• Merging(?) two SSDs

    From F@21:1/5 to All on Sat Aug 24 16:41:25 2024
    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe
    1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as
    drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the
    present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs.
    Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the
    whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    --
    Frank

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  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@21:1/5 to news@nowhere on Sun Aug 25 09:51:30 2024
    On 24 Aug 2024 at 16:41:25 BST, "F" <news@nowhere> wrote:

    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe
    1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as
    drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs. Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    Apparently it is. I started out writing a "boot a usb partitioning tool,
    use that to resize C:, go to Disk Management and convert your disks from
    Basic to Active..." but this says Win11 can do it all non-destructively:

    https://pureinfotech.com/change-partition-size-windows-11/

    As far as I can tell this is not a chatgpt hallucination script, but I
    don't use Win11 so I can't directly confirm.

    Cheers - Jaimie

    --
    "Please stop telling us what you feel. Please stop telling us
    what your intuition is. Your intuitive feelings are of no
    interest whatsoever, and nor are mine. I don't give a bugger
    what you feel, or what I feel. I want to know what the evidence shows." -- Richard Dawkins

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From F@21:1/5 to Jaimie Vandenbergh on Sun Aug 25 11:31:19 2024
    On 25/08/2024 10:51, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
    On 24 Aug 2024 at 16:41:25 BST, "F" <news@nowhere> wrote:

    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe
    1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as
    drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the
    present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs.
    Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the
    whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    Apparently it is. I started out writing a "boot a usb partitioning tool,
    use that to resize C:, go to Disk Management and convert your disks from Basic to Active..." but this says Win11 can do it all non-destructively:

    https://pureinfotech.com/change-partition-size-windows-11/

    As far as I can tell this is not a chatgpt hallucination script, but I
    don't use Win11 so I can't directly confirm.

    Cheers - Jaimie

    Thanks. I've used the Windows 11 built-in method to resize C and then
    expand D with both on a single SSD but it's the merging the unallocated
    space on C with a separate physical SSD drive D that's bothering me.

    I'll have a look at your link and see how it goes!

    Frank

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Sun Aug 25 14:12:49 2024
    In article <kOOdnbRWVcS7YlT7nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, F wrote...

    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe
    1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as
    drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs. Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    There might be a solution here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/storage-spaces-in-windows-b6c8b540- b8d8-fb8a-e7ab-4a75ba11f9f2

    Or maybe here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1621482/how-to-merge-two- disks-in-windows-10

    I'll be interested to hear how you get on if you try either of these.

    --

    Phil, London

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Sun Aug 25 15:41:18 2024
    In article <MPG.41353e29a0d3408b989ae6@news.eternal-september.org>, Philip Herlihy wrote...

    In article <kOOdnbRWVcS7YlT7nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, F wrote...

    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe 1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs. Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    There might be a solution here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/storage-spaces-in-windows-b6c8b540-
    b8d8-fb8a-e7ab-4a75ba11f9f2

    Or maybe here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1621482/how-to-merge-two- disks-in-windows-10

    I'll be interested to hear how you get on if you try either of these.

    Another option might be to use a junction point to make part of one disk appear to be part of the folder hierarchy on another. This article is a good summary of this useful facility. https://www.2brightsparks.com/resources/articles/NTFS-Hard-Links-Junctions-and- Symbolic-Links.pdf

    I use these when filesystems are essentially replicated on different systems but possibly with a differently named arc of the hierarchy. This can happen in OneDrive when the system has given the same MS Account a different local username and corresponding folder in \Users. Adding a junction with the 'expected' name makes a path on one machine viable on another. If they junction point is located in the same folder as its target folder, then navigation always works as expected.

    Note that they can have unexpected consquences. If you refer to a file using a full path which traverses a junction then you get the file, no problem. But if you navigate (e.g. in a script) across a junction to an arbitrary location then "up one folder" will land you in the destination hierarchy rather than the one you've come from. "Back a folder" will behave as expected (bear in mind many users may not appreciate there is a junction involved and you may forget!).

    Another option that occurs to me is that there is the option to mount a volume in an empty NTFS folder. Never done that, so I can't comment on how navigation would behave.
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk- management/assign-a-mount-point-folder-path-to-a-drive
    --

    Phil, London

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Sun Aug 25 15:45:14 2024
    In article <MPG.413552ea338df911989ae7@news.eternal-september.org>, Philip Herlihy wrote...

    In article <MPG.41353e29a0d3408b989ae6@news.eternal-september.org>, Philip Herlihy wrote...

    In article <kOOdnbRWVcS7YlT7nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, F wrote...

    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe 1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs. Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    There might be a solution here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/storage-spaces-in-windows-b6c8b540-
    b8d8-fb8a-e7ab-4a75ba11f9f2

    Or maybe here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1621482/how-to-merge-two-
    disks-in-windows-10

    I'll be interested to hear how you get on if you try either of these.

    Another option might be to use a junction point to make part of one disk appear
    to be part of the folder hierarchy on another. This article is a good summary
    of this useful facility. https://www.2brightsparks.com/resources/articles/NTFS-Hard-Links-Junctions-and-
    Symbolic-Links.pdf

    I use these when filesystems are essentially replicated on different systems but possibly with a differently named arc of the hierarchy. This can happen in
    OneDrive when the system has given the same MS Account a different local username and corresponding folder in \Users. Adding a junction with the 'expected' name makes a path on one machine viable on another. If they junction point is located in the same folder as its target folder, then navigation always works as expected.

    Note that they can have unexpected consquences. If you refer to a file using a
    full path which traverses a junction then you get the file, no problem. But if
    you navigate (e.g. in a script) across a junction to an arbitrary location then
    "up one folder" will land you in the destination hierarchy rather than the one
    you've come from. "Back a folder" will behave as expected (bear in mind many users may not appreciate there is a junction involved and you may forget!).

    Another option that occurs to me is that there is the option to mount a volume
    in an empty NTFS folder. Never done that, so I can't comment on how navigation
    would behave.
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk- management/assign-a-mount-point-folder-path-to-a-drive

    And another thing that occurs to me is that you can change the physical location of "standard" folders (e.g. "Documents") so that files are stored and retrieved on another volume. Note, though, that the OneDrive "folder backup" system uses the same mechanism, so you can't do both.

    --

    Phil, London

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@21:1/5 to news@nowhere on Sun Aug 25 17:05:42 2024
    On 25 Aug 2024 at 11:31:19 BST, "F" <news@nowhere> wrote:

    On 25/08/2024 10:51, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
    On 24 Aug 2024 at 16:41:25 BST, "F" <news@nowhere> wrote:

    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe >>> 1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as
    drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the
    present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs.
    Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the >>> whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    Apparently it is. I started out writing a "boot a usb partitioning tool,
    use that to resize C:, go to Disk Management and convert your disks from
    Basic to Dynamic..." but this says Win11 can do it all non-destructively:

    https://pureinfotech.com/change-partition-size-windows-11/

    As far as I can tell this is not a chatgpt hallucination script, but I
    don't use Win11 so I can't directly confirm.

    Cheers - Jaimie

    Thanks. I've used the Windows 11 built-in method to resize C and then
    expand D with both on a single SSD but it's the merging the unallocated
    space on C with a separate physical SSD drive D that's bothering me.

    Ah, the "Expand" section on that site doesn't have the necessary
    precondition of converting the disks from Basic to Dynamic. This is
    needed in order to be able to expand one drive letter over partitions on
    two physical drives.
    * Convert both disks to Dynamic (right click) which *should* be possible
    live, might need a reboot
    * Delete any volumes on the second drive
    * Format your D: space on the first drive, right click "expand" and it
    should let you choose the second drive.

    I should mention that of course this doubles your chances of losing
    everything on the D: drive, as if either SSD fails then it's all gone.

    Cheers - Jaimie
    --
    Good judgement comes from experience.
    Experience comes from bad judgement.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@21:1/5 to news@nowhere on Sun Aug 25 17:00:25 2024
    On 25 Aug 2024 at 11:31:19 BST, "F" <news@nowhere> wrote:

    On 25/08/2024 10:51, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
    On 24 Aug 2024 at 16:41:25 BST, "F" <news@nowhere> wrote:

    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe >>> 1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as
    drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the
    present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs.
    Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the >>> whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    Apparently it is. I started out writing a "boot a usb partitioning tool,
    use that to resize C:, go to Disk Management and convert your disks from
    Basic to Active..." but this says Win11 can do it all non-destructively:

    https://pureinfotech.com/change-partition-size-windows-11/

    As far as I can tell this is not a chatgpt hallucination script, but I
    don't use Win11 so I can't directly confirm.

    Cheers - Jaimie

    Thanks. I've used the Windows 11 built-in method to resize C and then
    expand D with both on a single SSD but it's the merging the unallocated
    space on C with a separate physical SSD drive D that's bothering me.

    That's the easy bit so should just work :)

    I'll have a look at your link and see how it goes!


    Cheers - Jaimie
    --
    It's OK. I'm an atheist catholic.
    So you just feel guilty for /no readily apparent reason/.
    - deKay and Gareth Halfacree, ugvm

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From F@21:1/5 to All on Tue Aug 27 11:10:15 2024
    On 24/08/2024 16:41, F wrote:
    I've acquired a new laptop with 2TB of storage provided by two PCIe NVMe
    1TB SSDs.

    One has been installed as drive C (yes, all 1TB of it) and the other as
    drive D.

    I'd prefer to retain the C and D arrangement but with just 300GB of the present C holding Windows and its files along with installed programs. Ideally, I would have the balance of the present C drive, 700GB, and the whole of the present D drive seen as one D drive.

    Is this possible? If it is, how would I go about it please?

    Thanks, all, for the suggestions.

    After a few hours searching and reading it seems that what I want to do
    isn't possible and, if it was, the consequences of one of the drives
    failing wouldn't be worth the benefits I'm looking for.

    I'll play safe and go for my usual setup and transfer the usual library
    folders to the second drive then shrink C and create E.

    If only a 2TB drive had been installed rather than the two 1TB drives.

    Frank

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)