Question

Can block storage be merged with the main storage drive?

If I attach a block storage to a server, can I then merge the block storage to the main hard drive in order to have a single large volume?

For instance, if I have a server with 80GB and I add a block storage of 100GB, can I then merge the two volumes to create a single volume with 180GB?

Thanks!


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Bobby Iliev
Site Moderator
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August 4, 2023
Accepted Answer

Hi there,

I am afraid that you can not merge the root volume with the additional block storage volumes that you’ve added.

The block storage and the main hard drive are two separate physical devices. Even though it might seem like they could just be combined into a single volume because they’re both storing data, the data is actually being stored on different hardware. This means that there’s no way to just merge the two together without moving the data from one device to another.

However, you can make the additional block storage available to the system by mounting it to a specific directory. When a storage device is mounted to a directory, the file system of the device becomes accessible at that directory path. This means you can use the additional storage just like you would use any other directory on your system.

So while you can’t merge the two volumes into a single volume, you can still use the additional storage in a way that’s seamless and transparent to your applications.

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/how-to/mount/

Hope that this helps!

Best,

Bobby

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