new SSD - how to reconfigure windows 7?

[ik9000]

So my machine was getting slow, the 60GB SSD was getting full and I read an Anandtech review saying that the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro was one of the best SSDs for mere mortal prices. It arrived today, hope I haven't impulse bought a dud...

Question is - how do I install it - do I have to do a full wipe of my old one? In some ways I'd quite like to but I don't want to have to do all the windows updates etc again.

When I installed windows last time I set up the machine as:

c: SSD - windows and MS office, AV etc
HDD1 - files (moved the my docs link to point here)
HDD2 - games and programs (changed the install folders to point here)
HDD3 - user files (registry hack following the advice here: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how...ia_storage_ssd)

figured that backing up I need only do HDD1 and HDD3 and selected folders from HDD2 - made life easy

Now though I'm a bit unsure of how to install the OS onto the new drive and preserve the links to the right places. As I said, I don't want to lose user settings and updates etc (on a crappy mobile dongle now with limited data) so if there's a way to keep these it would be preferable.

Any advice much appreciated.

Also, is AHCI mode the right thing to set the BIOS to for these drives? For some reason the current SSD shows up in the windows->safely remove hardware link for stopping USB drives etc. Seems a bit odd to have the boot drive appear in that. Dread to think what would happen if I did click eject device...

[realstock]

You didn't mention what OS you are currently using.

There is a tool called migwiz in windows and that should allow you to backup your user settings. Also there is a windows backup which should allow you to perform a full backup of the C drive & system state, and anything else you need.

Personally if I were you I would completely disconnect all hard drives apart from the new Samsung, and build windows on that. Then restore your personal settings on that drive.

If there is a problem, you could just reconnect your old SSD and old HD's. You don't risk any data that way.

Once your happy, reconnect the other drives and move your data to your required drives.

[g8ina]

I just used Macrium Reflect to clone my old HDD onto my new SSD, worked like a charm.

[ik9000]

using win7 Pro - see system spec...

Guess what I'm after is a way to do clean install but then be able to keep user settings, favourites etc and also copy across the 2 years worth of windows updates. I don't want to do a full back-up as 1) the new drive will have much more storage space than the old one, which i think can cause problems (IIRC - or ahve they fixed this at last?) and 2) something seems funny with the machine and I want to make sure I get a clean install as much as posisble.

When I click on some of the desktop links rundll32 launches, as does the game.exe but then rundll32 stays running hogging 23-26% of CPU, game.exe never launches and sits at 0-1%CPU. (happens with more than one game) double clicking the link a second time launches the game properly, but the original rundll32 and game.exe stay running in the background hammering performance. It's rubbish like this I want to make sure doesn't copy across.

Similarly the boot drive appearing in the safely-eject tab. Seems rather bizarre it should appear there in the first place. It only did it when i switched the old SSD drive from SATAII to SATAIII port on the mobo to see if it made any improvement on speed. (It actually seemed to get slower ?!)

[ik9000]

Would this be better placed in the software thread? I've got the hardware, it's more a how-to-sort-out-windows query I guess...

[Iain162]

Also, is AHCI mode the right thing to set the BIOS to for these drives?

Yes AHCI is the way to go.. the quickstart manual with your SSD should also say to set this mode for your SATA controler..

Also there is a windows backup which should allow you to perform a full backup of the C drive & system state, and anything else you need.

Sadly windows backup doesnt support restoring an image of a drive to another which isnt the same size as the original drive it was taken from..

I personally think your better off just dealing with the option of downloading the updates again, it wont take quite as long as you think after the first set of updates are installed you can then add SP1 on the second time round and then its minimal after that, i have to do this everytime i format and install windows 7 :/

Also i dont know if your aware of this but samsung drives come with a nice peice of software that you can use to make OS tweaks that benefit SSD's, aswell as manual trash collections and so on, its called "SSD Magician" got it with my 830 series drive so i'd assume it should of come with yours too.

[ik9000]

Yes AHCI is the way to go.. the quickstart manual with your SSD should also say to set this mode for your SATA controler..



Sadly windows backup doesnt support restoring an image of a drive to another which isnt the same size as the original drive it was taken from..

I personally think your better off just dealing with the option of downloading the updates again, it wont take quite as long as you think after the first set of updates are installed you can then add SP1 on the second time round and then its minimal after that, i have to do this everytime i format and install windows 7 :/

Also i dont know if your aware of this but samsung drives come with a nice peice of software that you can use to make OS tweaks that benefit SSD's, aswell as manual trash collections and so on, its called "SSD Magician" got it with my 830 series drive so i'd assume it should of come with yours too.

Yes it came with that - wasn't sure what it is (not opened box yet, job for the w/e). Is it obvious what to do with it? (I'm relatively novice at the software/OS side)

[Iain162]

Yeah its a very simple peice of software

http://cdn.connecteddigitalworld.com...Magician-9.jpg

just a quick picture i pulled from google to give you an idea.