Switch from 3xHDD in RAID 5 to 3xSSD in RAID 0

[jahncm]

Has anyone here switched from 3xHDDs in RAID 5 to a 3xSSD in RAID 0 using a windows system image and backup/restore? Not looking for Ghost, Acronis or something else. Want to use the built in stuff, if possible.

More specifically, I am looking to use a backup image from my current Windows 7 64 bit setup which is a 500 GB partition in a 3 disk Hardware RAID 5 setup and restore it to a new 3 SSD disk array in RAID 0 on the exact same system. The drives are 200GB OCSZ Vertex 2 and should give me more space (around 600GB), so we're not going with less space, so resizing shouldn't be an issue. I have an external NAS that is backing up my system frequently, so RAID 0 is not a concern for me at all.

The OS and apps are perfect the way they are and I don't want to start over fresh as it would be an absolute nightmare to set everything up individually again...and get all the right settings.

If I need to run a sysprep and or change a RAID Driver or setting prior to capturing the new image, or if I can get away with just restoring a backup, I'm all ears. If I need to adjust my settings and do a different backup, I'm all ears.

Just checking if anyone has done this and, if so, can provide any words of caution or things to watch out for.

 

[jahncm]

OK...as a follow up, I couldn't wait:

Using the built in Windows 7 Backup and Restore, I backed up the system (including the system image) to a network location (I have a NAS) and burned a system repair disk. I copied the appropriate RAID Drivers to a USB thumb drive.

I installed my new drives, setup the RAID 0 array and ensured it was booting to the array after the DVD.

I booted the system to the repair disc and selected to restore an image and loaded the driver for the RAID from the USB and selected a network location for the image restore (I bypassed the search by hitting cancel).

Restore took about 5 hours, but worked beautifully. I had to reboot after it booted into the OS and detected HW changes, but it is looking really good.

Drive performance in the Windows Experience index went from 5.9 to 7.8

Real world tests are incredible. All apps are opening very quickly and responsiveness is awesome (except where the DVD\CD Drive are involved, but that's normal)

I am going to monitor this for a few days. If anyone knows about things I should look out for, let me know, but so far...it's awesome!!!!

 

[deepthinker22]

I'm curious to know if you were using al the same hardware for this? Did your final array change size? I'm soon going to be switching mobos and because i'm going from sb600 to sb850 Ill prolly need a driver change or two. But my first concern is how I'm going to get the restore disk to actually recover the system image to a modified system. Once it's loaded I'm confident I can fix any driver issues and make repairs to the OS etc.

 

[foscooter]

@OP: Great Job!