SSD worth it?

OK, its done. running off the SSD now. A few little issues along the way but sorted out easily enough. Getting everything moved around and figured out now; will post more later or maybe tomorrow. Thanks for all the great help!

OldMike65 said:

1st thing anyone should do is make a Complete Image Backup of their C-Drive, before doing anything!! Then if you mess something up, you have a backup to restore your OS. Your image backup should be stored on a 2nd drive. The process for moving all your files from one hard drive or to a SSD are not difficult at all. You actually could use a program like Macrium Reflect to make your image backup, and use the same program to put that image on your New SSD.

Hi there

A really easy way to do this is to Image the system as people have said before - then simply restore it to your new SSD BEFORE installing the drive. - connect the SSD to a USB port for this process with a USB2-->SATA connector -- really cheap. You can use a USB3 -->sata connector but these are more expensive and given the nature of the SSD and the restore you are doing - the extra expense probably isn't worth it.

Now simply remove old HDD and replace with SSD and your system should boot straight away.

As far as the original question the OP asked -- the answer is MOST DEFINTELY YES (Caps intended) !!

Cheers
jimbo

topgundcp said:

He has a Desktop so it couldn't be any easier than just connect the SSD to one of the Sata port then do backup/restore a lot faster. Why would he has to use the USB adapter ?

Hi there

If it was a laptop then certainly using the USB method might be less hassle - even using a desktop - in case of a boot failure it's easy then to re-connect the old HDD to analyse the problem without having an inoperable system or having to use a second machine.

The USB method also allows you to prepare your new HDD BEFORE opening the case and messing around with the Ports -- sometimes these cases aren't the easiest things to open too.

That way once you've got the case open you can just unplug (not remove) the old HDD and plug in the new one and test your Boot before proceeding. If it doesn't work just plug in the old HDD SATA connector, boot and analyse the problem.

People have different ways of doing these things -- I have mended so many PC;s and have usually found the USB method the most sure way of getting a working system.

Whatever method works for you -- the essence anyway is to "Clone" the original OS to the new drive, changing partition sizes if required.

Cheers
jimbo

wreckwriter said:

OK, its done. running off the SSD now. A few little issues along the way but sorted out easily enough. Getting everything moved around and figured out now; will post more later or maybe tomorrow. Thanks for all the great help!

Did you check the alignment.

SSD Alignment - Windows 7 Help Forums

whs said:

Did you check the alignment.

SSD Alignment - Windows 7 Help Forums

I did. Divisible by 4

Word Man said:

Good to go, Wreckwriter! You might want to double check that Windows sees your SSD as an SSD now and not an HDD - check how it's displayed under "Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools\Defragment and optimize your drives".

Yep, looks good. Trimmed.

I originally tried to use the backup and restore method but it failed with a space error. I guess this is because it tried to restore the recovery partition too and the space was close? Should have been plenty but regardless, it failed.

Next try was using the Migrate OS wizard in Mini Tool Partition Wizard 9. This went perfectly, took about an hour. It even took the drive letter off my original HD so I had no trouble booting and formatting the original for data uses.

Boot time is significantly faster. Hard to tell with other stuff, original HD was pretty fast itself. I'll learn more as time goes by and I get things settled and optimized. Haven't moved my user files yet but expect I will.

As far as moving user files, docs, pics, etc, off the SSD to a regular drive, are the advantages really worth it? At this time I'm using less than half of the SSD, space not currently an issue. Should I bother with it or just leave well enough alone?