How to copy the contents of notebook hardrive to SSD without reinstal?

My starting point is an Envy 15 notebook with a single 500 GB hdd, I'm replacing it with a pair of Crucial C300 drives in raid.

I'm looking to make an exact carbon copy of the existing hard drive onto the raided hard drives. The computer is bootable from USB or DVD, and I also have another laptop.

How would I go about cloning the existing hdd to the set of SSDs?

 

I'm probably wrong, but I don't think you can clone a single HD to RAID.

Good luck.

 

You're right, you're wrong.

So, yes, all you need to do is make a disk image, and copy that image to your RAID array.

P.S.: SSDs in RAID may not be a great idea, given that things like TRIM will not work in RAID, at least not with currently existing drivers and firmware.

 

Pirx,

lol... I actually like when I'm wrong - that means I'm still alive (and learning).

Just seems 'wrong' to me - a clean install is so much more preferred.

 

Special boot media with included Raid drivers is also needed to copy the image back. I would prefer a clean install as tiller.... said.

 

C300s have garbage collection and I've carefully gone over the ins and outs of using raid on SSDs. The Envy 15 in top spec has a set of Intel X18s in raid, so I'm just taking it one step further with better hardware.

The main thing I'm struggling with is transferring over the software.

What I'm thinking of doing is setting up a 2gb bootable USB drive with linux, and in linux, imagining the C drive using Ghost for Linux then storing the 60gb image on my backup drive, swapping the drives, setting up raid in bios, and then loading the clone using linux.

Thoughts?

 

Anyone at all?

 

Seems to me like your plan should work (according to Pirx), but you may need the RAID drivers as suggested by maximinimaus too.

How I would attempt this is to clone to a single SSD drive, install the RAID drivers (IRST 1046 WHQL) and then enable RAID.

The RAID options should include duplicating the original (O/S) disk to the second RAID drive member.

Good luck.

 

Anandtech wasn't very impressed with the C300's garbage collection without TRIM. But if you don't write to heavily it should be ok. I would use all tweaks you can do reduce writing as much as possible.

There's a guide somewhere on this forum by Eye - I -a or something like that.

PS. I would always do a clean install to enhance performance.

 

Max is correct. You can copy an existing hard drive to a RAID array using cloning software, like Acronis True Image. A RAID array will show up to any software program or OS as a single disk volume. You treat your RAID array like any other hard drive - no difference.

However, maximunanemansuens is also correct that you will most likely need RAID drivers to do the clone. The cloning program most likely does not have the drivers for your RAID controller hardware pre-loaded, so you will need to find some way to load your RAID drivers with the disk imaging program. This may be easy, or it may be a PITA, depending on how easy it is to find your drivers.

And lastly, maxinimuminiminmiunmsunniuinmsusimus is also correct that the easiest thing to do is to just do a clean reformat. Clean re-installs are always good to clean up your system for performance reasons. I always jump at any excuse I can find to do a reformat for that very reason.

 

You aren't going to be able to get two C300's in RAID in an Envy 15. You can only RAID two 1.8" drives, and you have to get a special mounting bracket to even do that if you currently have a 2.5". The C300 is a 2.5" drive, so you'll only be able to mount one of those in there.

 

Not entirely true. The C300 is available in a 1.8" size as well. Here's an example:

CTFDDAA064MAG-1G1 Crucial 1.8 inch 64GB RealSSD C300 SATA3 Solid State Drive(MLC) - SSD Solid State Drives - SuperBiiz.com

 

...whoopsie. Guess I stand corrected My info is otherwise correct, I just didn't know the C300 came in a 1.8" flavor.

 

It's all good. The SSD environment is changing so fast, it's hard to keep up!

 

Yeah I currently have 2 C300 1.8" 256gb drives, and the new enclosure and cables for them, so hardware wise I'm fine. I just want to be sure of what I'm doing software wise.

Ok I just want to confirm everything before: so the process is that I clone a single drive, boot up the single drive, then install the Intel 10.0.0.1046 drivers. At some point (software or in bios) I will get the option to strip the disk to the other drive. Then I should be good to go. Right?

 

Basically, you have it.

But, I don't think you will get the option automatically.

Either you need to do a Fn/Shft/Ctrl + and additional button or F1-F12 button press to get into the RAID setup screen or, if it is software based to do it within Windows.

See if you can find a thread documenting this procedure for your notebook.

I'll be very curious to see the performance of your system once you get this going!

Not benchmarks - simply comparing your current setup with your current workflow/usage to the same tasks on the new setup.

Thanks in advance.

 

Just something I don't think has been brought up... your recommendation is for setting up drives in RAID 1, right, tilleroftheearth? Because I wouldn't think the way you're asking him to do it would work for RAID 0, considering how it's supposed to work.

 

The instructions do not change. It doesn't matter if it's RAID-0 or RAID-1.

Tiller's instructions are to get into the RAID configuration of the RAID controller. Typically, you see a message for RAID configuration during bootup, after the POST, but before Windows starts loading. You hit some button (F1-F12, depending on your hardware), and you get to configure your RAID settings.

Once you're in the RAID settings, you get to choose which disks in your system you want to make part of a RAID array, and the configuration of that array (RAID-0/1/5).

Your system will always see a RAID array as a single disk. If you have 2x 120GB drives in RAID-1 (mirroring), then Windows will always see that as a single 120GB drive. If you have 2x 120GB drives in RAID-0 (striping), then Windows will always see that as a single 240GB drive.

 

Are you sure? If I'm getting this right, tilleroftheearth is saying to clone the original spinner to one of the 2 (installed) SSDs while they're not in RAID. Then install the RAID drivers to the SSD drive, and then set it to RAID. Now, if RAID 1, then this makes perfect sense to me, because it would "merely" be mirroring the already existing data to the other drive. I guess I'm just not sure that the installed RAID drivers would be "smart enough" to delete half of the data on the first drive while moving it over to the second drive as part of the striping process; this would make more sense to me if there was firmware or hardware RAID available to set the 2 SSDs into a RAID array first, and then the cloned image was copied to the array (because, as you state below, the RAID array would be viewed as a single drive).

Oh, this was understood. I'm pretty familiar with the technical aspects of RAID, just not as much the practical.