Hard Drive Upgrade decisions

[neuen]

I'm having a little trouble deciding on my HD upgrades at this time. Here are my current thoughts.

I currently have 36 GB 10000 RPM Sata1 8MB Cache OS HD & 80 GB 7200 Sata1 16MB (remaining disk space is becoming a serious issue) Cache Program Files HD and I'm wondering if seperating the two being seperated is necessary for greater performance.

If I do continue separating them I am considering getting an Sata3 SSD HD for my OS drive and then a standard 7200 Sata3 HD for my programs. Another option with this setup is a 10000 Sata3 HD and then the 7200 Sata3 HD, which lets me wait on SSD to become more dependable and the price to drop. I could then shift the 10000 HD and us it as the program HD (would get 300GB+ for the 10k drive).

If I do not separate then I will just get a large 10k RPM Sata3 HD.

What would be the most cost effective way to do this? I don't want to spend anymore then $150 per drive and I'm just buying 2 at most. I just do not want to get and SSD and deal with more trouble then the benefits I get.

These are the HD's I'm looking at.
OS Drive

• Crucial RealSSD C300 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC SSD
• OCZ Agility 3 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC SSD
• Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" HD **

**Would be used for both if using only one.

Program Files Drive

• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" HD

 

[Psycogeec]

here is a possible solution to having a smaller drive croak on you.
get your smaller faster drive of whatever type, for system and programs and your much larger and mabey slower drive for the data storage.

on the larger slower drive put in a 'OS" partition on the front
|---sys backup----|------------------------------------Data----------------------------------|

Install all your junk and OS and programs and all, on your smaller wizz bang drive. (preferring to keep most data off of it)

then Clone your small OS and system "partition" to this small partition on the front of your larger secondary drive. (along with proper boot ability and active and all)

now you got all your amazing speed that crashes into a brick wall, and a way to simply jump out of that should it die , and onto a normal speed backup partition of the same whole operating system.

the small extra portion of the data drive to have a backup system partitition , doesnt take much space at all, and you can just switch the bios boot order to "survive" a dying ssd.

after setting it up and cloning it , you always test booting off it, and make sure things like Boot.ini is pointing to the right place and all, or even test by full removal of the other drive. if it will still boot always then you can put the wurst POS ssd drive in and use it while it works.

the other advantage is you have at least one backup quickly available if you have software problems (of course it is also good to have an image backup somewhere not on the computer too) and you can keep backing up to it more simple ways once you are Positive you can Boot to it in emergency, so you can keep it fresh.

have cake eat it too.
.

 

[Nittenti]

If you decide to spend money on a SSD - Cloning is a no go!

64GB SSD and WD 1TB Black would be my recommendation

Connect WD 1TB Black and copy all you want to save onto it, make sure you have everything and then shut down your pc.

Disconnect all harddrives, connect your new SSD and power up your pc.

Enter BIOS, make sure the port your new SSD is connected to is on AHCI, disable any powersavings on that port and reboot.

Install Windows 7 onto your precious SSD and please notice how fast the install goes.

When install and Windows update is complete, shut down your pc.

Connect other harddrives and set your SSD as boot device if not allready

You can use SSD Tweak to make sure all tweaks are set, it's free

http://elpamsoft.com/Downloads.aspx?Name=SSD Tweaker

Welcome to the SSD world

 

[Psycogeec]

Cloning is a no go!
cloning would have a few extra issues about it, a few tweaks to optomise different, but storage is storage, files is files, and people have sucessfully cloned with it.

why would it be a no-go? run a quick google search for that.
sure some software wont pull it off but what is new about that?
they even have utilities to make a few changes to reoptomise quickly and $$$ type of software that does some of that stuff for you.

some people have used the wrong method to clone, for this type of drive, but even many of the clone softwares (at least used to) have ways to turn off special quick modes for cloning that could cause major issues with SDD, there are also cloning softwares that never used those methods. and now software designed to deal with the differances.

 

[Nittenti]

Pcycogeec: If you are 100% sure you know how to align and set up registry stuff concerning SSD discs - you can clone!

A misaligned SSD is not fun

 

[Psycogeec]

Yes , i am glad you pointed it out.
saw some people turning thier raid flash drive into a floppy

i think i got the Order right , making sure that you setup the SDD, with the backup on the HDD, so if you had to jump it back again the "extra" sdd driver items would exist.

Because copying files and not sectors , would be little different from doing the same thing in any operating system, clone software that uses that method in the system should be ok, then it is just setting the disk to boot. so that should cover both directions ok.

so you couldnt just toss in the same CD you were using to clone everything else without a bit of research first.
.

 

[Nittenti]

I still dont get it ?

Installing a clean Windows 7 onto a new SSD will give you WAY more benefits than anything else, unless you have some stuff you cant install again because you lost media or whatever reason.

Cloning to a new SSD is no go!

Installing Windows 7 to a new SSD takes max 30 minutes (if you have a slow computer) so why bother with manual alignment, registry fixes, TRIM settings.... with risc of making unrecoverable errors when a clean Windows 7 will do it per default during install ?

 

[Psycogeec]

probably because i dont Write it well.
i specifically was going for Setup ON the SDD Install ON the SDD
then backup that same setup to the hard drive.

the OP stated Fear of the SDD Dying, if the SDD dies, with HDD backup not only does his system not go DOWN, but instalation and setup of ALL software on Windows operating system is not a 30 minute operation. there is reinstalling 150 programs, 25 games, readjusting the whole system, changing all the icons, rearanging the themes.

the OP also wants only a few drives and reduced costs.

sure the windoes OS reinstalls in minutes, but for me it takes about 2 WEEKS to get all hardware software, tweaks, activations, optomisations, drivers, cleanup, plus an arry of paid software that will be a total Pain to reinstall because of thier activation styles, upgrades to upgrades, etc etc.

just depends on how a person uses a system, nowdays people re-install like they change underwear, i am on my Original install of XP

 

[Nittenti]

I recommend -

60/64GB SSD for OS and main games (2 or 3)
1TB WD Black for Rest of your games, data, garbage...

Using a SSD for OS is gonna give you the biggest performance you ever experienced!

If you want a reliable SSD - buy Intel, they have the lowest failrate.

All the other SSD's also work well, and if you treat them well (use SSD tweak) it will work for many years.

 

[neuen]

Alright I'll probably do the 64GB SSD + 1TB Black. Thanks everyone

Its not the end of the world for me if the OS crashes it was more of a don't want to waste my money thing.