Cloning RAID 0 HDD's to SSD's..possible??

Hey everyone I'm thinking of upgrading to 2 512 Crucial m4's because amazon is having a great deal on them right now. Anyhow, Im running 2 HDD's in RAID 0 and wondering if the transfer kit that comes with the Crucial SSD's work for it.

I know I might be able to clone the 2 HDD's to one SSD's but is it possible to copy one of the RAID 0 HDD's to an SSD and then the other RAID 0 HDD to the second SSD and swap them out and run the system in its current RAID 0 state??

If that option doesnt work, can atleast the 2 HDD's be cloned on to the 1 SSD as long as I'm not going over the memory? I could just run 1 SSD and erase the HDD's and keep one as a data drive.

Please give advice! Thanks!

 

it is possible, but most would recommend a clean install onto a SSD drive as issue with drive alignment can really mess up the performance level of the drive.

Better to back up the files - do a clean install and then restore the backup onto the new drive.

 

Ok..i appreciate the advice!

 

I want to install a Crucial m4 256GB 2.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s SSD into my brandnew Alienware m17x. I have it will the 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB) 7200RPM. Can you give me a good explanation on how to do it without loosing my original data (OS, command Center) and progarams? Will I need to remove 1 500 GB hardrive?

 

You won't be able to. Removing a 500GB hard drive will screw up your hard drive because, it's setup to store data across both.

Your best bet is to use an external hard drive, back up the data you want, and do a clean install on the SSD.

 

So your suggesting cloning? I want to reinstall and not loose anything. How can I copy the original setup and move it to the new SSD? give me a better explanation please, step by step. I have no knowledge in this. Thanks!

 

I wanted to bump this and get more intake on the cloning data transfer please??

 

Possible Free solution

Using an external drive follow this process

How to Create a System Image in Windows 7 - How-To Geek

Once you have backed up the system and created the system restore disk. Remove your 2 HDDs. Place your 2 new SSDs into the computer and create a new raid 0 on those 2 drives.

Follow the restore disk procedure with your external hard drive attached.

This should effectivly clone your current OS to the new raid array.

If it doesn't work to your satisfaction. Just put the old drives back in and it will boot right back to how it was for you to try a different solution.

 

JoeyFuzz, if you end up wanting to run your RAID array AND your SSD, you can get an enclosure for your RAID drives and hook them up via eSATA. This is what I got: Cavalry EN-CADA2B. I used it on my system for six months & it worked perfect. Currently it's setup to RAID 0 (2 500GB drives). I run all my Wii games off it as an external HDD for the Wii. It may be the setup your looking for.

PS: I had to drill four screw holes on the top side of the enclosure so that the two 2.5" HDD could be securely screwed to the frame.

 

I did some playing around with cloning my existing system to SSD when I was moving to one, and I highly recommend not bothering. It's a giant pain in the butt and does end up affecting the performance of the SSD, even if you realign the drive manually after you clone, and manually tweak the OS.

In a clean install, windows will default the mechanics of the drive for optimal use of an SSD, some of these settings are difficult, and in a couple of cases may be impossible to set yourself if you clone. Also, if you clone, you will have to keep the Interface Controller set to RAID, as that is what Dell/AW seems to use by default. If you're not planning on running a RAID after the move to SSD, then you want the controller set to AHCI in BIOS, not RAID. But you can't change the controller has to be set before a clean install - just another reason for a clean install. Never mind having to mount an OS such as Linux from an external source so you can re-align the partitions on the drive...

It's anecdotal, but I've read conflicting experiences with the software Crucial supplies with their drives. I'm a huge fan of Crucial, but the experiences seemed so widely varied that I didn't bother to spend the extra for a kit.

I am not running a RAID setup and hadn't been before I switched, so I can't speak to that more than to say that the mechanics difference between HDD & SSD apply regardless of whether you're running RAID or not, or planning to. Better not to clone.

The OS & Driver Resource disks supplied by Dell/AW make things very simple, (if your machine is new, then you should be OK using the resource disk for drivers, but if it's older, then apparently you shouldn't and should get the drivers direct from the Dell website).

superfluous info you probably don't care about:

Spoiler

Back up your current system first, of course. Follow the awesome guides here for driver install order. If you plan to run RAID after, just make sure to set RAID in BIOS rather than AHCI before you install the OS.

I couldn't find Command Center or Respawn on my resource disk, but I got them from Dell's driver support site. You can also get Alien Autopsy - there's a thread with a link to it in the general Alienware section. And there's a Thread for restoring the Look & Feel of out-of-box, but I found I didn't need to do that - for some reason my user icons and wallpapers were already available on my system.

There is one thing. Apparently Alien Respawn will not install at all if there's no original recovery partition to be found on the disk you're installing to - which would be the case on a clean install. Reference This Thread. However, I was able to install it for some reason and it even made me a new recovery partition for my SSD. This may be because it was on an SSD and I had toyed with cloning first - cloning using Alien Respawn recovery media will create the recovery partition on any drive you clone to. But, I then blew all my partitions on that disk and formatted it before doing my clean install, so that recovery partition should never have been recognized to allow the Respawn installation. I haven't tested the recovery partition...

Only after creating the new clean OS, would I then create a new RAID. The hoops you have to jump through to clone a RAID to SSD from HDD seem like they would be that much more difficult than a single SSD from HDD, and the clean install with these AW machines is just made so easy for us.

 

Download Acronis, Create a back up image, then remove/install HDD/SDD and reimage the SSDs with the image. Be sure to RAID the drives in the BIOS first.

 

hey i appreciate the advice, thanks everyone. I think if i go the SSD RAID 0 option im just gonna back up files on an external and do a clean OS install. I want the SSD's to be as fast as they can, especially if i spend $800 on 2 512 SSD's.

Crucial M4's...any hidden probelms? btw, what bios should i use? I 'm on A08 right now.