Best use for an SSD...

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

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...that's not as a boot drive?

I've just had a new Crucial M4 128GB drive arrive to replace a knackered M225 128GB, I'm wondering what's the best use for it now.

It was dead a while before I sent it back so I'm all setup with a Windows installation on a standard HDD and I really don't want to be messing about trying to make the new SSD as a boot drive as I'm using the computer for business work as well so I can't afford downtime (though I know the difference it made at the time).

I've got all my games setup on a speedy 1TB drive so that's out...

Should I use it as a store for pictures and perhaps a cache drive for Photoshop / Premiere etc?

Would it work well as a cache drive?
 
hmmm, I dont know the best prog but cant you just ghost your boot drive to the ssd? or do you have it full up already? ... cant remember the program I used but it copied everything bit by bit so everything was exactly the same ...

and truthfully - a ssd is made for your os and highly used programs and it sounds like you wont be using it for that ...
 
Thanks for the reply! :)


Hmmm ghosting...I've always been skeptical of that in truth but if it works well it could be a goer I suppose.

I've a 1TB in there now and it's got over 250GB on there...I'm not sure what of to be honest, I'm guessing there will be lots of save games etc., although I have all my Steam stuff on another drive some programs seem determined to clutter up your boot drive. I'll have to have a rummage and see.

Which ghost program did you use?
 
if you have a z68 board then caching will work,theres guides on how to reg tweak/install raid drivers/reboot/set raid in bios/reboot add ssd boot into windows and accellerate the hdd

as for ssd/hdd cloning acronis or paragon migrate,i find paragon to be the easiest/quickest
 
Looks like you got a nice deal there - replacing a M225 with an M4.

Obviously, the best use for it would be to run it as your primary OS drive. As djxput said, a good option if you want less hassle is to clone the drive. Though tbh I recently did a standard reinstall on my SSD and because the disk is so quick that reinstalling everything doesn't take too long - IMHO it is still worth doing it the old fashioned way (since it will be less cluttered). You just need to keep the mechanical HDD intact as a secondary drive and you should be able to copy over most of the files you need.

As for SSD caching, do you have a Z68 board?

If you don't want to run it as a boot drive and can't do caching then TBH I would just sell it. You would see some benefit running a few choice applications and games off the SSD, but the general speed boost won't be as nice as running a primary SSD or £100+ in you back pocket.
 
Thanks again for the posts!

I think selling it is out, I paid well in excess of £200 initially so while I could make up to £100 on it I'd still be down....I suppose I should think about setting it up as a boot drive again considering that's what I bought it for in the first place!

I've got a Gigabyte EX58-UD5 board.
 
Thanks for the software hints wazza300, how would I do it with the drive I have now?

Would I have to clear it out of everything but Windows and the save games etc. (basically everything except Microsoft folders to make sure it's under the formatted 128GB limit (not sure what that is off the top of my head) and then clone from there?

Would that be OK with Windows activation...Steam setup...Adobe product activations etc?
 
TheBigCheese said:
Thanks for the software hints wazza300, how would I do it with the drive I have now?

Would I have to clear it out of everything but Windows and the save games etc. (basically everything except Microsoft folders to make sure it's under the formatted 128GB limit (not sure what that is off the top of my head) and then clone from there?

Would that be OK with Windows activation...Steam setup...Adobe product activations etc?
Click to expand...

ya see ... thats the issue there; I had the same issue back when I installed my ssd; didnt want to have to reinstall everything etc ...

but really thats what a SSD is for and 128 gb is enough for a nice OS/small progs/steam folder? drive (if your steam folder isnt too big).

I used the above mentioned acronis
 
The Steam folder is on a different drive (including the Steamapps folder, I think that's the important one), so that should be OK...

The folders I can see that I would need are currently:
Windows - 21.1GB
Applications - 13.0GB
Program Files - 1.65GB
Program Files (x86) - 5.11GB
Thunderbird - 4.12GB

Total of 44.98GB - coincidentally I performed a CCleaner earlier today so all the rubbish is cleared out.

Is there anything else I'm not taking into account?

I know about the Pics/Docs/Video/Music etc., folders...they can be moved elsewhere first.
 
you cant use caching then,only z68 supports that,put on intel sata2 ports it will still be quick

paragon lets you shrink/copy what you want onto the ssd,no reinstalls needed it will be bootable just like a new install

or do a clean new install of windows on the ssd and just leave the hdd as it is,drag/drop what you need onto the ssd ect,keep hdd as back up os

if you do do a clean install remember to set sata mode to ahci first in bios
 
TwsT said:
paper weight?
Click to expand...

:D or a coaster.


Thanks wazza300, I'll have to look into Paragon now.

I think the best idea may be to copy it as it is, a clean install would be too much hassle I think.

Your idea of keeping the old drive as a backup is a very good one!

I think I'll do that but if the copy works as hoped I'll by a smaller drive (it's on a 1TB now!) and make weekly backups onto the smaller HDD. After all it's my business and home machine, I really need to get into the habit of backing it up!

Does Paragon work within Windows or does it work from boot? (never used one before so I'm clueless!)
 
within windows no need to shut down it will do it while your web browsing,then once done reboot and set ssd as first boot device

you need to google enabling ahci win7 to do a reg tweak so you can set to ahci mode for ssd,it will improve read/write figures

then later download/install intel rst rapid storage technology drivers from gigabyte website then thats it
 
Thanks for the information again wazz300 - top bod! :D

Quick question...from what I've read from the Google you suggested, it seems that normal HDDs won't have any real improvements from enabling AHCI, but more importantly won't be negatively affected either...I have 5 other HDDs in the machine so stability and accessibility of the drives is of paramount importance.
 
Those will be fine,I run Samsung 2tb,1tb fine in ahci,its for the ssd if you run it in IDE your read/write figures will be poor
 
Champion!

I'm clearing the drive out now...hopefully give it a go tomorrow.

I hope the Paragon software is worth it...it's £31 worth, the reviews are good though and I do need to get into the habit of keeping a backup of my main drive!
 
have you bought the software? if you want to you can,create a 120-130gb partition on hdd and do a back up of ssd to that,use rest of hdd for storage

windows will let you create a partition
 
Apologies first for jumping in hijack mode.

I have a Kingston 64 gb ssd (sata2) with my os and other progs on but have since bought a mobo with sata3 and an M4 128gb.
Can I do as you have suggested here and clone my Kingston to the M4 to take advantage of the 'even' quicker boot times?
Currently I just have games on the M4.

Sorry again BigCheese but your thread content was too appropriate not to ask :)
 
yes clone away,its a perfect bootable copy of original hdd/ssd with os/programs/files intact, hint "theres a distant bay where pirates roam free"
 
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