Thinking of getting an SSD

[DOOVD]

I am considering getting an SSD drive to boot up my windows OS but I'm rather inexperienced when it comes to this, I already have my windows on my HDD will I need to completely reinstall windows on my SSD or is there a method of transferring it?

How much memory does windows OS actually take up, I also play my fair share of games but if possible could I chose to install them on my hardrive instead of the SSD.

[WAQT]

From your question above, I highly recommend you get SSD and Windows installed by a professional. Windws 7 takes about 20GB when installed.

[Open Minded]

You can grab a 120 GB SSD off newegg for about 85-100 USD. There's also software that can clone the drive you have now to your new SSD, but I'd highly recommend a reinstall of Windows with AHCI on in the BIOS.

[The King of GnG]

My advice is: absolute performance IS NOT everything, you should spare your money on a fundamentally broken and unreliable technology like NAND Flash-based SSDs and go for a high-performance HDD: plenty of space, faster on newer hardware and operating systems and if/when the disk dies it should give you the time to backup/recover your data. You know what happens when an SSD dies? Your data disappears, instantly, and forever.

I'll wait for ReRAM or FeRAM-based SSDs to consider the chance to spend my money on this kind of storage device....

[still1]

Totally worth it... I have Intel 120Gb on my work PC with 16 Gb ram..

A fresh install is always better and should take about 20-25 Gb space.

[Astra.Xtreme]

My advice is: absolute performance IS NOT everything, you should spare your money on a fundamentally broken and unreliable technology like NAND Flash-based SSDs and go for a high-performance HDD: plenty of space, faster on newer hardware and operating systems and if/when the disk dies it should give you the time to backup/recover your data. You know what happens when an SSD dies? Your data disappears, instantly, and forever.

I'll wait for ReRAM or FeRAM-based SSDs to consider the chance to spend my money on this kind of storage device....

You seem to know very little about NAND memory. It's actually much much more reliable than mechanical HDDs, so I'm not sure where you get your information from.

[The King of GnG]

You seem to know very little about NAND memory. It's actually much much more reliable than mechanical HDDs, so I'm not sure where you get your information from.

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

[scumdogmillionaire]

I just recently got the Intel 330 180GB SSD for my new computer. It is fantastic. Worth every dime!

There is a utility with the Intel drives to transfer everything, and supposedly it works very well, though I didn't try it. I think you could pull it off just fine if you're not very expierienced.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

My advice is: absolute performance IS NOT everything, you should spare your money on a fundamentally broken and unreliable technology like NAND Flash-based SSDs and go for a high-performance HDD: plenty of space, faster on newer hardware and operating systems and if/when the disk dies it should give you the time to backup/recover your data. You know what happens when an SSD dies? Your data disappears, instantly, and forever.

I'll wait for ReRAM or FeRAM-based SSDs to consider the chance to spend my money on this kind of storage device....

mkay, well it's not broken and SSDs are the future so, it sounds like youve never actually owned or used an SSD...

also, SSDs are used in a wide variety of business applications. those in IT are using SSDs for their datacenters so there has to be a certain level of confidence in NAND technology. not only are companies like OCZ and Fusion-IO using them for massive storage solutions, but other companies are using them in SANs for long-term storage as well as caching.

if your hard drive suddenly dies, your data goes w/ it too... you dont always have time to backup your data. also, SMART works great on SSDs and can predict failures. i own 4 SSDs and none of them have died. Vertex 30GB, Vertex 2 60GB, Intel X-25M 160GB, Crucial M4 512GB.

DOOVD - pick up a 60GB SSD for Windows and essential applications. you'll want to do a fresh install, and as others have mentioned, enable AHCI in the BIOS before you install Windows. as for games, you'll still be able to get 1 or 2 sizable games on that SSD if you want; otherwise, just install them on your hard drive. Windows takes between 15-20GB, and a 60GB SSD should format around 54GB leaving you with about 34GB for games and applications.

[tsupersonic]

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

That's terrible advice! Every drive is going to die, regardless if it's SSD based or a mechanical HDD. Bottom line, SSD's are completely worth it, and it turns your existing system into a new beast. Remember, your computer's slowest component is the mechanical HDD. Just make sure you backup your data, as always - you never know when your SSD or HDD is going to fail.

[ToneKnee]

SSDs with each generation are becoming more and more reliable. The first generate SSDs and even certain products from the newer generations have had problems, but this has mostly been down to dodgy firmware. An SSD in my opinion is likely to die like a HDD. I've had many hard drives die over the years.

[Charisma Veteran]

I just installed a SSD in my machine with a fresh install of Win7, and I LOVE it! The old drive is still in there for storage for most things, documents and images and whatnot, but having the OS and most-used programs on a SSD has made such a difference in performance. Boots, loads things, opens programs so quickly. I'll never go back :D

[SlimShady]

That's terrible advice! Every drive is going to die, regardless if it's SSD based or a mechanical HDD. Bottom line, SSD's are completely worth it, and it turns your existing system into a new beast. Remember, your computer's slowest component is the mechanical HDD. Just make sure you backup your data, as always - you never know when your SSD or HDD is going to fail.

Exactly. Backing up your data will always be the number one advice when it comes to storage. It's a pre-caution measure and you'll be glad that your data is safe after a crash, power outage or a drive failure.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

Use some common sense...

Mechanical parts wear out. You can't overcome physics.

NAND has no moving parts and have decades worth of read/write cycles, which will only continue to get better.

What you are claiming has nothing to do with reliability. Yes when a SSD dies, your data is gone, but so what? The same usually happens when a HDD dies unless it shows symptoms beforehand. But again, that has nothing to do with reliability.

Please at least have some background knowledge of the subject before you ramble out nonsense...

[articuno1au]

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

Yeah, you're wrong. I'm particularly amused that no-one picked up on "faster on newer hardware" as that's just complete tosh.

Nand doesn't degrade when not in use where as magnetic mediums do; So for pure storage (i.e. plug in, copy, unplug), the only downside of SSDs is cost. Even on scratch disks the drives survive for longer than the lifetime of the computer and S.M.A.R.T. is more accurate in predicting its impending death.

For those of us that are interested in performance the SSDs are immeasurably better due to their extremely low latency. Whilst I agree that performance isn't everything, this is a worthwhile performance boost.

SSDs with each generation are becoming more and more reliable. The first generate SSDs and even certain products from the newer generations have had problems, but this has mostly been down to dodgy firmware. An SSD in my opinion is likely to die like a HDD. I've had many hard drives die over the years.

Technically untrue. As the SSDs shrink in die size, the NAND memory becomes less durable and slower.

I would however agree that the firmware is a million times better now than it was then.

[BigDavy]

I've been thinking of getting a 128Gb Samsung 830 SSD to replace my laptop's HDD. The main reason, apart from increased performance, would be extended battery life.

[LaP]

Sorry but the one who knows very little about NAND flash it's you: memory cells are a long-term nightmare for anyone caring for his or her data.

Anyone who really care about his or her data will not store them on the same HD as the OS and will also back them outside of his or her computer .

And shockingly this is what this guy is about to do. He plan to buy a SSD and install windows on it and keep the HDD to store his data and games. OMG that's revolutionary nobody does this. I recommend him to back important data to a disc (dvd), tape or external HDD too here and there to be safe.

Anyone who doesn't back up his or her data (SSD or HDD it doesn't matter) deserves to lose them one day or another.

[TEX4S]

making mental note to never take King of GNG's advice on anything computer related.

OK DONE.

[The King of GnG]

"When a SSD fails, the failure is likely to be catastrophic, with total data loss. HDDs can fail in this way too, but often give warning that they are failing, allowing much or all of their data to be recovered". Also: wear leveling, bugged controllers with subsequent loss of data and some other issues I don't have time to research right now.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SSD#Comparison_of_SSD_with_hard_disk_drives

For me, right now SSDs are a no-go. Miniaturization will bring this very limited and controller-dependent storage technology to an halt. NAND Flash isn't for storing data, not for me.

[Shadrack]

When I upgraded my mid-2009 MBP from a 4200 RPM HDD to an Intel SSD 320 120GB the performance difference was like night and day. It was a huge performance boost. The whole OS is snappier! It isn't like upgrading your video card and games work better...or upgrading your memory and that one time a week when you use it all you notice. Going from HDD->SSD is a big upgrade that helps with performance across the board.

You would think it would just be load times, but the way modern software is written the disk is constantly polled for information. Nothing is 100% loaded into memory when you load a program. For instance, any dialog box that you open is going to hit the hard drive. Use to Office 2011 on my Mac would just llaaaaagggg.... since upgrading to the SSD everything is snappier. Highly recommend one.

As far as the discussion about data reliability on HDD vs SSD, I really don't get the argument at all. Anything can fail. HDD or SSD can fail and you can end up in a position where NOTHING is recoverable. That's why all users need to be relentless at backing their data up. This arguing about HDD only failing 2% of the time while SSD will fail 3% of the time, therefore don't get an SSD is complete hogwash (numbers made up for dramatic effect).

[Tom]

'Thinking of getting an SSD.'

Yeah don't do that, just buy it. You won't regret it, I promise. ;)

"When a SSD fails, the failure is likely to be catastrophic, with total data loss. HDDs can fail in this way too, but often give warning that they are failing, allowing much or all of their data to be recovered". Also: wear leveling, bugged controllers with subsequent loss of data and some other issues I don't have time to research right now.

https://secure.wikim...ard_disk_drives

For me, right now SSDs are a no-go. Miniaturization will bring this very limited and controller-dependent storage technology to an halt. NAND Flash isn't for storing data, not for me.

I have a friend who has been using SSDs for YEARS. He works for a retailer and therefore gets to play about with them all the time (also to note is he has 8x SSDs on his personal machine). After all of these years he's had ONE SSD fail him. Now try and compare that to the amount of HDD fails he's had and you suddenly realize SSDs are less likely to fail.

[Hum]

I thought an SSD burns out relatively quickly ... or is that wrong ?

[Tom]

I thought an SSD burns out relatively quickly ... or is that wrong ?

Wrong.

You can kill it pretty quickly by defragging it though. :p

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

I thought an SSD burns out relatively quickly ... or is that wrong ?

you'd have to push many many terabytes of data through the SSD. i'm still using my 30GB Vertex from 2009...

[Tom]

you'd have to push many many terabytes of data through the SSD. i'm still using my 30GB Vertex from 2009...

It's also worth noting that in theory he's correct, since each block of the memory can only be written/erased a certain number of times. The controllers manage that though and therefore heavily prolong the life of them.

Saying you're not going to buy an SSD because you're worried about data loss is silly imo. You're missing out on a SIGNIFICANT performance increase and for what? Potential data loss? Lets say 4 years down the line it dies quite frankly if you don't have a backup of that drive, you've failed at computing 101.