Some noob questions

mufc802 · 20 Jul 2012 at 16:53

I have a Corsair SSD 128GB which I want to sell to my dad to use in his 8 year old PC. I tried plugging it in and loading it up but Windows only loads for a second then the PC reboots. I have Windows 7 installed but does it need to be freshly reformatted before it will work in his PC? I think the SATA ports are IDE it says that on the BIOS.

Also would my old RAM which is DDR3 work in his PC or not? The PC is old so I think it is just DDR but would DDR3 still work or??

craarc · 20 Jul 2012 at 16:56

itll run of ide for sure not sure of the other settings tho i would guess the ram size pins etc are diferent easy way to find out have a look

mufc802 · 20 Jul 2012 at 16:56

craarc said:
itll run of ide for sure not sure of the other settings tho i would guess the ram size pins etc are diferent easy way to find out have a look

What about the SSD why did it not load Windows properly?

Could it be because I installed Win7 in AHCI mode but it would be IDE on the other PC? Is that why it wont load?

Philip Perfect · 20 Jul 2012 at 17:28

It could be, but also, if the hardware in the two computers is very different (motherboards etc.), then the drivers that Windows has installed won't be correct for the new PC, which would almost certainly cause it to crash.

You really need to reinstall if you're moving a HDD/SDD from one PC to another.

craarc · 20 Jul 2012 at 17:44

Philip Perfect said:
It could be, but also, if the hardware in the two computers is very different (motherboards etc.), then the drivers that Windows has installed won't be correct for the new PC, which would almost certainly cause it to crash.

You really need to reinstall if you're moving a HDD/SDD from one PC to another.

i would say thats the easyier option long term allthough ive done it from one pc to another it depends on the compatability of chipsets tbh

Surveyor · 20 Jul 2012 at 17:52

mufc802 said:
Also would my old RAM which is DDR3 work in his PC or not? The PC is old so I think it is just DDR but would DDR3 still work or??

DDR3 won't fit/work in a motherboard which needs DDR or DDR2.

craarc · 20 Jul 2012 at 17:54

Surveyor said:
DDR3 won't fit/work in a motherboard which needs DDR or DDR2.

diferent pin sizes as above

have a look at it and see

honosuseri · 20 Jul 2012 at 17:55

As surveyor says DDR3 RAM won't work on old mobos.

It's pretty much mandatory to do a fresh install. What OS is he using? If it's Win XP using an SSD wouldn't be advisable to be honest.

mufc802 · 20 Jul 2012 at 18:16

Thanks guys. I will do a fresh install for him on the SSD. He was using XP but we have a fresh copy of Windows 7 which has never been opened so we can use that. Shame about the RAM but oh well the SSD should be a nice boost.

honosuseri · 20 Jul 2012 at 18:23

Before you install. Go into the BIOS and set the sata mode to ACHI, it's also wise to install the OS with only the SSD connected (disconnect any other storage devices, you can connect them once the OS install is done).

mufc802 · 20 Jul 2012 at 18:54

honosuseri said:
Before you install. Go into the BIOS and set the sata mode to ACHI, it's also wise to install the OS with only the SSD connected (disconnect any other storage devices, you can connect them once the OS install is done).

Is ACHI even available on such an old motherboard? I couldn't find it on the BIOS anyway.

honosuseri · 20 Jul 2012 at 19:08

mufc802 said:
Is ACHI even available on such an old motherboard? I couldn't find it on the BIOS anyway.

I dont know mate, i can't see what it is from here lol If you cant enable it then fair enough but now you are aware of it....it was more of a general FYI.

Windows 7 has trim support to keep the SSD healthy, if he has less than 2GB of RAM the OS in my experience feels very tardy. If you have spare memorycards using them for readyboost can help make the system respond better, seeing as you can't reuse your RAM and buying old RAM is false economy really.

craarc · 20 Jul 2012 at 19:35

mufc802 said:
Is ACHI even available on such an old motherboard? I couldn't find it on the BIOS anyway.

honosuseri said:
Before you install. Go into the BIOS and set the sata mode to ACHI, it's also wise to install the OS with only the SSD connected (disconnect any other storage devices, you can connect them once the OS install is done).

both valid tbh worth a check but itll work in ide mode as mine has to be in ide atm