XPS 435MT SSD

Yes, if you are in RAID 0 you are in RAID - so the steps I outlilned to enable RAID wouldn't be necessary.

RAID 0, as I understand it, allowed you to combine your two 500 gb disks into one larger drive - 1TB.  Apparantly there are speed advantages  with Raid ) but it also increases the risk of failure - if either drive fials your system fails. I think RAID 0 does't do "parity checking" - which gives you additonal speed at the cost of additional safety.  

You might want to consider migrating to newer hard drives and moving away from RAID 0.  You can get a 1.5 TB drive for a modest investment. then use one of your existing drives as backup.  You could also use one of your existing drives for storage for your video - I have recorded televison on a separate partition.  

I don't have experience with RAID 0, so I can't compare the speed advantage you got with RAID 0 to the speed improvement you would get with the SSD, but I'm under the impression that the SSD is much faster than any mechancial hard disk (even setup as RAID 0).

Be careful if you move away from RAID 0 - changing the RAID assigned to your existng hard drives could result in data loss.

A "safe" method would be to install your new SDD drive and do a clean install of your newly purchased operating system to the SSD drive.  Then install your new 1.5 or 2 TB hard drive, and copy your data files from your existing drives to the new drive.  Then adjust your softward settings to find your data on your new drive.

Leave your old drives "as is" for a few months to make sure that you moved all critical data to your new drive.  After you are confident that all is well, you could proceed with safety to use them as you wish.  You could leave them in RAID 0 and format them and use them as a backup, or take them out of RAID 0 and use them as two individual hard drives.  Just keep in mind that RAID 0 is flirting with danger.

Best wishes!

I put a crucial M4 512gb ssd im my 435mt, it now screams! I just could not mirror the drive so I have it set up, dual boot, Win 7 Ultimate and win 8 pro, you talk about fast!!

Before installing the system I made sure it was recognized in my bios it was, works fine. Only problem is win 8, it doesn't recognize my blue tooth. All my sub scores are at 7.4

Hi HB2, I am new at this, and my level is that of a regular user.

I am attempting to add an SSD as my boot drive and leave the HDD for storage not realizing the bios did not support the ahci.  By the way, I am doing a clean install from the windows 7 (64) dvd disk.

First of, let me say that I really like your provided instructions on how to go about accomplishing just that.  I am not bad at following them , however as I said before, just a regular user and therefore a little confused on a few items that if you could, I would really appreciate your guidance on.

Currently there is no os installed on my computer as I removed the old drive

1. I downloaded the Microsoft Fix it 50470 but was wondering how to run it prior of the os installation.

2. Where do I download the Intel Matrix Storage from, I searched the net, and found a host of versions that for the most do not list windows 7 as one supported.  And again, if I were to get the right Intel Matrix Storage how do I install it prior to the os?

Everything else in your instructions seem straight forward, so if you could enlighten me on the above two issues, I would be very grateful as I do want to use the SSD.

Thanks a lot for your assistance,

Hiram

Hi, Hiram

Just a reminder that I'm not a technician - somewhere between regular user and power user.  So keep that in mind . . .

I didn't take the path that you are following - i.e. start with a fresh install.  You might find someone who went that route - that would add to your confidence as you proceed.

That said, this approach sounds like it would work:

1. Back up to an external hard drive and make a book CD just to be safe.

2.  Install the SSD drive (C drive) in the 0 slot and move the HD (F Drive)to extra slot.

3.  Do a fresh install of windows 7 to the SSD.

2. Run Fix it 50470 to make the registry changes.  Must do prior to next steps.  support.microsoft.com/.../922976

3. Install the Intel controller (download and install Intel Matrix Storage) and drivers

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3154&DwnldID=18064&keyword=+Intel+Matrix+Storage&lang=eng

7. Change boot order to make sure SSD was first. (F2 during reboot)

8. Define the location for documents, music, photos, videos (eg right click on My Photos and move location to F Drive where my photos are now located).

9. Your media player will need to find and index photos and music.

10. Adjust settings on programs that point to C for data when data is now on F.

That should get you to a fresh windows install with RAID enabled in bios.

You will need to reinstall all your programs with the fresh install, and you will have to set the options in each program to find your data on your old drive.  I'm assuming you will keep your old drive for data as your SSD drive is probably too small for large photo or mp3 collections.  The experts seem to think that putting your data on a second drive (rather than your boot drive) is a good idea.  You will want your programs installed on your SSD drive to get the speed you want.

So - to answer your questions

1.  I think you should run the Fix after you do the fresh install of windows 7.  As I suggested above, do the steps I outlined in my earlier posting (including the Fix) after you have installed the SSD and completed a fresh windows 7 install.  Make sure you do each step in the order I suggested skipping step 5 (you will have already installed the SSD) and step 6 (you did a fresh install rather than clone as outlined in step 6)

2.  This link looks like it has the correct download for the Intel Matrix Storage Manager

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3154&DwnldID=18064&keyword=+Intel+Matrix+Storage&lang=eng

Good luck!

I would do the RAID after the clean install.

Your SD drive will be operating slower – as the bios wouldn’t have changed – then when you change the bios it should work properly.  My concern would be that if you did the bios prior to the clean install you might run into the problems that the “Fix” and the Intel download are supposed to fix.  

I don’t think you can harm anything by doing the clean install first – your SD drive will just work more slowly until you have changed the bios to support trim and simultaneous calls to the SD drive.  Just don’t re-install all your programs until you are satisfied with the speed because if this approach doesn’t work you will need to start over.  You won’t want to have wasted all that time installing programs, pointing to data, etc. if you have to start over.

At least that’s my thinking, for what its worth.  Smile

Hey HB2!   Great thanks a lot.

I thought I had to install the os prior to running the fix and installing the Intel matrix Storage Manager.  

I did noticed however that you did not mentioned switching to RAID before the clean install.  Would you say that I need to set the RAID mode first and then follow the rest of the steps?

Thanks again this is great advise and will allow me to attempt the ssd addition with more confidence.

OK I will try as you state and like you say, if it does not work try it again but setting the RAID first.

The reason for me asking, is that I read in another thread, that if you set your RAID after the os, you could corrupt it or loose it.

I do like your thinking specially with so much other information that can very easily make one go crazy.

Have a great week and many thanks.

This is pretty close the method I used as I made the changes to Bios with an already installed OS - just as you will be doing after a clean install - so you shouldn't have any corruption issues.  Keep in mind that you just enable RAID - you don't actually assign any drives to a Raid array.  The corruption could happen if you assign multiple drives to a Raid array then make changes.  (I think.)

Lots of misinformation out there - it is very confusing.  Skepticism while reading the forums is well justified - maybe even a little cynicism.  :)

HB2:

   I have the following question:

I have a Dell Studio XPS 435MT with the following storage hardware inside: 64GB SSD, 640GB HD, Blu-Ray RW, all on SATA. Recently I rebuilt the system and tried running it in RAID mode. That caused a lot of instability, apparently related to the Intel RST drivers. Hence I switched back to IDE mode (and yes, TRIM is still enabled) and re-installed windows. All is stable, but I feel that in RAID, the SSD was faster, probably due to Native Command Queuing. I see it from your post that you added a PCI-E card to your system to run the SSD off. Could you please let me know the following:

1. Do you use the card to boot from the SSD connected to the card? How did you enable it via Dell BIOS?

2. What is the make and model of the PCI-E card?

Thanks,

Greg

Hi, Greg:

I didn't add a PCI-E card - that was my "plan B" that I never had to utilize.

I'm running with the RAID enabled but with no drives assigned to a RAID array and I haven't had any instability.  Did you download the Intel program and do the Microsoft Fix noted in this forum?  If not, that might have caused the instability.

Sorry I can't help with the PCI-E card.

I only used the Intel drivers, never ran the MS Fix it since I was doing a fresh install of windows. The windows would get installed, but then I would experience intermittent freezes. The drives would show up as SCSI drives.

My  SSD drive is larger than yours - 240 gb.  That looks like the only significant difference in our systems.

You might want to try again - following all the steps including the Intel download and the Microsoft fix.  Make sure you do each step in the order that's outlined in the forum.  If that doesn't work you can purchase a card.

I haven't had any problems since my install, so your problem must either be something specific to your system or it may be that you need to follow all the steps.

Good luck!

HB2: Are most/all of these instructions still valid? I recently posted a similar question to this forum. I'm replying to your post here in the hopes that you see it and have a moment to respond and/or comment on my similar question. Thanks!

Hi

Yes the instructions should work as posted - please note that it is important to follow all the directions in the order as recommended.

I later did a clean install of windows 7.1 - originally I cloned.  Cloning worked but the clean install cured a few glitches I had.  I actuallly didn't have a choice - I tried to go back using a reset and somehow clobbered my operating system.  The clean install of windows 7.1 fixed that.

I'm still using the same system with SSD.  It works well - but you will never get the optimum speed of the SSD because the motherboard only goes up to sata II.  The advertised speed assumes sata III.  Still - that's a huge improvement.

I'm moving on over the next two weeks - waiting for the delivery of my new case, motherboard, cpu, and m.2 SSD. A new motherboard is really the only way to fully overcome the sata and other limits.

That said - I'm only building a new PC for the joy of it - my current system does everything I ask of it.

Feel free to ask for clarification on the instructions - it's been a while but I'll try to remember any additional details.  I owe a lot to others in the forum that helped me through the install of the SSD.