systems onto one drive. Its a 2.5" laptop drive, and it is my understanding that laptop drives generally run faster, hence why I want to boot from it. Second, I want to set up the rest of the drives in raid, where two of the drives are in raid 0, and the other two are mirroring for redundancy.

 

To add more complications here, I don't have like an external NAS or really anywhere I can store my files temporarily while I try to reorganize things and setup raid, so somehow I have to shuffle my data around from drive to drive, as I set all this up. Any thoughts on how to go about doing all this? Thanks!

[astranger200]

how big are they?

dont think laptop drives are faster...

[Chasem121]

You'd have to set up different partitions on the drive and then clone the operating systems to its individual partition. No idea how to make a computer boot into a certain partition however.

 

Laptop drives are usually slower, not faster

[Tmt97]

You'd have to set up different partitions on the drive and then clone the operating systems to its individual partition. No idea how to make a computer boot into a certain partition however.

 

Laptop drives are usually slower, not faster

Hmm... I thought I had read they were faster somewhere. I guess I will boot off the raid then.