Moving W7 from RAID0 to SSD

[mpol]

I'm depressed.
I need to move my Windows 7 from RAID 0 to my shiny new SSD drive.

Configuration before SSD:

Windows 7 RC
RAID 0 (nVidia chipset):
3x250GB on SATA ports 1, 2, 3
Partitions:
100GB free space (left by previous instalations)
100GB Windows 7 system partition (about 70GB used) (C)
rest is free now (I had some other partitions but deleted them)
Works fine, starts with no problems

Configuration during movement:
Same as above
160 GB clean SSD drive connected to SATA 4 (not being any raid member)
Windows starts normally

Desired configuration after:
No RAID drives
160 GB SSD on SATA port 1 with one 160GB partition (preferably C)
Controler either in IDE mode, or AHCI.

Available additional hardware:
160GB ATA HDD with approx. 95GB free

Tried sollutions:

Windows backup
Backup made on ATA drive connected either directly to mainboard or via USB (with use of external case). Approx. backup size 60GB.
Windows restore doesn't see SSD as destination drive.
Whatever I do, I get an error saying "no drive that can be used for restoring system could be found".
I tried with RAID drives connected, as well as with drives off and controller set to IDE or AHCI.

EASEUS Back up
17(!) DVDs with backup
EASEUS doesn't let me choose SSD drive as destination. It just doesn't appear there.

Clonezilla
Seems that doesn't support RAID. On source page I can choose between 3 250GB drives, not one 750GB. Strange. it seems like clonezilla doesn't care about RAID controller, it works with drives directly.

Acronis Migrate easy
Seems to work, but migrating (cloning) takes 17 seconds, and nothing is copied to SSD drive. It says that process is complete, and successfull but apparently is not. SSD drive stays empty.

Any other (good) ideas how to deal with it?
Why 160GB free hard drive is not enough for windows bakcup to fit half empty 100GB partition?
What's wrong with Acronis? It seems very strange, that is tells me it's done and successfull and it does nothing.

Thanks for all help in advance. I'm on the edge of nervous breakdown (read: fresh instalation

 

[Dave76]

Welcome to Seven Forums.

Do you have a functional OS on this system now?

Did you connect the SSD to a functional system in your step "Configuration during movement:", then activate and partition the SSD?

How many backups out of all the attempts do you have stored somewhere (maybe on your external HD)?

Have you tried a fresh install of Win7?
Can it see your SSD?
If it can see it, put a fresh install of win7 on your SSD, then restore your backup on it.

If it doesn't see it run a boot CD/DVD to check that the SSD is available.

Another option, down load the free Partition Wizard, and get the Bootable CD. See if it will recognize it.

Let us know your progress.

 

[mpol]

1. System installed on RAID is fully functional and works fine. No other systems were installed.

2. On first try I did connect SSD right after backing up Windows 7 partition from RAID disk. Then I tried to restore without touching SSD at all (it failed). I tried also to create unformatted active partition on SSD, NTFS partition, and 2 partitions (created by windows installation. 1st is system reserved type 100MB, and 2nd regular ntfs). None of those tries were successful.
SSD was visible by system with no problems at all.

3. I got 1 windows back up on additional PATA drive which i can connect either directly to controler, or via USB external case. Tried both solutions with no effect on windows back up thing. One DVD backup made with EASEUS.

4. Yes I tried fresh instalation on SSD. SSD is visible by system and it runs perfectly. Unfortunately it's fresh, not the one I want to use.
Note: RAID drives are disconnected in this case.
I will try to use it to restore tonight. Backup files are on additional PATA drive. Should I connect it via external USB case, or directly to controller (MB)? I'm affraid that connecting to main board might have effect on drive letters/partition names in windows.

 

[Dave76]

I would connect the external HD by USB first, if it works restore your backup.

If for some reason the external HD won't work via USB then connect it to the mother board, should be fine.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[mpol]

Nothing has changed when I used fresh instalation to restore from backup.
Restoring from fresh instalation wasn't possible as back up tool didn't see any image to restore from (I can see those folders and files in explorer)

Windows restore from bootable CD sees image, but again gives me an error:
"No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found. Try the following: [...] (0x80042412)"

 

[mpol]

At some point (don't ask me how I got there , with PATA drive connected to USB, and booting with recovery CD, I got error:
"The system image restore failed.
Error details: The disk that is set as active in BIOS is too small to recover the original system disk. Replace the disk with a larger one and retry the restore operation. (0x80042407)".

Well... 160GB HDD doesn't seem to be too small for 100GB partition.

 

[chev65]

It can be done using the "clone" feature in Acronis true image.

 

[mpol]

I'll try true image, but acronis migrate didn't work.

 

[mpol]

Ok. Problem solved with Acronis true image. Clone feature looks exactly the same as Acronis migrate program, but it's more successful.

Anyway I couldn't do it with windows' restore feature. If you Dave, or anyone else want to investigate it further, I'll be more then happy to follow your advices. I won't delete RAID partition for couple more days if anyone feels like trying to find solution.

Thanks Dave and Chev for help. I wouldn't get it done without you.

 

[chev65]

Mpol, if you read further down the page I linked too there is a Rep from Acronis who describes the process using "Acronis universal restore" which is specifically made for the process but it can also dissasociate the old hardware from the image in case you need to more the image to a different machine.
Converting Vista raid0 to single drive - Wilders Security Forums

I read that many were successful moving RAID 0 images to single drives using Acronis true image "clone" so I figured it might work for you.

 

[pparks1]

The Windows "system image" utility will not allow you to restore the data to a smaller hard drive. I went from a 150GB C drive on my mechanical hard drive to my 80GB C drive on my SSD and even though I had only about 15GB on the drive...I was not able to image it. Reinstalling was a piece of cake with all of my data on the other drive, so I just reinstalled and then ran "system image" when complete.

 

[mpol]

So what you say is that windows restore feature don't let you change hdd to smaller one, even if partition in back up files is smaller then new disk?
It doesn't really make sense to me. Example:
someone has 1TB drive. 3 partitions: system - let's say 100GB, important things - 50GB, and all other trash - 850GB. He makes backup of partition 1&2, but not 3 as it's huge and not that important. Disk breaks down.
Now you need to buy another 1TB disk (even if there is only 150GB to restore) to get your data back? In the name of what?

 

[Dave76]

mpol,

Glad you got the SSD setup and working like you want it.

Some of the Windows system functions are limited due to the results of anti-trust law suites. MS has tried to include everything a computer user might want, with their deep pockets (lots of money) other software companies have said this isn't fair.
This is just my opinion.

For example, Disk Management can not move a partition to the left. Other disk management programs can do it easily. Can Windows, yes, are they allowed to, no.

I haven't tried Windows image backup, for this reason. Other programs (many free) do a very good job of image backups and restore, disk management and many other functions. This is good for all computer users, as competition makes better products at a better price.

For simple backup and disk management Windows works very well. If you need more, there are many free programs to choose from, also many paid programs that do even more.

So, don't blame Windows for not being able to restore to a different sized partition. They can do it, just aren't allowed to.

 

[mpol]

Still I can't see the resason that windows can't make 100GB partition on my ssd drive. Ssame size, same data, just different hdd. Something really possible when your hardware goes down. Maybe the reason was that I had 100GB free space before system partition (left over from old partition). This way windows would need to 'move' system partition to the begining of disk, which as you say is not allowed. Strange restrictions for me. Can't see reason to limit partition expanding to the left, and allowing to the right.

 

[Dave76]

You can do it easily with the free program Partition Wizard.

A good free backup image program is Macrium Reflect.

There is a good list of free programs tested to work with Win7.
FREE Great Programs for Window 7

Hope this helps.

 

[kbrenig]

unfortunately, the Windows 7 backup/recovery tool only works for restoring onto the exact same hardware (including the make, model, and size of harddrive) that you took the image of.

Any change in configuration, even trying to restore onto the same size/type harddrive from a different manufacturer, will result in this 0x80042412 error.
Then all you could do would be to reinstall Windows, reinstall all the programs,
and then recover your files onto the new system (hoping that you made backup copies of those in addition to the system image).

 

[pparks1]

unfortunately, the Windows 7 backup/recovery tool only works for restoring onto the exact same hardware (including the make, model, and size of harddrive) that you took the image of.

I took a Windows 7 image from a Seagate 7200.12 1TB hard drive and I restored it onto a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drive without any issues at all. No errors and it worked fine.