Two hard drives partitioned - how are files split when they're separated?

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tim0chen

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I have 2 hard drives (80gb each) partitioned into a 60gb local disk for programs and a 100gb local disk for storage. I'm replacing one of these hard drives, and I was wondering: how do I know which files will be on which hard drive when I separate them?

I of course can't be left with a 60gb and 100gb hard drive from two 80gb drives, so how will the files be split among the two when they're separated? If it matters, I have 10+gb free on the 60gb partition and 30+gb free on the 100gb partition.
 
it depends how they were joined to give you the appearance of a sinlge 160GB hdd.
 
If the drives are combined using RAID-0 or JBOD, they can't be seperated. The files are spread across both drives, so splitting them up turns everything into hash. The 60 and 100 partitions only exist for Window's use and don't relate to the 80B drives themselves.

What you need is a 160GB drive and take the data off of both drives, the split them and reinstall your data again.
 
The drives aren't combined using RAID-0, and I'm not sure what JBOD is. I just partitioned them the conventional way using the Windows CD (if I remember correctly). Nothing advanced.

Will I still lose all my files if I separate them? Keep in mind that there's plenty of free space on each disk.
 
They have to be joined somehow if you were able to partition 2 80 gig drives in the way you described, because otherwise it just doesn't work that way.
 
I see what you guys are saying now. I guess I didn't partition my hard drives. Nevertheless, something must have happened because I have two 80GB hard drives (for sure) but a Local Disk C with 50.7GB capacity and another Local Disk with 102GB capacity.

Has anyone seen this before? And again, what will happen when I separate the two hard drives?
 
i think you did but didnt know it. I bet the mobo supports sata raid, and you installed them as one, so when you partitioned you broke them down that way. I think you are going to have to do a full format or use partition majic, but i still think that you will have data loss.
 
tim0chen said:
I see what you guys are saying now. I guess I didn't partition my hard drives. Nevertheless, something must have happened because I have two 80GB hard drives (for sure) but a Local Disk C with 50.7GB capacity and another Local Disk with 102GB capacity.

Has anyone seen this before? And again, what will happen when I separate the two hard drives?
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yes, there are multiple ways of making multiple physical HDDs appear as one logical one, but depending on how this is done, it may or may not be possible to separate them into two drives again.hardware AMD intel dell ATi nvidia asus seagate samsung xeon compaq
 
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