Any SSD setup and installation guides?

RadicalCookie

RadicalCookie

RadicalCookie

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I've noticed that there aren't any guides on this topic. Now, since I've never owned an SSD, I'm not sure how to go about doing this, although I did find a video about it. I just want to make sure that everyone approves this method;

 
Yep that vids seem fine.

A summary of that incase you get lost from the video:

1) Make sure PC is off. Unplug all drives except the optical drive and connect up the SSD.
2) Boot into BIOS, change SATA mode to AHCI. Change boot priority to boot onto optical first.
3) Restart, and insert Windows 7 install disk. Follow the instructions on screen to install Windows 7 onto the SSD.
4) Once that's done, restart PC and change boot priority to SSD first. You may replug back your other drives now.
5) Install drivers and updates.

And that's about done. There are a few tweaks you can do to Windows to optimize the SSD if you wish but with these current SSDs Windows does a pretty good job on looking after the SSD. Most common tweaks however is disable hibernation and shrink the size of the pagefile on it, so less files are written onto the drive and ensuring it has a nice long lifespan.
 
I can only assume that a Corsair 60GB Force GT falls under your "current SSD", so I should be safe, right? >.<

How would I then go about disabling hibernation (what's wrong if computer hibernates?) and shrink pagefile size?
 
Yup, that SSD has TRIM, so it will be fine.

Nothing wrong with the PC hibernating, however it can take a good chunk of SSD space and before it hibernates it writes it's current state onto the SSD which can shorten the lifespan. Plus considering how fast the PC boots with the SSD, there's not really a need for hibernation honestly.

To disable hibernate, open up command prompt, then type the following:
Code: 
powercfg -h off
Close command prompt and check Computer, and you will see you have freed up a good 10gb or so!

Here's a guide from Microsoft on how to change the pagefile: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Change-the-size-of-virtual-memory

People usually set their pagefile to around 200mb odd but I have mine on 4gb. Either size is fine.
 
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I heard it's best to leave it on as some software requires pagefile to be enabled. Really it's up to the user to decide for himself if they feel pagefile is needed or not.
 
Quite a sticky situation here... I'll be geetting 8GB RAM, and one would assume that should be enough without resorting to writing to harddrive. But should I stay on the safe side?

I guess it comes down to how much one multi-tasks =/
 
There's no reason not to have a pagefile, if you need the space in future then reduce the size of it but don't get rid of it completely. It'll only get used if it's needed and you'll gain nothing by disabling it except a bit of space and potentially cause yourself problems.

Think about it, if the page file is ever needed you want it on the fastest drive.
 
You might not notice any problems but there's always a chance something could take issue with it or you could run out of RAM, it won't be used unless it needs to be so there's not much sense disabling it.
 
He talks about TRIM and it having to use AHCI which is rubbish. He is wrong as TRIM will work on Windows 7 providing the SSD supports it, regardless of the controller mode.
 
Here's a better guide;

- Set controller mode in BIOS to AHCI if available.
- Connect SSD into system and disconnect any HDD.
- Install Windows (just hit next at the install/format screen).
- Install relevant drivers starting with Chipset and VGA drivers.
- Run Windows experience index assessment straight after Chipset/VGA Drivers (disables Disk Defrag and SuperFetch).
- Connect up HDD again.
- Redirect Music, Pictures, Documents, Videos and Downloads folder to normal HDD.
- Disable System restore or reduce the amount of space allocated for it.
- Disable Hibernation.
- Disable Windows search indexing and Drive indexing.
 
Turn of the indexing from the drive properties, don't disable indexing itself.

And don't disable defrag completely if you have storage HDDs, windows will turn it off on the SSD after you run the performance test.
 
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Lots of SSD tweaks that people do these days are hold overs from the old Jmicron controllers that had stutter issues, you can pretty much treat a SSD like a normal hard drive these days other than not defragmenting them.
 
Right, I'm becoming a bit overwhelmed by the response. What I'm more worried about is the whole write limit on SSDs, is my SSD a ticking time bomb? Suppose I installed a program on to my HDD and made a shortcut to my desktop, will my SSD be affected in that it'll lose a write process?


EDIT: Nevermind, found out how to disable system restore;
But the above question still stands.
 
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