Installing new:
Set bios to AHCI mode
When installed run 'fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1' to enable TRIM
Transferring from an existing SATA drive:
After first bootup windows 7 looks through all drivers that are enabled by default and disables them if there is no hardware support. This can include AHCI if it wasnt enabled. To confirm its enabled or to enable follow the steps:
1. Exit all Windows-based programs.
2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4. Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
5. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
Do this before you image the drive or you may find you get an INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE error when trying to start windows.
If you dont have a copy of ghost or something similar, you can use ntbackup from an earlier copy of windows in combination with a windows 7 DVD. Simply get the ntbackup files in a folder on a usb stick (ntbackup.exe, ntmsapi.dll, vssapi.dll) and use it to back up the entire file system of the original drive. Attach the SSD as a 2nd drive and format it and do the restore but redirect all files to the drive letter of the SSD drive. Remove the original drive. Boot from the Windows 7 DVD and use startup repair to make the SSD bootable.
