HELP with RAID between different drives

[theworstmeme]

So I can't seem to get raid working properly on  my end, not sure if I need to get something for this to happen, but here's what I'm dealing with:

AsRock 970 Extreme 3

1 TB WD Blue (nothing installed, brand new)

500 gig Toshiba drive (windows install with all my stuff)

 

How do I get raid working properly without having to lose my data and start with a clean install? I just bought the 1TB drive and really dont want that money to be wasted.

 

I'm fairly new to this but still know what I'm doing with my computer, I've just never installed a raid config before so I need a little help.

 

[HPWebcamAble]

Short answer: Don't use RAID with those. Use them individually.

 

Long Answer:

I HOPE you didn't plan on using RAID 0. Raid 1 would make some sense, but you would loose 500 GB of storage.

You'd need a third drive to store the data on, then initiate the RAID, then transfer from the third drive to the RAID.

[theworstmeme]

It doesn't *really matter* what kind of raid it is for me personally, since I'm not a huge speed freak. I just wanted to be able to use both the drives for more storage. If that's not possible, well then I guess I have some reinstalling to do. Is there anyway possible way I can use both drives? Like I said, I don't really have any requirements for speed or anything I just want more storage.

[exercutor5]

6 minutes ago, theworstmeme said:

It doesn't *really matter* what kind of raid it is for me personally, since I'm not a huge speed freak. I just wanted to be able to use both the drives for more storage. If that's not possible, well then I guess I have some reinstalling to do. Is there anyway possible way I can use both drives? Like I said, I don't really have any requirements for speed or anything I just want more storage.

If you are trying to get more storage, get more drives and use them. RAID is not used for letting you have more storage space. RAID is for redundancy in case of drive failure, so that you will not lose all your data. The only type of RAID that does not seem to fit the meaning of RAID is RAID 0, where 2 or more drives are formed in an array to double or triple (or I don't know how many times, depends on the number of drives you want to put in this array) its capacity and to be used as if it is one drive. RAID 0 is bloody risky as something as simple as a power loss can cause the array to fail and lose all your data in the process. 

 

And if you want to use your new WD Blue, just store some stuff on it, like games or something.

[icey]

18 minutes ago, theworstmeme said:

It doesn't *really matter* what kind of raid it is for me personally, since I'm not a huge speed freak. I just wanted to be able to use both the drives for more storage. If that's not possible, well then I guess I have some reinstalling to do. Is there anyway possible way I can use both drives? Like I said, I don't really have any requirements for speed or anything I just want more storage.

You really ought to google RAID arrays. In a desktop environment, they won't provide any "speed freak" performance. Performance has nothing to do with RAID arrays. There are many misconceptions regarding the only 'performance raid' being RAID 0. My advise, stick to JBOD, that's for storage. Use an external HDD to backup important files.

 

 

[HPWebcamAble]

1 hour ago, theworstmeme said:

I just want more storage.

Just use them as separate drives. The new drive will need to be formatted in window's disk management before you can store files on it.

[zMeul]

for someone who wants more storage, you're throwing away ~500GB of HDD space by RAIDing those 2 in RAID 0

 

you should use those drives independently, but there's an alternative if you want to merge them: JBOD

here's how: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/36504/how-to-create-a-software-raid-array-in-windows-7/