How do I run windows from an SSD

johnwhelan

Well-known member
Dell T5500 workstation with two drives set up as a Raid in hardware. It is not possible to turn off the RAID.

I've added an SSD and I can boot from it but C: is still the raid. The SSD is E:

I used Adonis, comes with Crucial SSDs to clone the C: drive to the SSD but although it boots from E: I strongly suspect it's is picking up Windows from C:

So the question is how do I get it to run windows from the SSD?

Alternatively how complex is it to replace one of the RAID drives if it fails?

Thanks John
 
John I was of the impression Windows 10 can be installed and booted from any drive although you will need to go into the BIOS and change the drive boot sequence to recognise the SSD as the first.

It depends which type of RAID your computer has as there are half dozen or so different set-ups. Mirroring is easy, Stripping you need alternative back-ups and so forth some of which are combined for additional data security, plus there is also JOBS (Just a bunch of drives) which isn't really RAID but gets lumped in with it. Peter
 
John I was of the impression Windows 10 can be installed and booted from any drive although you will need to go into the BIOS and change the drive boot sequence to recognise the SSD as the first.

It depends which type of RAID your computer has as there are half dozen or so different set-ups. Mirroring is easy, Stripping you need alternative back-ups and so forth some of which are combined for additional data security, plus there is also JOBS (Just a bunch of drives) which isn't really RAID but gets lumped in with it. Peter

The RAID is Dell whatever I have changed the BIOS and it does boot from the SSD but the question is how to get the SSD recognised as C: as windows seems to like running from the C: drive. I have a repair disk and system image but I'm not sure how to get it to reinstall on the SSD rather than the RAID drives. Windows will not let be relabel the SSD as a C: drive.

This is a moderately complex technical question by the way.

Cheerio John
 
Should be able to boot into the intel raid configuration to disable Raid, think it's ctrl i during the boot process for a T5500 according to Google.

To play safe disconnect all drives other than the SSD and then install windows to it.

Alternatively look at what partitions there are and where, need to see where the efi partition is, if it's not an mbr system. Presume the whole disk was cloned and not just the Partition the OS is on?

Anyway this should help? https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000132392/how-to-configure-raid-on-a-dell-pc
 
Should be able to boot into the intel raid configuration to disable Raid, think it's ctrl i during the boot process for a T5500 according to Google.

To play safe disconnect all drives other than the SSD and then install windows to it.

Alternatively look at what partitions there are and where, need to see where the efi partition is, if it's not an mbr system. Presume the whole disk was cloned and not just the Partition the OS is on?

Anyway this should help? https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000132392/how-to-configure-raid-on-a-dell-pc

On Some Dell machines it is not possible to disable the RAID even though the instructions are there. This is one of them.

It is set up as an MBR system. I had thought about disconnecting the two RAID drives then recovering windows from the system image but was a bit hesitant.

I'll try that.

Thanks John
 
I went and dug around in the Bios and found a setting to disable SATA0 the raid set.

Set the SDD to be the boot device and it is all working beautifully now as C: Sometime I should play to see if I can find where to input <Crtl>i and turn off RAID.

Thanks John
 
I went and dug around in the Bios and found a setting to disable SATA0 the raid set.

Set the SDD to be the boot device and it is all working beautifully now as C: Sometime I should play to see if I can find where to input <Crtl>i and turn off RAID.

Thanks John


I'm guessing it's after the main post when or if the drives appear on the screen.
 
I'm guessing it's after the main post when or if the drives appear on the screen.

Basically I get a F12 to go into setup and that's it. I've tried <Crtl>i as it boots. I seem to recall getting into it a couple of years ago and although I said disable the RAID nowt happened.

At the moment it works and that is enough.

Cheerio John
 
Just went thru this when I upgraded my C: drive to a larger SSD. Changed (defined) the new drive as first boot drive (BIOS). I then used the Win10 Disk Management tool to change the new SSD from an E drive to the C: drive. (After first changing the original smaller C drive to a F drive. You might revisit the BIOS after this to make sure the new C: drive is still first boot choice.

(I hope I am understanding your question properly. I'm a Mac guy and don't know anything about the Raid disks on that station.)
 
Just went thru this when I upgraded my C: drive to a larger SSD. Changed (defined) the new drive as first boot drive (BIOS). I then used the Win10 Disk Management tool to change the new SSD from an E drive to the C: drive. (After first changing the original smaller C drive to a F drive. You might revisit the BIOS after this to make sure the new C: drive is still first boot choice.

(I hope I am understanding your question properly. I'm a Mac guy and don't know anything about the Raid disks on that station.)

Dell T5500 are a law unto themselves. You can disable Sata connections which is unusual. At the moment it is working which as all I care about after I disabled the first two SATA connections in the Bios which disabled the two RAIDed drives. After that Windows picked up the SSD as the C: drive, it was a clone of the C: drive so everything worked.

At sometime I ought to move the SATA cables off SATA 1 and 2 to 4 & 5 and enable them in the BIOS. At that time I expect Windows to pick up them up as F: and G:. Win ten disk management tool did not let me change C: to another letter.

Cheerio John
 
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