Dell Studio XPS 435MT - Installing SSD and Windows 7 64bit

Could I simply take the current HDD's out (after backing up essential data) to keep safe as backup plan and add the SSD into slot 0 and install Windows 7?? Then possibly add say a 1tb storage drive to the system later? I have seen/heard many versions of how to go about this install but no real evidence of a true way?

An SSD with a 1tb data drive is a good idea, and Acronis TrueImage can be used to "clone" the RAID 0 disks to a single volume (preferably the 1tb drive). Afterwards, the free-for-private-use EasyBCD utility can be used to create a multiboot menu, allowing the choice of which partition to boot from.

 

Thanks RDUNNILL that is a great idea hadn't thought of approacing it in that way before, think I was trying to shortcut it a bit.

So say I was to buy a WD 1tb Black drive and place it in the what I think is empty space in the second 5.25 drive bay (just loosely or via adaptor brackets) then do the Acronis TrueImage clone from the RAID 0 drives to the single drive, that should work?

I am not that interested in multi booting or can a default be set to mornally boot to say the new SSD windows 7 install?

Once I have cloned the drive do I keep the HDD ports set to RAID? Or can these be changed individually for each drive?

Apologies for all the questions I am really trying to get a plan set out for this as it is getting to be quite an urgent job, I have realised a 3D program I will be installing needs Windows 7!!

Thanks for your help so far,

Poke13

So say I was to buy a WD 1tb Black drive and place it in the what I think is empty space in the second 5.25 drive bay (just loosely or via adaptor brackets) then do the Acronis TrueImage clone from the RAID 0 drives to the single drive, that should work?

That should work, but I don't know if you can connect the single drive to an internal SATA port for that purpose, as it needs to be set up for singular operation and not RAID. Use of a USB enclosure would get around such a restriction.

Once I have cloned the drive do I keep the HDD ports set to RAID?

No, the single drive is intended to work in non-RAID mode.

Or can these be changed individually for each drive?

I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

I am not that interested in multi booting or can a default be set to mornally boot to say the new SSD windows 7 install?

You can set up a multiboot defaulting to the new SSD, and with a minimal timeout. Without a multiboot menu, the only way to boot from the 1tb drive would be via the F12 boot device menu.

The RAID drives form a single logical volume, so yes, you can set the single new HDD to non-RAID SATA. However, you may have difficulty booting, because the driver for non-RAID SATA may not be installed.

I've never used the Intel Matrix drivers, and I have several Dells set up with SSDs. I don't think these drivers are necessary.

I would recommend backing up your data and then removing the hard drives.

You should insert your SSD and then need to change the SATA operation to AHCI within the BIOS setup.

Clean install Windows 7 on your SSD preferably using an updated .iso from Digital River which will have more inbuilt SATA drivers.

For more details on clean installation see here:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/

Thanks for the info guys. The digital river sounds like it may help a lot I will look into that, I guess they are updated iso's that I can use the serial number from the copy of windows I purchase? As far as I am aware the bios in very restricted and the two modes available for the data ports are IDE or RAID (I think that's right?) and apparently RAID mode is the only one that supports AHCI to enable TRIM? Too many variables here surely this is possible and okay! It sounds like the ISO may solve the TRIM issue. I will back all important folders but through usb2 is proving difficult (and slow too ext hdd) I have bought a usb3 PCI card but want to ensure most data is backed up before I start adding cards and taking out hdd's! Cannot wait to get all this sorted out haha

Thanks for all the information so far guys, although I am just looking for a bit of advice as I feel I am getting closer but kind of stuck too!

This is where I have got to:

- I used Paragon Backup (free) to create a backup to an ext usb drive.

- Then I have connected my new 1tb drive to the spare sata port.

- The drive has been recognised within Paragon in Windows so I then restored the partitions from usb ext drive to the new 1tb drive.

- The new drive now looks exactly the same as my original RAID 0 array but the partitions have no drive letters?! (see below pic)

My question now is if I disconnect the RAID 0 drives and set the new drive as boot will the system boot and what happens to the drive letters?

Am I on the right track or should I start again using something like Acronis?

Any help would be much appreciated!


Thanks, Jonny/Poke13