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    Clone raid 0 to a new SSD help

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Rotorbeer, May 3, 2011.

  1. Rotorbeer

    Rotorbeer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ok I have a problem, I got my new R3 and I had to put up with so much Alienware is giving me a free 256 SSD drive, I have two Seagate Hybrid drives in raid 0 right now, so how do I clone them to my new SSD, what software do I need ETC. Thanx all
     
  2. custom90gt

    custom90gt Doc Mod Super Moderator

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    I wouldn't clone the drives to the ssd. When you do a fresh windows 7 install on an ssd it automatically aligns the partition to help increase the performance on ssd drives. If you need help with how to do a fresh install, there are plenty of people here (myself included) that would be happy to help you out.
     
  3. DARCODER

    DARCODER Notebook Deity

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    Maybe you can try with acronis true image. but Custom90 is right, you will lose some performance by doing this.
     
  4. Rotorbeer

    Rotorbeer Notebook Enthusiast

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    man just did not want to do a fresh install cause all the stuff on my hard drive, dut if it gives me the best PF ill do it...Thanx
     
  5. brianwi

    brianwi Notebook Enthusiast

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    I was in the same situation, bought my system with two 500GB hybrid drives in RAID 0, just bought a Samsung 830 512GB SSD and wanted to move what I had on the RAID to the new SSD and use one of the hybrid drives for data.

    Used Acronis True Image 2012 to clone the RAID to the SSD, and it worked with no issue. Then I started reading about SSD alignment, and realized that the partitions on my new SSD were not aligned. Trying my best not to have to rebuild (have finally got my system the way I want it), I did some digging on how to align a misaligned SSD and found Paragon Alignment Tool. Figured that $30 wasn't too bad to have to avoid a reinstall.

    Had some issues to begin with. It says that the DellUtility OEM partition cannot be aligned (does this matter), it aligned the RECOVERY partition, but after repeated attempts it was not successful in aligning my OS partition. Called Paragon tech support, they told me that cross-linked files could be causing this, and the solution was to run CHKDSK /F, then run the alignment tool. I was told this may have to be repeated a number of times, luckily I got it to work after the 2nd try.

    My questions are this: Does it matter if the DellUtility partition is aligned? And if the tool was successful in aligning the other two partitions, would there be any benefit at all to doing the fresh Windows install if everything is working the way I want it to? I'm also wanting to find out if I can move my Users folder to another disk without causing issues in Windows (though this may be a question for another thread).

    Thanks.
     
  6. Lexiko69

    Lexiko69 Newbie

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    Hi,
    I want to go from RAID 0 to 1 SSD(primary) and keep one secondary HDD. Can you please advise or point to a wiki that will show me what to do first.
    My specs: Thinkpad w530 i7 QM3720/ 500GB RAID 0. No optical drive.
    I haven't touched the machine yet so fresh reinstall is fine.
    Should I :
    Unplug HDD's, plug in SSD and boot from USB with Win7?
    Then plug one HDD back in.
    Or should I disable RAID first, then remove HDD's?
     
  7. Alienware-Luis_Pardo

    Alienware-Luis_Pardo Guest

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    You need to remove 1 HDD, install the SSD, disable RAID mode in BIOS, and boot from the USB with Win7.
    In the partition screen, make sure you delete all existing partitions, then create the OS partition (max possible size) in the SSD and leave the other one, it'll act as a storage drive.

    How to clean install Win 7
     
  8. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    Rotobeer, I would recommend against doing the cloning. I did that with my SSD when I first got it, and the driver and OS errors that were present transfered to the new drive despite aligning the image. Those error were only corrected when I did a clean install of Windows.