How to merge 2 ext HDD into one partition?

Hi there

I USED to SPAN HDD's - but be careful especially with EXTERNAL HDD's as now you need ALWAYS to have ALL the HDD's in the spanned group connected and they HAVE to be dynamic disks. Beware also that any error and you lose data in the entire spanned group.

A better solution might be to use Libraries.

I've solved this particular issue by actually using Linux as you can "mount" these into a single "mount" directory or create soft symbolic links.

Windows spanning works fine but be aware of consequences - I wouldn't recommend it for EXTERNAL drives - but fine for INTERNAL ones. Wit a Spanned volume set it's EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to take regular backups of your data or you'll be regretting say the loss of your "6.7 TB Multi media file" with 100's of your ripped CD's / DVD's / iTunes etc all down the toilet !!!!.

Your spanned drives should look like this when working. - For example spanned two volumes -- it will show two F drives but properties will list a single "composite F drive" with the total space aggregated.

Windows explorer now treats the F drive to a single aggregated drive.

(I think for spanning you also need to make them GPT drives) - can't remember as I don't use this method any more.

Finally DO NOT BOOT from a spanned volume it won't work !!! - If you've got a small HDD (or better an SSD) use that for the OS partition. Also I have to disagree with Greg above -- Logical Partitions are a MEGA PAIN and in any case you don't need them with GPT drives.



Cheers
jimbo

All the partitions on Disk 0 are Dynamic, making Disk 0 Dynamic.

A couple of the screenshots show one of the externals formatted NTFS Basic during the attempt to create a spanned volume.

I was taking your term "Drives" to mean "Disks", maybe that's where the confusion started.

I think you are waiting for someone else to answer anyway, I'll let them take it from here.

Layback Bear said:

I'm going to keep watching. This could be interesting.

Did that answer your question?

I think the disk management utility in Windows won't allow you to merge your system partition.For this reason,it semms that you can only use some third-party software to do this.
There is something you must know before you merge 2 ext HDD into one partition:
1: This operation may change the original location of your data, so we suggest you to learn the tutorial “How to Safely Partition” before executing this operation.
2: You can only merge 2 partitions every time, and the two partitions must be adjacent. On the contrary, you can merge any unallocated space into a partition.
3: You can merge data partition into system boot drive, however, you cannot merge system boot drive into data partition.
4: "System Reserved" partition could not be merged.
After knowing this ,you can use a third-party partition software like Aomei Partition Assistant to merge you partition,here is the steps: How to Merge Partitions with AOMEI Partition Assistant?

Not exactly a Merge operation which is done on the same disk.

Across multiple disks it becomes a Spanning Operation requiring Dynamic Disks:
Create a Spanned Volume in Disk Mgmt - Technet
What's spanned volume and how to create spanned volume with Partition Wizard