Question AMD StorageMI question

Starbuck1975

Lifer
Jan 6, 2005
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For a few years now, like probably most of you, I’ve been using a SATA SSD as my boot drive and a SATA 1TB HDD for my game files, MP3s and photos. What I’ve never liked about this configuration is that WIN1O defaults to the C:\user folder even when I move my documents, music, games, etc. folders to the HDD. Throw in OneDrive and it creates other issues around having the OS on one drive but files on another.

I am facing a new build but can’t swing a 1TB SSD.

My new build will be around the B450 chipset, most likely an MSI Tomahawk or Carbon Pro. I recently became aware of AMD’s StorageMI feature for merging drives.

Curious if any of you are using it, and if so, have you encountered any issues, especially with Windows given that my primary interest is to simplify file management.

Also, is it possible to combine two SSDs with it? I am debating using StorageMI to combine my existing SATA SSD with a new M.2 SSD and keep the HDD as a pure backup drive.
 
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Starbuck1975

Lifer
Jan 6, 2005
14,698
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Yes, You can use NVMe SSD + SATA SSD.
Thank you and good to know. I like the idea of combining my existing 500GB SATA SSD with a 500GB NVMe to get 1TB of SSD storage.

Have you used this feature and does it work well for simplifying file management in WIN10?
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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Thank you and good to know. I like the idea of combining my existing 500GB SATA SSD with a 500GB NVMe to get 1TB of SSD storage.

You could use 500GB NVME + 500GB SATA SSD with StoreMI but you will only get 756GB total storage (and a 244GB unused portion from the NVMe SSD that could be partitioned and assigned a different drive letter) because StoreMI only allows 256GB for fast tier.

In order to use the full 500GB NVMe for tiering you would have to buy FuzeDrive Plus from Enmotus (who makes StoreMI for AMD).

Have you used this feature and does it work well for simplifying file management in WIN10?

I haven't used the software yet.
 

Starbuck1975

Lifer
Jan 6, 2005
14,698
1,909
126
You could use 500GB NVME + 500GB SATA SSD with StoreMI but you will only get 756GB total storage (and a 244GB unused portion from the NVMe SSD that could be partitioned and assigned a different drive letter) because StoreMI only allows 256GB for fast tier.

In order to use the full 500GB NVMe for tiering you would have to buy FuzeDrive Plus from Enmotus (who makes StoreMI for AMD).



I haven't used the software yet.
My current SATA SSD is 500GB. I only use it for my OS and just realized my computer is only recognizing the volume as 256GB, so half of my current SSD is going to waste.

So I could get a 256GB NVMe SSD for my OS and use my existing 500GB SATA through StorageMI to create one unified drive that is close to 1TB, and then use my SATA HDD for backup. Would that make sense and optimize the use of my existing storage?
 
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cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
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So I could get a 256GB NVMe SSD for my OS and use my existing 500GB SATA through StorageMI to create one unified drive that is close to 1TB, and then use my SATA HDD for backup. Would that make sense and optimize the use of my existing storage?

That is what I would do.

That or buy a 1TB SATA SSD.