Preparation for installing First SSD?

[toon_mad]

Have just ordered my first SSD which should hopefully get delivered for tomorrow.

It is this SSD: Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost

As this is my first SSD I was wondering if installation is any different from a regular Sata Hard Drive?

1. The rear side of my tower has space for a SSD so I am sure that is basically a simple screw in place job?

2. Does the SSD connect by Sata cable aswell, and should I just connect this into one of the 6Gb/s ports on the motherboard?

3. I have two other regular Sata hard drives (500Gb and 250Gb) that I would like to keep using for backup storage etc. Do I just keep these as they are? I was thinking of moving the SSD into Sata port 1 and then just move existing sata connections up a port.

4. What settings in the BIOS do I need to change, I think it's most likely already set as AHCI so I probably don't need to change this?

5. Installing Windows, would this be any different? I normally like to partition my Drive into two parts, so with the 128Gb SSD I would have given it 25Gb to C:\ and the rest to a new D:\ partition for my Applications and Games etc. However I've seen and read people saying not to partition, but some saying it is Ok to do so. Ideally I would like to partition if I could because it makes formatting/reinstalling Windows a breeze as all my actual Files would be on the D:\ drive so no problem losing data, what would you suggest - Ok to partition or not?

Thanks

 

[welshdragon]

1. they ahve screw holes on the underside so yes it should be if you ahve a dedicated ssd bay.

2. yes. go for an intel one. Some boards also ahve marvell sata ports or the like, stick with the intel ports.

3. yes that's fine.

4. as mentioned stick with achi

5. when installing windows make sure that the ssd is the only drive connected. Prevents windows installing bits onto the mechanical drive. I personally dont see the point in partitioning it. I would install and setup as one drive then image it and use the image to restore as and when you need to.

6. when setup run windows experience index which, if it hasn't already, optimises settings for an ssd.

7. reconnect the mechanical drives.

8. make sure you ahve the latest intel management engine/rst etc form your motherboards website or wherever.