HDD and SSD upgrading...some Q&A

So, I have a lenovo t400 in my sig. My SSD is getting close to full...not exactly sure why. It is a 60, which means like 55GB available. Win7 64 bit... 24.5GB, Prog files c. 6GB. Prog files(x86) c. 6 GB and User (desktop and such) like 5GB

I seem to have 5GB unaccounted for. I can move the User stuff mostly...

Anyway, I have posted about getting a 'dual use' lappy and may do that, but don't want part with the fundage right now. So, my thought... pick up a Samsung 830 256GB SSD and mirror my current onto it... I know I won't get SATA III speed, but I love what I have read about that drive. COuld also bump up the storage drive as well.

SO, if I do that and then pick up a replace laptop, I could go with a reseller, get a system w/ no drives and put my drives in those systems, right? Then, just need to grab drivers and such and good to go?

Thanks

 

Yep, you would just need to get the drivers installed for that particular system.

Scrap that 830 and take advantage of this SWEET Crucial M4 deal:

Buy.com - Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" SATA III Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Thanks! I have looked at crucial before.. But, do they use SandForce? and do I care. I am about ta do some google on the 'sandforce issue' because I haven't a clue other than the winds seem to be blowin' 'don't use a SandForce controlled SSD"

 

Nope, the M4 uses Marvel. Despite some unreliabilty issues with the SF platform, Crucial has made an incredibly reliable drive.

 

As far as I can tell the two best options for a SSD right now are the crucial m4 and the samsung 830. Since the samsung is a good bit more I went with the crucial. Like you said, you want to stay away from sandforce.

 

I thought the crucial m4 used a marvell controller. Or is that the same thing?

Edit: Yep, the crucial m4 as well as the intel 510 use the Marvell controller. These two along with the samsung 830 are the most reliable SSD's. Most people will still say to stay away from sandforce.
Reference

 

Edited, my post. I was wrong. It does indeed use a Marvel controller

 

Thanks guys! My SSD currently is an OZC Agility2 as you can see in the sig.

On the other part of my post, can you clue me where I may find a hidden 6-10 GB being used?

 

Have you tried disabling hibernation? That's probably what's holding up your 6-10GB. Using a command window with admin rights, type:

Code:

powercfg /hibernate off

...and press enter.

If that doesn't free up much space, you might also have a large Pagefile, so you could try reducing it's size or disabling it (however, some programs need it, so check first).

How To Manage Hibernate Mode in Windows 7 - How-To Geek

NOTE: If there's a power loss while your laptop is in sleep mode, there's the possibility of data loss. While I can't make promises, if you save your data before closing your lid (sleep mode), you should be fine.

 

Hibernation, Page File and System Restore?

 

As usual, the Private is right on it. Good job.

 

Forgot about System Restore!

 

System restore? Will I lose data by going back?

 

If you have been keeping all of your backups on your laptop, you would have lost your data anyway in case of drive failure. It's always a good idea to keep backups at a different physical location rather than just on your computer. For example, I have frequent backups on two external HDDs (via HDD dock), infrequent backups stored on a "server" at home (really just an old desktop), and really important stuff backed up to an encrypted folder in my Dropbox.

Just remember to manually backup your drive before making any major changes (such as driver updates) and you'll be fine if something goes wrong. You'll still be able to restore from backup in that case.

 

I back up to a 2TB external on my desk at work. I turned off hibernated and went form 8.1GB to 14.7GB free. That is out of 55.1GB available. 41 being used makes sense to me... 24.5 for Windows file, c. 6 for Prog(x86) and another 6 for Prog plus 5 for Users (desktop mostly). I can move that other 5 to the Storage drive as well... I could then have around 20GB free

 

Page file for C:\ is steady at 400MB. none for D:\ (D is the 320GB seagate)

I could only get 1/2 GB even if I went to 0, which I don't think I want to

 

You could probably get away with 0MB Pagefile if you wanted to, but disabling the Pagefile is a somewhat controversial way to modify Windows. I keep a relatively small Pagefile (~1024MB) simply because I play a lot of older games that depend on it, despite the fact that I should never, ever run out of memory (12GB, wth?!?).

But yeah, 400MB is a drop in the bucket anyway.

 

And... now at 16.7GB. I think I had some SAS Temp files that didn't auto-delete at some point. In SAS< when you do SQL tables and other intense iterative processes, the prog creates temporary tables. You can gobble up GBs of space temporarily. They are supposed to be deleted when you shut down (or when you call for them to be).

Once, I was trying to left join to a table that had over 2 million rows (observations) and a good number of columns (variables). I was watching the available on my HDD (before the SSD unpdate) dwindle down. The temp files filled 198GB of free space and the code error-ed out for lack of memory. My programming efficiency has improved, slightly anyway, since then.