HD clicking......time for a new SSD I think.

[mcveigh]

the main computer at home (mostly the wife's) has 2 250gb drives in raid1 (this was originally an alienware and had them in raid0, I upgraded it a couple years ago and went to raid1) Drive started clicking today and the computer is hanging a lot now.

this raid1 array has 2 partitions the C drive is about 50Gb
Windows 7HP 64bit

I'm planning on a Samsung 840 120gb unless someone else has a better idea.

What would be the best software to to image/clone the drive to a new ssd?

will going froma raid array to a single ssd be a headache

 

[Blain]

A fresh install would be my recommendation.
You can use Fab's Auto backup to transfer data and settings from the current install.

 

[dma0991]

Backup whatever is important and necessary like browser bookmarks, documents or anything that can be carried over in a fresh install. I'm not a big fan of cloning as I do believe Windows require a periodical format to feel like new. Have your software that requires reinstall on standby. Doing a complete format and replacement of the aforementioned files with a SSD from start to finish will take less than 2 hours.

Here is Samsung's migration tool should you feel formatting is a PITA.

 

[KingFatty]

I'd suggest changing your mind from the Samsung 840 120 to the 240, double the capacity but less than double the price. At least I've seen some hot deals/sales on the bigger sized drive and thought it just would make sense to blow the extra money to get more for storage per dollar, and it's not much more money overall.

 

[aviator78]

Samsung 840 should serve you well. It's highly recommended. But think about the space you need. Buy it with enough capacity.
I personally would do a fresh install of the OS. (Clean-up

 

[tweakboy]

Once you hear that click the drive is a dead drive. You can pay 1 or 2k for company to retrive your data, unless nothing important was in it. gl

 

[kbp]

I too would recommend a 240/256. Give yourself a little play room.

 

[Emulex]

check your operating conditions. the drives should have yelled SMART problem by now. It's possible they are doing thermal recalibration. Running them out of their ideal temp (or failed temp sensor) can cause this.

Sata drives don't really say "I'm bad" as fast as they should - for RMA purposes. SAS nearline drives have more complex diagnostics that are hard to fib. timing an operation is an easy way to detect abnormal behaviour. It's how some SSD raid controllers detect weak sectors in raid-0 and move them to a spare.

 

[mcveigh]

Thanks everyone!, I ordered a 250gb 840 from amazon today. It should be here wed
I'll try cling the drive first but if u have issues I'll do a clean install

And the gigabyte raid software does show is down to one working drive in the array. It doesn't say why the drive isn't in the array