James said:
Just so I make sure I understand what you're saying...
Pick a plan:
(initial: machine running Win7 64bit under AHCI controller and working
fine)
1. Image the system drive and then remove the drive
2. Install 3 SSD RAID disks and switch to RAID controller in BIOS & assign
drives for RAID 0 operation.
3. Restore image of Win7 64.
4. Boot computer
OR...
1. Set BIOS for RAID controller and boot Win7 64 OS.
2. Image the system drive and then remove.
3. Install 3 SSD RAID disks, assign, and configure BIOS for RAID 0
4. Restore image of Win7 64.
5. Boot computer
Just FYI, my mb is a GA-EX58-UD4P/i7-920/BIOS F14 (BIOS is current)
I know you would rather I start from scratch, but I have a lot of
apps/games/utils coupled with all the hours of tweaking and configuration
(that I never documented) that I do not wish to repeat if I don't have
to...
Missing step added below...
I understand the desire to save time and not have to install everything
again, but it really is the best method for making sure you don't have
issues further down the line. It's not a matter of what I would want, but a
recommendation based on experience. I've had to repair many machines in my
time where the issues could have been prevented by not taking shortcuts.
Of all those tweaks and installations, how many of them included
uninstalling something you didn't like and it left behind remnants? How
many of those items still there aren't really used anymore and the system
would be better off/cleaner without?
Don't look at this as work, but rather an opportunity to clean up.
The steps below "might" work (and often times do) but you bring with you
baggage. As mentioned, 2nd best method (after full rebuild) is using
SYSPREP. SYSPREP is SYStem PREParation tool. it is specifically designed
for preparing a system to be imaged for deployment into other/different
hardware. It's how I use a single image to deploy 140,000 machines globally
on a myriad of different hardware platforms.
And remember, you might have at least 2 partitions to make sure they match
the old drive. A small 100mb partition that is active and the large
partition that is assigned to C:. Plus any other partitions you might have
made.
1. Set BIOS for RAID controller and boot Win7 64 OS.
2. Once in Windows, install drivers for RAID controller when Windows
auto-detects the "new" hardware. If Windows doesn't auto-detect new
hardware, start driver setup and hope for no errors.
3. Image the system drive and then remove.
4. Install 3 SSD RAID disks, assign, and configure BIOS for RAID 0
5. Restore image of Win7 64.
6. Boot computer
