Just got an SSD. Now what?

Just ordered an SSD for my computer, and it should be here Friday. I want to make it my boot drive, and then use my current boot drive as extra storage. How should I go about doing this? Can I just disconnect my current boot drive, connect the SSD, and do a clean Windows 7 install off a dvd? Then what would happen if I reconnect the old HDD with Windows 7 on it? Will it work as just an extra hard drive, or do I have to reformat it somehow? Just a little confused.

I used Paragon Migrate OS and migrated my OS from my HD. It' work really nice. It also sets up the SSD to work the most efficiently with regard to sectors, etc.

You can check it out and read here:
http://www.paragon-software.com …onents/migrate-OS-to-SSD/

I've kept the other drive as a backup for now, but will reformat it for data storage.

Either mirror (copy) your old hard drives data on to the SSD or do a fresh install of Windows on the SSD and make it your main/boot drive (recommended).

Ainoko wrote in post #15015947
Just ordered an SSD for my computer, and it should be here Friday. I want to make it my boot drive, and then use my current boot drive as extra storage. How should I go about doing this? Can I just disconnect my current boot drive, connect the SSD, and do a clean Windows 7 install off a dvd? Then what would happen if I reconnect the old HDD with Windows 7 on it? Will it work as just an extra hard drive, or do I have to reformat it somehow? Just a little confused.

What kind of computer and what are you going to do with it?

As the main drive for a laptop, it's a no-brainer, more from its shock robustness than anything else (although fast boot/hibernation times are very nice in a laptop).

In a desktop machine that's going to be used for serious image editing, if I had only one SSD I'd make it my Photoshop scratch disk--especially if I had less than 16 gigs of ram.

My second SSD in an editing desktop machine would go for "working image" storage--my D: drive or the drive for the windows pagefile.

I'd have to have three or four SSDs in my desktop editing computer before one became my C:.

Under Bios you can select which drive you want to boot from. Run through the settings after you'll installed windows on your SSD and have it boot from that drive from now on. Then you can do what ever you want with the other drive.

Also you should consider what Ben_r stated.

Cool! Thanks guys. I think I was headed in the right direction.

RDKirk wrote in post #15016368
What kind of computer and what are you going to do with it?

As the main drive for a laptop, it's a no-brainer, more from its shock robustness than anything else (although fast boot/hibernation times are very nice in a laptop).

In a desktop machine that's going to be used for serious image editing, if I had only one SSD I'd make it my Photoshop scratch disk--especially if I had less than 16 gigs of ram.

My second SSD in an editing desktop machine would go for "working image" storage--my D: drive or the drive for the windows pagefile.

I'd have to have three or four SSDs in my desktop editing computer before one became my C:.

It's my desktop. I've currently got it running off a 320gb HHD, with an addition 1TB HDD for storage. I've got everything backed up on externals. Since the SSD I got is only 60gb, I'm trying to keep what I load onto it to a minimum. Eventually I want to get another SSD slightly bigger for working image storage, and then a couple of 2TB set up in Raid 1 for storage.

My personal opinion, Put your OS on your SSD. and the most disk intensive programs. This will speed up your overall system performance a lot. Use HDD as scratchdisk. If you run into problems of Photoshop slowing down because it is reading and writing to the slower scratchdisk, ADD MORE RAM! Photoshop will only use scratchdisk if it runs out of physical memory. I didn't know what a scratchdisk was untill i made an image with over 300 layers...(and i only have 8GB ram).
SSD's seem to die faster with constant reading and writing, and dont like to be defragmented. platterdisks are still a lot cheaper, and extra RAM even cheaper than that. (and RAM is way faster).
60 GB is very small for a windows 7 instalation, but if you put all personal folders, desktop, and less important programs on a partition on another drive, you will probably manage, (untill you have more drive space). Stripping windows from everything you don't need will also help. (and use programs like ccleaner and bleachbit)
If possible I would not use a partition image to move your current installation, but just do a clean install. It's a lot more work, but it will be like your house after a big spring cleaning.
All fresh drivers and latest versions of programs, and no left over residues.
(Keeping a backup image of your current system drive is still a good idea though, I use Clonezilla to clone harddrives and partitions).
(unless of course you have a Z68 board, then I would choose to use a 60 GB SSD, or a big part of it, for Intel Smart Response Technology. you won't get ssd performance, but a big overall performance gain anyway).
I never saw the use of Raid 1. You lose 50% of diskspace, and it's never safer than keeping regular external backups.

Depends on what you're doing. There are some Photoshop plugins that use the scratch disk regardless of the amount of ram you're using (specifically, those that are still 32-bit in nature, even if you run them on a 64-bit system).

But, I do use an SSD in my laptop, and I've been able to put everything I need to edit images, movies, and create content neatlly within 40 gigs of space.

Ainoko wrote in post #15015947
Just ordered an SSD for my computer, and it should be here Friday. I want to make it my boot drive, and then use my current boot drive as extra storage. How should I go about doing this? Can I just disconnect my current boot drive, connect the SSD, and do a clean Windows 7 install off a dvd? Then what would happen if I reconnect the old HDD with Windows 7 on it? Will it work as just an extra hard drive, or do I have to reformat it somehow? Just a little confused.

I would do a clone of your current windows installation. Its not clear whether your SSD comes with software that allows you do that, my first SSD came with cloning software. Doing a clean installation of Windows would use one more of your allowable Windows activations.

If you decide to go down that road, and if your BIOS allows it, then I would enable AHCI first before installing Windows. This will allow for Windows to go into proper SATA mode...hence faster boot up etc....This is of course if you know how to fiddle around with the BIOS, not for the non nerdy types, lol.

There is not a limit to Windows installations as long as you do not raise the "different computer" flag. Installing on a new hard drive with the same motherboard and processor will not raise the "different computer" flag.

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #15028257
I would do a clone of your current windows installation. Its not clear whether your SSD comes with software that allows you do that, my first SSD came with cloning software. Doing a clean installation of Windows would use one more of your allowable Windows activations.

If you decide to go down that road, and if your BIOS allows it, then I would enable AHCI first before installing Windows. This will allow for Windows to go into proper SATA mode...hence faster boot up etc....This is of course if you know how to fiddle around with the BIOS, not for the non nerdy types, lol.

I just installed Windows, is there a way to change it? Or would I need to reinstall windows?

Ainoko wrote in post #15028695
I just installed Windows, is there a way to change it? Or would I need to reinstall windows?

Go to your BIOS and check to see if your BIOS can support AHCI if not, just ignore the next bit

Restart, go to BIOS where if AHCI is mentioned, should look like something like this http://www.badalis.it …ads/2011/10/bio​s-ahci.png
or this http://www.toocool2bet​rue.com …2/03/Ahci-Mod-For-SSD.jpg

This, http://smallvoid.com …/winnt-sata-achi-ncq.html
but back up this registry bit to desktop

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \System \CurrentControlSet \Services \Msahci

One further note, when you save your settings from IDE to AHCI and restart the computer, check that the SSD is the boot drive, from personal experience and I am good with computers I forgot about this and nearly died, lol

RDKirk wrote in post #15016368
What kind of computer and what are you going to do with it?

As the main drive for a laptop, it's a no-brainer, more from its shock robustness than anything else (although fast boot/hibernation times are very nice in a laptop).

In a desktop machine that's going to be used for serious image editing, if I had only one SSD I'd make it my Photoshop scratch disk--especially if I had less than 16 gigs of ram.

My second SSD in an editing desktop machine would go for "working image" storage--my D: drive or the drive for the windows pagefile.

I'd have to have three or four SSDs in my desktop editing computer before one became my C:.

That's close to my philosophy. Swap and scratchdisk first, internet cache next, and then system boot drive further down the list of priorities. However, I tend to reboot only a few times a year only for software upgrades that require it, so booting Windows is not an issue.

Ainoko wrote in post #15028695
I just installed Windows, is there a way to change it? Or would I need to reinstall windows?

Open the command prompt and type:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

If you get a 0 (zero) then TRIM is enabled and Windows likely correctly detected the SSD. If it's a 1, then TRIM is disabled.

To check if your drive is in AHCI mode, go to Control Panel > Device manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers > and look for an AHCI controller. If you don't see an AHCI controller, it's likely in IDE mode.

Here are some simple tips for SSD newbs: http://blog.ocztechnol​ogy.com/?p=178