tjdabomb :
Hi -
I have a HP Z440 desktop that has a 500GB Z Turbo drive (PCI SSD drive) which contains Windows 7. This drive has a bunch of pre-loaded software. I just got in 10 more of these machines, same config, but the OS is bare bones. I'd like to image the loaded z440 and restore to the other 10 machines. I have tried Macrium Reflect, it will make an image but when I try to restore the image to the new machine, it doesn't see the Z Turbo drive. Not much on google on how to image to Z Turbo drive.
Anyone have any experience imaging/restoring images to/from a Z turbo drive??
thanks!
tjdabomb,
I've never done this task specifically, but did a very similar task a month ago, adding a Samsung SM951 AHCI on an M.2 to PCIe adapter card to a z420. The Z Turbo Drive is essentially that- an SM951 on an adapter card, only more beautiful looking and more expensive. Your version however, will be the more delicious NVMe flavour.
What is happening (I think) is that the system image is compressed and the target drive can not see the controller driver. The driver is not special- it's the ordinary OS driver, but if it is buried in a compressed system image, the driver would have to be pre-loaded in the manner of installing to a drive connected to a RAID controller so Windows installation can see the drive.
Here's an idea to set up a Z Turbo production line:
1. Clone the current system drive onto a conventional SATA drive (not PCIe). Make sure that the partition on the setup drive is smaller than the Z Turbo volume. That disk will then be running each new system.
2. Install a disk management software having a disk cloning feature on the a setup drive .
3. Disconnect all the drives in the next z440 except the Z Turbo and connect the setup drive with the installed OS /Programs on SATA 0. Because the driver for the Turbo Z is the conventional Windows one- and the setup drive is running Windows, the Z Turbo should be visible. Use the disk management program to make sure the Z Turbo volume is formatted, allocated and set as the active partition.
4. Use the disk management migration program to clone the disk to the Z Turbo, verify the boot sequence in BIOS that the Z Turbo the boot drive and remove the setup drive to clone the Z Turbo in the next z440. If the setup drive is a mech'l hard drive, use the "optimize for SSD" feature as SSD's start the data loading at a different point.
By the way, the performance of those drives is phenomenal. I used a quite fast Intel 730 480GB in the z420- with a Passmark Disk score of 4694 and the SM951 changed that to 11559, making the z420 the highest rated one for awhile. Your NVMe Z Turbo might be 13000-15000
Sorry, for the ramble- let me know how you get on.
What are the z440's used for?
Cheers,
BambiBoom
1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI / Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) / Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]
2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 > CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)
Current Project: (received yesterday)
Replacing the Precision T5500 with an HP z620 now a Xeon E5-1620, eventually 2X Xeon E5- 2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC / Quadro K2200 / SM951 AHCI or HP Z Turbo HP / HP 9212-4i HBA > 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 Enterprise 1TB.
Unfortunately, the z620 was damaged in shipping so I may be starting over.
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