New SSD: Clone OS or fresh install?

JamesTuc · 2 Aug 2011 at 10:21

Hi, so basically as the title. I've just bought a shiny new SSD and wanted to know if there were disadvantages to simply copying my current boot drive to it and switching the boot priority. Obviously the other (only?) option being to do a fresh install.

I'd like the best performance and longevity from the SSD. What are peoples thoughts?

Thanks

DrMekon · 2 Aug 2011 at 10:43

Install a clean OS.. it will auto configure itself for the SSD, well W7 will anyway... I wouldnt advise cloning from a mechanical disk...

Certain OS features will be tuned/disabled to maximise ssd performance...

JamesTuc · 2 Aug 2011 at 11:48

Ok thanks, figured I'd need to do a clean install, was just trying to avoid all the effort

nalla · 2 Aug 2011 at 19:17

not much of an effort though with an ssd, it takes about 11 minutes to format and reinstall an os on my ssd, save your steam folder ( if you have one ) on another drive, and simply copy that across to your ssd and update steam and your away.

coupe69 · 3 Aug 2011 at 19:19

nalla said:
not much of an effort though with an ssd, it takes about 11 minutes to format and reinstall an os on my ssd, save your steam folder ( if you have one ) on another drive, and simply copy that across to your ssd and update steam and your away.

Lol, I love it when people say stuff like this presuming that everyone has similar amounts of data as themselves.

It would take me a day at least to sort all my data out and be happy that I've backed everything up that needs backing up.
My steam folder alone is 162GB let alone music, pictures, video, my docs, finding game saves etc etc....

JamesTuc · 3 Aug 2011 at 20:45

My thoughts exactly! I mean come on do you really think I would have asked if all I had before was a clean OS install?
I did start from scratch again and it's taken the best part of 2 days to get it close to what I had before

nalla · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:04

well my steam install is 151 gb, and the estimate of 11 mins to reinstall was for the os if you read my post properly, but i was simply saying its not as big a thing to reinstall as it was a few years ago when components werent quite so fast, also i save all the files i need to keep on my 2tb hdd, and copy back onto ssd which saves time, you guys obviously have very large ssd's to take that long to fill them back up again.

Paul11 · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:06

coupe69 said:
Lol, I love it when people say stuff like this presuming that everyone has similar amounts of data as themselves.

It would take me a day at least to sort all my data out and be happy that I've backed everything up that needs backing up.
My steam folder alone is 162GB let alone music, pictures, video, my docs, finding game saves etc etc....

have more than one HD

SSD for OS/APPS

another drive for your data ...

nalla · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:26

oh and also the op states that he has bought a new shiny ssd, so he already has everything backed up, on the old ssd/hdd.

simply disconnect the old drive, connect the new one, install windows, reconnect the old drive and copy the files accros from there, simples, all done in no time at all.

Orcvader · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:28

Paul11 said:
have more than one HD

SSD for OS/APPS

another drive for your data ...

Pretty much this. You can just leave your personal files on the old drives for storage, but it's up to you. That way all you need to worry about is the OS install and programs

.

coupe69 · 4 Aug 2011 at 14:01

People seem to be forgetting game saves need to be found and backed up. It's not like there's a default folder where all your game saves are.

People also seem to be over generalising a little too much, if you've already got a separate drive or partition with all your pics, important docs, music, steam folder etc then yes it's going to be a relatively easy task, although as I mentioned above you're still going to have to locate all your save games.

What happens though if the op has I don't know, let's say for example has 2 x 1TB drives in RAID 1 (because the user quite likes the added redundancy) on one big partition. This is going to cause all sorts of user rights issues if you just plonk a fresh OS on the SSD and then try and access the old drives, plus you're also going to have a windows install that's not needed on the old setup. The only way you can get round this is by backing up all your necessary files onto a separate drive (which could take hours depending on how much data you've got) then flattening that drive and copying the data back which again could take hours.

What I'm trying to say is not everyones hard drive configurations are the same and as such you cannot just give out blanket advice that will work for everybody.

Sin_Chase · 4 Aug 2011 at 14:55

coupe69 said:
What I'm trying to say is not everyones hard drive configurations are the same and as such you cannot just give out blanket advice that will work for everybody.

Yes, we can - It's also not blanket advice, it's aimed at the OP.

He has a new SSD. He has his stuff on an existing drive. He does not need to back anything up. He simply builds Windows 7 onto the SSD, plugs in his old mechanical drive afterwards and copies away as he needs to.

Just because you would faff around for a day with your data does not mean the OP will, especially when he has no need to.

coupe69 · 4 Aug 2011 at 20:21

Sin_Chase said:
snip.

Fair enough, although the OP has stated that it's taken him two days to sort it all out and he's still nowhere near

nalla · 4 Aug 2011 at 21:05

the op asked a very general question, should i clone or clean install, the answer i personally gave was clean install with a suggestion on how to easily install your steam games, because not everyone knows that, there is no need to back anything up because he still has everything on his older drive, raid or not its still a simple task to acces his files at a later date once he has a new os installed, but do remember these are only my suggestions which he does not have actually consider if he does not want to.

coupe69 · 5 Aug 2011 at 02:01

nalla said:
raid or not its still a simple task to acces his files at a later date once he has a new os installed

Never heard so much BS in all my life! simple task installing a SSD into an already running RAID 1 system, I think not. It really isn't as simple as you think, do you even know the basics of building and configuring a RAID pack? You also fail to mention that using your method the end user may have to change file permissions and ownership of files so they can still access all their data on the old hard drive, this is regardless of whether they're running RAID or just a single drive.

I suggest you read this

And also this

There's some seriously bad advice going on in this thread.....

nalla · 5 Aug 2011 at 08:21

the advise was clean install, the added advise can be used or not used, yes i have knowledge of raid system, and for video,photos and music like previously mentioned there should be no file permission wories, steam is very simple to copy accros like i have said ( without file permission worries ), nothing else was mentioned, i dont see the problem here, if the op is capable of setting up a raid system, which he did not mention in his comments ( someone else has ) he should be capable of installing new ssd with raid already installed and swapping boot priorities,