Disk image restore and SSD

Here's a quick question since I am considering switching to SSDs: For system backups, I usually take disk images with Acronis, and when something goes wrong, I just restore my system image. Now, let's say I have a 256GB SSD that's about half full. When I restore my disk image to the SSD (using a 2010 version of Acronis, so I assume that's not SSD-aware; are there newer versions that treat SSDs differently?), the image data will just be written to the disk, but none of the now worthless existing data will be zeroed out, since I am not explicitly deleting anything. All I do is write stuff to the disk. Figuring in the wear-leveling used by the SSD controller, I'll probably end up with an SSD that is 100% full with non-zero data. My impression is that this would instantly lead to severely degraded performance of that SSD.

A) Is the above description correct?
B) If so, what's the fix? Would I first have to run some SSD utility to clear out the entire SSD, before restoring the disk image? If so, how long does that take on a typical (fast) SSD?

Thanks!

 

You are correct about 2010's limitations; according to a few threads i looked at; for instance Intel SSD 510 Installed / Acronis - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community
IF you do not want to upgrade to the latest Acronis, this may provide a viable option: http://www.ssdfreaks.com/content/664/how-to-clone-hdd-to-ssd-with-windows-7s-own-software.
I am using Paragon 2012 (and have used 2011 in the past) and have restored an ~40 GIG image to an 80 GIG INtel SSD a few times , but I know my free space does not change and do not need to erase.
Do you plan to do a clean install on the SSD?

 

Thanks for the pointers! Looks like I should probably update Acronis, then. And, no, there's no way I a going to do a clean install. That would cost me more than a week, full time, with the amount of software and associated configuration that went into this machine...

Thanks again!

 

Glad to help man, I have learned a lot from your posts, and have gotten some laughs out of more than 1 of your responses. Are you looking at any particular brand of SSD?

 

I'm considering the Samsung 830, but I'm in no rush. This is going to happen late spring, or even summer, so I'll see what the market looks like then.