Multiple hard drive setup?

[Neal Dalondy]

Hello, I would like to setup a combination of HDD and SSD in my pc and I am wondering what the best way to do that would be. I want an SSD for the OS and another for Battlefield4 and Ark. For the rest of my data I want to use one or more HDDs. My question is what is the best way to set it up, I've heard about setting up a Raid and using the drives externally. Could I setup the data I want on the drives and plug them into a dock or would I be better off setting up a Raid? Also ate there other options?

[ProjectBox153]

Just put them all in your computer. You can use RAID, but if you're a beginner with multiple drives, I wouldn't. Just install your OS on the SSD and install your other programs on a separate hard drive.

[brob]

Use a single larger ssd rather than two smaller ones.

Use internal units for better throughput.

Don't bother with RAID.

Setup the ssd as drive C:, system and boot. The hdd would become D:, etc.

You will need a backup solution. Depending on the amount of data involved, it can be an external drive, a NAS (network attached storage) unit, and/or involve cloud storage.

 

[Neal Dalondy]

4 hours ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Just put them all in your computer. You can use RAID, but if you're a beginner with multiple drives, I wouldn't. Just install your OS on the SSD and install your other programs on a separate hard drive.

So I can just plug in as many SSDs/HDDs as my motherboard and powersupply can support without doing a Raid?

[Neal Dalondy]

4 hours ago, brob said:

Use a single larger ssd rather than two smaller ones.

Use internal units for better throughput.

Don't bother with RAID.

Setup the ssd as drive C:, system and boot. The hdd would become D:, etc.

You will need a backup solution. Depending on the amount of data involved, it can be an external drive, a NAS (network attached storage) unit, and/or involve cloud storage.

 

All I have at the moment is 120GB SSDs and I want the OS on it and a few games that would benefit from the extra speed. As far as backups are you talking restore points or regular file backups? So far I have only ever had pcs with one HDD so the few times I have had problems I lost a bunch of stuff.

[ProjectBox153]

31 minutes ago, Neal Dalondy said:

So I can just plug in as many SSDs/HDDs as my motherboard and powersupply can support without doing a Raid?

Yes. They'll show up as individual drives, but yes.

[Neal Dalondy]

1 hour ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Yes. They'll show up as individual drives, but yes.

Hehehe I suppose I should have started with that question then seeing that was the result I was after in the first place. Thanks for the info!

[brob]

 

2 hours ago, Neal Dalondy said:

All I have at the moment is 120GB SSDs and I want the OS on it and a few games that would benefit from the extra speed. As far as backups are you talking restore points or regular file backups? So far I have only ever had pcs with one HDD so the few times I have had problems I lost a bunch of stuff.

 

I'm talking about external backups. WD, Seagate and a bunch of other companies make external drives that can be used for backup. Some of them are marketed as backup drives and come with software. I use Acronis True Image Home for back ups. There are several other reasonably low cost programs available.

 

In Windows 10 you can add directories on other volumes  to libraries like Documents and the My ... folders.