Swapping Old HDD with SSD

Hello fellow M17X owners, i was wondering how the process is when changing HDD's.

I currently have a raid 0 setup.

I would like to swap 1 of my HDD with a SSD (so i can have windows and some games on the SSD) and keep the other normal HDD as a storage for movies.

Im going to format the HDD's before i do this but there are some questions i have....

Do i need to disable raid 0 in BIOS before/after the format?
If i do, how do i do this ?

The SSD will be only 90gb.

PS.

If possible, if there are any threads with pictures of how to do this can someone please post? I was searching but didnt find any detailed info.

Thanks.

 

This is a high level overview of how to do this. It is not detailed and does not contain screen shots or links.

In order to do this, you will need to do a complete re-install/restore of your OS and all of your applications and data. Make sure you backup everything you need/want prior doing this.

Once you have everything backed up, you will need to go into your BIOS and turn off the RAID settings. As my R2 has not arrived yet, I'm not certain where/how you do this, other than to note that you do it in the BIOS.

Save and exit the BIOS and shutdown your system.

Install your SSD drive in slot 0.

Boot the system and go back into the BIOS. Make sure your new drive is visible and selected as the boot partition. Make sure your install media (CD/USB) is selected as a boot option before either of your drives.

Reboot with your install media in the CD/DVD drive (or USB if you are going that route). Install your OS and proceed with installing your applications and restoring your data from your backup.

I can't stress it enough, backup your data prior to doing this. Make sure you have downloaded the latest drivers to another location (network, usb, etc) so you have them from the get go.

 

Why do i have to reinstall PRIOR doing this? wont i end up in the same location as i am right now?

Cant i just skip the reinstall and go straight to BIOS and disable raid?

(sorry for the dumb questions, i feel like an idiot when raid is involved in the conversation)

 

up - still need answers

 

I think you would need the capability to convert raid to non-raid and I only know Linux to be able to do that. You have to get rid of raid first. Only other thing I can think of is to try to clone your disk image, but I dont know how the different size will affect that. Easiest, sure-fire, albeit longer way to do it is to just backup, reinstall os on the new drive, and restore from backup. Don't forget the intermediate steps aformentioned.

 

I dont need to backup anything, im going to do a clean install of everything... so should i just go to BIOS, turn off raid, power off the laptop, swap the HDD0 with SSD and boot up.... than format the HDD1 (which was a part of the old raid0) and install WIN7 on the SSD (HDD0) ??

 

1) Enter BIOS
2) Disable RAID0
3) Save and shut down
4) Swap HDD0 with SSD
5) Boot and enter BIOS, ensure your new SSD is visible.
6) While still in the BIOS, make sure your CD/USB is the selected boot device (priority).
7) Shut down, boot up with Win7 CD/USB inside.
8) In the Windows installer, format the drives, and select the SSD to install Windows on.

 

thx this is what i needed, added rep.