Question about cloning to SSD

strumpusplunket · 29 Nov 2011 at 11:23

I know there've been some threads about cloning to SSD, but even after reading them and doing a bit of Googling I'm still note sure of my best course of action.

Situation is, I bought components for a SB build last week to arrive on over the weekend or on Monday so I could build my rig on Wednesday when I've got the day off work.

Evrything's arrived except my Crucial M4 128GB. It's apparently being delivered by Hermes, and has been marked "out for delivery" for over 30 hours now. Judging by previous experience with this delivery company and that of others, I don't expect this to arrive for an age (and I waited in all day based on this tracking "information" for nothing) :mad:

Anyway, I have a job that I work long hours on, two kids, etc. God knows when I'll have time to build except on Wednesday, so...

I thought I could build the rig and use my current HDD for OS drive and then clone across to the M4 when it eventually arrives using Windows 7's backup tools.

What I'm not clear on is, will I lose performance by doing this versus a fresh install onto the SSD? I really don't understand all talk about alignment, so I don't even know how to make the judgement myself...

(Two OS installs would be a major faff, so would be good to know).

Cheers.

Steveocee · 29 Nov 2011 at 12:44

I asked something along the same lines a week or 2 ago.
The general concensus was that yes you can backup and restore it (people recommended Acronis Home Image 2012) as it has something that can sort the alignment out if it is wrong. But... a fresh install would always be the best option. From the reviews i've read it shouldnt take much more than 15 mins to install 7 64bit to an SSD.

For what it's worth, you'd still be buggered for free time if you installed to HDD then you'd have to find time to clone anyway.

Essexraptor · 29 Nov 2011 at 12:49

Go for a straight clean install onto the SSD. It won't take very long with the SSD anyway.

Just select AHCI in your Bios beforehand, just to avoid having to do it via a regedit procedure later.

It's the best way.

As mentioned above... once you have a new install complete and working as you want you can make a back up image to restore to later and still keep your alignment etc intact

I have a older Gen 1 SSD and when the read/writes slow down I just secure erase it and restore my OS from a Acronis image ... takes 25 minutes ish tops .. alignment sorted

strumpusplunket · 29 Nov 2011 at 12:53

Yeah, it'd still be a pain, but the time I'm thinking of isn't just the OS install vs clone time, it's the time to install applications and programs, set up Windows, get my work and documents folders set up, etc.

That takes ages, far longer than the OS install/clone itself, and it's really that that I don't want to have to do twice if there's a reasonable way to avoid it...

skyripper · 29 Nov 2011 at 15:04

I've cloned from HD to SSD. It works fine, just make sure when you've booted from the SSD, you rerun the Windows Experience Index stuff as that makes windows tweak some stuff as it realises you have an SSD.

Its not as quick as a clean install in terms of performance, but its still quick. You can always reinstall and rebuild when you do have time later.

strumpusplunket · 29 Nov 2011 at 15:42

Thanks for the information, guys.

As it seems unavoidable that I would lose at least some performance through cloning, I guess I'll just go for a minimal install on my new system tomorrow (probably just FF and Office, I guess) and then do a full install when Hermes UK finally deign to deliver the package containing my SSD that they've now been sitting on for four days and counting...

wilber · 30 Nov 2011 at 11:00

Hermes UK worse delivery company I have ever experienced. Over 10 days delivery for something that should have been with me in 2-3 working days. The website tracking is crap as well.

I could'nt phone them direct and had to contact the jungle company instead. Get on to it fast if you want to see it any time soon.

TigerUK · 30 Nov 2011 at 11:12

i came here to ask the same question, really weird thing this alignment issue.

I googled and found this article.

http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-...ned-for-optimal-solid-state-drive-performance

Can someone shed some light as to whether this method is adequate for realigning your drive without having to do a clean install.

strumpusplunket · 30 Nov 2011 at 13:09

Ah well... here we are at 1pm... been bloody ages already just installing Windows, letting it update, installing drivers, putting FF on and restoring profile...

I've not even got Office or my documents all sorted yet.

Not looking forward to doing it again. Hope it's all a lot quicker on an SSD...

TigerUK · 30 Nov 2011 at 15:38

bah humbug, I was reading up on the alignment thing (firs ttime I heard of it).

Got the deelivery of 128GB ssd m4 today

cloned the drive, but the ssd kept getting BSOD, so I did a clean install and it worked.

skyripper · 30 Nov 2011 at 22:54

TigerUK said:
i came here to ask the same question, really weird thing this alignment issue.

I googled and found this article.

http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-...ned-for-optimal-solid-state-drive-performance

Can someone shed some light as to whether this method is adequate for realigning your drive without having to do a clean install.

Just tried it. Its timeconsuming but worked. My partitions are now aligned and the benchmarks are showing a distinct difference. Going to post a thread about it.