Changing over to an SSD, anything I should know?

[SirRoderick]

Just ordered a Samsung 840 evo 250GB drive for my Desktop. I figure I'm not going to have any trouble cloning it over and getting it set up, the order even comes with a USB 3.0 adapter and everything, but I was wondering if there's anything I should know or be aware of when using these things. Like for example how you should probably turn never try to defragment it since that's terrible and you should feel bad.

 

Any little hidden caveats like that you guys know about?

[Blackterror25]

The main thing is never defrag it, also Samsung has some cloning software which I hear is good.

[WoodenMarker]

Reroute your document/picture, download locations, etc to your hdd.

[Razarza]

The main thing is never defrag it, also Samsung has some cloning software which I hear is good.

I'm pretty sure Windows has a system in place to prevent defragging an SSD.

[SirRoderick]

Reroute your document/picture, download locations, etc to your hdd.

That's a good point actually, no point in bulk files taking up space like that. As a matter of fact imma go ahead and start siphoning off everything that doesn't need to be on the C partition right now into D so the cloning process takes up less time.

[TheProfosist]

The main thing is never defrag it, also Samsung has some cloning software which I hear is good.

I have had horrible luck with samsungs software. Id recommend something like clonezilla or acronis.

Reroute your document/picture, download locations, etc to your hdd.

That would be only if you have a lot of that stuff because most of my multimedia is already on my server or other drives so even a good chuck of documents dont take up much space at all.

I'm pretty sure Windows has a system in place to prevent defragging an SSD.

Yes win7 and win8 do but you can always check in the samsung software or most any ssd software to be sure.

That's a good point actually, no point in bulk files taking up space like that. As a matter of fact imma go ahead and start siphoning off everything that doesn't need to be on the C partition right now into D so the cloning process takes up less time.

If you have the time to a clean install youll get much better performance than cloning from a hdd especially with newer os's.

[WoodenMarker]

That would be only if you have a lot of that stuff because most of my multimedia is already on my server or other drives so even a good chuck of documents dont take up much space at all.

Pretty much. For a storage hog like me, doing this is essential.

Also, rerouting the locations just make it more seamless so you can use the shortcuts on the start menu and such and some programs will automatically route some files to the hdd that way.

[TheProfosist]

Since you have a evo makesure to turn on rapid in the software. I also recommend going through the os optimaztions manually and selecting what best for you individually not just picking a software default.

I recommend turing off drive indexing both in the control pannel and in the drives properties so that its not doing stuff in the background everytime your pc goes idle. Also unless its a laptop I wouldnt let the deive turn off/go to sleep as though ssds dont have to spin back up since their off/sleep statw is so low it does take a while for them to power back up and resume.

Also how much ram do you have? If its over 8gb I would recommend disabling the page file. After a restart index the drive with something like windirstat to makesure the pagefile.sys file is gone. It would be the second largest file next to the hybernate file. Now on to hibernate if you don use it turn it off so that you can free up thw huge amount of space it uses on you drive which it equal to the amount of ram you have. Just look up on google how to do so, one of the forat results should be a microsoft knowledge base article or something of the sort, just follow that. Once you turn it off run windirstat and find the hibernate file and delete it perminantly.

The last thing to do if you can spare a bit of space on the drive is easy since you have a samsung ssd is to set some over provisioning on the drive. This will extend the drives life span and will alow more consistant performance once the drive fills up.

[TheProfosist]

O the last thing I just thought of is if your using a Z77 or Z87 board you should enable rapid start. Its does require setting up a partition the size of your ram. If you wish to do this and need help let me know.

Additionally if you do choose to do a clean install and have a uefi bios, set it to boot to uefi or uefi first. Widows will then format the drive as GPT. This can be done for win7 and newer and is recommended if you have a uefi. If you have win8.1 I had probems trying to use it with BIOS multiple stimes so its your best bet for less issues now days. If you need to know how to set it to go to uefi or uefi first let me know and I can at least go over how to do it on a asus board.

[TheProfosist]

On a side note there is a trick to installing win8.1 cleanly if you have a win8 key also. I can go over that if needed as well.

[SirRoderick]

Thanks for the feedback there, some nice tips in there. 

 

As for doing a clean install versus cloning, how much of a difference does that realistically make?

 

Also an additional question, suppose I have my SSD installed with the OS on it and everything, what's the best way to get rid of the OS file on the HDD that I'll be using for storage? Not really wanting to totally reformat that since it'll take AGES to back everything up I have on there and copying it back over.Can I basically just load in the SSD and disconnect the HDD, install windows, put it first in the boot order and replug the HDD then delete the windows partition?

[SirRoderick]

On a side note there is a trick to installing win8.1 cleanly if you have a win8 key also. I can go over that if needed as well.

Using win 7, but thanks for the suggestion anyway

[TheProfosist]

Thanks for the feedback there, some nice tips in there.

As for doing a clean install versus cloning, how much of a difference does that realistically make?

Also an additional question, suppose I have my SSD installed with the OS on it and everything, what's the best way to get rid of the OS file on the HDD that I'll be using for storage? Not really wanting to totally reformat that since it'll take AGES to back everything up I have on there and copying it back over.

Kinda of a significant improvement as windows will know from the start that it is on a ssd. This is even more so the case if you take the time to get the newest andnlatest drivers for all of your devices. I suggest going directly to the manufacturer when ever possible and not using the onces on the kotherboards support page as they are usually outdated by ages. It might even enable some new things you didnt have before. Just delete all the os related files once you have everything setup on the new drive. If that doesnt work you could try shrinking the partition and the creating a new one with the new space then move everything to the new partition and delete the old partiton as a whole. You can then expand the newer partition to the entire size of the drive.

[SirRoderick]

Kinda of a significant improvement as windows will know from the start that it is on a ssd. This is even more so the case if you take the time to get the newest andnlatest drivers for all of your devices. I suggest going directly to the manufacturer when ever possible and not using the onces on the kotherboards support page as they are usually outdated by ages. It might even enable some new things you didnt have before. Just delete all the os related files once you have everything setup on the new drive. If that doesnt work you could try shrinking the partition and the creating a new one with the new space then move everything to the new partition and delete the old partiton as a whole. You can then expand the newer partition to the entire size of the drive.

Oh I like the partition trick, nice one. 

 

Right so I'll do my homework and get all the drivers I need on a flash drive, I'll boot up the system without the HDD and install the OS onto my SSD, make sure the boot order is correct, reattach the HDD, delete the original OS and sort out all my drivers for the best performance. Hope I didn't miss anything there.

 

Hmmm, just considered that this being effectively a clean install Imma have loads of programs and stuff that lose their settings. New systems are always such fun x3

[TheProfosist]

Oh I like the partition trick, nice one. 

 

Right so I'll do my homework and get all the drivers I need on a flash drive, I'll boot up the system without the HDD and install the OS onto my SSD, make sure the boot order is correct, reattach the HDD, delete the original OS and sort out all my drivers for the best performance. Hope I didn't miss anything there.

 

Hmmm, just considered that this being effectively a clean install Imma have loads of programs and stuff that lose their settings. New systems are always such fun x3

Yes its always nice to start clean every once in a while. If you have any questions on anything, especially the stuff that I recommended doing, ill do what I can to help.

[SirRoderick]

Yes its always nice to start clean every once in a while. If you have any questions on anything, especially the stuff that I recommended doing, ill do what I can to help.

One thing perhaps is the overprovisioning thing. What do you mean with that exactly?

 

Everything else seems clear as crystal, hell I even turned that pagefil off ages ago myself

[TheProfosist]

One thing perhaps is the overprovisioning thing. What do you mean with that exactly?

 

Everything else seems clear as crystal, hell I even turned that pagefil off ages ago myself

The over provisioning should be in the samsung software. I usually just use the default settings which I think is like 10%.

[Brainpowered]

I also recently bought a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB.  Is there an issue with applying the Over Provisioning feature after already loading an OS and some data on it?

Edited November 29, 2013 by Brainpowered

[TheProfosist]

I also recently bought a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB.  Is there an issue with applying the Over Provisioning feature after already loading an OS and some data on it?

You need at least 10% of the drive free if not more. Also what it basically doing is shrinking the partition so even if you do have 10% free data may have been deleted from the beginning or middle of the partition not the end which would prevent you from shrinking past that point. This really shouldnt happen on SSDs but they are treated as essentially HDDs currently in most cases so all the same issues apply.

[SkilledRebuilds]

The MOST comprehensive Guide to SSD's and (At the time of writing) Windows 7

Being a Win7 guide, much can be ported and used the same way in Windows 8, and I'm sure there are other comprehensive guides out there for Windows 8.

Have fun.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds