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Migrating to an SSD



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 24th 12, 03:20 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Migrating to an SSD

Okay, got myself an SSD now. So I want to migrate my Windows boot drive
to it. I have access to a couple of cloning utils that can properly copy
system disks and make them bootable, so that's not a problem. However,
I'm wondering if it's really that simple? I understand that there are
some tuning that needs to be done to SSD's, such as setting its cluster
sizes, etc. Also there is something called TRIM support that Windows 7
needs to implement. Is this something that's built into Windows 7 right
away, or is it something that needs to be installed? Anything else?

Yousuf Khan
  #2  
Old March 24th 12, 08:16 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Allen Drake
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Posts: 451
Default Migrating to an SSD

On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:20:48 -0400, Yousuf Khan
wrote:

Okay, got myself an SSD now. So I want to migrate my Windows boot drive
to it. I have access to a couple of cloning utils that can properly copy
system disks and make them bootable, so that's not a problem. However,
I'm wondering if it's really that simple? I understand that there are
some tuning that needs to be done to SSD's, such as setting its cluster
sizes, etc. Also there is something called TRIM support that Windows 7
needs to implement. Is this something that's built into Windows 7 right
away, or is it something that needs to be installed? Anything else?

Yousuf Khan

You can simply clone your system drive as I did at first when I
upgraded all my systems but that is not always the best option. You
need to know about SSD partition alignment
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...alignment.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

Al.
  #3  
Old March 24th 12, 10:16 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Migrating to an SSD

On 24/03/2012 3:16 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
You can simply clone your system drive as I did at first when I
upgraded all my systems but that is not always the best option. You
need to know about SSD partition alignment
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...alignment.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html


Good info, I'll read through these.

Yousuf Khan
  #4  
Old March 24th 12, 11:08 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Allen Drake
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 451
Default Migrating to an SSD

On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:16:44 -0400, Yousuf Khan
wrote:

On 24/03/2012 3:16 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
You can simply clone your system drive as I did at first when I
upgraded all my systems but that is not always the best option. You
need to know about SSD partition alignment
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...alignment.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html


Good info, I'll read through these.

Yousuf Khan


Did you mention which SSD you have? I just received number 10 a few
days ago. I have mostly Crucial and have had to update firmware twice
so far. Not a problem though.
  #5  
Old March 25th 12, 04:33 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Migrating to an SSD

On 24/03/2012 6:08 PM, Allen Drake wrote:
Did you mention which SSD you have? I just received number 10 a few
days ago. I have mostly Crucial and have had to update firmware twice
so far. Not a problem though.


Corsair Force 3 240GB.
  #6  
Old March 25th 12, 07:19 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Tom Del Rosso[_2_]
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Posts: 8
Default Migrating to an SSD


Allen Drake wrote:
You can simply clone your system drive as I did at first when I
upgraded all my systems but that is not always the best option. You
need to know about SSD partition alignment
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...alignment.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html


Cloning can create a new partition instead of using the existing one,
depending on what cloning tool you use.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.


  #7  
Old March 25th 12, 09:21 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Allen Drake
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 451
Default Migrating to an SSD

On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:19:06 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Allen Drake wrote:
You can simply clone your system drive as I did at first when I
upgraded all my systems but that is not always the best option. You
need to know about SSD partition alignment
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...alignment.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html


Cloning can create a new partition instead of using the existing one,
depending on what cloning tool you use.


Exactly and depending on how you have that application set up. All in
all I have been satisfied with the speed of my SSDs as I gradually
replaced the HDDs and had no idea of the alignment issue until I
stumbled on some threads related to that subject. I plan on a clean
install of Windows 7 to new SSDs sometime soon. That will take care
of any misalignment.
The biggest gain I see in speed are the systems that actually have
SATA III motherboards.

  #8  
Old March 26th 12, 12:02 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Tom Del Rosso[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8
Default Migrating to an SSD


Allen Drake wrote:
On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:19:06 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
Cloning can create a new partition instead of using the existing
one, depending on what cloning tool you use.


Exactly and depending on how you have that application set up. All in
all I have been satisfied with the speed of my SSDs as I gradually
replaced the HDDs and had no idea of the alignment issue until I
stumbled on some threads related to that subject. I plan on a clean
install of Windows 7 to new SSDs sometime soon. That will take care
of any misalignment.
The biggest gain I see in speed are the systems that actually have
SATA III motherboards.


I mean you can follow the instructions to create an alligned partition and
it's all for nothing. I think Acronis can do what you want, although I'm
not sure how to verify that other than by dumping the MBR before and after
the clone to see if the table changed.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.


  #9  
Old March 26th 12, 12:59 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Allen Drake
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 451
Default Migrating to an SSD

On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:02:35 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:


Allen Drake wrote:
On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:19:06 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
Cloning can create a new partition instead of using the existing
one, depending on what cloning tool you use.


Exactly and depending on how you have that application set up. All in
all I have been satisfied with the speed of my SSDs as I gradually
replaced the HDDs and had no idea of the alignment issue until I
stumbled on some threads related to that subject. I plan on a clean
install of Windows 7 to new SSDs sometime soon. That will take care
of any misalignment.
The biggest gain I see in speed are the systems that actually have
SATA III motherboards.


I mean you can follow the instructions to create an alligned partition and
it's all for nothing. I think Acronis can do what you want, although I'm
not sure how to verify that other than by dumping the MBR before and after
the clone to see if the table changed.


You can use the DISKPART command to determine the alignment.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

https://www.equallogic.com/uploadedF...R1012_v2-0.pdf

http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-s...ve-performance

  #10  
Old March 29th 12, 03:00 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Migrating to an SSD

On 25/03/2012 4:21 PM, Allen Drake wrote:
On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:19:06 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:
Cloning can create a new partition instead of using the existing one,
depending on what cloning tool you use.


Exactly and depending on how you have that application set up. All in
all I have been satisfied with the speed of my SSDs as I gradually
replaced the HDDs and had no idea of the alignment issue until I
stumbled on some threads related to that subject. I plan on a clean
install of Windows 7 to new SSDs sometime soon. That will take care
of any misalignment.


Well, initially I was having a bit of a problem with my imaging software
(Macrium Reflect, in my case). When it was restoring the image to the
SSD aligned to a 31KB boundary, rather than a 1024KB boundary that is
suggested. The 31KB boundary is known as the older XP alignment scheme,
geared towards CHS hard drives.

I sent a tech support message off to them, and they were kind enough to
show me some advanced option switches that allowed it to be aligned to a
1024KB partition. They call this alignment scheme the Vista/7 alignment,
geared towards not just SSD's, but also modern Advanced Format hard drives.

The biggest gain I see in speed are the systems that actually have
SATA III motherboards.


Well, I got it up and running. It's only got SATA II controllers, but
I'm seeing a Windows Experience number of 7.6 (out of 7.9) on the disk!
Outstanding, all of my system components are now over 7.0. The disk was
the only thing holding me back at 5.9 previously. Things do pop up much
faster now.

One thing to note, when I initially transferred the system over, I
didn't do any changes to the setup to improve performance other than
align the partition. Once I turned the Windows indexing off on this
drive, it immediately picked up from 6.9 to 7.6.

Yousuf Khan
  #11  
Old March 30th 12, 08:56 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Allen Drake
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 451
Default Migrating to an SSD

On Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:00:40 -0400, Yousuf Khan
wrote:

On 25/03/2012 4:21 PM, Allen Drake wrote:
On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:19:06 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
wrote:
Cloning can create a new partition instead of using the existing one,
depending on what cloning tool you use.


Exactly and depending on how you have that application set up. All in
all I have been satisfied with the speed of my SSDs as I gradually
replaced the HDDs and had no idea of the alignment issue until I
stumbled on some threads related to that subject. I plan on a clean
install of Windows 7 to new SSDs sometime soon. That will take care
of any misalignment.


Well, initially I was having a bit of a problem with my imaging software
(Macrium Reflect, in my case). When it was restoring the image to the
SSD aligned to a 31KB boundary, rather than a 1024KB boundary that is
suggested. The 31KB boundary is known as the older XP alignment scheme,
geared towards CHS hard drives.

I sent a tech support message off to them, and they were kind enough to
show me some advanced option switches that allowed it to be aligned to a
1024KB partition. They call this alignment scheme the Vista/7 alignment,
geared towards not just SSD's, but also modern Advanced Format hard drives.

The biggest gain I see in speed are the systems that actually have
SATA III motherboards.


Well, I got it up and running. It's only got SATA II controllers, but
I'm seeing a Windows Experience number of 7.6 (out of 7.9) on the disk!
Outstanding, all of my system components are now over 7.0. The disk was
the only thing holding me back at 5.9 previously. Things do pop up much
faster now.

One thing to note, when I initially transferred the system over, I
didn't do any changes to the setup to improve performance other than
align the partition. Once I turned the Windows indexing off on this
drive, it immediately picked up from 6.9 to 7.6.

Yousuf Khan

I can tell you that just now I replaced an SSD in one system that has
a SATA III mobo with a cloned HDD and the (Seagate Barracuda XT
ST33000651AS SATA 6GB/s) brought down the rating from 7.6 to 5.9. I am
not sure if the SSD is even aligned correctly and I haven't yet turned
off indexing.

I simply need more time to spend on this issue. Hopefully this
weekend. I appreciate you sharing your results and comments.

Al.

  #12  
Old March 24th 12, 08:27 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
charlie[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 707
Default Migrating to an SSD

On 3/23/2012 10:20 PM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Okay, got myself an SSD now. So I want to migrate my Windows boot drive
to it. I have access to a couple of cloning utils that can properly copy
system disks and make them bootable, so that's not a problem. However,
I'm wondering if it's really that simple? I understand that there are
some tuning that needs to be done to SSD's, such as setting its cluster
sizes, etc. Also there is something called TRIM support that Windows 7
needs to implement. Is this something that's built into Windows 7 right
away, or is it something that needs to be installed? Anything else?

Yousuf Khan


Besides all of the above, there is another, perhaps quite important
consideration. SSDs are a good host for "static" files, and not so good
for dynamic ones. It would seem that windows should be reorganized on
that basis, with static directories and files on the SSD.
The registry will likely need manual editing to accommodate the changes.

(I have two SSDs (120G each) in systems that I'm going to "reorganize",
as soon as I figure out a reasonable way to accomplish the task.

There seem to be significant differences in setup between various mfrs
ssd drives. I'm still researching this one!

I've run across two different recommended cluster sizes, 1K and 4K.
(rounded size, not actual)

A comment I ran across was that AMDs controller does not pass the Trim
command.

  #13  
Old March 24th 12, 10:25 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Migrating to an SSD

On 24/03/2012 3:27 AM, charlie wrote:
Besides all of the above, there is another, perhaps quite important
consideration. SSDs are a good host for "static" files, and not so good
for dynamic ones. It would seem that windows should be reorganized on
that basis, with static directories and files on the SSD.
The registry will likely need manual editing to accommodate the changes.


That's actually something I was thinking about. Should I move things
like the swapfile, Thunderbird data, and just "User" folder in general,
off to regular storage?

Yousuf Khan
  #14  
Old March 24th 12, 11:20 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Allen Drake
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 451
Default Migrating to an SSD

On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:25:32 -0400, Yousuf Khan
wrote:

On 24/03/2012 3:27 AM, charlie wrote:
Besides all of the above, there is another, perhaps quite important
consideration. SSDs are a good host for "static" files, and not so good
for dynamic ones. It would seem that windows should be reorganized on
that basis, with static directories and files on the SSD.
The registry will likely need manual editing to accommodate the changes.


That's actually something I was thinking about. Should I move things
like the swapfile, Thunderbird data, and just "User" folder in general,
off to regular storage?

Yousuf Khan

I would think it would depend on the capacity of the SSD. I use 256GB
SSDs and so far I have only used 60 GB. I do have backup HDDs
installed along with USB3 external for large video and music, etc.

I kept all the system files and document and download folders intact.
  #15  
Old March 25th 12, 04:38 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Migrating to an SSD

On 24/03/2012 6:20 PM, Allen Drake wrote:
I would think it would depend on the capacity of the SSD. I use 256GB
SSDs and so far I have only used 60 GB. I do have backup HDDs
installed along with USB3 external for large video and music, etc.


No, I'm not worried about space, I bought one big enough to accommodate
everything that I have in my current boot drive. I'm more worried about
writing too much to the SSD. My understanding is that SSD's wear down
with too much writing to them. Thunderbird and the swapfile would be
some major recurring write events.

Yousuf Khan
 




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