SSD questions.

[Dane]

So I am thinking of picking up a Samsung 850 120 gig or 250gig.

I have to double check but I think I have enough for one more drive. I may need a longer sata cable though.

I currently have a 1TB drive for the OS and everything else. I took a 500gig drive out of an old pc to have backups of stuff.

Would a 120 gig SSD really benefit me? I'd put the OS on it. And leave my pictures and videos and games and applications on the other drive. Would that be worth it?

Also can I just lay the SSD in the HD slot? It's such a pain to take out and I almost broke it the last time. So no moving parts and I don't move the PC so I figure it would be ok.

And is there a way to only clone the OS files and put them on the SSD? Or would I need to do a fresh install? I'm asking because the last time I did a fresh install it was a mess because the drivers I downloaded from HP didn't work at all. So I had to do a system restore using disks and just delete the bloat. And backed up my drivers for later.

[sc302 Veteran]

You can put the drive anywhere or strap it with some zip ties or leave it sit as is. I left my drive hanging in a case I always had open to slave infected drives in to scan. It was fine but I really didn't move the computer at all.

120 will be fine but get the 256, specs are slightly better. Use driver magician lite to extract your drivers and do a fresh install.

[Dane]

You can put the drive anywhere or strap it with some zip ties or leave it sit as is. I left my drive hanging in a case I always had open to slave infected drives in to scan. It was fine but I really didn't move the computer at all.

120 will be fine but get the 256, specs are slightly better. Use driver magician lite to extract your drivers and do a fresh install.

Yeah the 240gig is only a few dollars more. But tomorrow newegg is having the 120 for $79. And the 240 for $117 (I think).

Driver magician, will that just take the drivers I have now and back them up? Then install that after the fresh install and restore them?

My wifi card is the only thing that doesn't work after a fresh install. I downloaded from hp. Downloaded from the actual maker and nota. so I just restored and it worked. So I'm not sure. Id rather just do it an easier way.

[sc302 Veteran]

Driver magician lite well back up your drivers but you will have to point the device to the backup location. You well have to pay for driver magician to be able to put the drivers back in.

[Dane]

Driver magician lite well back up your drivers but you will have to point the device to the backup location. You well have to pay for driver magician to be able to put the drivers back in.

 

 

Thanks for this, I will check this out.   Will it just create options for me to be able to double click and install the drivers? or how does that part work?  

 

I downloaded Driver Toolkit,  it backed up the drivers in .Zip.  but I can also restore using that.  But it doesn't work for some things.  

[CG-88]

I know some people get the smaller SSD's, so the 120gb for just using for Steam or Origin games.

 

I have a 120gb ssd just for my OS and programs, and then I use a 256gb SSD for games.

 

What do you think you would use it for?

[Tomoko]

I think it is well worth spending a bit of extra money for the 240. The main benefit to an SSD is having your programs and games load quickly so the more you can install on it the better. I believe if you are going to spend that much on an upgrade may as well go the extra mile. If you can afford it of course, 120 is still really nice for having your OS and a few of your favorite programs.

[+kpo6969 Subscriber¹]

The 250 would be the better choice as performance-wise there is a bigger drop from 250 to 120 as opposed to 500 to 250.

Also you can use Velcro to mount it where you want to put it.

[CG-88]

The 250 would be the better choice as performance-wise there is a bigger drop from 250 to 120 as opposed to 500 to 250.

Also you can use Velcro to mount it where you want to put it.

 

That's true, I think the 120gb is about 256mbps or thereabouts and this jumps to 500mbps plus with the 250gb model.

[+Raze Subscriber²]

I just purchased this drive - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OAJ412U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1  It's selling today for $104.99!

 

It comes with Samsung Data Migration for cloning your drive. It worked perfect for me.  As long as the amount of data on the source drive will fit on the new SSD, it's a straight across clone.  If not, you will be asked to exclude certain folders/files from moving. It was very easy, just carefully follow the prompts.  I used this to install my SSD - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008O510FW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The Samsung is great so far no issues and is my first SSD. The OS and my other programs are on the SSD.  I keep my videos, pictures, miscellaneous backups on the Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB I was using before.

 

And always backup your data before doing any drive changes!

[Pishaw]

I just bought a Samsung 850 EVO 256GB drive yesterday from Amazon for about $130. I'll be putting it in an older Dell Studio. For the couple of extra dollars you may as well get the 256 GB.

[philcruicks]

Spend the extra for the 250GB drive, you'll be surprised how quickly you can fill it up.

Ad if you want to save effort Samsung SSD's come with very good cloning software, I used that to transfer my C drive to my SSD when I got it, was simple and easy.

 

I also got one of these to mount the SSD on, they're pretty cheap and just stop it hanging around or looking untidy, plus if you do ever move it at least its secure:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Akasa-AK-MX010V2-Dual-inch-Mounting/dp/B0055S0HY6

[+kpo6969 Subscriber¹]

If you can spare a 3.5 bay this will fit 2 ssds and 1 hard drive. (I got one)

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994163&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=2.5_to_3.5_adapter-_-17-994-163-_-Product

[PNWDweller]

I have the Samsung EVO 840 250Gb SSD on my system.  With all the junk I have on it, the max I have seen it filled to was right about half way.  That was with about 40GB of music and a virtual machine in addition to Office 2013 and so forth. 

 

I picked up a Samsung EVO 850 120Gb SSD for my wife's machine last week and installed it on her PC, she only uses about 40GB of data and is not a heavy user on her system.  We did not see much of a speed increase from doing a direct migration over (no fresh install of Windows), but it rather ran about the same speed.  I just checked with her now and she says after a few days, it has increased in speed, so I am guessing Windows had to do some under the hood things.  

 

Anyway, I figure that whatever you are doing on your computer will dictate the size you need for your SSD drive.  I was initially chicken when it came to cutting my space in half (I had a 500GB HDD), but have not really missed the space at all.   YMMV

[philcruicks]

A lot of it will depend on if your gaming, I have BF4 and Titanfall on my SSD and those alone are about 40-45GB each!

If its literally just windows and a few apps you'll probably be OK with a 120GB but that cost isn't much more, so 250 is worth it.

 

My 500GB is about half full.

[Dane]

Thanks for the replies everyone,  I'll go with 250 gig! 

 

250 gig on amazon is $99 on amazon!

[Dane]

Driver magician lite well back up your drivers but you will have to point the device to the backup location. You well have to pay for driver magician to be able to put the drivers back in.

 

Question for this.  Since I didn't pay for the full version it doesn't restore the drivers.  But they are in a .zip backed up.  Can I just open the .zip files and install the drivers manually?

 

Also if I just clone my current HDD to the SSD, once it loads up, do I just format the old HDD that has the windows directory in it?

[notyours]

If that driver backup program wants to charge you to install them, its probably renamed files such that you wont simply unzip and point a driver update to it.   You can always find any missing drivers online or from your old windows directory.

 

Fresh install of windows will set up the drive properly - If you do clone it, from command prompt admin, you probably want to run ..... winsat formal    then windows will for sure know its a ssd.and adjust settings accordingly.

 

Old windows drive you can delete or format or both, but save it for a while. 

[LaP]

And is there a way to only clone the OS files and put them on the SSD?

 

Using AOMEI Backupper Standard you can clone the HDD to the SSD. To enable that feature in the free version you need to paste some ad text to your Twitter account tough.

 

http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html

 

http://www.backup-utility.com/features/system-clone.html

 

http://www.aomeitech.com/pe-builder.html

[Dane]

If that driver backup program wants to charge you to install them, its probably renamed files such that you wont simply unzip and point a driver update to it.   You can always find any missing drivers online or from your old windows directory.

 

Fresh install of windows will set up the drive properly - If you do clone it, from command prompt admin, you probably want to run ..... winsat formal    then windows will for sure know its a ssd.and adjust settings accordingly.

 

Old windows drive you can delete or format or both, but save it for a while. 

Well in the .Zip files are .exe files, so I assume they are the drive installers.  

A fresh install doesn't actually install some of the things, I found out the hard way. It doesn't install my WiFi card or Ethernet adapter.  When I last did a fresh install,  I downloaded the drivers from both HP and the manufacturer of the chips before I did the fresh install.  Tried to install them and they wouldn't go.  Or show up in device manager.  I had to do a complete system restore, and instantly the devices worked.   So I still to this day have no idea what that was about.  I can find the exact driver that is installed currently,  it was the same one that I downloaded before and it just wouldn't install it would fail.   That issue was a post of mine ahwile ago: 

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1236811-how-to-back-up-my-windows-81-drivers/     post number 7.

 

So I figure the next time I do a fresh install is when I put Windows 10 on when it's done.

 

Using AOMEI Backupper Standard you can clone the HDD to the SSD. To enable that feature in the free version you need to paste some ad text to your Twitter account tough.

 

http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html

 

http://www.backup-utility.com/features/system-clone.html

 

http://www.aomeitech.com/pe-builder.html

Thanks I'll check these out, I believe Samsung comes with some software.  

[Dane]

Ok guys my SSD comes today!! What do I need to do in the bios (if anything) to get it up and running fairly quickly.  

 

Basically I want it as 
SSD- OS and some programs and a game or two that I play the most.  

 

1 TB HDD  Current OS Drive but it will be formatted and used for storage, games, downloads, and other stuff.  

500 gig HDD for other storage and PC Image for restore.  

 

Do I just connect the SSD like a normally would, go into bios set the boot order to the SSD and install windows 8 there,  then when its up and running format the old windows drive?

 

Some people are saying to "switch SATA to AHCI "  what does that do, and how do I do it?

 

 

Also, I can just connect it to ANY SATA port I have open correct?  I believe I have one left open. 

[sc302 Veteran]

Use the samsung tools...the ssd likes to be in AHCI mode, if you want you can do that in the bios.

 

Otherwise it behaves like any other drive you have used....just much faster.

[Dane]

Use the samsung tools...the ssd likes to be in AHCI mode, if you want you can do that in the bios.

 

Otherwise it behaves like any other drive you have used....just much faster.

 

 

Thanks, 

I see on my motherboard is has 

• 6x SATA 2.0 connectors (SATA 0 - 1 @ 6 Gb/s, SATA 2 -5 @ 3 Gb/s)

So I am assuming since I have two HDD's currently plugged into SATA 0 and SATA 1,  swap it out so the SSD plus into SATA 1 so it's 6BG/s correct? 

Can I plug it in, get it set up, and boot from from it, then pull some stuff off the other HDD and then format the HDD and go from there?  Or should I disconnect the current HDD, connect the SSD, install windows. Boot, then turn it off, plug in the old HDD, boot into the SSD then format it?

[CG-88]

 

Thanks, 

I see on my motherboard is has 

• 6x SATA 2.0 connectors (SATA 0 - 1 @ 6 Gb/s, SATA 2 -5 @ 3 Gb/s)

So I am assuming since I have two HDD's currently plugged into SATA 0 and SATA 1,  swap it out so the SSD plus into SATA 1 so it's 6BG/s correct? 

Can I plug it in, get it set up, and boot from from it, then pull some stuff off the other HDD and then format the HDD and go from there?  Or should I disconnect the current HDD, connect the SSD, install windows. Boot, then turn it off, plug in the old HDD, boot into the SSD then format it?

 

 

You should be able to do the first option - plug in SSD into one of the current HDD connections, put this HDD into another sata port - then install OS, set that as the boot device and go from there

[LaP]

Ok guys my SSD comes today!! What do I need to do in the bios (if anything) to get it up and running fairly quickly.  

 

Basically I want it as 

SSD- OS and some programs and a game or two that I play the most.  

 

1 TB HDD  Current OS Drive but it will be formatted and used for storage, games, downloads, and other stuff.  

500 gig HDD for other storage and PC Image for restore.  

 

Do I just connect the SSD like a normally would, go into bios set the boot order to the SSD and install windows 8 there,  then when its up and running format the old windows drive?

 

Some people are saying to "switch SATA to AHCI "  what does that do, and how do I do it?

 

 

Also, I can just connect it to ANY SATA port I have open correct?  I believe I have one left open. 

 

Connect the ssd like any other disks (in a 6 Gb/s port). Connect it to a main sata port and not a sata port using a secondary controller like JMicron (usually the color of the secondary ports is different on the mb check your manual). Go to the bios and change the setting of the main controller to AHCI. Keep the setting of the secondary SATA controller to IDE if your mobo let you do that.

 

Now there's 2 things you need to know.

 

1. Windows might not boot after doing so. I don't know which versions of Windows you have but do a search on google for "Switching from IDE to AHCI without re-installing Windows". You might have to do some registry editing or changing some ms config boot options for Windows to boot again. Do that before switching the main SATA controller to AHCI.

 

2. Your old disk drive (DVD, ...) might not work in AHCI. So if your MB doesn't have 2 sata controllers (ports will usually have different colors) you might have to keep using IDE mode. If your MB have 2 different sata controllers (most have) then you can plug the old disk drive to the secondary controller and keep this one in IDE mode in the BIOS. Might be better to keep the old HDD in IDE mode on the secondary controller if you can but not sure about it.

 

Then keep the boot order to the 1TB HDD. Copy what you don't want on the ssd from your 1TB hdd to an external hdd. Keep on the 1Tb HDD only what you want to keep on the ssd. Then clone the hdd to the ssd using tools like AOMEI Backupper (see links above in a previous post). Go back to the bios and set the boot order to the ssd. If it works then format the HDD and copy back data from your external backup. If windows doesn't boot you can go back to IDE mode and it should boot again and you can extend your search about what you need to do to make it works in AHCI mode without re-installing.

 

Some people recommend to install Intel Rapid Storage tech but not sure it's really needed.

 

I highly recommend using windows 7 and above with a SSD.