Installing a SSD
Discussion
Although talk on here has almost convinced me to do this on my work machines...but!
How easy is it to do? I have HD full of stuff - files / programs / etc. that I want to keep (important stuff is backed up elsewhere though).
Can I just install the SSD and then windows onto it and then just plug in my other HD or is it more complex than that. My plan is SSD for windows and office an HD for files. The other possible sticking point is that I may move to windows 7 64bit when/if I do this. Current system is Vista 32bit.
Can someone point me at a guide or explain what the easiest process is?
How easy is it to do? I have HD full of stuff - files / programs / etc. that I want to keep (important stuff is backed up elsewhere though).
Can I just install the SSD and then windows onto it and then just plug in my other HD or is it more complex than that. My plan is SSD for windows and office an HD for files. The other possible sticking point is that I may move to windows 7 64bit when/if I do this. Current system is Vista 32bit.
Can someone point me at a guide or explain what the easiest process is?
Some key questions:
1) All your stuff on your HD - is it on the same HD as the current Windows installation? If it's the same, is it all in the same partition (e.g. C: drive) or is it split onto multiple partitions/drives?
2) Do you want to keep your Windows and office as is, as in just moving it across to the SSD, or do you not mind / want to reinstall Windows from scratch?
1) All your stuff on your HD - is it on the same HD as the current Windows installation? If it's the same, is it all in the same partition (e.g. C: drive) or is it split onto multiple partitions/drives?
2) Do you want to keep your Windows and office as is, as in just moving it across to the SSD, or do you not mind / want to reinstall Windows from scratch?
-DeaDLocK- said:
Some key questions:
1) All your stuff on your HD - is it on the same HD as the current Windows installation? If it's the same, is it all in the same partition (e.g. C: drive) or is it split onto multiple partitions/drives? [b]Yes C drive with windows, files, games, music etc on.
2) Do you want to keep your Windows and office as is, as in just moving it across to the SSD, or do you not mind / want to reinstall Windows from scratch? Put new install of windows and office onto SSD and keep the 32bit Vista HD as is - too maany programs and other stuf to fit on a 60gig SSD.
1) All your stuff on your HD - is it on the same HD as the current Windows installation? If it's the same, is it all in the same partition (e.g. C: drive) or is it split onto multiple partitions/drives? [b]Yes C drive with windows, files, games, music etc on.
2) Do you want to keep your Windows and office as is, as in just moving it across to the SSD, or do you not mind / want to reinstall Windows from scratch? Put new install of windows and office onto SSD and keep the 32bit Vista HD as is - too maany programs and other stuf to fit on a 60gig SSD.
No different to replacing your hard drive with another mechanical one. The usual method is to do a complete system backup, remove the existing drive, bung in the new drive, restore from the backup onto the new drive.
It varies between operating systems and backup software. Not sure about Windows as I use Macs but you should be able to take out your existing HD, put it into a Firewire / USB / eSATA external box, and then boot the PC off that, and duplicate the entire system onto the new drive 'live'... you can on a Mac. The only potential problem with Windows is the drive letter thing (an awful bit of system architecture).
Oh yeah - if you're buying a really tiny capacity SSD and using it to replace a large capacity mechanical drive that has lots of data on it, you'll need to then have a dual-drive setup, and decide which data to put on the SSD and what to have on the mechanical disk.
SSDs excel at random I/O, whereas a fast mechanical drive can get close at streaming sequential data. So having the OS on the SSD is good, but also I'd consider having your home user folders on the SSD too (media, which is the usual largest consumer of capacity, linked off to the mechanical drive). The frequent advice to shift the OS to the SSD but the apps to the mechanical drive is a bit bogus - apps that have lots of resources will run a LOT faster off the SSD. Depending on the app, it may make a lot of sense to shift it to the SSD. Apps with huge media libraries (e.g. music creation software, movie software) can, if you know how, be split up so the frequent-access-tiny-files part is held on the SSD but the big-media-files-infrequent-sequential-access part is held on your mechanical drive.
I can live on my work laptop with 160 GB in total (with 40-odd free) so the whole lot is on the SSD (and there's only space in the laptop for one drive anyway). On my workstation, with 4 drive bays, I've got an 80 GB SSD for OS and most of the apps, with symbolic links to less frequently used / larger apps on the Raptor RAID.
It really does depend on how you use your machine, what apps you use, what OS, etc.
It varies between operating systems and backup software. Not sure about Windows as I use Macs but you should be able to take out your existing HD, put it into a Firewire / USB / eSATA external box, and then boot the PC off that, and duplicate the entire system onto the new drive 'live'... you can on a Mac. The only potential problem with Windows is the drive letter thing (an awful bit of system architecture).
Oh yeah - if you're buying a really tiny capacity SSD and using it to replace a large capacity mechanical drive that has lots of data on it, you'll need to then have a dual-drive setup, and decide which data to put on the SSD and what to have on the mechanical disk.
SSDs excel at random I/O, whereas a fast mechanical drive can get close at streaming sequential data. So having the OS on the SSD is good, but also I'd consider having your home user folders on the SSD too (media, which is the usual largest consumer of capacity, linked off to the mechanical drive). The frequent advice to shift the OS to the SSD but the apps to the mechanical drive is a bit bogus - apps that have lots of resources will run a LOT faster off the SSD. Depending on the app, it may make a lot of sense to shift it to the SSD. Apps with huge media libraries (e.g. music creation software, movie software) can, if you know how, be split up so the frequent-access-tiny-files part is held on the SSD but the big-media-files-infrequent-sequential-access part is held on your mechanical drive.
I can live on my work laptop with 160 GB in total (with 40-odd free) so the whole lot is on the SSD (and there's only space in the laptop for one drive anyway). On my workstation, with 4 drive bays, I've got an 80 GB SSD for OS and most of the apps, with symbolic links to less frequently used / larger apps on the Raptor RAID.
It really does depend on how you use your machine, what apps you use, what OS, etc.
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