SSD Upgrade Help

[Chadders87]

I know I am [very] late to the party but my PC is beginning to slow down and is therefore due some TLC.

I want to add in a new SSD for the OS / Steam / Film Library. The problem is this is my first HDD upgrade where I haven't just rebuilt the system from scratch.

How do I install the OS to the SSD / wipe the old drive so it can be normal storage again, and can this be done without a disc drive (USB?). I am on a Windows 7 OS upgraded using an old XP windows key, in case that impacts things.

Also, is this a good SSD choice: 250gb Samsung 850

Pre-thanks for the advice

[MrJim]

You can install Windows 7 from USB using the tool & instructions here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...-download-tool

An SSD probably isn't the best choice for storing lots of games or films; the cost / GB is much higher than for a conventional hard-disk, & these days a lot of games take up such a lot of space that it's not really cost effective to put them all on an SSD. That said, there are a few games like BF4 that really benefit from being on an SSD due to very long load times, so I just keep my most often played games on there. At the moment that's BF4 and GTA V, which between them take up over 100Gb of space! In short, I'd just use an SSD for Windows, & your most often used (and / or disk intensive) applications & games.

The Samsung 850 Evo has had good reviews & is backed up with a 5 year warranty, but you can find slightly cheaper alternatives - the Crucial range offers good value for money, for example.

[shaithis]

I'd be inclined to use the free Easeus partition utility for windows or a Linux distro CD with GPARTED to copy the data from one drive to another......of course if your destination drive is smaller, you may have to do some additional operations first to shrink the source partition(s).

[Chadders87]

Cheers for that Jim. The SSD will be the same as your setup; larger and more demanding games. And a few TV shows to watch rather than store permanently.

I'll take a look at the Crucial range too.

[gupsterg]

I also only joined the SSD owning crowd recently , was really tempted by Samsung's offerings and writing off others, but after owning a BX100 250GB / MX100 256GB / EVO 840 250GB hard to tell the difference between them in everyday use IMO.

SO I'd also recommend the Crucial range, at times the BX100 250GB has been going for £60 on Amazon so if your not in rush to buy then keep your eyes peeled for a deal; at that price they're cracking value!

[Domestic_Ginger]

I would do a fresh install to the ssd. Great opertunity for a spring clean. You don't need to delete your HDD windows install so you shouldn't lose anything.

[Chadders87]

Does anyone have a link to a Windows 7 Home Premium ISO? I want to fresh install but without a disc drive it's proving tricky, and I refuse to buy windows 8.1 from the MS Store.

The https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery site seems to be down :/

[Bonebreaker777]

Try 'install from HDD/SSD' -> http://m.instructables.com/id/Instal...without-upgra/

ISO from -> hmm,not sure. Hard on a phone (to find).

[Jonj1611]

Digital River used to be the place until the servers were taken offline.

Now the only real place seems to be http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery

If you can get it to load that is.

[Marcvs]

The crucial drives arent the best in raw performance; but they are good enough (I picked up a 480gb one at XMAS for £115). My Samsung 840Pro and M.2 Drive is far faster but I only notice it doing stuff like 4K editing in truth.

[Chadders87]

Cheers for the advice. I went for the Samsung in the end purely because I caught it in the Today Only section.

I also had to resort to a pirate site to get a Windows 7 ISO. And after numerous scans and checks, it seems to be legit (except the key generator which was duly deleted). It installed nicely, and now I have a blazing fast machine!!

Now to update and reinstall all my softwaresl!

[sonyman]

Remember to make a backup of your new OS system and progs so you dont have to re do it all over again Easeus has a free program which will do fine

[OneIT]

If you want to install windows from usb I would recommend RUFUS over any of the other tools - its easy to get, portable and faster than anything else out there.

https://rufus.akeo.ie

You'll still need an ISO image, easiest way to get one is probably from a computer friend or even torrenting it. So long as you have a licence and don't crack it theres no issue with that.

[Bambooz]

Rufus makes things more complicated than they need to be. MS has their own (open source) tool which does everything automagically and if you really want to DIY, it's really easy for Vista/7/8/8.1 or Server 2008/2008R2/2012/2012R2 since MS provides the only tool needed for this on every windows DVD in the BOOT folder.

PS: the trick for getting a clean Windows 7 ISO is to look for versions marked "untouched" or "MSDN(AA)" or something along those lines and verifying the ISO checksum with the ones listed on Microsofts website
(click on "details" on the appropriate windows edition to show the SHA-1 checksum which you can compare with your downloaded ISO)

Or just do it in reverse and look up the SHA-1 checksum on the MSDN website and search for the checksum on google to find a non-modified ISO.

It's really not that hard