SSD Installation (HELP!)

OK so I am going to be getting a Samsung 840 EVO 750 GB SSD. I have never installed a SSD before but I've been confused a bit by the internet. Right now I have a WD 750 GB HD. I plan on using it as a back up drive. I do NOT have a mSATA installed. The drive configuration right now is in RAID. This is where I am confused. When I install the SSD will I need to change the configuration over to AHCI or leave it as RAID? I've read that unless I have 2 SSDs installed then I should switch to AHCI. Ive also read I do nothing but simply install the drive and do a clean install. Any help on this would be great.

 

Hi LinkinForcer,

There is no use to having the SATA configuration as RAID if you are not going to have both HDDs working together, or if you don't have an mSATA installed. If you are going to use the SSD as booting drive and the HDD as storage drive only, change the configuration to AHCI.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. Do you know if the AHCI configuration will interference with any of the drivers? I heard someone was having trouble with the Intel Rapid Storage driver.

 

I have tried installing both as Raid and AHCI to my system. I was using pretty much the same configuration, no msata and SSD for boot drive, HDD for storage. RAID already has AHCI support so you can install leaving BIOS in raid mode. You can also change it to AHCI. Regardless of which configuration you choose you will need to install Intel Rapid Storage drivers, which are basically updates AHCI drivers in device manager.

If you are installing Windows 8, remember to change CSM (or legacy) boot to UEFI and enable secure and fast boot options. From SSD you should be able to cold boot into Windows in under 15s.

 

Awesome thanks...I'll just leave it in raid then. I have windows 7 64-bit so I guess I don't have to worry about changing to boot to UEFI. Will I still need to enable the secure and fast boot options? if so where are they in the bios?

 

No, secure boot and fast boot are Windows 8 only, you will not need to change anything. Windows 7 will have slower boot times than Windows 8 though.

 

I bought my new AW 17 with a 256G SSD and a 1T HDD. It came from the factory set up in RAID mode, but with no RAID array actually configured. I just left it that way and have also installed a 3rd 500G HDD so I have 3 drives, but no RAID arrays. Works w/o issue.