Booting from SSD Success At Last!

Many thanks to all who offered suggestions and encouragement.

The hardest part was finding a place to mount the tiny SSD in the Dell
chassis! They sure didn't make it easy.

But now everything looks OK. I have the SSD as C: and the old mag HD as
E:. I will put the "special folders" on E; and then link each back to
the appropriate place in C: (this worked when the mag HD was C.

On Sat, 25 Apr 2015 14:12:32 -0400, Alek wrote:

Many thanks to all who offered suggestions and encouragement.

The hardest part was finding a place to mount the tiny SSD in the Dell
chassis! They sure didn't make it easy.

But now everything looks OK. I have the SSD as C: and the old mag HD as
E:. I will put the "special folders" on E; and then link each back to
the appropriate place in C: (this worked when the mag HD was C.

Probably you could have replied in the original thread.

I take it you connected the SSD internally? Your post implies as much...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Alek wrote:
Many thanks to all who offered suggestions and encouragement.

The hardest part was finding a place to mount the tiny SSD in the Dell
chassis! They sure didn't make it easy.

But now everything looks OK. I have the SSD as C: and the old mag HD as
E:. I will put the "special folders" on E; and then link each back to
the appropriate place in C: (this worked when the mag HD was C.


Some people have installed an SSD, using a nylon tie or two to hold
the SSD in place. The problem in most desktops, is a lack of
good structures to fasten the nylon tie to.

If you are a stickler for details, you can also use a 2.5" to 3.5",
and a 3.5" to 5.25" adapter, to mount the drive securely in a tray
area. Lots of little adapters exist. I think there are even plates
with room for two 2.5" SSDs, so they can sit together in a 5.25" bay.

But people with better things to do than "shop all day", just
fasten them in with a nylon tie. The orientation doesn't matter
at all, and they can be mounted on any angle.

If the SSD isn't used much, it will run cool. If for some reason,
you do continuous writes on a Sandforce based SSD, the device is
rated for 7 watts peak power or so. So if situating an SSD,
it probably isn't going to get all that warm. But if you plan
on torture testing it, then having normal airflow around it helps.
Even the manufacturers who claim "power dissipation 0.1W", they're
actually not telling the truth, and the peak power
possible is not 0.1W. It's several watts at least.
But they seem incapable of giving a proper spec. I got some
information on this, in a review comparing drives, where the
reviewer measured current flow to each drive. And then the
truth came out.

And that sort of thing, is a potential issue if "priming"
an SSD in a USB enclosure. USB2 has a 2.5W bus power limit.
USB3 is a bit higher. The peak power is a power "spike" on
a write. The fuse limiting power flow, takes the "average"
current flow (as thermal effects take time at the Polyfuse).
If you see some weird behavior from an SSD, when on a
USB tether, it could be a power quality issue. Priming
the SSD in a desktop drive bay, you should have good
quality power there.

Paul

Paul wrote on 4/25/2015 3:51 PM:
Alek wrote:
Many thanks to all who offered suggestions and encouragement.

The hardest part was finding a place to mount the tiny SSD in the Dell
chassis! They sure didn't make it easy.

But now everything looks OK. I have the SSD as C: and the old mag HD as
E:. I will put the "special folders" on E; and then link each back to
the appropriate place in C: (this worked when the mag HD was C.


Some people have installed an SSD, using a nylon tie or two to hold
the SSD in place. The problem in most desktops, is a lack of
good structures to fasten the nylon tie to.

If you are a stickler for details, you can also use a 2.5" to 3.5",
and a 3.5" to 5.25" adapter, to mount the drive securely in a tray
area. Lots of little adapters exist. I think there are even plates
with room for two 2.5" SSDs, so they can sit together in a 5.25" bay.

But people with better things to do than "shop all day", just
fasten them in with a nylon tie. The orientation doesn't matter
at all, and they can be mounted on any angle.

Would have been nice to have known that before I spent all that time
trying to make it fit in a bay! I have a set of rails but even then it
was no go.


If the SSD isn't used much, it will run cool. If for some reason,
you do continuous writes on a Sandforce based SSD, the device is
rated for 7 watts peak power or so. So if situating an SSD,
it probably isn't going to get all that warm. But if you plan
on torture testing it, then having normal airflow around it helps.
Even the manufacturers who claim "power dissipation 0.1W", they're
actually not telling the truth, and the peak power
possible is not 0.1W. It's several watts at least.
But they seem incapable of giving a proper spec. I got some
information on this, in a review comparing drives, where the
reviewer measured current flow to each drive. And then the
truth came out.

And that sort of thing, is a potential issue if "priming"
an SSD in a USB enclosure. USB2 has a 2.5W bus power limit.
USB3 is a bit higher. The peak power is a power "spike" on
a write. The fuse limiting power flow, takes the "average"
current flow (as thermal effects take time at the Polyfuse).
If you see some weird behavior from an SSD, when on a
USB tether, it could be a power quality issue. Priming
the SSD in a desktop drive bay, you should have good
quality power there.

Thanks.

Stormin' Norman wrote on 4/25/2015 8:57 PM:
On Sat, 25 Apr 2015 19:44:44 -0400, Alek wrote:

Would have been nice to have known that before I spent all that time
trying to make it fit in a bay! I have a set of rails but even then it
was no go.


Wow, you ask about everything else...... ;-)

See:

http://amzn.to/1DnP8Mr

I have a set of rails.

But the ones I had did not fit the Dell.

They did fit my previous Gateway desktop so I did not anticipate that
they might not have fit the Dell.

I was simply suggesting that someone who had experienced that problem
might have suggested a solution early on. People certainly offered
suggestions on things that I had not asked about. :-)

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 17:15:54 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 12:48:54 -0400, Alek wrote:

Stormin' Norman wrote on 4/25/2015 8:57 PM:
On Sat, 25 Apr 2015 19:44:44 -0400, Alek wrote:

Would have been nice to have known that before I spent all that time
trying to make it fit in a bay! I have a set of rails but even then it
was no go.

Wow, you ask about everything else...... ;-)

See:

http://amzn.to/1DnP8Mr

I have a set of rails.

But the ones I had did not fit the Dell.

They did fit my previous Gateway desktop so I did not anticipate that
they might not have fit the Dell.

I was simply suggesting that someone who had experienced that problem
might have suggested a solution early on. People certainly offered
suggestions on things that I had not asked about. :-)

Oh so it is everyone else fault? Geez..... oh well, I guess that is typical for
this day and age. :-0

The rails with a modern desktop machine are for 3.5" or 5.25" devices. You
would buy the 3.5" adapter and put the correct rails on that. Many Dell
machines come with spare rails attached inside the case. If you don't have the
correct rails, they would probably cost mere pennies on eBay.

$0.17 plus $9.95 shipping.

I just made that up, of course. There really are many items on eBay at
ridiculously low prices with large shipping costs, of course, but my
habit is to consider the sum: sometimes those items are cheaper with
shipping than the same item with free shipping.

And very often these days, it's far easier to buy on eBay than to go
shopping at store after store without success.

Trivial recent example: I just ordered 10 CR-2032 cells for under $5. I
could have just picked up two for $6 at Target (some other likely places
don't even have them), but the idea of doing that bugged me.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)