Add SSD to existing HP 410T destop from 2011 with existing RAID 0 mechanical drives

[kd4cw1]

I want to add a 500 GB Samsung SSD as the boot drive on an older HP Pavilion Elite 410T desktop PC. The existing PC has two 500 GB mechanical drives in a RAID 0 configuration. The RAID 0 is set up in the BIOS. I would prefer not to have to do a clean install of Windows.

I have read several posts here and this sounds like something non-trivial to do. I figured I would use the Samsung software to clone the existing C: drive to the SSD with a USB-SATA adapter. The SSD will hold all the files from the existing RAID array with room to spare. If I can install the SSD and get it to boot (after disconnecting the existing drives) I want to reformat the existing drives and use those for date. I don't care if they are in a RAID array or not although I might want to set up a RAID 1 group for better reliability.

Are there any critical steps or things I have to do out of the ordinary? For example should I turn off RAID in BIOS before I install the SSD to reboot? I downloaded Marcium Reflect and made a full image backup of the existing drives to a networked drive.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Are there any critical steps or things I have to do out of the ordinary?
For example should I turn off RAID in BIOS before I install the SSD to reboot?

Is this motherboard of your pc?
It has only 2 sata ports. You can have only 2 drives in your system.You will not be able to use SSD + 2x HDDs.

Anyway.
1. Most important is, that SSD has enough capacity to hold all the data from HDDs. Otherwise you can't clone.
2. Samsung software may not allow to clone to SSD connected via USB. Use Macrium Reflect instead.
3. You should not turn off RAID. If you do, system will not be able to boot.

 

[geofelt]

I think you can use the Samsung ssd migration app to do the job simply.
Download the app and instructions here:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

It is a windows C drive mover, not a clone app so having the source be a raid C drive should not be an issue.

If you have a spare sata data and power cable, connect the ssd to your pc and run the app.
If you need to use a usb to sata adapter cable, that is ok too.
When done, disconnect your two HDD drives and boot the ssd to verify that all is well.

Assuming all goes well, you can disable the raid setup and reuse the hard drives individually.
You may want to reformat them.

It is always good to have a backup but the app does not in any way change the source drives.

Update...
If the motherboard that Skynet posted is yours, you will need to use the usb connected method to transfer windows to the ssd.
When done, you will need to remove your old hard drives and reset the bios to eliminate the raid setup.
This will effectively destroy the raid-0 and the data on the two HDD .
Connect your new ssd to a sata port and boot.

Since you will have only one sata port left for a HDD, you can connect one hdd and perhaps put the other in an external enclosure .

 

[kd4cw1]

I think my motherboard has four SATA ports. The SATA port arrangement looks like this one:

The description is here:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-400-desktop-pc-series/4269972/model/4343017/document/c02014355

The existing HDD's are connected to SATA 1 and SATA 2 (blue and white) on the right side of the board. The SSD will hold everything I have now. If the SSD boots what I will probably do is format 500 GB mechanical drives as externals with my laptop and install one or both back in the desktop for data.

 

[kd4cw1]

Are there any critical steps or things I have to do out of the ordinary?
For example should I turn off RAID in BIOS before I install the SSD to reboot?

Is this motherboard of your pc?
It has only 2 sata ports. You can have only 2 drives in your system.You will not be able to use SSD + 2x HDDs.

Anyway.
1. Most important is, that SSD has enough capacity to hold all the data from HDDs. Otherwise you can't clone.
2. Samsung software may not allow to clone to SSD connected via USB. Use Macrium Reflect instead.
3. You should not turn off RAID. If you do, system will not be able to boot.

Yes, the SSD is large enough to hold the OS and all the existing files.

 

[kd4cw1]

I think you can use the Samsung ssd migration app to do the job simply.
Download the app and instructions here:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

It is a windows C drive mover, not a clone app so having the source be a raid C drive should not be an issue.

If you have a spare sata data and power cable, connect the ssd to your pc and run the app.
If you need to use a usb to sata adapter cable, that is ok too.
When done, disconnect your two HDD drives and boot the ssd to verify that all is well.

Assuming all goes well, you can disable the raid setup and reuse the hard drives individually.
You may want to reformat them.

It is always good to have a backup but the app does not in any way change the source drives.

Update...
If the motherboard that Skynet posted is yours, you will need to use the usb connected method to transfer windows to the ssd.
When done, you will need to remove your old hard drives and reset the bios to eliminate the raid setup.
This will effectively destroy the raid-0 and the data on the two HDD .
Connect your new ssd to a sata port and boot.

Since you will have only one sata port left for a HDD, you can connect one hdd and perhaps put the other in an external enclosure .

I got the SSD installed. I followed these steps:

■ I cloned the existing C: drive using the Samsung cloning software and a USB to SATA adapter cable.
■ I opened the PC and disconnected the power and data cables from the existing mechanical drives in the RAID array.
■ I Connected the SSD to an unused SATA port and power connector.
■ Rebooted and it came up in Windows on the SSD.
■ Reconnected the mechanical drives
■ Booted to BIOS and changed the HDD boot order to boot from the SSD first.
■ Swapped drive letters around to make the old mechanical drives D:
■ After double checking that the SSD had all the files I formatted D:
■ I moved the Windows storage data files to D:

Now I have the OS on the SSD and the data on a 1 terabyte RAID 0 array.

Thanks to all who replied.