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SSD Question about formatting

F

fentzinator

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 8, 2002
Messages
193
Just decided to make jump to SSD so I bought Corsair Force Series GT 240 gig along with a Biostar Sata 6 add on card so I can run SSD at 6 Sata speeds. It appears the SSD is not formatted so how do I format it? I have read that you do not format SSDs the same way as HDDs. I know I have to set AHCI in bios and then there is a number of other things to cancel like hibernation, indexing, etc. but did not find how to format before doing fresh install of Windows 7. Also learned that a fresh install is better then cloning although cloning would be so much easier. Didn't realize there was so much to do to set up SSD. Thanks for any advice to setting up SSD.
 
If you are installing a fresh version on Win 7 on it, treat it just like a normal hard drive. Win 7 is SSD aware and will automatically set the OS up for SSD operations (disabling defrag, etc). Do set AHCI in the BIOS, as it will provide better performance.
 
SSDs are hard drives. They just use flash media instead of magnetic rotational media. You format them the same as any drive and use any utility that can format a current hard drive. Howevere if the formatting utility is not aware of your SSD you need to manually format it using settings that will align the partitions once they are created or you will hinder performance and shorten the life of the memory.
 
<<<<Win 7 is SSD aware and will automatically set the OS up for SSD operations (disabling defrag, etc). Do set AHCI in the BIOS, as it will provide better performance.>>>>

I don't think its aware at all, because if it was, why do most people (including myself) have the issue of the SSD showing up
as a SCSI drive in windows and allowing Defrag?
And yes I did choose AHCI
 
The "Format" function for SSD is called "Secure Erase" and you only have to do that if you want to reinstall a fresh windows on your SSD. The performance will go back to like when you first bought the SSD.
 
infospace said:
<<<<Win 7 is SSD aware and will automatically set the OS up for SSD operations (disabling defrag, etc). Do set AHCI in the BIOS, as it will provide better performance.>>>>

I don't think its aware at all, because if it was, why do most people (including myself) have the issue of the SSD showing up
as a SCSI drive in windows and allowing Defrag?
And yes I did choose AHCI
Click to expand...

You can always force a manual defrag on it (not that you'd want to), what Win 7 does is turn off the automatic defrag it does on spinning disks. As to why it shows up as a SCSI device - that has more to do with the controller than the drive.
 
The SSD I have is the Kingston 120g hyperx and I installed it on the marvell 6 gb controller on the rampage 3 black Ed mb and this why I have this issue.

If I switch it to the 3gb intel controller it probably wont happen, but I would lose a lot of performance.
 
OK so I don't have to format drive? I did read about Secure Erase when you reinstall Windows. I would think Corsair would have some instructions that come with SSD. Went on there website but nothing about the first time you install SSD. As I have searched many forums there still seems to be different opinions about setting up SSDs and cloning SSDs vs clean install. Can be confusing. Thanks for reply's. I'm just going to do a fresh install and see how it works.
 
infospace said:
The SSD I have is the Kingston 120g hyperx and I installed it on the marvell 6 gb controller on the rampage 3 black Ed mb and this why I have this issue.

If I switch it to the 3gb intel controller it probably wont happen, but I would lose a lot of performance.
Click to expand...

No, it's currently on the Marvell that you lose performance, as it's crappy. Put your drive on the Intel.
 
Last edited:
fentzinator said:
OK so I don't have to format drive? I did read about Secure Erase when you reinstall Windows. I would think Corsair would have some instructions that come with SSD. Went on there website but nothing about the first time you install SSD. As I have searched many forums there still seems to be different opinions about setting up SSDs and cloning SSDs vs clean install. Can be confusing. Thanks for reply's. I'm just going to do a fresh install and see how it works.
Click to expand...

I need to secure erase my Vertex 2 and reinstall Windows. I'll report back with details later.
 
fentzinator said:
OK so I don't have to format drive? I did read about Secure Erase when you reinstall Windows. I would think Corsair would have some instructions that come with SSD. Went on there website but nothing about the first time you install SSD. As I have searched many forums there still seems to be different opinions about setting up SSDs and cloning SSDs vs clean install. Can be confusing. Thanks for reply's. I'm just going to do a fresh install and see how it works.
Click to expand...

Install it just like a normal drive. Boot the Windows install disc, select the SSD as the drive to install to, and let Windows make the partition and format the drive - just like normal. Secure Erase is designed to take a used drive and return it to factory fresh condition - so you can sell it, for instance, or if you are having performance issues and want to try fresh.
 
When you do a clean install, boot with DVD, select Custom and click on the Drive Options (advanced) icon. Delete the existing partition(s). From here, there is no need to do anything else with the drive if you plan on using the entire contents for the OS as Windows 7 will take care of the rest when you click NEXT. In other words, install on Unallocated Space.
Click to expand...

From:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/4d5744ed-58dd-49d5-ae71-dd69fcfb4702

Why:
Full format will write to every LBA on the SSD, rendering the SSD in a fully used state.
Quick format only deletes and then re-creates a table.

Don't quote me on the above. I'm still hungover. NOTE: If your drive is already in a used state do a secure erase first.
 
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