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Is it possible to make OSX see the internal and external HDD's as one large drive?

Is it possible to make OSX see the internal and external HDD's as one large drive? For instance, hypothetically, could I have a Mac Mini Server with 2TB of internal storage and 2 external 4TB Thunderbolt HDD's, and make the OS see them all as one large 10TB drive?

Posted on Dec 26, 2012 10:45 PM

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Posted on Dec 27, 2012 12:51 AM

Yes it is possible to do this, but this is not recommended since a disconnection of the external drives would lead to a destabilized system. Its best to do this only with internal drives, or secondarily with only external drives that are set up separately from the boot drive.


However, if you do wish to do this then you can combine any local set of volumes into one large "spanned" hard drive using Apple's CoreStorage volume management service. It does take a few steps to set up and requires use of the Terminal and Disk Utility. Here is a tutorial on how to do this: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57550128-263/how-to-make-a-custom-corestora ge-drive-in-os-x/

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Dec 27, 2012 12:51 AM in response to Shaine Parr

Yes it is possible to do this, but this is not recommended since a disconnection of the external drives would lead to a destabilized system. Its best to do this only with internal drives, or secondarily with only external drives that are set up separately from the boot drive.


However, if you do wish to do this then you can combine any local set of volumes into one large "spanned" hard drive using Apple's CoreStorage volume management service. It does take a few steps to set up and requires use of the Terminal and Disk Utility. Here is a tutorial on how to do this: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57550128-263/how-to-make-a-custom-corestora ge-drive-in-os-x/

Is it possible to make OSX see the internal and external HDD's as one large drive?

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