Changing from 1.5TB RAID1 to 256GB SSD RAID1

[mikeymikec]

OS: Win7 64 SP1
Board: ASUS M4A78T-E, chipset SB750 (SATA II capable), using onboard RAID

The reason for the change and massive size difference in the change are complicated, but the change is largely being brought on because one of the disks in the array has had multiple issues (seemingly due to bad sector count increasing).

I'm planning on using a pair of Crucial M4s. The machine is working OK at the moment (ie. I trust that it would read/write data without disk issues), but I would like to go over my plan with you all and find out whether the plan is sound.

I'd like to avoid doing a clean install of Windows, but if it is necessary it's not a serious problem. My plan is to create a Windows system image onto an external drive, then disconnect both HDDs, plug in the SSDs, start Windows setup and feed it the Windows system image. There's only about 50GB of data on the RAID volume at the moment.

Updating the board BIOS might be a prudent measure also. I ought to check the SSD firmware as well. RAID might complicate that.

Thoughts?

 

[SamMaster]

The Windows system image will only go back to an equal or greater image as far as I can recall, so using that from a 1.5TB to a 256GB is not possible. You will probably need to use a 3rd party software like acronis or something similar.

Again, this is off the top of my head. If someone else can disprove my sayings then by all means.

 

[LurchFrinky]

You can re-size the partition first, and then create the image.
To do so you shouldn't be in windows at the time, so use a linux live-cd.

However, I would recommend doing a clean install. An image copies everything over; including bad data and mis-alignment. You will get a better performing system with a clean install.

As a side note - why RAID1 for the boot?

 

[mikeymikec]

I thought the Windows system image was largely a file-based backup system rather than block-based. Hum.

As a side note - why RAID1 for the boot?

System stability / availability is a higher priority than performance in this case.