Author Topic: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
greystar21 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7

Hello everyone,

During the next month or so, I am going to purchase an SSD drive. I am building the new rig this weekend (was unable to $$ and unknowledgable of how beneficial the SSD can be), and wanted to know how much of a PITA it will be to move Win 7 from a HD to an SSD drive.

Because I will have had Win 7 installed on a HD only for a few weeks prior to purchase of the SSD, the amount of programs, etc. will be relatively minimal. I have a 500gb external HD that relatively old, but where I plan on putting all my music, movies, etc. so if I needed to wipe the HD to install a SSD as my main, that would be ok.

Thoughts or comments are appreciated!

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Super easy.

Connect the SSD drive to the computer as a secondary drive.
Boot from your regular HDD.
Run Macrium Reflect Free. Clone the C: drive to the SSD drive.
Shut down and restart into the BIOS and make the SSD the primary boot device (or remove the HDD, however you want to do it).
Finished.

Basically all you have to do is clone the HDD to SSD drive and boot from the SSD.

 

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greystar21 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7


Thank you. I passed right over the SSD drives during the build Q&A due to cost vs. storage capacity. I figured it had more time to go before it was usable...I just couldn't see spending over $100 for a 64gb storage unit.

Now that I have had time to read many of the reviews concerning SSD drives, it seems pretty amazing, comparitively speaking.

I assume Win 7 is around 20gb, and with SWTOR being around the same, that only leaves another 20gb+ on a 64gb drive.

Or...do you put Win 7 and movies on the SSD and everything else on a standard HD?

What seems to give you the best performance?

 

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Lonestar_1 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Would be no reason to really put movies on SSD unless you are doing some major editing and stuff. There is a benefit to putting a game on SSD as far as load times.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
I would put Windows, apps, and SWTOR on the SSD drive.
Everything else, movies, music, etc, on the hard drive.

Disable Windows Hibernation, that eats a lot of space.
If you use a page file, you might want to manually reduce it's size and make it static. Other people disable it all together, I'm still on the fence on if that's a good idea or not.

 

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Nakal 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Tekzilla just did a nice show on that today, here is a link to the segment.

http://revision3.com/tekzilla/pc-troubleshooting#rev3Player

 

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Stormyblade 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Ravynmagi posted:
I would put Windows, apps, and SWTOR on the SSD drive.
Everything else, movies, music, etc, on the hard drive.

Disable Windows Hibernation, that eats a lot of space.
If you use a page file, you might want to manually reduce it's size and make it static. Other people disable it all together, I'm still on the fence on if that's a good idea or not.




So if I got an Intel 510 Series 120G SSD, you are saying that I should put Windows 7, WoW, Skyrim...ALL of these on the SSD? Doesn't WoW read and write a lot and therefore decrease the lifetime of the SSD? What I was thinking if I got an SSD would be to put just Windows 7 on the SSD at first, then see as time goes on what other programs/apps would be ideal to migrate over to the SSD. Oh, and all this as a fresh format and install onto the SSD -- it's been several months since I installed everything onto these computers so a fresh install would probably be very helpful vs. a mirror transfer.

 

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Ookane 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Reads are free, writes shorten life.  That said, even playing games for 12 hours a day on average might cause you a problem on these drives after about 4-5 years, think of the side drive you were using that long ago and reason if you really think this drive will be worth keeping that long.

Over and above this, put the Windows swap file on a different drive, that is written to quite a lot more than anything else the PC will do.

 

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Sprawl-zero1eye- 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
You might want data beyond a few years, but I don't mind wiping the OS every 4-5 years. I remember when people used to recommend every 6 months, haha.

 

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Lannai 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
I don't remember the last time I retained an OS for 4-5 years...wow. I probably still reinstall mine every 6mo-1yr (often trying out something new). I've never had an OS feel the same after a year as it did the day I installed it.

 

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Ookane 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Lannai posted:
I don't remember the last time I retained an OS for 4-5 years...wow. I probably still reinstall mine every 6mo-1yr (often trying out something new). I've never had an OS feel the same after a year as it did the day I installed it.


Won't have to worry about that for long it seems.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/05/windows-8-refresh-and-reset-options-bootable-usb/

 

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Lannai 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Ookane posted:
Lannai posted:
I don't remember the last time I retained an OS for 4-5 years...wow. I probably still reinstall mine every 6mo-1yr (often trying out something new). I've never had an OS feel the same after a year as it did the day I installed it.


Won't have to worry about that for long it seems.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/05/windows-8-refresh-and-reset-options-bootable-usb/


Wow! Let me say that again...WOW! While it might not appear big on the surface...that's the biggest single change I've seen in a long time. Do you realize how many casual users won't have to call their geeky family member/friend to fix the computer that has been destroyed by malware, viruses, corrupt drivers, etc.? This should and could have been changed a LONG time ago...but it would have been admitting things about the OS that developers would rather not discuss. I am genuinely impressed.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Been meaning to look more into the Refresh and Reset options of Windows 8, but haven't yet.

From what I heard so far, I'm not really sure how this is any different from Repair and Reinstall. I can already Repair Windows and it keeps the existing apps, settings, and data. And of course Reinstall lots you wipe everything and start over clean.

 

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Lannai 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
You've always been able to "reset" your computer...the issue is how simple it is made for the casual user. My feeling was that it would be as easy as clicking a button.

 

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jarom_td 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Ookane posted:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/05/windows-8-refresh-and-reset-options-bootable-usb
"The goal here? To give end-users a single button to press when you just want 'everything to be fixed.'"

If it's really that easy and works as they claim, that's like having an I win button.

 

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Speak-pkhq 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
jarom_td posted:
Ookane posted:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/05/windows-8-refresh-and-reset-options-bootable-usb
"The goal here? To give end-users a single button to press when you just want 'everything to be fixed.'"

If it's really that easy and works as they claim, that's like having an I win button.




i will never, ever trust any O/S to give me a leaner/meaner/cleaner "feel" than installing an os and all apps from scratch, and restoring all my data. if it really was as easy as providing a button to click, it would've been implemented a decade ago. and every os would have it. every. and linux would've had it 5 years ago.

no way, no how, no thank you. i continue on windows only because of 1 application: the game i play at the time. i say this in as-generic terms as i can because every game i play at any given time is only compatible on windows. yes i could go through hoops to "kinda sorta get it to work" on linux/wine, but that is not worth my time. i'd rather have a multi-thousand-dollar machine dedicated to windows and gaming than to spend hours and hours of research and patching and editing txt files to make 1 thing work half-assedly.
lol linux.

i reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally wish linux would realize that if they got the "gamer market," then everythign else would fall into place.

READ THIS LINUX PEOPLE!!

 

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Ookane 
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Subject: How hard to move from HD --> SSD with Win 7
Ravynmagi posted:
Been meaning to look more into the Refresh and Reset options of Windows 8, but haven't yet.

From what I heard so far, I'm not really sure how this is any different from Repair and Reinstall. I can already Repair Windows and it keeps the existing apps, settings, and data. And of course Reinstall lots you wipe everything and start over clean.


Not the same at all as clean and repair. If you choose to totally reset it (and not keep user acounts, installed apps, and your personal doc folders) it will return the PC to the way it came out of the box from the OEM, completely wiped, no oprhaned or abandoned req keys and crap left at all.

 

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