SSD advice

Are there any threads or articles about installing an SSD? I have a Lenovo X200 that I'm thinking to upgrade to an SSD if possible, but not sure what kinds of things to be wary of or what kinds of problems might come up. Its a couple years old laptop.

I have read that you just have to replace the drive and that's it. But I have also read that you need to install firmware and drivers(?) and other things to get it to work properly. Also you need to set up Windows 7 in a certain way.

Also, what is a good SSD drive to get that is around 128GB?

 

Technically Microsoft has good drivers as Windows 7 default, but everyone recommends you install the new Intel RST(Rapid Storage Technology) drivers straight from the Intel site to update the chipset.

Firmware... it depends on the manufacturer on updating firmware, you may need them you may not.

Samsung drives are very good(Either the PM800 or the PM810 both are great drives, SATA II and very reliable).

Intel drives also earn my vote due to their reliability and random read/writes. You can find the new Intel 320 series or the Intel G2 series for cheap, if you are looking for used SSDs.

For SATA II buses, do not get Crucial, they lose a lot of their performance when using SATA II compared to SATA III and they consume more power due to the extra NAND.

No tweaking of Windows required, it will automatically disable certain services to adjust for the SSD.

 

Take a look around the forum... plenty of posts to read:

+ http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...storage/638775-good-reliable-ssd-storage.html

+ http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...rage/637764-120-128gb-ssd-me-please-vote.html

+ http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...age/637128-looking-best-ssd-w-250-budget.html

+ http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sh-storage/638308-looking-upgrade-my-ssd.html

+ http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/641287-pick-me-ssd-please.html

+ http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...flash-storage/628950-ssd-war-witch-buy-p.html

In regards to Crucial on SATA II? I'm not certain what extra NAND there is, or performance problems there may be, but I can just talk about what I have. My SATA II, x7200 uses a Crucial C300 and it almost saturates SATA II on READ, and is not too shabby on SATA II for WRITES.

 

Thank you for the replies. It sounds like I should go for the Samsung or Crucial. The Intel ones are a lot more expensive than the others.

Do SSD drives come with brackets? I recently upgraded another laptop with a normal HDD and it didn't come with brackets so I had to use the ones I had. I guess SSDs must be the same? Are they the same size as other 2.5" harddrives?

 

Is this going into a laptop's 2.5" bay? If so, usually your laptop has the hardware you need to mount the drive - dunno about the screws YMMV. Just pop open you laptop and take a look.

However, if it is going into a 3.5" bay of a desktop, then you'll probably need to purchase a 2.5" to 3.5" bay converter. You should be able to pick one up for less than $10 USD.

 

Looking for deals on the Samsung 830 256gb or intel 520 or 320 series . Can anyone post coupons or links to where they have seen it for the best price possible or any rebates ? Much appreciated

Thanks

 

The OP should look to get a laptop kit to be on the safe side and also look at their service manual.

I'm glad I ordered the laptop/notebook kit when I got my Samsung 830 for my old Lenovo T61p. The notebook kit includes a spacer/shim so that the 7 mm 830 can go properly in a 9 mm space. On my T61p, there are no screws holding in the drive other than the single screw holding in the plastic "door", for lack of a better word. The drive goes into a pair of rubber rails that are the right size for 9 mm drives.

The drive + rails slide right in and plug straight into the power and SATA connectors on the other side (no mucking w/cables). If you didn't have the spacer, the drive would move around and likely eventually break off the connectors.

The stock T61p HDD also had some black plastic tape attached that you used to pull the drive out. I had to improvise by putting a bunch of tape on my Samsung 830 in order to remove it, otherwise there's no safe way to remove the drive anymore.

 

The black tape is part of the caddy for the HDD. I think it is screw to the HDD. You can remove the caddy and mount your SSD on it.

 

Doh! It looks like you're right. I figured the screws were part of the drive but it looks like they're not.

I guess I'll debate whether I want to transplant the caddy/tray.

 

cwerdna, thanks for the input. After a lot of looking around I found laptop kits that have the shims. I'm looking at the Samsung drives as well. My laptop is an X200 and from what I can tell it's the same configuration as my T61p. When I replaced my T61p's drive with a new drive (not ssd) it didn't come with any bracket or caddy so I had to use the ones I had. Luckily everything fit fine. I just wonder if SSDs are the same shape and size as other 2.5" drives.

 

jclausius, yes the drive is for my laptop. I think I will try to get one with a laptop kit. Thanks for the input!

 

This is only true when doing a fresh install.

If the new SSD is being cloned from the drive coming out of the system, Windows settings and optimization will need to be manually checked. Some things (not many) will carry over fine, but other things (defrag, superfetch, TRIM, alignment, more) will very likely require changing.

 

I've read online that to prompt Windows to recognize the drive as an SSD (when not doing a fresh Windows install) and adjust the services/etc accordingly, all one needs to do is run the WEI evaluation. True?

 

I have not heard of that. I did read, earlier today, that a Windows Repair will make the adjustments. I have not tried it myself, but it does sound plausible. It occurs to me that the windows performance troubleshooter may do the same, but this is only a guess on my part.

 

So after cloning, you will run Windows repair or run the Win Experience Index? TBH, I've never seen anyone post anything that Windows Repair will make adjustments after the fact. Do you have a link?

Also, some of this info is also covered here - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...-storage/648498-cloning-hdd-parition-sdd.html

 

^^^

No, I'm sorry I don't have a link. I remember that I stumbled across the info on Microsoft's tech site, though. I wasn't specifically looking for that topic, but trying to find something else related to SSDs.

From what I do recall, when cloning HDD to SSD,:
Defrag and superfetch will still be enabled (and a couple of other things that I don't remember specifically by name) because Windows will still see the SSD as an HDD. If you cold install to an SSD, Windows knows about the SSD. To correct the HDD to SSD cloning oversights, you may manually make the changes or you may choose a Windows repair.

That is a digested version of what I read and what site to find it, but not the page link directly to the topic.

Sorry, I was in a hurry to find something else, that day...

 

Yes, I can safely say that a fresh install will change Windows config for SSDs. I still don't know if this is true when running a Windows repair, but could be. A link or something concrete would verify.

In regards to running WEI to change things from HDD to SSD after cloning, that I'm pretty sure is incorrect. WEI is just a tool to measure the resources in one's system, it is not a tuning tool.

 

^^^

I am about to build 3 computers in the next 36 hours and I happen to have 3 SSDs available to 'test' the Windows Repair possibility. I suppose I can easily clone an existing HDD based Win7 already installed and in use, then run the Repair.

Before I begin this, do you have any suggestions or do you have any questions you would like me to put under the microscope?

I could even do the WEI 'test'.

If you have a particular SSD preference:
Samsung 470 64GB SATA2 previously used and secure erased
Kingston SV100S2 64GB SATA2 brand new but just cloned from HDD and optimized for Win7 but can wipe it and reclone from the intact HDD
Kingston SVP200S3 120GB SATA3 brand new untouched unmolested uncontaminated

 

You could do the following:

Do the following to test each install:
- from Admin Command prompt "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" If this is 0, the test SUCCEEDED. If 1, then the test FAILED.
- Check the SSD drive's properties. On the tools page, is the SSD set to "Never" for disk defragmentation. If "Never", the test SUCCEEDED. Otherwise it FAILED.


Control computer - SSD w/ fresh Win 7 install. Check that BOTH tests SUCCEED.

Test 1 - Install Win 7 w/ platter HDD. Check that BOTH tests above to verify they both fail. Now, clone the HDD drive to an SSD. Boot. What are the results of the test? Re-run Windows Experience Index from the Control Panel. Now re-run the tests. Have they changed?

Test 2 - Cloning the HDD to the 3rd SSD. Run the tests. What are the results? Now run a Windows Repair (outline what you did here). Now re-run the tests. Have they changed?

Does that cover all the bases?

 

@jclausius

That's a nice methodical approach. I'll go with it and report back sometime between 4-72 hours from now.

Shall I check the WEI potential, as well? If so, test 3 would basically be a rehash of test 2 but run WEI instead of Windows Repair. Correct?

Thanks for the input.

 

Isn't that covered in Test 1 = "What are the results of the test? Re-run Windows Experience Index from the Control Panel. Now re-run the tests. Have they changed?"

 

^^^

Correct. I was speed-skimming and missed the spelled out version when I was looking for "WEI".

My bad.

 

Sorry 'bout that - I live by a TMA philosophy (TMA - Too many acronyms.)

I usually take the time to spell things out as you never know who is reading your post that has no idea what the subject may be about.

 

Notes by me are embedded inside the quote using bold and the color green.

I did also check Superfetch in Services. Superfetch remained active for all tests.

My conclusion: When cloning an HDD Windows 7 installation to an SSD, all appropriate optimizations must be manually implemented by the user or the technician. Running the Windows Experience Index assessment will not make any changes to the system to accomodate an SSD. Windows Repair did not make any changes to the system.

One note as regards cloning: I used Acronis True Image Home 2012 build 6131. The HDD had no special alignment and was not offset by 1k. The SSD, after cloning, was properly aligned with a 1k offset. I used the Automatic option for the Acronis cloning process.

If anyone feels competent to make manual changes for SSD, I suggest cloning and not a fresh installation of Windows 7.

If anyone feels uncomfortable with the manual optimization of a cloned SSD, I recommend a fresh installation of Windows 7.

Installing fresh and abandoning a current HDD installation sucks and will require data to be backed up prior to beginning or the sacrifice of data. Also, personalizing user preferences is way too tedious (as compared to Windows XP personalization). Cloning preserves the data (make a backup, regardless) and the personalization which saves much time and hassle.

Cloning time varies depending on HDD speed, SSD speed, and the amount of data being cloned. In this particular instance, 9 minutes from beginning to end.

Fresh install and subsequent manual data restoration/personalization/software re-installation, and all that goes with that, of my main computer, for me, required 117 hours last go-round (not all in one sitting). Some data was still misplaced or missing. It took random amounts of additional time to gradually locate and migrate the missing data.

Cloning the same system and data as mentioned in the previous paragraph only required 1 hour and a few minutes (I mostly drank coffee and watched CNN) and no missing data required mini-safaris to locate. The system was exactly the way I like it immediately after the mandatory reboot.

Novices will be more likely to use the plain Windows 7 without much personalization and, therefore, probably require less time for fresh installation. Power Users with years of data and extensive personalizations to UAC, folder options, tons of applications to reinstall and then configure, tons of games to reinstall then tweak, &etc will certainly benefit from cloning and almost certainly be able to manually optimize Windows 7 for SSD.

 

Well that settles that, and if anyone else comes along and says WEI or System Repair will change my system for SSD, we now have a place to point them.

I still cling to the philosophy Windows will gather cruft over time (for example, check the size of the %SystemRoot%\winsxs directory), and while it takes some time to backup, install, restore, and then re-install needed apps, I find that a worthwhile task. However, to each his own, and I can definitely see having a system up and running in under 2 hours time is definitely a huge time saver.

+1 for this research.

 

To clean up some of the Winsxs folder:

Open a command prompt (I used administrator privelidges)
Then type:
DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /SpSuperseded

That will incorporate and make permanent any of the SP1 updates that have been installed (flushing the non-SP1 files out of the system, most likely, and then removing the files from the Winsxs folder).

This is worth doing, prior to cloning an HDD to SSD.

*note that doing so will nullify the option of rolling back FROM SP1.

Currently, the largest Winsxs folder on any of my machines is 5.7GB, on a system that has had Windows 7 for 19 months. It has all current updates except the tattletale Activation Technology update. I have not run Disk Cleanup or any similar procedure on that machine.

Windows 7 does self maintenance on the Winsxs entries. The files that appear to be in there may actually be multiple junction points to a single file, and thereby cause Winsxs appear to take up more space than it really does.


The story about WinSXS.

See here for more information. I recommend ignoring the first post of boilerplate MS SPAM and, instead, begin with post #2. Do not follow or obey the link at the bottom of post #2, however. Just continue reading.

Then there is this beautiful piece. Long thread, though. Make coffee.

 

Already been there / done that a couple of months ago. FWIW, I'm sitting at just under 7.4GB right now, was around 9 before removing some of the service pack info.