Upgrading to an SSD from Raid 1 HDDs and have some questions

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Design1stcode2nd

Design1stcode2nd

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Oct 27, 2010
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So I plan on getting a 500gb SSD shortly and installing a clean version of windows. That all seems pretty straight forward my question is regarding the existing 2TB RAID 1 HDDs. Can I leave them as is and use them for data storage or do I need to copy all of the data I want to keep (photos, video, productivity etc) to another drive and then format them individually since windows is on them?

If the windows installation on the HDD won’t interfere with the new installation on the SSD I’d prefer to just leave it as is.

 
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Design1stcode2nd

Design1stcode2nd

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I was going to disconnect the SATA cables for the HDDs when I did the install. I assume I'll need to change the boot order in the bios to the SSD. How do I go about removing the boot partition (I assume this will do it to both drives or should I just remove one drive completely?)?

A quick Google search had a number of different answers that didn't always work.

Assuming I remove the partition correctly I just delete the windows folder?
 
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ThomasKK

ThomasKK

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You have your rig. Take out old HDD drive, SATA cables only will work. Put a new ssd in there. In BIOS select boot-from device CD-ROM. Sometimes you dont need that and the pc automatically asks if you want to start from disc insterted (windows installation). Install windows in the ssd you inserted. When it's installed, in your BIOS find boot-from devices, move ssd to the top or mark as number 1. Re-connect old HDD. Right now you can leave it as it is and it will work perfectly.

Now, the only problem is that your last windows partition is still on that 2TB hard drive and it occupies a lot of space since there will be your old OS and every application and driver you installed. I'm not sure if you will be able to simply delete those by hand. IMO it should be possible, because you will have new OS installed, new administrator rights etc.. and old OS will be just files stored in the old disc. That's just my logic, don't take it as a fact. The easiest way for me would be save what you need into ssd, then format hdd, and copy your files back to hdd. In this case you should be able to save about 400-450GB of data on your ssd. Personally, after windows re-installation i prefer keeping my files neat, that's why i recommend formatting HDD with old files you don't need, but if you're good with what you have, it's not necessary.

Long story short: Yes, once you install SSD with a new copy of windows, you can leave HDD as it is. HDD won’t interfere Windows from SSD (if boot-from device will be set to SSD). But it has a lot of space occupied by OS, system/windows apps, games, drivers installed etc.. If you want to re-gain that storage, i would recommend saving data you need in SSD and wiping up the HDD. Hope you got the answer!
 
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basroil

basroil

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Oct 19, 2013
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Once you have Windows 10 installed in your new SSD, simply shut down, put the RAID disks back in, and make sure you boot into Windows using the SSD (use boot options just in case). After that, just open the disk manager (right click on windows icon) and find your RAID, and you should be able to see a few smaller partitions in front and behind your main partition. Delete those. Also delete the windows folder in that raid.

After that just restart to make sure you didn't screw over anything. If you care about the 1GB or so the extra (now free) partitions used, you can go back to the disk manager and expand your main partition into that section
 
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Design1stcode2nd

Design1stcode2nd

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Just picked up a 960gb SSD so I will be doing this soon. I plan on going to Microsoft's site and downloading win 10 to a flash drive, I know I have the link for that somewhere.

Before I install the SSD should I go into the Bios and change the boot order to be USB? Right now it's the DVD-Drive then HD. Or do I install the SSD, plug in the flash drive and just enter bios on the initial boot?
 
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M

Mitochle

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You can boot to USB while its starting up, and with the HDDs unplugged, it will run through the boot priorities, find that the HDDs are not available and end up booting through USB anyway, Just have disc tray empty while you do, it could try to boot through that if you have one in the PC, if you don't manage to get into the BIOS during the startup sequence.
 
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M

Mitochle

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prepare to be amazed, had one for around a year now and I still can't get over how much faster and responsive everything is, and the startup time is just....too fast...
 
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Design1stcode2nd

Design1stcode2nd

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I wanted to provide a followup, I only ran into one issue and wanted to document it in case someone else comes across the same issue.

I installed the SSD, no issues there and it was recognized in the BIOS, I moved it to the first boot position. and it would not find my windows flash drive. I go back into the BIOS and try to find the USB as a boot device and no go, just the SSD, BR player and network port.

Googled on Tomshardware and checked to make sure legacy USB was enabled and it was although grayed out. Tried the USB 2.0 port thinking the USB 3.0 could be an issues, and no dice. I then thought perhaps I downloaded the wrong format for windows 10 and no I had the right one.

I finally came across a video about the secure boot option and figured I had nothing to lose so I disabled it and boom it immediately found the media. So if you are having a similar issue DISABLE SECURE BOOT.

Everything went pretty well from there. I have not removed anything from my HDDs yet as I have found there are a few things like profiles and macros from my Belkin N52TE that were in a roaming folder under appdata; so I will keep it around for a while.

I still have 1.3tb left out of a 2TB drive so I'm not sure I'll be in any hurry to remove it.

Thanks everyone for the assistance and yes the difference is amazing, boots in a snap and I never noticed how much noise the HDDs made, so quiet now! Oh and now my pc will sleep and stay that way, it always woke back up for some reason. Yay clean install!

I swapped out all the SATA cables and a few others and cleaned up the build with more cablemod combs. Now all I need is a 1070 and its done.
 
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