I got a new hard drive, now how do I merge them together?

**PowerMan57two** · December 27th, 2002, 12:35 PM

I got my new 120gb hard drive in the mail today, and i got it all hooked up, and when i go on partition magic pro 8.0 i got it installed but it's know as letter F when i go into my computer. now when i go back into PM8.0 and i right click on the new HD the merge option isn't available. so is there another way i can get my 80gb HD and my new 120GB HD to come together as one drive letter. thanks for any help.

**wonderboy2005** · December 27th, 2002, 01:00 PM

im not sure how to do that, but are you sure you want to do that? i mean, if for some reason your 2nd hdd should crash, then you'll have some major porblems.... missing over 1/2 of your 'c' drive? just make sure that it is truly worth your while to do this. what's so bad about having a 2nd drive recognized by windows?

**nasrules** · December 27th, 2002, 01:14 PM

having two drives/partitions is good! put everything you REALLY dont wanna lose on another drive/partition to your Windows one. Then if you have to reinstall you dont lose all your stuff!

**Krell** · December 27th, 2002, 01:18 PM

PowerMan57two - youre gonna screw things up SO bad, you will never get unscrewed.

We gave you clear, concise steps to be able to add that hard drive. There is a reason for doing it that way, and not using some utility to make your life miserable.

Just do it the normal way, format it NTFS, and get on with your life, then, a short while down the road, a little light will go off inside your head . . . "BING" Ohhhhh thats why do it this way.

Enjoy your holidays, keep it simple

cheers

**PowerMan57two** · December 27th, 2002, 01:46 PM

okay, thanks for the info, but i still want to have windows think it's 1 big hard drive, i still wanna merge them together, it doesn't matter if my windows crashed anyways cause every oh say 500-700MB I download off the internet i back up on cd disks anyways, so is there i way i can get windows to think this is 1 big c drive and merge these hard drives together, just trust me i'm 100% sure i wanna do this!

**Krell** · December 27th, 2002, 01:59 PM

I am 100% sure I will not help you on principle

best wishes

**cpugeniusmv** · December 27th, 2002, 02:19 PM

well, i may as well help you....but i do second the warnings that have been said already.....

This method is for WinXP Pro

Go into the control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management, right click where it says "disk 0" and select "convert to dynamic disk"
then do the same to the other disk, and then you can merge them. i haven't done this in a while, so if you have any specific questions, i'll do my best to answer them, but i make no guarantees.

**Munchables** · December 27th, 2002, 03:13 PM

Merging is very bad in my opinon. You do relize you have to reformat BOTH harddrives? I know in the olden dayz back when I was stupid enough to try this littel stunt you needed 2 of the exact same drives but that is probaly not true any more maybe that was with the software I was using I dono. (lol I did it with 2 500 mg I braged at school saing I had a 1 gig no one belved me LOL!) Why go through all that trouble and strees thinking "oo know what happens if one drive fails!" like wonderboy said. look just be man (or woman) and logicly split up your apps I don't know how big you orginal hd is but you can put like your os, all your old apps, toolz and word porssing shit on one drive and your shared folder(s), sound, video, and immage prossing software on the outer.

peace.

(wate diden't some one else ask this questin on zp?)

**Krell** · December 27th, 2002, 03:50 PM

Munchables youre still burying yourself

cpugeniusmv - The method you propose is prob the only way I would venture to do it.

Split them wrogly in the future, you can have right issues, different CIDs

You take it from here

Munchables no one believes you, at least I dont. I wouldnt trust you to touch my VCR or toaster.

.

**PowerMan57two** · December 27th, 2002, 09:52 PM

okay i change both drives to dynamic, but now when i go into partition magic pro 8.0 it wont even let me right click on the drives to bring up a menu where the merge button was, so now how do i merge them together?

**gorphon** · December 27th, 2002, 10:14 PM

I akree with krell and dealie. DONT DO IT! itll be more hassle then its ever worth even if you do somehow manage to get it working. just have two drives. what is the problem with that?

**PowerMan57two** · December 27th, 2002, 10:18 PM

okay that didn't help, i keep on getting that advice, but trust me (again) i want to do this, lol so if your not gonna help me please quit posting that info that says don't do it or something.... sorry but i'm getting crabby... lol

**gorphon** · December 27th, 2002, 10:36 PM

then I just have one more word for you...RAID. morroring or striping, 0 or 1.... its up to you. software ide, promise pci card, whatever. but that will be your best bet. sure you can do it other ways but I dont se how the complexity makes itworthwhile. or even if it were just a matter of clicking one button, why you would even want to do it.

hell, why do you want to do it anyways?

edit: nevermind raid, you need two identical drives to do that, I just reread your first post. Id missed that earlier. still... what is the big deal with having two drives? I honestly see none.

**cpugeniusmv** · December 28th, 2002, 06:55 PM

Originally posted by PowerMan57two
okay i change both drives to dynamic, but now when i go into partition magic pro 8.0 it wont even let me right click on the drives to bring up a menu where the merge button was, so now how do i merge them together?

it's not in partition magic, it's in that drive manager somewhere. sorry i'm not much help, i haven't done it in a while