Moving from single SSD to RAID 0 without reinstalling Windows 10

[Circaflex]

  On 12/04/2016 at 21:59, jjkusaf said:

yea, the Z77 doesn't support booting from NVMe...though I've seen that you can mod the BIOS to do so.  However, I'm not willing to risk bricking the entire system in case I were to screw up.

 

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Im sure someone out there offers a modded bios so you dont have to use the tools to make the changes.

 

In regards to your question, yes usually you need to reinstall windows when you switch to RAID, the Sata drivers are actually different. Although it might be possible to clone a Windows OS, which had been installed in AHCI mode, onto a RAID array, I do not recommend to do it. The result will never be as good as a fresh OS installation. Make sure you have everything backed up and you could give it a shot.

[xendrome]

  On 12/04/2016 at 14:27, Tomo said:

Firstly please don't use RAID 0, if one drive fails then the whole thing fails.

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That's unneeded advice... RAID 0 works fine. Just backup your data properly, either image the array using Acronis or keep a copy in Dropbox/Carbonite, etc.

[Order_66]

  On 13/04/2016 at 01:05, xendrome said:

That's unneeded advice... RAID 0 works fine.

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Agreed, I've been running RAID 0 as a main boot for many years on many different machines with no array failures ever, I even have a pair of old 10k rpm raptors from 2005 running an old linux server with zero issues.

RAID 0 is blazing fast with a good pair of SSD's, a worthwhile investment indeed, I never buy one drive at a time unless for storage only.

[Order_66]

  On 12/04/2016 at 17:35, Circaflex said:

Benchmarks say otherwise. 10 IS faster. 

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In what areas, boot time? computational tasks? disk benchmarks?

 

Genuine curiosity since most reviews I've read show 7, 8 and 10 very similar in everything except boot time which changed drastically when hibernation was turned off on 8 and 10 and they became not much faster than 7.

[bluesman86]

  On 12/04/2016 at 15:40, JHBrown said:

I'm going to disagree with you, and this post has nothing to do with "bashing" Windows 10, as it is a fast OS. With that, I've ran Windows 7, and Windows 10, on the same Samsung 950 Pro SSD, and the performance difference is not there to the naked eye. Maybe on benchmarks Windows 10 is faster, however, the average Joe will not notice a huge speed bump, if any at all, on an already fast system. Lastly, moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is not the best performance boost you can give your system. That honor goes to many other hardware upgrades available out there. Again, Windows 10 is a fast OS, but I believe you are stretching it with the comment I quoted above.

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On the same system, without hardware changes, it is.

 

Everyone here knows you extremely dislike Windows 10 and would bang Windows 7 if it were physically possible. There's no need to point it out constantly.

  On 12/04/2016 at 18:03, adrynalyne said:

Your point is moot, we already have SSDs in this case.

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Thank you.

[bluesman86]

  On 13/04/2016 at 01:23, Order_66 said:

In what areas, boot time? computational tasks? disk benchmarks?

 

Genuine curiosity since most reviews I've read show 7, 8 and 10 very similar in everything except boot time which changed drastically when hibernation was turned off on 8 and 10 and they became not much faster than 7.

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Boot time is a big one, and everything feels snappier. There's no way you won't notice the difference if you run two fresh installs next to each other.

[+BudMan MVC]

to the migration thing, I have moved multiple systems from both hdd to ssd and from ssd to newer ssd, etc..  Samsung gives you a free tool you can download to migrate your system too.. http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html

 

It will read from whatever disk you have and write to your samsung drive, that you either have connected to another sata port or just attached with usb.. You can pick up a usb cable to connect disks with for less than $20...  great tool to have in your toolbox..

 

I moved from the 840 pro to the 850 pro on my system when they came out, and then my wifes old laptop got ssd boost as she got my old 840.

[RodP]

RAID 0 isn't any more subject to drive failure than a simple single drive, and in both cases backups are your responsibility. Also, If you have a 250G SSD and want to expand your system, buy an identical (or close to it) SSD and use the old and the new in a RAID 0 configuration to produce a 500G drive without having to buy a 500G drive; plus you'll get a performance improvement striping 2 drives.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Welcome RodP!  This is an old thread so I'm locking it.