move RAID C: to SSD - but leave RAID with C: & G: & H: connected?

[7powerWannabe]

move RAID C: to SSD - but leave RAID with C: & G: & H: connected?

I'm running win7-64 on a RAID partitioned with C, G, and H drives (and of course the tiny 100MB system reserved are on the C: drive for Win7).

I can't make C: larger (due to the way the RAID is set up - years ago I actually thought 300GB would be enough ha ha) and need more space. The G and H drives on the RAID must remain as that's where my data is located.

Using Acronis, I'm hoping that I can backup my RAID C: volume (and system reserved area) and then restore this onto a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD.
I'll use F11 on the SuperMicro motherboard to boot from the USB3 connected SSD (initially to test) and then connect the SSD to a SATA controller and boot from that if all goes well.

I have heard from a Samsung tech that if I set the SSD as the boot volume, Windows will notice two identical drives and make the non-boot drive (C: on the RAID) inactive. But, I'm a little hesitant to try as this is my main computer and I don't want to kill it.

In theory it should just work, but ... has anyone done something like this and know for sure what will happen?

How should I proceed to make this project a success?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[samuria]

If it's a Samsung drive use there free clone software as it's the best. You don't say what type of raid and if it's software or hardware raid. If you have 2 drive's that are cloned then the signatures will be the same and likely to get disk signature collision error

 

[7powerWannabe]

Hi Samuria - It's an older 3ware hardware RAID. I have several of them and have been very happy with them, ECC RAM, battery backup on card to deal with HD cache if main power supply fails (UPS won't protect against that). I will have no problem making an exact clone of the C: drive - as I've used Acronis for regular backups and have restored from an Acronis backup twice - completely wiping the C: drive. I'm not sure the Samsung software would have the exact 3ware drivers needed. Acronis has worked very well for me. So, yes - my concern is what happens when there is a disk signature collision error - as I don't see how to avoid that. Thanks, in advance!

 

[samuria]

Why use raid with SSD there is no speed gain

 

[7powerWannabe]

The RAID is partitioned into C: G: and H: drives. Due to the way the RAID was initially formatted, I can expand or contract the G: and H: drives, but not the C: drive. I'm running out of space on the C: drive, so the entire reason for this is to gain more space on my C: drive. The SSD will not be part of the RAID, it will use a SATA connector on the motherboard.