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OleCuss · ‎11-23-2013

I very recently purchased the G750JH-DB71 and I think it is a beautiful and fast machine.

What I am not at all sure about is what to do with the hard drive arrangement. I'm not a computer expert by any stretch of the imagination and am concerned that I'm going to get things into an untenable situation.

Right now (as I'm sure most or all know) I've got a total of 3 physical and 4 logical drives. There are two physical 128GB SSDs set up in a RAID 0 configuration with one physical 1TB hard drive split into two logical drives. Net effect (as I understand it) is that I've got two sets of one SSD and one logical HDD each with a RAID 0 system connecting each drive set.

This is a cute arrangement, but the system looks to be set up to dump all my data and software onto a single 128GB SSD physical drive. This is not going to work out at all as I have far more data and software than that drive is going to give me. . .

Now I'm sure I can figure out how to get my data and software to go onto other drives and thus spare some of the grief of everything going onto that one relatively small drive. Thing is, I'm not entirely sure that this is the best approach at this time.

I am NOT a heavy gamer by any stretch of the imagination. I'll likely play a little "Far Cry" and "Command & Conquer" on the machine, but nothing that would even strain a much slower machine. I will likely end up doing some heavy image processing (Astrophotography and similar) and I want a machine which will boot up quite rapidly. Net effect being that I'm not at all certain I need the hard drive systems quite as heavily optimized for gaming as I think the stock configuration seems to be.

So would it be reasonable for me to re-combine the regular HDD back into a 1TB logical drive and maybe combine the two physical SSDs into one logical one - presumably with the RAID 0 system functioning between the new single logical SSD and the re-constituted single logical/physical HDD? If so, can I use the Windows disk management software to do this without ruining things or causing problems with the RAID 0 system?

And since I'd really rather have a bigger HDD, could I get a 2TB HDD and stick that into the machine and let it work with the single logical SSD drive in a RAID 0 configuration?

For that matter, I could probably swing the finances to get a 480mg SSD to put into the thing along with a 2 TB drive. I do understand that in order to do that I would need a new enclosure for the SSD - apparently this one: 13GNY81AM020-1? I don't figure I could ever have too much storage. . .

Thank you.

villiansv · ‎11-23-2013

I get the feeling that you don't understand what exactly RAID 0 does, so I'll try to clear it up.

Raid 0 requires 2 identically-sized drives. In your case, it's 2 128GB msata SSDs. What happens is that each file is split in 2, with one half written to each drive. Net result is (theoretically) double the speed, BUT at double the risk of data loss (if one drive dies, all data is lost).

That being said, you can't mix/match your SSDs and your HDD, it just wouldn't work.

Once you have the SSDs in a RAID0 config, Windows sees a single 256GB drive. The RAID "magic" happens at the BIOS level, before the OS loads (well, there's software raid in Linux but let's not go there). I suspect that this drive is then partitioned further for Asus's backup (or unknown) purposes, but as I don't have a JH I can't be 100% sure to the specifics.

Hopefully knowing this will assist you in deciding whether you want to delete/merge partitions. I don't want to suggest clean installs, as you yourself say you're not an expert.

A screenshot of your Win+X, then K (disk manager) would probably help me assist further, if you can attach it.

OleCuss · ‎11-23-2013

Thank you for the much better understanding of what "RAID 0" does/means. I'm going to have to figure out a little more since it seems like the files are ending up on just one of the SSD drives.

But that additional understanding suggests going ahead and getting the 2TB drive should not be a problem (if I can find one the right physical size).

I've attached the screenshot I took of my disk management screen.

themeonster · ‎11-23-2013

On my JH, I was able to delete the extraneous partitions and extend the other ones to fill the empty space. Based on your screenshot, I would delete the partitions with the letters E: and F: (be sure to backup before in case anything goes wrong) and extend 😧 and C: to fill the empty space. Be careful not to delete any of the other partitions as they will be needed if you ever need to do an emergency system restore. Also be aware that this will delete all the data and programs that you have on E: and F:. If you have any further questions, you have a wealth of knowledge, experience, and opinion on these forums. Good Luck

OleCuss · ‎11-23-2013

Thank you for that link. I have also been unable to locate a 2TB drive that will fit. Plenty of 2TB drives which are 15mm high and just won't fit.

I'll have to check out that 1.5TB. It's probably the best I could do at this time.

SHADO · ‎11-23-2013

OleCuss wrote:
Thank you for that link. I have also been unable to locate a 2TB drive that will fit. Plenty of 2TB drives which are 15mm high and just won't fit.

I'll have to check out that 1.5TB. It's probably the best I could do at this time.

You're welcome. 🙂
I'm thinking of getting a couple of them myself.

ASUS G75VW
i7-3630QM 2.4Ghz
GTX 660M (2GB)
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz
1TB HDD
2TB HDD
Blu-ray Writer (Pana. UJ-260)

villiansv · ‎11-23-2013

I agree with themeonster.

Disk 0 is your HDD, as long as you have nothing you need on E: you can right-click and delete it, then right-click D:, extend and hit Next a few times to fill up D to max size.

Disk 1 is your RAID 0 array. Note that Windows itself doesn't see 2 drives, but 1 256GB one. This is now partitioned further, and as long as there's nothing on F: you can repeat the process and get your C: to >200GB. I'd leave everything else untouched.

As always, before you play with partitions a backup is a good idea. In your case, search for Asus Backtracker (should be on the asus support page), get it and prepare a recovery usb stick. In the unlikely event you totally break the partition setup, this will allow you to restore the laptop to factory condition.

The 2 TB disk should not be an issue. As for replacing the 2 raid0 SSDs, I'm not sure if the connector in that bay can be used for a regular 2.5" ssd. I recall there was a thread here about people wanting to do just this, you can search for it.

SHADO · ‎11-23-2013

villiansv wrote:
The 2 TB disk should not be an issue.

To the best of MY knowledge (please correct me if I'm wrong), there are no 2TB drives that will fit in a laptop. I believe they are all 15mm thick, much too bulky to fit. I don't even think a 12mm drive would fit (you'd have to measure). This 9.5mm, 1.5TB drive will fit just fine, though:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EDIU5IW/ref=s9_hps_ft_g147_ir17?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=ce...

Could also put another 1.5TB drive into a caddy to replace the optical drive, if not used much. 🙂

ASUS G75VW
i7-3630QM 2.4Ghz
GTX 660M (2GB)
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz
1TB HDD
2TB HDD
Blu-ray Writer (Pana. UJ-260)

OleCuss · ‎11-23-2013

I literally have nothing on either E: or F: Those are two completely empty logical drives at this time.

So I'll probably tackle deleting those partitions tonight or tomorrow morning - and then doing the extensions.

Can't do it for a little while as I'm downloading the Windows 8.1 upgrade. I don't want to be messing with those partitions when Windows could suddenly get demanding about doing a re-boot. . . Wouldn't be prudent.

OleCuss · ‎11-23-2013

I just want to give everyone a big "Thank You!"

I've now got two much bigger-appearing drives with a much simpler system to handle/organize.

Now I've got to figure out how to fix where the various data goes. That is a lower risk proposition than what you have guided me through and I'm sure I'll get it sorted.

Thank you.

Newbie with G750JH-DB71 Not comfortable with current hard drive arrangement.