[Question] Reinstalling OS on SSD.

I got this question regarding reinstallarion of OS. Is it better to do a complete install to a
SSD that to clone my HDD to SSD?
Also my A17 have this 80mSATA... what would that do if i clone my OS to SSD?

Thanks

 

Hi, you will hear many say fresh is better but personally I have used cloning many times and it's way easier.

Since you have an accelerated HDD what you want to do is make your clone, put the new ssd in the spare slot. Restore the image to the new SSD, change the boot order in the bios to the new SSD and you should be all done. And your left with all the original intact until you are ready to clear down you old HDD - Not going well? Just return the boot order to go back . The HDD stays accelerated

If you did not want to use cloning then just put the new drive in the empty bay and change the boot order. Install windows.

Physically moving drives is what you want to avoid so that IRST just carries on working without any intervention

Good Luck

 

I'm one of those that believes that clean is better. I would go for that route instead.

 

I would have to agree with Micky on this one. I have cloned drives over many times and it has always gone just fine. If you have the ability to do so then I think your better off and it is a much easier process then installing all the drivers and windows updates again but it is really up to each person as to what they are more comfortable with.

There are also times where I would agree with L_Porras as well and cloning just isn't practical. If your talking a fresh install from factory and your going to clone that I say go right ahead.

 

I go with cloning because the laptop is new and i havent installed anything on it yet. But i got into some problems... After cloning the HDD to SSD i changed the HDD and put the SSD. reboot and it was ok for awhile then i got this error " magician cannot connect to the SSD"

Then i went into BIOS changed the SATA operation from RAID to AHCI. After rebootig the SSD was detected but the HDD i put on the second drive bay and the mSATA is not detected by windows. Now i dont know what to do.

 

What i do, when i clone is... i do a windows image backup to an external USB or HDD, depending on required size, and then use Windows install DVD to restore it to the new Drive, never had any problems this way...
Just make sure that the System disk prior to backuping isn't larger than destination disk. If it is, just shrink it from disk manager to the right size.

Windows takes care of everything that way and all i have to do is change the boot order, (or in my case change the hdd, because i'm swaping the SSD's around pretty often)

 

Unfortunately these examples show how a clone can sometimes go bad . Moving drives around is a favourite for causing issues, especially if the machine has an msata cache drive.

It's not irrecoverable just a little luck.

Try putting the drives back in their original places (with the new one in the spare slot) and change the boot order in the bios to the new SSD.

If it starts then:

First see what disk drivers are in use under device manager. Should be Intel ...... (let me know what?). If not install IRST from the dell drivers. It will fail to do anything in AHCI but you need a driver capable of working with it so the RAID bios needs to be turned back on. Change back to RAID mode. If the correct drivers have loaded it should start fine and then you can use IRST to examine the drives. You should then be able to select your old data drive to be accelerated.

Chipset Software — Intel® Smart Response Technology User Guide

If you just wanted to use the cache drive as another storage drive use disk manager to see it and format it - hopefully.

Good Luck

 

Now im confused Sorry this is my first time doing RAID and im a long time Apple user.

Here's what happening on my drives. Last night after pulling my hair figuring out why my HDD is not showing up. I uninstall the IRST and my HDD and the mSATA was detected by windows. Here ios the device manager screen shoot.


Now doing what you just said. As you can see the disk drivers are from intel. So i install the IRST... reboot change the bios to RAID, now i cant boot to windows.
But if i change the RAID to ACHI from the bios the HDD and the mSATA cant be detected. Just the SSD. So what am i doing wrong?
Here is the device manager after i change the bios to AHCI. I can only boot to windows with AHCI enabled if IRST is installed in my system. I changed it to RAID i cant boot.


Need help.

 

You might have to start again .

To explain a little how raid works may help you understand what is going on - although I would have expected to see the the other drives??

RAID is hardware that alows the creation of single drives spanning multiple disks as well a a whole bunch of recovery options. One latest feature is to allow the creation of a RAID that sits between the HDD and an SSD. The bios screen that you see at the beginning when RAID is enabled is what creates this and as far as any operating system is concerned it is using the HDD and does not know about the SSD cache.
If you move drives around - it will break with strange results.
If the wrong disk drivers are used by windows (you want to see Intel RAID for the driver) it gets as far as finishing loading then crashes.

Show me disk manager so I can see if something else is wrong.

Also hit the hot-key combo when it appears in RAID mode (Ctrl-K I think), and see what it shows. Be careful, do not change anything, maybe a pic of any screens you go into?

Looking back at the original problem you was starting in RAID but the clone software complained? This is where to all went t-up!

If we have to start over I'll go down that path if we really must - or someone jumps in with an easier fix

 

This is the only thing i can access when irst is installed in my system.


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Cool we have all the drives.Can you show me recovery options - never looked at this. What I think is going on is after the cache was broken the drives were left in an unusable (for windows) state. Disk manager is going to show if it can be fixed here

Oh, and acceleration options

 

I uninstalled the IRST again just to get to my HDD and mSATA.

Recovery options? I did do a clean install i dont think i have a recovery partition anymore ;(
Do i need to reinstall again? Start from scratch again?

 

Exactly what I expected they are there in windows it just does not see them elsewhere. Where you see RAW I'm guessing this is now showing as unformatted. You could right click on it and format but at that point there is only one way - forward. You will loose the original installation and data (that you can't get to anyway).

If that works and the drive appears we might still be able to get the caching working.

You're right you have already lost the recovery partition so after trying this far a couple of questions.

Do you have an original Win CD to install from? Is it an Alienware branded one? I'll roll over and go through a fresh start if you want to - I'm just learning as I go so feel free to just say ***** let's start from scratch

 

Yeah i noticed that one of my drive is in RAW so i formatted it to NTFS. Now its showing in my computers again.

Yes i have the intaller CD provided by alienware...branded one. Ok ill install windows again. I really want to know how this IRST and mSATA caching works.

 

IRST is simply a technology that Intel have developed (in hardware) to create an accelerated drive. This is what you should do.

Put the drives in their original bays.

Go into the bios and change to RAID and change the boot order to start with the new SSD.

Use the ctrl K-to configure acceleration and select the big HDD to be accelerated by the smaller SSD - pics with questions here because I've never seen it!

Restart with the win dvd in and tap f12 (I think) to get a boot menu and select the dvd drive. Install windows but at the disk config screen make sure it says Intel Raid driver. And the destination is the new SSD. It should from the AW disk but I have seen MS originals detect the wrong drive and you're back to square one. To change this if needed have a copy of the expanded IRST software on a USB and use the on-screen instructions in the windows install to select a different driver and point it at the USB. Once you see RAID continue install and you should be all good. I'll need to see the windows ISRT screen if it all works to see just where you are.

 

Ok im gonna install it now.
are you saying i have to get the IRST driver in the USB first before installation so i can point it to the USB before installation of windows?

 

Just in case yes, use it if it shows an MS driver or something other than Intel RAID driver on the first screen. Then you're good to continue.

You want to install windows in RAID mode for everything else to work. You shouldn't need the USB it as long as RAID is active in the bios as the AW DVD seems to not have a problem - but there's always a first time

If you have it on USB you can easily continue

It's a lot of confusing stuff so researching can often make things worse with all the different ways to do this stuff.

 

Im on the raid aettings now but i cant configure acceleration options. The only thing the arrow keys are going is in CREATE RAID VOLUME and EXIT.


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OK, give up on that we will fix it later. Leave it as is and start the dvd install.

 

Installing now...


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Cool, did you set the bios boot order to the new SSD?

 

Disk 1 is my 120ssd... There are no indication of raid in here. Can i just pick the ssd and continue the installation at this point?


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In the bios i did put it on raid.


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All good. You can just select the correct drive and not change the boot order as windows should figure it out. Problems can occur when an old installation is found on another drive - not something you have to worry about

I see the load driver option but no name of the driver, was it on a previous screen? What comes up when you select Load Driver? Just making sure it it using RAID or the install will get to the first startup and die on you

 

When i select the load drivers this is what i got...

Then i clicked ok for it to search on the instalation disc and this is what i got...


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You can do that but if it BSOD's on first startup then we need to go over this bit again. You could even try the 'load driver' button and point it to the USB to be safe

Edit: did you use the browse button and point it as the USB?

 

I installed the irst driver from the usb now i got this error.


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The driver i used is the irst i extracted from the .exe


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Delete the partition and recreate.

 

I did that i still got error that windows cannot be installed to disk 1. Same error... That is after installing the driver.


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I think at this point i need to cancel the installation and do it again


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What do you see if you select delete on the Partition 2

 

this pop up... But after deleting and creating a new one the error cant install windows is still there so the NEXT button is grayed out.


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Maybe i have the wrong driver... Do you have one that i can use?


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Just try delete and you should be able to see it as free space - maybe? When you OK that it stays the same?

I'm beginning to think that SSD drive is not compatible with RAID systems? If this is the case then turning off RAID should then allow you to create partitions and install but you will never be able to use caching. The caching drive will appear as an extra separate drive.

 

I did click the delete again and again but the error cannot install windows is still there. What i did is i clicked the close window and then go back to the installation. Now the error is gone. I can now install from the ssd (disk1)


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Weird quirk. maybe that was what the refresh button was for?

Anyhoo, just the wait until windows finishes now?

 

I think i did it man did i?!
I dont know if did it right....
If i did why is my HDD unallocated? And some of the mSATa is also unallocated?


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Cool, you could be right .

We are in uncharted waters now for me so slowly does it. The unallocated space on the msata is a good sign. The max size of a cache drive is 64gb so some is left. This can be partitioned and formatted if you want. I am still trying to make sure that the acceleration is there and on the correct drive. I can't quite see the first pic

Have you had a look at this - not the bios stuff but the actual configuration of a cache : Chipset Software — Intel® Smart Response Technology User Guide

Edit: you'll probably need to use disk management to create a new partition on the data drive as it may have got messed up but first lets see if it is truely all good

 

According to whats indicated is that my 1TB HDD is accelerated

What i dont understand now is that sata array 0001. It has 2 volumes - 11gb and 64gb


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Did some better looking and it does look like all you need to do is partition and format the data drive

Oh yes!!! That is exactly what you want to see. Do you want that spare 10gb as another drive letter? If not then just ignore it

 

I could not do it wihout you man! I owe you a ton


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Great it worked out - guess it's a warning about cloning when it goes bad

That other partition (11 gb) is probably some sort of system partition and may set windows up to boot from the correct drive. It could also hold dell utilities that they pre-install and get copied around by cloning software - one to ignore, you could delete it but myself I wouldn't risk it for a small gain in storage.

You need to get some quality gaming in as well....

More looking: That 11 gb is simply the slack from the cache so you could go into disk manager and set it up for use (on it's own drive letter)

 

This is my first windows machine in a long time... I learned a lot from you today
Gaming yes!!! Im new to it as well but thats why i bought this to get some quality gaming


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I also gained a lot from helping you .

Once it went into theory I was making it up as we went along - luckily it went as it should. For reference, did you have to through any config to set that caching up and at what point did you do it?

There's a bunch of games to choose from, just what floats your boat. What GPU are you running?

 

After the instalation i searched for the intel rapid storage tech on the computer but its not yet installed. But since its on the usb already i fired it and it prompt a restart. After restart i opened the program and there i clicked ENABLE ACCELERATION. Then it let me choose what drive to accelerate

I did played maybe 2 years ago starcraft i did find a video on youtube about the same concept but its it looks like a world war i cant remember the name of the game but i think im gonna try that
Also trying to see if i can get the recent game watchdogs

I have 780m


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Maybe this is a warning too that not everyday cloning is the best...


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Thanks, I was ready to see that but you figured it

Well you've got the power for anything around at the moment, if you want a single player kill the baddies then kill more baddies inside an alternative world with the Nazi's winning WW2, Wolfenstein the new order is nice eye candy. Not up to watch dogs or next gen graphics but runs like butter for me.

People are having driver issues with Watch Dogs so maybe check out something like tomb raider for some fun challenges?

The hard core thinking games are not for me - I'm already hard of thinking!

 

I played anything i guess... Esp when im bored

Im gonna check that Wolfenstein out too


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It sure is, but cloning can be so quick it's a lazy option I like to use