SSD, How do I..

[sothwalker]

SSDs being the rage these days and being tired of the few minutes it
takes to load the system I have purchased a SSD from Crucial. (And a
shout out to Crucial for the excellent service.)

I am pressed for time and would like to get started but can't take the
time to pull the drive out of my notebook and do a clean install.

Is it possible to do a clean install of Win 7 -I have the discs- using
a drive holder and a USB port and then install the SSD in the place of
the current drive?

And what about all the programs I need to install, are they likely to
allow me to install them on what would appear to be an external drive?

Finally, what problems might I have that I haven't thought about yet?

Finally #2, thanks for all the advice given by this group. I don't
know what I would do without the help you so generously provide.

 

[Bob H]

SSDs being the rage these days and being tired of the few minutes it
takes to load the system I have purchased a SSD from Crucial. (And a
shout out to Crucial for the excellent service.)

I am pressed for time and would like to get started but can't take the
time to pull the drive out of my notebook and do a clean install.

Is it possible to do a clean install of Win 7 -I have the discs- using
a drive holder and a USB port and then install the SSD in the place of
the current drive?

And what about all the programs I need to install, are they likely to
allow me to install them on what would appear to be an external drive?

Finally, what problems might I have that I haven't thought about yet?

Finally #2, thanks for all the advice given by this group. I don't
know what I would do without the help you so generously provide.

What I would suggest is to take out your old spinning disc drive and
install the new ssd drive in place of the old one.

Enter the BIOS and change the setting from Use IDE to AHCI. I can't
remember the actual setting or wording now, but someone will tell you.
I found this:

Access the computer's BIOS set up screens and change the SATA settings
from legacy / IDE to ACHI modes. You might need to add a boot time
driver so as to let Win7 see your drives after this change.

Then do a clean install of windows 7 using the DVD you say you have.
This will ensure that there what is known as disc alignment, or
partition alignment:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

You will have to re install all of your programs like MSoffice etc, that
is if you have the discs for them.

Hope that helps somewhat.

 

[BillW50]

SSDs being the rage these days and being tired of the few minutes it
takes to load the system I have purchased a SSD from Crucial. (And a
shout out to Crucial for the excellent service.)

I am pressed for time and would like to get started but can't take the
time to pull the drive out of my notebook and do a clean install.

Is it possible to do a clean install of Win 7 -I have the discs- using
a drive holder and a USB port and then install the SSD in the place of
the current drive?

And what about all the programs I need to install, are they likely to
allow me to install them on what would appear to be an external drive?

Finally, what problems might I have that I haven't thought about yet?

Finally #2, thanks for all the advice given by this group. I don't
know what I would do without the help you so generously provide.

Why are you planning on installing from scratch? Why not clone your old
hard drive to the new SSD? All you need is an USB to SATA adapter
(assuming the SSD has a SATA interface).

 

[sothwalker]

Why are you planning on installing from scratch? Why not clone your old
hard drive to the new SSD? All you need is an USB to SATA adapter
(assuming the SSD has a SATA interface).

I think we could agree that a clean install is optimum and since I
have the opportunity I want to take it.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I think we could agree that a clean install is optimum and since I
have the opportunity I want to take it.

I did a clone of my OS from my old HDD to my new SSD, and it's exactly
what was needed to speed things up. Why increase your workload?

Yousuf Khan

 

[sothwalker]

I did a clone of my OS from my old HDD to my new SSD, and it's exactly
what was needed to speed things up. Why increase your workload?

Yousuf Khan

Because it is the optimum position?

 

[Ken Blake]

Because it is the optimum position?

You apparently believe that a clean installation is optimal and that
one should never do an upgrade.

I disagree. Unlike with earlier versions of Windows, these days an
upgrade normally goes very well, and in my view it's almost always at
least worth trying. Before upgrading you should be prepared for a
clean installation, so If problems develop you can revert to it. But
if you don't have any problems, you will have saved yourself a lot of
work by having upgraded.

The one time I do recommend against upgrading is if you are already
having problems. If that's the case, an upgrade often worsens the
problems rather than solving them.

 

[sothwalker]

You apparently believe that a clean installation is optimal and that
one should never do an upgrade.

I disagree. Unlike with earlier versions of Windows, these days an
upgrade normally goes very well, and in my view it's almost always at
least worth trying. Before upgrading you should be prepared for a
clean installation, so If problems develop you can revert to it. But
if you don't have any problems, you will have saved yourself a lot of
work by having upgraded.

The one time I do recommend against upgrading is if you are already
having problems. If that's the case, an upgrade often worsens the
problems rather than solving t

Darn, clipped the poster reply.

Are you thinking I am upgrading the software?

 

[DanS]

SSDs being the rage these days and being tired of the few minutes it
takes to load the system I have purchased a SSD from Crucial. (And a
shout out to Crucial for the excellent service.)

I am pressed for time and would like to get started but can't take the
time to pull the drive out of my notebook and do a clean install.

Is it possible to do a clean install of Win 7 -I have the discs- using a
drive holder and a USB port and then install the SSD in the place of the
current drive?

You think a clean install would go faster using an external USB drive
enclosure than the drive being right in the laptop?

And what about all the programs I need to install, are they likely to
allow me to install them on what would appear to be an external drive?

Finally, what problems might I have that I haven't thought about yet?

Finally #2, thanks for all the advice given by this group. I don't know
what I would do without the help you so generously provide.

You just need to clone your existing drive to the new SSD, unless of
course, your Windows install is so borked that seemingly nothing works
properly.

 

[Ken Blake]

Darn, clipped the poster reply.

Are you thinking I am upgrading the software?

I no longer have the earlier messages in the thread, so I perhaps
misunderstood what you were saying. If so, my apologies.

 

[philo]

SSDs being the rage these days and being tired of the few minutes it
takes to load the system I have purchased a SSD from Crucial. (And a
shout out to Crucial for the excellent service.)

I am pressed for time and would like to get started but can't take the
time to pull the drive out of my notebook and do a clean install.

Is it possible to do a clean install of Win 7 -I have the discs- using
a drive holder and a USB port and then install the SSD in the place of
the current drive?

And what about all the programs I need to install, are they likely to
allow me to install them on what would appear to be an external drive?

Finally, what problems might I have that I haven't thought about yet?

Finally #2, thanks for all the advice given by this group. I don't
know what I would do without the help you so generously provide.

Found this


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-and-ssds-setup-secrets-and-tune-up-tweaks/2910

 

[Ken1943]

I did a clone of my OS from my old HDD to my new SSD, and it's exactly
what was needed to speed things up. Why increase your workload?

Yousuf Khan

Sorry to jump in, but can't find the beginning of the thread.
I plan to clone to an ssd using Easus Partition Manager free.
Found the info on alignment.

My question, I assume bit by bit copy is better
Do I do the clone while still in Win 7 ?
Then go back and set the ssd to active and the hdd
to not active.

Thanks


KenW

 

[BillW50]

Sorry to jump in, but can't find the beginning of the thread.
I plan to clone to an ssd using Easus Partition Manager free.
Found the info on alignment.

My question, I assume bit by bit copy is better
Do I do the clone while still in Win 7 ?
Then go back and set the ssd to active and the hdd
to not active.

Thanks


KenW

Yes you can do it that way if you want.

 

[Ken1943]

Thank you. Finally getting towards all the info I need.
I just have a concern of doing it 'live' and not off line.


KenW

 

[BillW50]

Thank you. Finally getting towards all the info I need.
I just have a concern of doing it 'live' and not off line.


KenW

Years ago cloning live could cause problems. But nowadays they take a
snapshot of the drive at a single moment. Then anything wanting to write
are cache until the cloning is done.

 

[Paul]

Years ago cloning live could cause problems. But nowadays they take a
snapshot of the drive at a single moment. Then anything wanting to write
are cache until the cloning is done.

VSS is the thing that allows the snapshot. Whereas the older OSes
without VSS, a tool has to reboot the computer to do things to C:.

I'm testing Easeus Partition Master Home Edition.

This is the test case.

Source disk:

+-----------+-------------+-------------+
| Data D: | Win2K C: | Unallocated |
+-----------+-------------+-------------+

Result on Destination disk:

+-------------+-------------+
| Copy of C: | Unallocated |
+-------------+-------------+

The tool is supposed to copy my operating system,
from the middle of the source disk, to the beginning
of the (completely empty) destination disk. This is to
simulate a typical OEM laptop setup, where the
recovery partition is first.

The reason for this test case, is to see if Easeus
catches the issue of the OS not booting, because
the partition number changed.

Results:

1) Copy was successful. All the files appear to be there.
2) Boot.ini ARC is not corrected. Neither are partition slot
shenanigans used. The result is just plain wrong.

With Partition Magic, if you did the above, the partition
table on the Destination disk looks like this.

Partition1 <Empty>
Partition2 Copy Of C: (boot flag set, as seen on source)
Partition3
Partition4

Whereas Easeus did it like this:

Partition1 Copy Of C: (no boot flag)
Partition2 <Empty>
Partition3
Partition4

Now that OS can't boot, because boot.ini refers to
Partition2 (as it was installed on the Source disk).

3) It turns out, the MBR got boot code properly.
So I didn't have to do anything to fix the MBR,
like use "FixMBR" or anything.

I had to boot my Linux LiveCD, and edit the boot.ini
and change the partition number.

I had to use sudo fdisk /dev/sda and use the function
to add the boot flag to the first partition. (You can
do that in Easeus, but of course at that point your OS
is broken. If you know about the issue in advance, you
can do it before the reboot to the new disk.)

After doing those changes, and attempting to boot
back into Windows, it worked.

*******

Windows 7 has lots of repair functions built into it.
Since the MBR is intact, that counts for something.
But I don't know right off hand, whether the combination
of partition number change while using Easeus, plus the
other issue of no boot flag, whether that'll stop things
dead or not. In any case, it wasn't hard to fix up, just
annoying.

My old copy of Partition Magic used to annoy me, because
it "preserved" the slot number, in an effort to *not* have
to edit boot.ini . What ends up happening, is the slots
and partitions end up out of order, which is mentally
challenging when you're in a hurry. With the old PowerQuest
Partition Magic, your Destination could end up like this.
The partitions are out of spatial order.

Partition1 First partition
Partition2 Third partition
Partition3 Second partition
Partition4 Fourth partition

That annoyed me so much, I fixed that once I figured
out what had happened.

Still looking for a "perfect" solution

Paul

 

[BillW50]

VSS is the thing that allows the snapshot. Whereas the older OSes
without VSS, a tool has to reboot the computer to do things to C:.

I'm testing Easeus Partition Master Home Edition.

This is the test case.

Source disk:

+-----------+-------------+-------------+
| Data D: | Win2K C: | Unallocated |
+-----------+-------------+-------------+

Result on Destination disk:

+-------------+-------------+
| Copy of C: | Unallocated |
+-------------+-------------+

The tool is supposed to copy my operating system,
from the middle of the source disk, to the beginning
of the (completely empty) destination disk. This is to
simulate a typical OEM laptop setup, where the
recovery partition is first.

The reason for this test case, is to see if Easeus
catches the issue of the OS not booting, because
the partition number changed.

Results:

1) Copy was successful. All the files appear to be there.
2) Boot.ini ARC is not corrected. Neither are partition slot
shenanigans used. The result is just plain wrong.

With Partition Magic, if you did the above, the partition
table on the Destination disk looks like this.

Partition1 <Empty>
Partition2 Copy Of C: (boot flag set, as seen on source)
Partition3
Partition4

Whereas Easeus did it like this:

Partition1 Copy Of C: (no boot flag)
Partition2 <Empty>
Partition3
Partition4

Now that OS can't boot, because boot.ini refers to
Partition2 (as it was installed on the Source disk).

3) It turns out, the MBR got boot code properly.
So I didn't have to do anything to fix the MBR,
like use "FixMBR" or anything.

I had to boot my Linux LiveCD, and edit the boot.ini
and change the partition number.

I had to use sudo fdisk /dev/sda and use the function
to add the boot flag to the first partition. (You can
do that in Easeus, but of course at that point your OS
is broken. If you know about the issue in advance, you
can do it before the reboot to the new disk.)

After doing those changes, and attempting to boot
back into Windows, it worked.

*******

Windows 7 has lots of repair functions built into it.
Since the MBR is intact, that counts for something.
But I don't know right off hand, whether the combination
of partition number change while using Easeus, plus the
other issue of no boot flag, whether that'll stop things
dead or not. In any case, it wasn't hard to fix up, just
annoying.

My old copy of Partition Magic used to annoy me, because
it "preserved" the slot number, in an effort to *not* have
to edit boot.ini . What ends up happening, is the slots
and partitions end up out of order, which is mentally
challenging when you're in a hurry. With the old PowerQuest
Partition Magic, your Destination could end up like this.
The partitions are out of spatial order.

Partition1 First partition
Partition2 Third partition
Partition3 Second partition
Partition4 Fourth partition

That annoyed me so much, I fixed that once I figured
out what had happened.

Still looking for a "perfect" solution

Paul

I use XXClone (the freeware one) most of the time and it has been flawless.

http://www.xxclone.com/

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Because it is the optimum position?

Yes, I checked all of the SSD tuning guides, most of the optimizations
were automatically made for me with just the simple act of booting from
the SSD using the exact same boot image that was on the original HDD.
These automatic optimizations were things like enabling TRIM, and
disabling disk defrag on the SSD. I was under the impression that I'd
have to go ahead do those myself after switching from the HDD, but to my
surprise Windows 7 was already aware of how to do those and it booted
into the SSD with those settings already set.

Also the clone program, Macrium Reflect, knew about partition alignment
for SSD/HDD and asked me prior to the cloning process whether I wanted
to shift the partition to the optimum alignment. Easy as pie.

The only optimizations that I had to do by hand myself was to move the
swapfile to one of the HDD partitions. This is completely optional, some
people prefer to keep the swapfile on the SSD for its speed, while
others like to move it off the SSD to reduce the write pressure on it. I
fall into the latter category.

But the biggest optimization of all was the human optimization, where
just cloning the drive meant that I didn't need to reinstall by hand all
of those hundreds of programs that are already on the system.

By far one of the few least headache inducing upgrades I've ever made.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I use XXClone (the freeware one) most of the time and it has been flawless.

http://www.xxclone.com/

Yes, I used to use that, but now I have a registered copy of Macrium
Reflect, and I use it as my main backup pgrm anyways, so I can just take
an easy image of the boot drive. My old boot HDD used to take over an
hour to be cloned, the new SSD (almost identical data on it) does the
same operation in around 10 minutes!

XXClone also goes relatively slowly, compared to backup imaging
programs. However, I haven't tried doing xxclone from an SSD yet.

Yousuf Khan

 

[BillW50]

The only optimizations that I had to do by hand myself was to move the
swapfile to one of the HDD partitions. This is completely optional, some
people prefer to keep the swapfile on the SSD for its speed, while
others like to move it off the SSD to reduce the write pressure on it. I
fall into the latter category.

Have you ever figured how long it takes to wear out a SSD? I was worried
about this at first and my XP machine I reduced the writes down to 400MB
per day through tweaks. Then I figured out that it would take over 4000
years to wear it out.

This Windows 8 slate tablet has a Samsung 128GB MLC SSD. And all of my
Windows machines, Hard Drive Sentinel normally reports about 6GB is
written per day. Using 10GB per day in the wear level formula, it will
take 300 years to wear this one out.

Thus trying to reduce the amount of writes will give you what? Less
performance and that is about it.