Setting up an SSD

Gregry254

Gregry254

Gregry254

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Ok, so I got all my parts today and have just finished setting it up and installing windows 7 (booted first time :D :D)

Now I have read a bit about turning off paging and certain other things to make the SSD work as it should.

Would someone be kind enough to list the steps I need to take and if need be how to do them?

I am running Windows 7 Professional if that helps.
 
be better asking/looking in the hard drive forum or asking mods to move this one, if they haven't already spotted it :).

post up which make/model ssd did you got.
 
Moved :)

Did you enable AHCI in the BIOS?

As for paging, I'm still not convinced this is of any benefit unless you have obscene amount of memory installed.
 
Hmm I have a strange one for you now.

I enable AHCI in the BIOS and when I restarted it said "bootmgr not found" so I looked at the boot sequence all that was there was one of my F4's and my dvd drive.

If I unplug all drives but the SSD it begins to load windows but then I get a BSOD for 1/5 of a second and it restarts.

Any ideas?
 
Windows won't like it if you have installed it in IDE mode, then tried to switch it back after the install.

Generally I think the best thing to do is unplug all drive bar your SSD, and install Windows in AHCI or RAID mode from the start. Then plug all your drives back in.

There may be a work around though, but that method ^ will work.
 
The SSD is the Crucial M4 128GB plugged into a normal Sata 3 port.

I just did a crystal disk mark test and I got 250mbs read and 160mbs write :S something is not right here? I was expecting like 500mbs each way.

I just looked at another post I made and remembered I turned off my page file last night. Would this make a difference?
 
Sequential Read (up to): 415MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) - 550MB/sec with firmware 0009
- Sequential Write (up to): 175MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) - 200MB/sec with firmware 0009

Are you using the 6Gb/s Intel port, marvell are not quite so clever?
 
Gregry254 said:
The SSD is the Crucial M4 128GB plugged into a normal Sata 3 port.

I just did a crystal disk mark test and I got 250mbs read and 160mbs write :S something is not right here? I was expecting like 500mbs each way.

I just looked at another post I made and remembered I turned off my page file last night. Would this make a difference?
Click to expand...

You have low speeds because you are in IDE mode... you need AHCI..

This will sort it for you, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976
 
I also have just installed an SSD, i found that when i chose the drive to install to i had to have my raptors unplugged, otherwise it put the 100mb system doofer on those (without asking) which seemed to cause a problem.
 
You don't have to re-install to get it working in AHCI mode. You need to do do a registry edit, reboot set it to AHCI mode, make sure your Boot Device Priority/Order is ok still and if it isn't to re-order it in the BIOS - once done, save it and restart and it should boot fine.

If you navigate in your registry editor (Start > Run > regedit > OK) to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services

Then right-click 'msahci' right-click it, go on 'Modify' change the value to 0, at that point you reboot and do what I said above.

:)
 
Ok I have re installed 7 with it set to AHCI and it seems to start windows faster but I am still getting 272mb read and 185mb read. I installed all the drivers and it installed something called "intel rapid storage" when I open this and look at the information on the SSD it says it is set to 3GB/s? why would this be?

Here is a screen shot of what it tells me:
1zxv4zm.jpg


And this is what I see if I goto that part of the registry Sparx, what is it I am meant to change?:
2e0ps1s.jpg
 
Have you connected it to the 6gb/s intel sata port on your board also using a 6gb/s cable? AHCI on in the bios and install like this too. Install the latest RST drivers from intel.
 
Well I am a ******* IDIOT!!!

I made the mistake of presuming all the Sata ports would be 6gb/s and just backwards compatile for older drives . . . turns out only 2 are Sata 3 and the other 2 are Sata 2!!

Now getting 511mb/s read and 200mb/s write which I am more than happy with :D
 
So now back to the main point :D

If anyone has tips on how to set up an SSD properly (all I have done is set it to ACHI and install RST)
 
Next question, if I right click C: it says I am using 21.9GB but if I highlight everything in C: (including hidden files) it only comes to 13.6GB, so where is the rest of it going? I have disabled page file since I have 16GB of ram so it can't be that.

Any other ideas?
 
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