Question installing new windows on new drive without deleting old installation on another drive

[dtincapetown]

Hi all

Basically I have an older system running working Win10, booting off an old sata RAID using 2x1tb HDDs. It's unreasonably slow to get to a usable desktop after login, and people have suggested replacing the HDD with an SSD.

I have one free M2 (not NVMe) slot I can use to test-drive an SSD, but of course this will mean a Win10 reinstall. That's all fine, but the question is whether it is possible to do this and still keep the existing installation in case this turns out to not be ideal? I'd rather not have to reinstall again to the RAID if the gain in speed is not worthwhile. Also, if at some point the SSD fails it would be great to point the BIOS back to the RAID as the boot system and be back up and running in minutes. Does anyone know whether this is possible or am I dreaming here?

I could replace the 2 SATA HDDs one at a time with SATA SSDs and let the RAID software sort it out, but this is more money and time than I want to invest and also leaves me with 2 HDDs I can't put to good use. Previously I'd have done a dual boot, but I don't know if it is possible to dual-boot using 2 installations of the same version of Windows.

Worst case scenario, I guess I will have to reinstall Win to the RAID if this doesn't work out or the SSD dies. But I'm hopeful that someone will assure me that what I want to do will work like a charm. I will miss the security of a RAID, but Windows is so unreasonably slow at present it's possibly worth the risk.

TL/DR - if i clean install to a new disk, can I still keep the old installation functional in case of a disaster?

Thanks very much
-d-

 

[dwd999]

Hi all

Basically I have an older system running working Win10, booting off an old sata RAID using 2x1tb HDDs. It's unreasonably slow to get to a usable desktop after login, and people have suggested replacing the HDD with an SSD.

I have one free M2 (not NVMe) slot I can use to test-drive an SSD, but of course this will mean a Win10 reinstall. That's all fine, but the question is whether it is possible to do this and still keep the existing installation in case this turns out to not be ideal? I'd rather not have to reinstall again to the RAID if the gain in speed is not worthwhile. Also, if at some point the SSD fails it would be great to point the BIOS back to the RAID as the boot system and be back up and running in minutes. Does anyone know whether this is possible or am I dreaming here?

I could replace the 2 SATA HDDs one at a time with SATA SSDs and let the RAID software sort it out, but this is more money and time than I want to invest and also leaves me with 2 HDDs I can't put to good use. Previously I'd have done a dual boot, but I don't know if it is possible to dual-boot using 2 installations of the same version of Windows.

Worst case scenario, I guess I will have to reinstall Win to the RAID if this doesn't work out or the SSD dies. But I'm hopeful that someone will assure me that what I want to do will work like a charm. I will miss the security of a RAID, but Windows is so unreasonably slow at present it's possibly worth the risk.

TL/DR - if i clean install to a new disk, can I still keep the old installation functional in case of a disaster?

Thanks very much
-d-

Windows prefers that only 1 drive be connected at installation time. Just temporarily disconnect all of your old drives before beginning the new installation process. After the new installation is complete you can reconnect all of your old drives and switch between old and new by choosing which drive to boot in bios.

 

[dtincapetown]

Windows prefers that only 1 drive be connected at installation time. Just temporarily disconnect all of your old drives before beginning the new installation process. After the new installation is complete you can reconnect all of your old drives and switch between old and new by choosing which drive to boot in bios.

I'll give that a go. Thanks very much.

 

[TerryLaze]

Previously I'd have done a dual boot, but I don't know if it is possible to dual-boot using 2 installations of the same version of Windows.

Yes you can, as long as they are on different disks there is no problem.

Windows prefers that only 1 drive be connected at installation time.

Windows doesn't prefer anything, it's a thing that will do anything you tell it to.

By default windows will install the bootloader on the first disk in the bios list so if that's the m2 drive you will get a clean separate install, that will ignore the old raid ,if the raid remains the boot drive it will get the dual boot menu.

So removing all other disks is a good way to know where the MBR and boot menu will be written to.

I'll give that a go. Thanks very much.

Just make sure you know how to set the raid up again properly, if you disconnect them you might have to reconfigure your bios again.