# Migrating to SSD



## The_Traveler (Nov 6, 2013)

I am about to buy a Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB SSD to migrate from my current C: on my desktop.
I have ~150 GB on the C: currently with no data of any sort.

Are there any issues I should know that an experienced person would know (and I clearly don't)?  
I am OK with routine HD installs, part replacements, etc but this is an entirely new field for me.


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## SnappingShark (Nov 6, 2013)

SSDs are fine. They're fast, zippy, and reliable (no moving parts).
 You say you have no data, but your C is likely to hold system files etc. (unless you custom installed to D or elsewhere)

So, given windows 7 will take about 15gb, windows 8 even more so - be careful. You're already down to about 220gb after formatting the drive and installing your OS.
Then add on your favorite apps.

anyhow, you shouldn't have any problems at all with SSD - you will love it. Boot time is quicker, as are load times. Saving files and opening them, also.

Your machine will still be limited by CPU / Memory, so it won't enhance every aspect of your computing life.

But anyway, enjoy it 

Oh, and be sure you get an SSD with a data transfer kit included. you'd hate to wait for it if you don't have the right cable to transfer if you're migrating, rather than rebuilding.


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## The_Traveler (Nov 6, 2013)

Thanks for the response.
My pc is physically configured in an unfortunate way that I have to remove the CPU cooler to get to the third drive bay so I'm debating how deeply into this renovation I want to get.

I plan on discarding the existing C: after this (I keep a system image on a partition in a second drive) so the biggest challenge I have is doing the move while the ssd is uninstalled physically. As fate determines, I will probably need cables that I don't have.


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## SnappingShark (Nov 6, 2013)

Sometimes, such as when I bought my Crucial M4, it came with a cable which when connected via USB, would clone any drive onto it from your system.

The cables only cost about 10 bucks 
USB > SATA cable is what you need - and you'd be good to go.


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## The_Traveler (Nov 6, 2013)

I already have a USB3<> SATA which should work fine.
What about power to the ssd>


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## SnappingShark (Nov 6, 2013)

Should get it from the USB - like a regular external drive would.


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## robbins.photo (Nov 6, 2013)

The_Traveler said:


> I am about to buy a Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB SSD to migrate from my current C: on my desktop.
> I have ~150 GB on the C: currently with no data of any sort.
> 
> Are there any issues I should know that an experienced person would know (and I clearly don't)?
> I am OK with routine HD installs, part replacements, etc but this is an entirely new field for me.



Lew, odds are good a lot of the 150 gb you currently have can be kept on your current hard drive, a lot of it won't really need to be put on the SSD when you install it.  My recommendation would be that when you install the SSD you put a fresh copy of the operating system on it.  A lot of them will come with utilities that allow you to copy the partition off your original drive but I think you'll find the system will be more stable and it's better in the long run if you just install the SSD and reinstall the OS to it.

During this process I recommend you disconnect your current physical drive so the system cannot see it at all - then once you have the SSD with the fresh OS install in place, shut down and reconnect your original "C" drive, then you can start deciding what to move to the SSD and what not too - but by disconnecting the current drive first you remove any possibility that Windows will get confused and format the wrong drive during the install.

One thing I recommend with SSD's, if you have the space run a full backup once you have the OS installed and all your software reinstalled.  Then update the backup on a fairly frequent basis.  The newer SSD's have a pretty good meantime to failure rating and will likely last for years, but the one big difference between an SSD and the older physical drives is that normally when an older physical drive is about to fail it will give you several warnings first.  When an SSD fails often it is working one minute and gone the next, so frequent backups will help you avoid any data loss should this happen.


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## robbins.photo (Nov 6, 2013)

If your not planning on keeping your current C drive then I'll make a second recommendation, buy yourself an inexpensive external USB case for it.  Put your current C drive in that, and then use that drive bay to install your SSD so you won't have to remove the CPU cooling unit at all.


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## TheSSDReview (Nov 7, 2013)

Hey guys....  Got this thread through a link and thought I might join and jump in since I am a bit of a camera buff (6D w/ sev lenses).  Looking outside of the computers speed increase alone, the difference in using Photoshop or similar software is like night and day, simply because of the speed in which files can be moved and manipulated.  If I can help you guys along with anythingb at all, please let me know here or simply find my e-mail and send me an e-mail.  For the OP< and i hope the site doesnt mind...here is something to get you started and help you along...speaks to many of your questions... AS far as installation, it is no different than a HDD


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## Garbz (Nov 7, 2013)

The_Traveler said:


> Are there any issues I should know that an experienced person would know (and I clearly don't)?



It's just like a normal harddisk. Oh except for partition alignment.

SSDs have data laid out in addressable blocks. If you can write one block in one go great. If you need to pad blocks and split your data up into multiple writes it takes extra time. Now the problem here is that if your partition table starts with an incorrect offset that's not a multiple of the block size you absolutely butcher your performance. I did this once with a windows XP install. Ended up getting 90MB/s write performance to the disk. After fixing the alignment with a partitioning tool I got just over 300MB/s write performance. 

Other than checking the partition alignment, you can effectively treat it as another drive.


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## Braineack (Nov 7, 2013)

BrightByNature said:


> So, given windows 7 will take about 15gb, windows 8 even more so - be careful.



Who in their right mind would willingly install win8?


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## bratkinson (Nov 7, 2013)

I built a new computer from the ground up about 18 months ago and went with SSD as the C: drive (Windows 7, current documents, current photos in process, LR and other program work files...nothing else). I consistenly get 25 seconds or less from power on to my Windows desktop on the screen.

My first step was to Google 'SSD drive installation' and read up as much as I could from knowledgeable computer techhies and tech web sites. This is the instructions I followed:
Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs
It's quite detailed. Be sure to scroll beyond the advertisements in the middle of the text. Hopefully, you'll understand some of the technical mumbo jumbo. I'm a computer geek myself so it all made perfect sense to me.  If you're transferring Windows from your C: drive to the SSD, I think that site has directions for it.  If not, Google 'SSD drive installation' and you will find what you need.

One more thing...most, if not all SSD drives are SATA. Although you could use a USB to SATA adapter, you'd be largely killing the high performance of an SSD.


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## Braineack (Nov 7, 2013)

and you want a 6 gb/s SATA port on an SSD.


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## robbins.photo (Nov 7, 2013)

bratkinson said:


> I built a new computer from the ground up about 18 months ago and went with SSD as the C: drive (Windows 7, current documents, current photos in process, LR and other program work files...nothing else). I consistenly get 25 seconds or less from power on to my Windows desktop on the screen.
> 
> My first step was to Google 'SSD drive installation' and read up as much as I could from knowledgeable computer techhies and tech web sites. This is the instructions I followed:
> Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs
> ...



Probably an important thing to note here - not all SATA is the same.  There are different classifications of SATA - and in order for you to get the most out of your SSD drive you'll want to make sure you get a SATA III drive, have a SATA III port on your motherboard and a SATA III cable to connect the two - If any of these are rated as SATA II then the whole system will run at SATA II speeds, and while this is still faster than a physical drive it's slower than SATA III.  

A lot of folks will buy the drive and connect it to a SATA III port but they don't stop to think that the cable between the two matters as well, I've seen plenty of installs where the guy that put it together used a Sata III drive and connected it to a SATA III port on the motherboard using an old SATA I connector.


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## Big Mike (Nov 7, 2013)

> I built a new computer from the ground up about 18 months ago and went with SSD as the C: drive (Windows 7, current documents, current photos in process, LR and other program work files...nothing else). I consistenly get 25 seconds or less from power on to my Windows desktop on the screen.


That doesn't sound very fast for an SSD.  My new (low end) laptop with a regular drive is faster than that.  The IT guy at my last job, build himself a computer with an SSD and he said that from start to being on Google was something like 7 seconds (although, I'd guess that slows down over time).


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## bratkinson (Nov 8, 2013)

Big Mike said:


> > I built a new computer from the ground up about 18 months ago and went with SSD as the C: drive (Windows 7, current documents, current photos in process, LR and other program work files...nothing else). I consistenly get 25 seconds or less from power on to my Windows desktop on the screen.
> 
> 
> That doesn't sound very fast for an SSD. My new (low end) laptop with a regular drive is faster than that. The IT guy at my last job, build himself a computer with an SSD and he said that from start to being on Google was something like 7 seconds (although, I'd guess that slows down over time).


I'd have to guess your IT guy isn't counting POST time. I'm talking 'push the power on button' (not awake from sleep mode) to desktop. POST alone is like 15 seconds...4.7ghz quad processor, 16gb RAM, 1 SSD, 2 HDS, 8 USB ports and an intentionally low-end video card all have to be tested/verified/wait for timeouts before it starts loading Windows on my machine. And since dumping Trend Micro Internet Security for McAfee, it comes up 2-3 seconds faster.


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## Garbz (Nov 8, 2013)

bratkinson said:


> My first step was to Google 'SSD drive installation' and read up as much as I could from knowledgeable computer techhies and tech web sites. This is the instructions I followed:
> Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs
> It's quite detailed. Be sure to scroll beyond the advertisements in the middle of the text. Hopefully, you'll understand some of the technical mumbo jumbo. I'm a computer geek myself so it all made perfect sense to me.  If you're transferring Windows from your C: drive to the SSD, I think that site has directions for it.  If not, Google 'SSD drive installation' and you will find what you need.



Some people are insane. Yes that stuff will work but a lot of it is someone doing something manually that gets done automatically.
* If you cleanly format a drive from windows 7 it is NO DIFFERENT than manually partitioning with DISKPART, the windows install actually uses this as a back end. 
* Saying the system index is pointless because with a SSD search is fast anyway is utter rubbish. There's a massive difference between searching every file (quickly) and doing a database lookup.
* Garbage collection has nothing to do with power options in Windows. It happens the moment the drive is idle and does not take long at all. Sleeping the drive on the other hand happens after minutes of inactivity.
* Saying it's important to install virus protection but disabling UAC really deserves a slow-clap. 
* Disabling prefetch and supercaching is stupid and will result in slowdowns. Just because your harddisk can no do 300MB/s random reads does not mean it's as fast as a 12000MB/s memory stick which is where the pre-fetch data lives. 

The rest of the stuff in there is pretty good.



Braineack said:


> and you want a 6 gb/s SATA port on an SSD.





robbins.photo said:


> Probably an important thing to note here - not all SATA is the same.  There are different classifications of SATA - and in order for you to get the most out of your SSD drive you'll want to make sure you get a SATA III drive, have a SATA III port on your motherboard and a SATA III cable to connect the two - If any of these are rated as SATA II then the whole system will run at SATA II speeds, and while this is still faster than a physical drive it's slower than SATA III.



Any cable made in the last 5 years should be ok. There was no difference between SATA II and SATA III cables and really SATA I wasn't around for very long. Also I wouldn't say this was critically important. There's not that much performance difference between SATAII and SATAIII unless you're buying quite the top of the range SSD. I recently put a SSD in an 8 year old laptop and despite being SATA 1 it was still blazingly fast compared to the HDD that came before it.


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## manaheim (Nov 8, 2013)

I'm  being a little lazy in my thread scanning, but I don't THINK anyone mentioned this...

You MUST BE certain that both your OS AND your SATA chipset support TRIM.  An SSD can be utterly trashed in very short order if not.

TRIM and SSD performance: why is it important? - Crucial Community


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## The_Traveler (Nov 8, 2013)

My pc has a Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 motherboard and nothing in the manual says anything about TRIM.


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## manaheim (Nov 8, 2013)

If it's relatively new... it should... but you need to check.  There are some tools out there that you can run that will test your motherboard to be certain. Unfortunately I can't recall what they were at present. :-/


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## The_Traveler (Nov 8, 2013)

I found some mentions on Gigabyte Forum where it is supposed to - and even recommends the appropriate ports to plug into.
I haven't updated Bios for a couple of years so will probably try to remember how I did that before


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## The_Traveler (Nov 8, 2013)

Well that was easy.
Gigabyte has a utility that does it.

Now to find a good deal on an SSD


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## manaheim (Nov 8, 2013)

Sweet.

Highly recommend Samsung, btw. (for SSD)


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## IByte (Nov 8, 2013)

The_Traveler said:


> I am about to buy a Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB SSD to migrate from my current C: on my desktop.
> I have ~150 GB on the C: currently with no data of any sort.
> 
> Are there any issues I should know that an experienced person would know (and I clearly don't)?
> I am OK with routine HD installs, part replacements, etc but this is an entirely new field for me.



Samsung 840 pro 256.  Install your OS and most used apps Lightroom for example.   Secondary on a 7200 rpm barracuda....bam!! Faster loading time.


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## bratkinson (Nov 9, 2013)

IByte said:


> Samsung 840 pro 256. Install your OS and most used apps Lightroom for example. Secondary on a 7200 rpm barracuda....bam!! Faster loading time.



I went with a pair of Samsung 840s, 128gb variety.  Only rarely is it more than 50% space used.  I use one as a clone of the other...not RAID, but I separately clone one to the other about once a month.  Both SSDs (and both HDDs) are in slide in/out slots, which makes cloning and removal very easy.  After cloning one to the other, the new clone stays and the original SSD/HHD is taken out and stored.


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## Garbz (Nov 12, 2013)

Good choice. To anyone else playing along stick clear of OCZ. They have the highest failure rates in the industry by almost an order of magnitude. Samsung is the surprising underdog with an awesome product in this case. 

Also TRIM command is good, but the reality is for a small use drive (i.e. running windows loading applications etc) TRIM will only really show its benefits after a year or two, and you can refresh the drive by doing the SSD equivalent of a low-Level format using apps from the vendor. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.


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## robbins.photo (Nov 12, 2013)

The_Traveler said:


> My pc has a Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 motherboard and nothing in the manual says anything about TRIM.



Lew, your motherboard uses the Intel P55 chipset and it should work fine.


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## The_Traveler (Nov 12, 2013)

Thanks, all.
Now just to figure out why there is so much in cost difference between different model Samsung 256 gb. SSDs.

Can anyone pint me to a source that describes the critical specs that I should know in order to differentiate?


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## manaheim (Nov 12, 2013)

Garbz said:


> Good choice. To anyone else playing along stick clear of OCZ. They have the highest failure rates in the industry by almost an order of magnitude. Samsung is the surprising underdog with an awesome product in this case.
> 
> Also TRIM command is good, but the reality is for a small use drive (i.e. running windows loading applications etc) TRIM will only really show its benefits after a year or two, and you can refresh the drive by doing the SSD equivalent of a low-Level format using apps from the vendor. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.



Chris, I thought the lack of trim resulted in physical damage to the drive by continually writing to the same "bits" or whatever? My understanding was that every time electrical charge was sent to a "bit" it was degraded in some way and that TRIM distributed that activity across the drive more evenly to avoid that condition.

Or something.

My memory here is degraded. (ha)


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## The_Traveler (Nov 28, 2013)

Just this morning got a 'boot sector damaged or ....' message so I booted from a Windows Rescue Disk.
I had made a disk image after installing CC apps just 2 weeks ago and was able to restore from that successfully - thanks be to the image.

BUT............... should I take that as sign from the Computer Gods that my hard disk is on its way to hard disk heaven?

Should I press forward even more quickly with the conversion?


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## Garbz (Dec 1, 2013)

The_Traveler said:


> Just this morning got a 'boot sector damaged or ....' message so I booted from a Windows Rescue Disk.
> I had made a disk image after installing CC apps just 2 weeks ago and was able to restore from that successfully - thanks be to the image.
> 
> BUT............... should I take that as sign from the Computer Gods that my hard disk is on its way to hard disk heaven?
> ...





manaheim said:


> Chris, I thought the lack of trim resulted in physical damage to the drive by continually writing to the same "bits" or whatever? My understanding was that every time electrical charge was sent to a "bit" it was degraded in some way and that TRIM distributed that activity across the drive more evenly to avoid that condition.



What you're describing is wear levelling. That is a function of the controller and has nothing to do with the OS. All drives do this otherwise the drive wouldn't last very long. Yes writing to flash degrades the device. 
TRIM on the other hand has to do with deletion. Flash can't write to a block that contains data. It needs to wipe that block first, and that is a huge performance hit since it's a very slow operation. Unfortunately computers never actually delete data. They just mark sectors on the disk as not in use (hence data recovery programs work). The TRIM command basically is a proper delete. The OS will mark the data as free, finish writing and then when nothing else is happening and the drive is idle, issue the TRIM command for the previously deleted files.

So without TRIM as the drive fills up because files are never truly deleted and when the drive is full every write operation comes with the overhead of a slow delete first.


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## manaheim (Dec 1, 2013)

That is tooooooooooootally different than my memory of it. However, I have never known you to be wrong and I'm faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too lazy to go research it, so I shall bow to your greater glory.

You do realize you could probably tell me that the sky is plaid and I'd buy it, right? Do you realize the power you wield!

Oh the humanity!


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## The_Traveler (Dec 7, 2013)

Help, help, help, help, help, help

I am just about to run the Samsung cloning program and I got a message that all files mist be closed or they won't be cloned.

So I will close my email client, my clipping client and database but what else do I have to be concerned about?
Do I have to go through my processes list and close everything I can find?


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## SnappingShark (Dec 7, 2013)

I would close everything that is open (best bet is to restart, and go directly to clone).

You may have applications open which start when you open your computer - but these should be fine!

Remember, if you have backups, you don't need to worry


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## The_Traveler (Dec 7, 2013)

It is the running processes that bother me.
All, and I mean all, my data is on a separate drive - email, copies of bookmarks, browsing history, all


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## The_Traveler (Dec 8, 2013)

well, all that angst was for nought. 
I followed the pictures instructions and in 3 hours it was done.

Blindingly faster, not a problem with install, I will check that 'Trim' is working and explore the Samsung disk management software and then accept it as a _fait accompli. _

Thanks for the help.


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## Tiller (Dec 8, 2013)

Glad to hear it worked out. I've wanted to try an SSD.


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## The_Traveler (Dec 8, 2013)

BHphoto has a great deal on Samsung 840 upgrade kit - 265 gb and all the cables, software you'll need.

These sites give a good background for doing it.

How to Migrate to a Solid-State Drive Without Reinstalling Windows
How to Maximize the Life of Your SSD


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