Just ordered my M4!

Agnostic

Agnostic

Agnostic

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Joined
4 Jun 2011
Posts
134
So, my Crucial M4 128gb will be here soon. Thing is, I've NEVER set up an SSD before in my life. So, could I get some info/ links to useful sites with tips? So far, I've found this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/149969-ssd-install-transfer-operating-system.html

Anything else I should know about before it arrives? I did scan through the SSDs explained thread, but it's just intimidating the amount of info that's on there! Is there a more brief version only pointing out the absolute essentials for a beginner?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: And yes, before anyone points it out, I do know my MoBo is SATAII which may hinder performance. But I might upgrade it in a few years anyway.
 
just install it like any other hard drive

do a fresh windows install on it

SataII will be fine with it
 
Hi,

You won't be disappointed and like Paul11 says just do a fresh windows 7 install.

In the bios remember to enable ACHI before you do the install. Plug the SSD into first port (port 1) and if you have any other drives in the machine then unplug them before you install.
 
there are a few other things you will need to do as well.

(Seans guide)

Make sure AHCI is enabled firstly

Benefits of a UEFI/GPT boot disk vs. MBR:

Although not currently applicable to SSDs, GPT disks can exceed the 2.2TB bootable limit of a MBR partitioned drive. MBR drives are limited to four partition table entries, unless a secondary "extended" partition structure is created.
Data critical to platform operation is located in partitions, and not in un-partitioned or "hidden" sectors which in certain instances, can lead to system instability. Data contained in hidden sectors that result in system problems are difficult to debug.
GPT disks use primary and backup partition tables for redundancy and 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC32) fields for improved partition data structure integrity.
A UEFI boot is more secure, and less vulnerable to pre-boot malware.
A system utilizing a UEFI boot, will boot and recover from sleep faster than the same machine using MBR.
UEFI is the future, and as different implementations of UEFI mature, UEFI will be used for much more than just booting a computer.

Booting and partitioning of GPT for Windows 7 Automatically:

Boot from the Windows 7 install media (You must initiate this boot from a device labeled as a UEFI device, or the installation of Windows 8 will produce an error that the OS cannot be installed to a GPT partition) These UEFI boot devices will have a prefix UEFI: "name of your device", and show as a boot option in your UEFI.
After booting to the UEFI device you see the Install Windows 7 screen, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt.
Type Diskpart, press Enter.
Type List Disk , press Enter.
Type Select Disk # (where # is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter.
Type Clean, press Enter.
Type Convert GPT, press Enter.
Type Exit, press Enter.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the "Next" button.
Click the "Install now" button.
Accept the terms and click the "Next" button.
Choose "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)."
Select the partition and click "Drive options (advanced)"
Click "New" and then click the "Apply" button. Three partitions should appear. Click the bottom partition.
Click the "OK" button and then click the "Next" button.
From then on follow the on screen instructions till you get to the desktop.
Note: If you can't boot after the install you need to make sure the boot is set to "Windows Boot Manager" in the UEFI. Also, important info.


Booting and partitioning of GPT for Windows 7 Manually:

Boot from the Windows 7 install media (You must initiate this boot from a device labeled as a UEFI device, or the installation of Windows 8 will produce an error that the OS cannot be installed to a GPT partition) These UEFI boot devices will have a prefix UEFI: "name of your device", and show as a boot option in your UEFI.
After booting to the UEFI device you see the Install Windows 7 screen, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt.
Type Diskpart, press Enter.
Type List Disk , press Enter.
Type Select Disk # (where # is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter.
Type Clean, press Enter.
Type Convert GPT, press Enter.
Type Create Partition EFI Size=100, press Enter.
Type Format Quick FS=FAT32, press Enter.
Type Create Partition MSR Size=128, press Enter.
Type Create Partition Primary, press Enter.
Type Active, press Enter.
Type Format Quick FS=NTFS, press Enter.
Type Exit, press Enter.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the "Next" button.
Click the "Install now" button.
Accept the terms and click the "Next" button.
Choose "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)."
Three partitions should appear. Click the bottom partition.
Click the "Next" button.
From then on follow the on screen instructions till you get to the desktop.
Note: If you can't boot after the install you need to make sure the boot is set to "Windows Boot Manager" in the UEFI. Also, important info.


then just install it as normal.

You also should do optimisations to speed it up.

1.Turn Off or Shrink the Hibernation File:
2.Disable or Shrink System Protection
3.Turn off drive indexing:
4.Turn Off or Shrink Page file
5.Install Motherboard Drivers:
6.Install newest SATA and chipset drivers
7.Change power options
8.Check to see if the TRIM command is being issued
9.Check Defragmentation schedule
10.Disable Prefetch and Superfetch
11.Disable unneeded services
12.Enable windows write back caching and turnoff windows write-caching buffer flushing on C:\ drive
13.Speed up Shut down time:

All can be found here

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
 
Last edited:
passey89 said:
there are a few other things you will need to do as well.

(Seans guide)

Make sure AHCI is enabled firstly

Benefits of a UEFI/GPT boot disk vs. MBR:

Although not currently applicable to SSDs, GPT disks can exceed the 2.2TB bootable limit of a MBR partitioned drive. MBR drives are limited to four partition table entries, unless a secondary "extended" partition structure is created.
Data critical to platform operation is located in partitions, and not in un-partitioned or "hidden" sectors which in certain instances, can lead to system instability. Data contained in hidden sectors that result in system problems are difficult to debug.
GPT disks use primary and backup partition tables for redundancy and 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC32) fields for improved partition data structure integrity.
A UEFI boot is more secure, and less vulnerable to pre-boot malware.
A system utilizing a UEFI boot, will boot and recover from sleep faster than the same machine using MBR.
UEFI is the future, and as different implementations of UEFI mature, UEFI will be used for much more than just booting a computer.

Booting and partitioning of GPT for Windows 7 Automatically:

Boot from the Windows 7 install media (You must initiate this boot from a device labeled as a UEFI device, or the installation of Windows 8 will produce an error that the OS cannot be installed to a GPT partition) These UEFI boot devices will have a prefix UEFI: "name of your device", and show as a boot option in your UEFI.
After booting to the UEFI device you see the Install Windows 7 screen, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt.
Type Diskpart, press Enter.
Type List Disk , press Enter.
Type Select Disk # (where # is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter.
Type Clean, press Enter.
Type Convert GPT, press Enter.
Type Exit, press Enter.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the "Next" button.
Click the "Install now" button.
Accept the terms and click the "Next" button.
Choose "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)."
Select the partition and click "Drive options (advanced)"
Click "New" and then click the "Apply" button. Three partitions should appear. Click the bottom partition.
Click the "OK" button and then click the "Next" button.
From then on follow the on screen instructions till you get to the desktop.
Note: If you can't boot after the install you need to make sure the boot is set to "Windows Boot Manager" in the UEFI. Also, important info.


Booting and partitioning of GPT for Windows 7 Automatically:

Boot from the Windows 7 install media (You must initiate this boot from a device labeled as a UEFI device, or the installation of Windows 8 will produce an error that the OS cannot be installed to a GPT partition) These UEFI boot devices will have a prefix UEFI: "name of your device", and show as a boot option in your UEFI.
After booting to the UEFI device you see the Install Windows 7 screen, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt.
Type Diskpart, press Enter.
Type List Disk , press Enter.
Type Select Disk # (where # is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter.
Type Clean, press Enter.
Type Convert GPT, press Enter.
Type Exit, press Enter.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the "Next" button.
Click the "Install now" button.
Accept the terms and click the "Next" button.
Choose "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)."
Select the partition and click "Drive options (advanced)"
Click "New" and then click the "Apply" button. Three partitions should appear. Click the bottom partition.
Click the "OK" button and then click the "Next" button.
From then on follow the on screen instructions till you get to the desktop.
Note: If you can't boot after the install you need to make sure the boot is set to "Windows Boot Manager" in the UEFI. Also, important info.


Booting and partitioning of GPT for Windows 7 Manually:

Boot from the Windows 7 install media (You must initiate this boot from a device labeled as a UEFI device, or the installation of Windows 8 will produce an error that the OS cannot be installed to a GPT partition) These UEFI boot devices will have a prefix UEFI: "name of your device", and show as a boot option in your UEFI.
After booting to the UEFI device you see the Install Windows 7 screen, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt.
Type Diskpart, press Enter.
Type List Disk , press Enter.
Type Select Disk # (where # is the number your drive shows up as), press Enter.
Type Clean, press Enter.
Type Convert GPT, press Enter.
Type Create Partition EFI Size=100, press Enter.
Type Format Quick FS=FAT32, press Enter.
Type Create Partition MSR Size=128, press Enter.
Type Create Partition Primary, press Enter.
Type Active, press Enter.
Type Format Quick FS=NTFS, press Enter.
Type Exit, press Enter.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the "Next" button.
Click the "Install now" button.
Accept the terms and click the "Next" button.
Choose "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)."
Three partitions should appear. Click the bottom partition.
Click the "Next" button.
From then on follow the on screen instructions till you get to the desktop.
Note: If you can't boot after the install you need to make sure the boot is set to "Windows Boot Manager" in the UEFI. Also, important info.


then just install it as normal.

You also should do optimisations to speed it up.

1.Turn Off or Shrink the Hibernation File:
2.Disable or Shrink System Protection
3.Turn off drive indexing:
4.Turn Off or Shrink Page file
5.Install Motherboard Drivers:
6.Install newest SATA and chipset drivers
7.Change power options
8.Check to see if the TRIM command is being issued
9.Check Defragmentation schedule
10.Disable Prefetch and Superfetch
11.Disable unneeded services
12.Enable windows write back caching and turnoff windows write-caching buffer flushing on C:\ drive
13.Speed up Shut down time:

All can be found here

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
Click to expand...

You don't need to do any of that.
 
I just installed mine last night. All I did was:

Install Win 7.

Disabled Drive Indexing on the SSD.

Disable hibernation from elevated command prompt, basically run cmd with admin rights and type:

powercfg -h off

That then gets rid of the hibernation file (freeing up a ton of space)


Then, I reduced my swapfile size to 1GB, some say to remove it completely, or move it to a mechanical drive, but I couldn't find any consensus on the matter, so decided to just reduce it and leave it where it is. *shrug*


Think that's about it! All seems to be well :D
 
Also installed one of these in my HTPC last night. just :eek: at how quick it is! it makes my old 64gb Kingston SSDNow drive look like a mechanical disk lol

very pleased thus far
 
The speed of SSD's are crazy now and the M4 is brilliant, you'll sure notice a great difference. I sure do at work sitting there twiddling my thumbs waiting for it to boot up.
 
NB Use Windows 'easy transfer' to get all accounts settings and documents from one setup to another. You'll need an external drive.

1) Change storage to AHCI in BIOS (dunno why you wouldn't be using this in the first place though)
2) Unplug old HDD, Plug in new SSD to first sata port
3) Install W7 64 to SSD from DVD or download as per above. You can set a lot of the destination folders during this process.
4) Install all important system drivers (chipset, graphics, Intel RST).
5) Open RST in system tray and check that disk data cache is enabled
6) Disable file content indexing (optionally turn it off completely) for SSD and double-check that Windows has correctly disabled scheduled defrags for SSD
7) Run WEI
8) Plug old HDD back in and format it.
 
Last edited:
Excellent! I actually cannot wait hearing all these experiences. Should be here in a few days. Once again, thanks for the support, everyone!
 
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