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Updated on Aug 29, 2024
How much time have you wasted scrolling on your computer trying to track down an important file or document? You check folder upon folder, drive upon the drive, but to no avail. What if we tell you there is an easy way to avoid wasting your time by keeping track of the location of all your files? Well, all you need to do is combine all your hard drives related to a topic into one huge volume! You may also want to combine multiple hard drives into one volume if you are on a budget and don't want to spend on getting a bigger sized drive, want to save terabytes of movies and TV shows on a single drive, need to increase the space of a specific drive, transfer free space from one drive to another or want to save all your games on a single volume.
The process of combining many hard drives is very simple and can be done in a variety of ways. We've broken down each method into easy-to-follow steps that you can simply follow and get lots of free storage space. Keep on reading to find out how to combine multiple hard drives into one volume.
Essential Tips for You to Successfully Merge Hard Drives
Now before we get into the details of each step, there are a few tips that you need to know.
- Increasing C drive across two disks is possible but not in the way of converting two disks into dynamic .
- Conversion of both HDDs/SSDs into dynamic disks is mandatory for combining them. (See how to convert basic to dynamic)
- Back up your new volume regularly as a corruption of one of the drives will lead to failure of the whole volume.
Method #1- Combine Multiple Hard Drives into One with EaseUS Partition Master
EaseUS Partition Master is a comprehensive partition manager that enables users to create partitions as well as resize, merge, clone, and format them. It basically helps you to manage Windows partitions without losing any data. It can even create, format, and delete USBs, SSD, HDD, and SD cards.
You can use this partition magic software to merge your multiple hard drives into a single volume. Simply follow the steps given below to achieve your target.
Step 1. Convert Basic into Dynamic
- Click "Disk Converter" and select "Basic => Dynamic". Click "Next" to continue.
- Select the disk that you want to convert to Dynamic and click "Convert" to start the disk conversion from the Basic to Dynamic.
- Go to "Disk Converter" and choose "Basic => Dynamic" again. Select the other disk (with at least 1M free space at the end of the disk) and convert it to a dynamic disk in the same way.
- When both disks have been converted into dynamic disks, as shown below, you can follow Step 2 to merge free space from one disk to another now.
Step 2. Merge Two Disks into One Disk
Note: The other dynamic must be unallocated space. If it's not, use EaseUS Partition Master to delete all the partitions on it. What's more, you cannot merge a system partition even if you have converted it to dynamic.
- Select the full disk, right-click on it and choose "Resize/Move".
- Use your mouse to drag the partition panel rightward or leftward to extend partition size. The "Fill in all unallocated" button can help you quickly utilize all unallocated space.
Sometimes, the unallocated space is on the left of the partition you want to extend. If you want to move unallocated space, just drag the left partition handle leftwards to the size you want.
- Click "OK" and "Execute 1 Task(s)".
Apart from merging multiple volumes as one on a disk, EaseUS partition manager software also provides you with flexible resolutions to deal with the following tasks, for example:
As you can see, this tool is easy to use and multifunctional. Share this tool on your social media to help other users.
Method #2- How to Combine Two Hard Drives/SSD Drives with Disk Management
You can create two different types of volumes with Disk Management: Spanned and Stripped. Spanned Volume is used when you want to combine files having different sizes while Stripped Volume can only be used to combine files having the same size. Another difference between the two is that spanned volume utilizes drives sequentially which means it will not use the second drive until you fill up the first one while stripped volume uses both drives simultaneously which increases read and write performances. Choose the volume that suits your needs best. i.e., if you want to combine two drives with different volumes, create a new spanned volume. But if you want faster performance, opt for a new striped volume.
Mentioned below are the steps to combine two hard drives or two SSD drives using Disk Management.
- Go to Start.
- Type diskmgmt.msc into the search box to launch the Disk Management Tool.
- Before proceeding, make sure that both drives are unformatted and do not have any partitions. Also, make sure they are dynamic by right clicking them and selecting convert to a dynamic disk.
- Right click on the drive that you want to combine. Now select New Spanned Volume or New Stripped Volume from the drop-down menu.
- The New Spanned/Stripped Volume wizard will pop up. Click next once it appears.
- Add the second drive (you can add multiple).
- Select a letter for your new drive, format the new volume and complete the wizard.
- The Windows Disk Management Tool will now show this new volume that you created listed at the top. The two drives that you combined will be highlighted in purple.
Conclusion
Combining hard drives is an efficient way to save up some of your hard earned money. Plus, it is a relatively simple process that won't take up much of your time so there is really no reason why you shouldn't opt for it. However, be sure to follow our tips and backup your data regularly for an easy stress-free drive merging experience.
EaseUS Partition Master can let you copy partition for a full and identical backup on a drive. Why not have a try?
FAQs About Combine Two or Multiple Hard Drives into One
If you have more questions about combining multiple or two hard drives into one, follow the questions and hot topics listed here and find desired answers below:
1. Can two hard drives be combined?
Yes, sure. You can combine two hard drives into one by using Disk Management or third-party disk partitioning software. EaseUS Partition Master with its disk converter feature can efficiently help you convert two disks into dynamic and combine them as one in a few simple clicks.
2. How do I merge two drives together?
If you don't have data in two drives, use Disk Mangement as shown here:
- Install and add two drives into computer.
- Right-click existing partitions, and select 'Delete'. Repeat to delete all partitions in two drives.
- Right-click on one disk and select 'Convert Dynamic'.
- Repeat the process to convert the other disk to dynamic.
- Right-click on unallocated space to create a new volume on the two drives.
If you have important data saved on two drives and you don't want to delete partitions, take EaseUS Partition Master with steps as shown above in Method 1 on this page for help.
3. How to combine two hard drives into one without losing data?
- Launch EaseUS Partition Master, and go to the Disk Converter section.
- Select select one of the target drive and click 'Convert'.
- Repeat the steps above to convert another disk into dynamic.
- Then, right-click on the unallocated space in two drives, and select 'create volume'.
- Set up the the new volume as one on two disks.
- Or, you can right-click one partition and select 'Resize/move', then extend the volume with unallocated space on the second drive.
- Click 'Execute task'.
After this, you'll be able to use two hard drives as one with all previously saved data intact.
How Can We Help You
About the Author
Updated by Tracy King
Tracy became a member of the EaseUS content team in 2013. Being a technical writer for over 10 years, she is enthusiastic about sharing tips to assist readers in resolving complex issues in disk management, file transfer, PC & Mac performance optimization, etc., like an expert.
Jean is recognized as one of the most professional writers in EaseUS. She has kept improving her writing skills over the past 10 years and helped millions of her readers solve their tech problems on PC, Mac, and iOS devices.
Product Reviews
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I love that the changes you make with EaseUS Partition Master Free aren't immediately applied to the disks. It makes it way easier to play out what will happen after you've made all the changes. I also think the overall look and feel of EaseUS Partition Master Free makes whatever you're doing with your computer's partitions easy.
Read More -
Partition Master Free can Resize, Move, Merge, Migrate, and Copy disks or partitions; convert to local, change label, defragment, check and explore partition; and much more. A premium upgrade adds free tech support and the ability to resize dynamic volumes.
Read More -
It won't hot image your drives or align them, but since it's coupled with a partition manager, it allows you do perform many tasks at once, instead of just cloning drives. You can move partitions around, resize them, defragment, and more, along with the other tools you'd expect from a cloning tool.
Read More
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