Upgrading to SSD without clean OS install?

whisper

whisper

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 16, 2003
Messages
466
Hoping to get some advice on a little upgrade project here. I'd like to replace my old WD 250 GB HDD that I use as a boot drive with an SSD, most likely this Samsung 256 GB SATA III drive. Normally I'd do a clean install of Win7 but I'm crunched for time and looking for shortcuts. Here are my questions:

1. What's your favorite utility for making a mirror drive image so I can hopefully restore to the new SSD? Preferably free but willing to pay a few bucks for peace of mind.

2. Due to a conflict with my HP DVD writer I'm currently running in IDE mode. I'll be replacing the troubled optical drive with a LiteOn Blu-Ray burner and planning to switch back to AHCI. Is this going to be a problem? Not sure what to expect as I plan to format the SSD in IDE mode, image and restore to this drive, then switch to AHCI and reboot from the new SSD. Is it going to work?

3. Anything else I should keep in mind? I'm not worried about my data or media, which is all on a separate 1 TB drive and backed up to an external.

Thanks.
 
I like the 2010 version of Acronis Home with Plus pack. Any other version isn't as good..
 
CloneZilla did the trick for me when I upgraded from a Corsair 120GB SSD to a Crucial 256GB SSD. I recently received a copy of Acronis TrueImage from work and used it to clone a larger HDD to a smaller SSD.

They both got the job done. Acronis is more polished though (but it isn't free).

Not sure about #2 but as far as #3 goes I can't really think of anything it was fairly straight-forward for me.
 
Well Western Digital offers the 2009 version of Acronis for free but lacks plus pack which strips device dependencies away so you can take one image from one computer and install it on another. I've done it before and is amazing tool.
 
You don't need to format the SSD. I would first resolve the AHCI problem by using the Marvell controller. In fact I'm wondering why you're not already using it for your DVD, letting you put the HDD in AHCI.

Also, you need to read about alignment.
 
Aesma said:
You don't need to format the SSD. I would first resolve the AHCI problem by using the Marvell controller. In fact I'm wondering why you're not already using it for your DVD, letting you put the HDD in AHCI.

Also, you need to read about alignment.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure either:eek: When I was having problems with AHCI after building my current machine I came here first but it never came up as a solution. I should have thought of that myself. I'll see if I can get back to AHCI first before doing the SSD upgrade.

One other tidbit. When I originally switched to IDE I used this registry hack to avoid a clean install. I'm guessing I should reverse the steps outlined there before going back to AHCI?

Alignment. Okay, will look into that as well.
 
I can fresh install windows 7 from a USB to a SSD in about 10 minutes. I guess that's to much time huh ? You are just asking for trouble trying to ghost a HD to a SSD for a boot drive.
 
I prefer to just do a fresh install. I've always had less problems that way. If I have to clone, I've always used Acronis.
 
I never used a registry hack. I found out how to do it for RAID many years ago (under windows 2000) and am still doing it. You need 2 controllers to do it, which is your case.

Ensure your Marvell controller is active in the BIOS, drivers installed in the OS. Stop the computer, put your hard drives on the Marvell controller, it should boot fine. Put the Intel controller in AHCI, install the drivers. Put the hard drive back on the Intel controller.

It's also when using RAID that I started cloning each time I changed HDDs (which was often) since for me reinstalling isn't about the OS but countless of apps, settings, etc., I can't even measure how much time it takes since really I never get the same result, so I avoid doing it, have kept the same XP install for 7 years over countless hardware changes, and only did a new install to go to 7 64bit.
 
I just installed my first SSD 2 weeks ago and used the free version of Acronis to clone the drive with no problems whatsoever. I've used Acronis several times before when replacing or upgrading HDD's as well with never a problem.
 
sok0 said:
I can fresh install windows 7 from a USB to a SSD in about 10 minutes. I guess that's to much time huh ? You are just asking for trouble trying to ghost a HD to a SSD for a boot drive.
Click to expand...

Do you have a particular reason why, or just a baseless gut feeling? Every system I've done it on is still running without issue today.

Also, I'm not sure if you realize, you personally might only have the OS running on your computer and nothing else, most everyone else also installs drivers, have documents and other data not to mention potentially dozens of other programs and various configuration/customization tweaks.
 
whisper said:
Hoping to get some advice on a little upgrade project here. I'd like to replace my old WD 250 GB HDD that I use as a boot drive with an SSD, most likely this Samsung 256 GB SATA III drive. Normally I'd do a clean install of Win7 but I'm crunched for time and looking for shortcuts. Here are my questions:

1. What's your favorite utility for making a mirror drive image so I can hopefully restore to the new SSD? Preferably free but willing to pay a few bucks for peace of mind.
Click to expand...



http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1733999&highlight=Ghosting
 
RamonGTP said:
Do you have a particular reason why, or just a baseless gut feeling? Every system I've done it on is still running without issue today.

Also, I'm not sure if you realize, you personally might only have the OS running on your computer and nothing else, most everyone else also installs drivers, have documents and other data not to mention potentially dozens of other programs and various configuration/customization tweaks.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the point. The OS will be done in minutes but it could take days/weeks to get everything else back in order. I'm on the fence right now but all the suggestions here are great. I think I'll wait till I have all the new hardware in hand and then make a final call. In the meantime I'm making sure everything is backed up and made a complete list of all the programs I've installed just in case I decide to do a clean install after all. It's gonna be a couple weeks so I'm still in planning phase;)
 
I got my SSD and decided to do a clean install after all. It's a pain but I just felt better about it in the end. Quick question:

I'm now running my Intel SATA controller in AHCI mode, everything seems to be working fine. Should I install the Intel RST drivers or is this not necessary? I don't have RAID set up, just the single SSD as my boot drive and 1TB HDD for media storage. I'm slightly reluctant due to the off chance it will somehow cause problems with my optical drive. The Link Power Management feature, in particular, has caused me headaches in the past. Just curious if there is any real benefit to using Intel RST or if it's better just to stick with the Windows AHCI drivers.
 
whisper said:
I got my SSD and decided to do a clean install after all. It's a pain but I just felt better about it in the end. Quick question:

I'm now running my Intel SATA controller in AHCI mode, everything seems to be working fine. Should I install the Intel RST drivers or is this not necessary? I don't have RAID set up, just the single SSD as my boot drive and 1TB HDD for media storage. I'm slightly reluctant due to the off chance it will somehow cause problems with my optical drive. The Link Power Management feature, in particular, has caused me headaches in the past. Just curious if there is any real benefit to using Intel RST or if it's better just to stick with the Windows AHCI drivers.
Click to expand...

I see higher random read and write using the Intel iaStorA drivers in the RST kit. This works a-okay on Windows 7. Windows 8 OTOH, has given me problems when trying to do a system back up to a blu ray disk.

Disable link power state management. It's off by default now. I know all about the problems that can cause.
 
KENNYB said:
I see higher random read and write using the Intel iaStorA drivers in the RST kit. This works a-okay on Windows 7. Windows 8 OTOH, has given me problems when trying to do a system back up to a blu ray disk.

Disable link power state management. It's off by default now. I know all about the problems that can cause.
Click to expand...

I decided to give it a try, but the most recent version of RST (I think it's 11.7.X) would not download from the Intel site - it gives an error and says the file has been moved or no longer exists. Go Intel:rolleyes: The previous version was available (11.2.X) so I went with that one, and so far so good. Not sure if LPM is enabled or disabled but I won't fuss with it too much unless I start seeing problems. The Samsung Magician utility that came with my SSD shows my seq read at 517 MB/s and seq write at 403 MB/s. I think this is fairly respectable, but it's my first SSD so not totally sure how that compares.

Currently, I have a blu ray optical drive connected to the Marvell controller, my 1TB HDD to the 3GB/s Intel controller and the SSD to the 6GB/s Intel controller. Previously, I was running a 250 GB system HDD, 1TB HDD and older dvd writer all on the 3 GB/s Intel controller. I wonder if connecting the drives to different controllers may help avoid certain problems I've experienced in the past with RST and LPM?

I was hoping I could run the Intel controllers in AHCI mode and the Marvell controller in IDE mode for the optical. However, my BIOS does not provide the option to set each controller separately. I can either run all three controllers in AHCI mode or all three in IDE (no "mix and match"). That would be a nice feature.
 
I did a drive clone using Apricorn's SATA to USB 3.0 transfer kit then replaced the spindle drive with the SSD in my laptop and have had zero problems.
 
There is no problem cloning. Just about every SSD comes with software or you can DL from manufacturer to do the drive clone/transfer.

I installed on Intel SSD using the Intel branded Acronis to do the cloning. I was done in less than 30 minutes and it has been perfect since.

I would have been a month tracking down utils/applications/keys and tweaking settings all over again.

Trust the tools, they work fine.
 
Just did an SSD to SSD a few days back. No issue with CloneZilla usb version. Will be doing this with a WHS server soon.
 
whisper said:
I decided to give it a try, but the most recent version of RST (I think it's 11.7.X) would not download from the Intel site - it gives an error and says the file has been moved or no longer exists. Go Intel:rolleyes: The previous version was available (11.2.X) so I went with that one, and so far so good. Not sure if LPM is enabled or disabled but I won't fuss with it too much unless I start seeing problems. The Samsung Magician utility that came with my SSD shows my seq read at 517 MB/s and seq write at 403 MB/s. I think this is fairly respectable, but it's my first SSD so not totally sure how that compares.

Currently, I have a blu ray optical drive connected to the Marvell controller, my 1TB HDD to the 3GB/s Intel controller and the SSD to the 6GB/s Intel controller. Previously, I was running a 250 GB system HDD, 1TB HDD and older dvd writer all on the 3 GB/s Intel controller. I wonder if connecting the drives to different controllers may help avoid certain problems I've experienced in the past with RST and LPM?

I was hoping I could run the Intel controllers in AHCI mode and the Marvell controller in IDE mode for the optical. However, my BIOS does not provide the option to set each controller separately. I can either run all three controllers in AHCI mode or all three in IDE (no "mix and match"). That would be a nice feature.
Click to expand...

There is a bug in one of the recent RST releases that affects BD-R disks. In short, you can't format the disk in Windows 8. This for sure affects formatting through Windows File Explorer. I don't know if it affects formatting through a 3rd party app like Nero. I don't know if this also affects Windows 7. I should post a link to the release notes.

The most recent version of RST fixes this bug. However, I still can't complete a system back up using a BD-R disk. Back up to DVD-R works fine. I need to examine where the writer is attached (Intel vs the other SATA ports).

You want to use your SSD with the Intel SATA ports. LPM is off now by default. You can check this by going into power settings. Can you please try creating a system back up using the Windows back up utility? I'm interested if it's my setup or a known issue. If you try this don't waste more than one disk. Back up to one disk and when asked to insert another disk, don't insert a new blank disk. Click okay to continue to use the supposedly full disk. In my case the back up utility continues merrily along using a disk that was supposedly full.

The release notes were moved. I had to use the Google cached result:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...g/release_notes.htm+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

The drivers are still available:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=22194

Wow... most of the issues affect Windows 8. You've been warned.
 
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