Moving to a SSD how to transfer windows

[c627627]

Well all he has to do is simply run the "restore environment" as you call it once on his old SSD, set things up just the way he likes it - then use a third party drive image program from then on to image and reimage his OS partition wherever and whenever he chooses.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Well all he has to do is simply run the "restore environment" as you call it once on his old SSD, set things up just the way he likes it - then use a third party drive image program from then on to image and reimage his OS partition wherever and whenever he chooses.

The way it is worded, he is moving from HDD to SSD. Restore environment won't like that.

 

[c627627]

But he doesn't have to use the restore environment any more. Why not use imaging software instead?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

But he doesn't have to use the restore environment any more. Why not use imaging software instead?

Because an SSD and HDD set up the OS differently. It needs a clean install for the SSD to run right.

If he images the SSD, and flashes that back to the same SSD, it will work. Only scenario that imaging will work though.

 

[c627627]

I'd sure appreciate if you helped me understand this.


When I switched from mechanical hard drive to SSD, I simply:

1. Formatted the Solid State drive under Windows 7 or Vista (not Windows XP or earlier, in order for this to be done correctly)

2. Partitioned my SSD.

3. Imaged OS partitions from Mechanical hard drive to SSD.

4. Made sure that no other hard drive was connected other than the new SSD and booted once into Windows.

5. Only then connected other drives, etc. to the system.


Never used or did anything else and everything worked perfectly.


Why would this procedure not work for the original poster if he:

1. Reimaged his old drive back to the initial state.

2. Took out his old drive and simply imaged FROM old drive to TO new drive,

3. Put in only the new SSD and never used anything other than drive imaging software to perform imaging/reimaging - not the 'environment' which may have problems with this?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'd sure appreciate if you helped me understand this.


When I switched from mechanical hard drive to SSD, I simply:

1. Formatted the Solid State drive under Windows 7 or Vista (not Windows XP or earlier, in order for this to be done correctly)

2. Partitioned my SSD.

3. Imaged OS partitions from Mechanical hard drive to SSD.

4. Made sure that no other hard drive was connected other than the new SSD and booted once into Windows.

5. Only then connected other drives, etc. to the system.


Never used or did anything else and everything worked perfectly.


Why would this procedure not work for the original poster if he:

1. Reimaged his old drive back to the initial state.

2. Took out his old drive and simply imaged FROM old drive to TO new drive,

3. Put in only the new SSD and never used anything other than drive imaging software to perform imaging/reimaging - not the 'environment' which may have problems with this?

What speeds does your SSD show under ATTO?

 

[jmdixon85]

Most of the "big name" disk imaging software products can now copy a HDD to a SDD and align it properly for the SSD. All you need to do is run WEI in windows7 and your good to go.

Acronis True Image HD and True Image Home 2012 are meant to be great for making the change from HDD to SSD. I am yet to try them for myself though.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Most of the "big name" disk imaging software products can now copy a HDD to a SDD and align it properly for the SSD. All you need to do is run WEI in windows7 and your good to go.

Acronis True Image HD and True Image Home 2012 are meant to be great for making the change from HDD to SSD. I am yet to try them for myself though.

See that makes sense.

The imaging software I use doesn't do that (its free), and C didn't mention that there was imaging software with this functionality. I assumed his software was like mine.

 

[c627627]

What speeds does your SSD show under ATTO?

OCZ Agility 60GB SSD, just tell me if you want me to test it under different parameters and tell me what you think of the speeds:

Spoiler

I used Northon Ghost to make drive images of my OS partitions. I try to make them relatively small for quicker imaging/reimaging. I have an SSD with three partitions. Windows 7, Windows XP and the third for their Program Files folders where I install larger apps so they are not installed on the OS partitions (for their faster imaging/reimaging). I usually image one OS from the other and vice versa.


So initially: As long as you simply format the SSD under Windows 7 or Vista, you are OK.
Then just restore the image file onto the formatted SSD. I never understood the need to do anything else and still do not.




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[ATMINSIDE]

OCZ Agility 60GB SSD, just tell me if you want me to test it under different parameters and tell me what you think of the speeds:

Is that SATA II or SATA III?

I'm looking at:

 

[TollhouseFrank]

the big concern i'm talking about is the restore software built into his HDD image. Having dealt with those many times, changing the HDD size UP is no problem, but changing down in size - to a smaller HDD or SSD - often causes issues, sometimes as severe as refusing to to even run because the size is 'too small'. If he has a clean windows os disc, then he'll have no issues. If he is doing it from the restore partition on the HDD, then issues will likely abound.

 

[c627627]

Is that SATA II or SATA III?

That is SATA II, this one: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-agility-series-sata-ii-2-5-ssd-eol.html
So what do you think?

If he is doing it from the restore partition on the HDD, then issues will likely abound.

But he would possibly only have issues if he is not using third party image software, right?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

That is SATA II, this one: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-agility-series-sata-ii-2-5-ssd-eol.html
So what do you think?

I think you're getting half of the listed speeds.

My RAID0 HDDs pulled 240MB/s read and write on this system.
The drive you have lists 230MB/s read and 135MB/s write.
You're maxing at 155MB/s read and 70MB/s write.

Back up your data, do a clean Windows install AFTER a CMOS reset, and see where your numbers go. I guarantee its up, by 75-100%.

Before I did a CMOS reset on mine, I was looking at 220MB/s read and write.

 

[c627627]

I can't do that now, but I will post a link here to a separate thread to test this when I have time.


You are saying there is nothing I can do to increase my SSD transfer rate because I am using a Windows image installed under a mechanical hard drive originally. Which exact ATTO settings should be used?

I may nuke my C: Drive partition and install Windows 7 from scratch just for the purposes of this test. Then I will go back to my image because it takes me several days to set everything up and the current setup gives me instanteneous speeds for basic useage. But I am willing to test the theory.


What is the purpose of resetting BIOS?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I can't do that now, but I will post a link here to a separate thread to test this when I have time.


You are saying there is nothing I can do to increase my SSD transfer rate because I am using a Windows image installed under a mechanical hard drive originally. Which exact ATTO settings should be used?

I may nuke my C: Drive partition and install Windows 7 from scratch just for the purposes of this test. Then I will go back to my image because it takes me several days to set everything up and the current setup gives me instanteneous speeds for basic useage. But I am willing to test the theory.


What is the purpose of resetting BIOS?

Let me know when you do, I would like to see the gains.

Not that I know of. I went through setting after setting with Mushkin's support because I was getting low speeds.

It finally came down to clear the CMOS and reinstall. Worked first try.

Definitely worth it when you have the time, you may want to leave it afterwards, who knows!

 

[c627627]

Well no I tend to use the same Windows image for 5-10 years. I image once a month and write all changes I make to the original image so that when (not if) something goes wrong I can go back and figure out what caused the problem.

It takes me a very long time to get every setting in every program just like I like it. I think the BIOS reset is unnecessary, but you do need to set the drive priority and you do need to make sure absolutely no other hard drives are connected when switching OS drives and booting in for the very first time using a new drive.

ATTO has many settings, I need to know exactly which ones to use if I'm going to do this.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Have it look exactly like mine does, everything is "stock" except the numbers you see on the screen.

The only thing that made mine faster, was to change Queue Depth from 4 to 10.

 

[c627627]

Queue Depth only shows up for Overlapped I/O

Are we doing Overlapped I/O or I/O Comparison?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Mine was on overlapped the whole time.

 

[Wathnix]

Windows 7 will optimize itself for SSD when being installed, so if you just image from one drive to the other you will not get the full advantage of the SSD's increased speed.

1) you should do is look in the computer for the option to burn your own recovery disks, it's usually in there somewhere on a laptop.

2) use a program like Acronis True Image to make an image of your hard drive to an external drive

3) remove the hard drive, install the SSD and use the recovery disks to reinstall windows. Alternatively, you could get your hands on a copy of windows 7, then use the key on your ertificate of Authenticity sticker to do a fresh install of windows, this will have the advantage of removing factory bloatware.

4) reinstall acronis true image and mount the image of your old hard drive so that you can transfer any files you want from the old computer to the new computer

5) acronis true image student discount is available for $19.95 from newegg.com