connecting these drives...PROBLEM..help

[wayne]

i ve got three western digital harddrives, (i will supply the model numbers and exact space later when i bring it up from the basement) and one is about 10gb, another about 6gb and another thats about 3gb.. the thing is, i want to put this together into a single computer like link it up so the computer shows 19gb but i dont know how to do this?...
do i need to use RAID for this or can i do this without anything special?..like jus IDE cables and controllers on the motherboard and changning of jumpers?

if so, how am i supposed to do it and which jumpers should i set it to and how do i do raid and which one?
i m confused:confused:

please help
thanks

[Falls Included]

ok. from what i understand, you want to raid 3 drives together, a 10, a 6, and a 3. the first thing you do is give up, cuz it aint gonna happen. you could raid two similar drives, and maybe the 10 and the 6, but it would only use 6gb out of the 10, and operate at the same speed as the 6gb drive. i dont think you can even raid more than2 drives. the only way your going to get 19 gb is to just use 3 drive letters. sorry

[Ravenrex]

The other option, if you are using XP, is to mount the other 2 drives as folders in the first(system) drive. Sort of a cheap work-around, but it get's the job done. No speed increase or redundancy, but one whopper drive made of all the crappier little capacities of the 3 drives.

[wayne]

the only way your going to get 19 gb is to just use 3 drive letters. sorry
yea, thats wut i meant, how do i do that?


The other option, if you are using XP, is to mount the other 2 drives as folders in the first(system) drive. Sort of a cheap work-around, but it get's the job done. No speed increase or redundancy, but one whopper drive made of all the crappier little capacities of the 3 drives.
and this, how do i do this too?

[Ravenrex]

Originally posted by wayne
and this, how do i do this too?

If you are using XP, you do this in the disk manager. Look at the help files if you get confused. I would install Xp to the fastest/largest drive first. Then once XP is up and running with all the right drivers etc. hook up the other drives. Use the disk manager within XP to format the drives and it will kick into an annoying wizard utility that will hold your hand through the process of formatting and mounting the drives. If you need more help on this process feel free to look here: http://www.google.com