Moving Windows 7 64-bit OS and Data to a OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid as boot disk)

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(Perhaps this should be a thread under Hardware?)

I have the opportunity of getting a new OCZ RVDHY-FH-1T RevoDrive Hybrid PCI-Express Drive very cheaply from a store that is closing down. It seems a pity not to use it(!) I understand from the product manual on the OCZ web site that the drive must be used as a boot drive and that boot drivers (F6) must be installed prior to setting up windows as an OS. Can anyone advise whether or not there is a way I would be able to use MS Windows 7 64-bit on the OCZ hybrid to install a full system backup of my existing Windows 7 64-bit boot drive? Would I have to first do a clean install of Widows 7 64-bit on the new OCZ hybrid (including pre-installling boot drivers (F6) as part of the setup procedure) and THEN use the clean Windows 7 installation to install the backup “over itself”? Thanks in anticipation.:huh:

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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(Perhaps this should be a thread under Hardware?)

Can anyone advise whether or not there is a way I would be able to use MS Windows 7 64-bit on the OCZ hybrid to install a full system backup of my existing Windows 7 64-bit boot drive?

petesmst,
Hello…I have no first hand knowledge of “SSD” HD’s but… Have you considered “Cloning” it seeing how it’s a PCI drive?…Just a thought. Need someone (CLiNT) with SSD’s Knowledge here.:cheers: Regards Fred

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You ought to ensure your motherboard supports booting from a PCIe SSD or you will end up using it as just an Extra storage drive, albeit a fast one.I always recommend doing a clean install with one of these, never a clone.You will need to check out the manufacturers site to ensure you understand all the steps needed, drivers required,and any any potential issues pertinent to the drive in question.

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Thanks to JPF and Clint. I expected to be advised to do a clean install…I just felt too lazy to go through it all(!) and hoped it would not be a problem…but other sites also seem to feel that with an SSD one should do a clean install. The thing is, this is a HYBRID, with the SSD part only really being used as a sortof super cache (as I understand it). I believe the OS is installed on the 1TB hard drive component of the unit. (Yes, my system can boot from a PCIe SSD…but once again, I do not know if this would be a boot from the SSD component or the hard drive component of the unit in reality???) Or am I being obtuse in not being sure that I should treat this as a “pure” SSD??

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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This drive; (OCZ RevoDrive RVDHY-FH-1T PCI-E 1TB Hybrid Solid State Drive PCI-Express 2.0 x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD), has a specific installation manual from OCZ that you should have a look at when it comes time to install.

30118-Untitled
You will not need to do anything other than meat the hardware requirements for installing this drive, set the BIOS to boot from this drive, download and supply the needed driver in preparation for operating system installation, and lastly, follow the instruction on operating system installation [clean install]

Good luck and enjoy this drive. It looks like a very decent drive.
I’m currently using the OCZ RevoDrive X2 OCZSSDPX-1RVDX0160 PCI-E 160GB PCI-Express x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive
(SSD)

This is pretty new tech and there will be issues along the way. Use the OCZ forums and be patient with this.

PCI-E Drive / Intelligent Caching / 120,000 IOPS / 1TB Capacity

Innovative Drive Combines Incredible SSD Performance and HDD Capacity
RevoDrive Hybrid PCI Express (PCIe) storage solution is designed to dramatically accelerate applications and system responsiveness by providing the best of both worlds, a superior combination of SSD and hard disk drive (HDD) technology for high-performance yet economical storage.

Highest Performing Hybrid Drive on the Market
Eliminating the SATA bottleneck, the PCIe-based RevoDrive Hybrid unleashes ground-breaking bandwidth up to 910MB/s and features up to 120,000 IOPS (4K random write) for high transactional workloads to truly provide SSD-like performance.

Intelligent Caching Software
For optimal caching, the Revo Hybrid comes bundled with intelligent caching software that dynamically manages the use of the entire drive capacity for superior overall storage performance, where the most frequently/recently used “hot” data is cached for ultra-fast access, while the “cold” data remains on the primary storage partition. Advanced caching algorithms learn user behavior and adapt storage policies to ensure exceptional performance for each individual user, maximizing productivity for the most demanded programs and applications.

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Thanks CLiNT[/B]. [/B][/COLOR] I have thoroughly read the OCZ installation manual and also the review of the product at “Benchmarks Review”. Am I right in my interpretation that this hybrid installs/stores all software on the hard drive and uses onboard software to move regularly used programs to the SSD component for faster processing? If I am correct, it seems the OS would be installed on the hard drive but “used” via the SSD. If so, it seems reasonable to me that a clone of my present OS hard drive would work perfectly well on the new hybrid(?) Cheers.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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Yeah, it certainly looks that way. You can try it.Please give us a heads up on your progress.

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@CLiNT: OK. (I can always do a full, “clean” installation if trying to use a clone does not turn out right).

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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I’m thinking of moving to the hybrid drive for my Win 7 setup, but with a load of licensed software I can’t be bothered to do a reinstall/reactivate everything so I’m very interested if you were able to successfully clone your previous system drive.

An idea occurred to me while running my weekly backups was that if you make a system image backup of your current system with the OCZ hybrid drives drivers installed on it could you do a system restore to the hybrid drive successfully with the Windows 7 install disc if direct cloning fails?

Or maybe even do an clean install of Windows on the hybrid drive and then do a system image restore into it (if that is possible on a running system – haven’t tried it so don’t know?)

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@Reiska. Sorry for the delay in replying. It’s rather embarrassing, but I did not get the hybrid drive(!) I had hoped to purchase one from a store that was closing down and selling off its stock at crazy loww prices, but someone beat me to it and when I arrived there were no more in stock. The “normal” price of such a drive out here is still too expensive for me (I don’t “need” one, I just wanted to play with one and see what it was like).

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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After reading the Amazon customer ratings for this and the various cache SSD drive implementations I’ll steer clear of all these software driver based gimmicks… never seen such negative rating on anything on Amazon with all kinds of failuremodes of operation experienced.

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