Ways to add SSD drive?

[JAG72]

I am getting ready to add a SSD drive to my computer and was wanting feedback on what others thought of the following two ways that I was thinking of using it.

1) Standard Drive with OS installed and Data saved to original drive. Some applications would also be installed to the SSD and others to the standard drive. Depends on the usage of the application on where it would be installed.

2) Caching drive using Intel's SRT technology. Allow the machine to determine what data needs to be cached to the drive in order to obtain optimal speed.

I am torn between these two ways and was wondering about pro's and con's from those that have used both in the past.

Also please share any other ideas that you may have on the subject.

 

[DodgerKing]

I am curious about your two options as well as I was looking to do the same for my desktop

I also want to know if there is a way to transfer paid software from your old drive to the other without having to purchase it again? My Vaio came with preinstalled software for the Bluray drive. If I put another drive in my computer I will lose the software and have to purchase a new license for it. Is there a way around it?

 

[cabledave]

I used AOMEI Partition Assistant. Worked perfectly. Was super easy.

Free Partition Manager Software for Windows 8/7/Vista/XP, 32/64 bit - AOMEI Partition Assistant Home Edition

Didn't lose anything and even Windows didn't think I needed a new license.

Dave

 

[mike123abc]

The fastest solution of course is an SSD drive that can take your OS partition and applications. For me that is a 80-120 GB HD. I put videos/photos/etc on a regular HD.

If you want to use the existing Win7 NTFS tools, you can work to shrink down your C: drive to the size of the SSD then do an image backup then an image restore.

 

[JAG72]

I really don't care about the existing Win7 installation. It was going to be a rebuild one way or the other. I have chosen to just use the SSD as the OS drive and then have my other as the data area. Looking more at SRT it was mainly developed for smaller SSD drives and I don't think there will be as much benefit.

Just received my SATA cable for my 2nd drive in my laptop today so the rebuild will begin later tonight.

 

[digiblur]

Do a reinstall on the SSD so windows sets up as an SSD. Otherwise you have to do s bunch of manual tweaks to get it right.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[JAG72]

Do a reinstall on the SSD so windows sets up as an SSD. Otherwise you have to do s bunch of manual tweaks to get it right.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

Why wouldn't you do the reinstall on the SSD? Kind of a waste of time installing to a standard drive and then transferring it over.

 

[JAG72]

So far I am very happy with the result in adding the SSD as a primary drive in my Laptop. Of course the best score you can get with a standard drive is 5.9 and the SSD that I am using is rated a 7.9. To bad I don't have better graphics but they do just fine for the little bit of gaming that I do.

 

[mike123abc]

I notice the SSDs in laptops far more than desktops. All the sleeping/hibernating/resume/etc really uses that SSD speed.

 

[digiblur]

Why wouldn't you do the reinstall on the SSD? Kind of a waste of time installing to a standard drive and then transferring it over.

That's what I said. Do a fresh windows install on the SSD. I noticed a big difference when I did.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[TheForce]

In most cases an SSD for system drive that is 128Gb will be adequate but in my case, in a video editing system, the temp files generated during a video edit session, including rendering, that get stored in the Users/ / Applications Data folder can be huge. It is not uncommon for my temp folder to reach 50-80 Gb during a render of a large 3D edit project. If the drive is a 128 Gb, then likely when the system attempts to write these temp files it will crash without warning. I've found that having 100-120Gb free space is adequate for my projects.

Also, there is a big difference in SSD performance. The fastest ones today seem to be the Vertex 4 series by OCZ. While there is a nice performance difference between traditional hard drives and SSD, the IO performance between older, lower cost SSD and the Vertex 4's is significant. In some applications this can make or break your work flow.

 

[JAG72]

In most cases an SSD for system drive that is 128Gb will be adequate but in my case, in a video editing system, the temp files generated during a video edit session, including rendering, that get stored in the Users/ / Applications Data folder can be huge. It is not uncommon for my temp folder to reach 50-80 Gb during a render of a large 3D edit project. If the drive is a 128 Gb, then likely when the system attempts to write these temp files it will crash without warning. I've found that having 100-120Gb free space is adequate for my projects.

Most actually recommend moving your temp file locations off of the SSD and onto traditional storage. This is what I have done with my installation.

As for your part about the older drives you are correct also those are normally much smaller in size. Those are the drives that utilizing Intel's SRT technology really helps out.

 

[TheForce]

The video editing process makes use of several classes of temp files, some are able to be relocated, others are not. Unfortunately, the compiling and undo history files as well as the cache for graphics are all fixed to this system folder. Compiled files and rendered files are addressable and I have those located on another hard drive. I have submitted a suggestion to allow these system temp files to be addressable too, but the company has not done that yet.

 

[DodgerKing]

The problem with doing a clean install vs an image install is I will lose my purchase software that came preinstalled on my laptop, namely my bluray drive software. Is there a way I can recover it without having to purchase the software?

Sent from my Jailbroken iPhone 3GS using SatelliteGuys

 

[digiblur]

The problem with doing a clean install vs an image install is I will lose my purchase software that came preinstalled on my laptop, namely my bluray drive software. Is there a way I can recover it without having to purchase the software?

Sent from my Jailbroken iPhone 3GS using SatelliteGuys

Dunno. I never purchased any software I didn't have a key to reinstall it.

Contact the company as you will be up a creek if your hard drive dies.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[DodgerKing]

I figured it out. I just had to register the software and now I will be able to download it again if I need to.

 

[TheForce]

Dunno. I never purchased any software I didn't have a key to reinstall it.

Contact the company as you will be up a creek if your hard drive dies.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

Its always a good idea to have a backup clone of your C drive for that very reason. Not all software is usable with simply a key. Adobe now has an activation process that regulates how many computers you can install on. o install on a second computer you need to go to the first one and deactivate it, then to the new computer and activate it. This process is not required on a clone drive. Most of my apps I use require a similar process.