SSD - clean install or drive image ?

HomerJ

HomerJ

HomerJ

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Joined
19 Sep 2006
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387
Location
London
Hi

Just purchased a Crucial C300 128GB SSD and while i wait for delivery wanted advise as to is it best to do a clean install or can I image my existing C: drive and put that onto the SSD.

Which will give me the best performance and does the fact i am using a PCI SATA 3 card as the controller for the SSD have any bearing on the install.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Id clean istall personally if it was me, you know everything is going to be working as it should be then. Also its already been suggested update the firmware on your current system before you install it.
 
If everything is already working the imagine the existing install would likely do a better job of ensuring everything was ok than a fresh install would it not? Baring in mind a fresh install means things definitely DON'T work and need re-installing too while imaging and aligning gets you the same system running faster (ok so you have to turn auto defrag off - I don't recall it ever being set to auto on mine).

The partition alignment thing works fine (done it on a laptop).

Think a little before posting mindless comments/advice.
 
Mercutio said:
If everything is already working the imagine the existing install would likely do a better job of ensuring everything was ok than a fresh install would it not? Baring in mind a fresh install means things definitely DON'T work and need re-installing too while imaging and aligning gets you the same system running faster (ok so you have to turn auto defrag off - I don't recall it ever being set to auto on mine).

The partition alignment thing works fine (done it on a laptop).

Think a little before posting mindless comments/advice.
Click to expand...

If you read my post i said "personally i would" not you should. I prefer if im installing new hardware to start from fresh but thats just me. I'll keep my mindless comments/advice to myself in future :rolleyes:
 
Well, it came over a bit strong. I'll back down and be nice as i'm not after shouting anyone down.

A fresh install makes sure everything is setup right as regards alignment and things like defrag being turned off. A re-image means you get all your data and are probably up and running faster. The alignment takes about an hour and then its just a couple of quick checks and your fully set with the new drive.

Depends how hard a re-install etc is.

Sorry if I came over a bit flamey, not the intention. I just see a lot of mis-informed opinion pushed as fact and i'm getting a bit old and cynical/quick to judge now :D
 
Mercutio said:
Well, it came over a bit strong. I'll back down and be nice as i'm not after shouting anyone down.

A fresh install makes sure everything is setup right as regards alignment and things like defrag being turned off. A re-image means you get all your data and are probably up and running faster. The alignment takes about an hour and then its just a couple of quick checks and your fully set with the new drive.

Depends how hard a re-install etc is.

Sorry if I came over a bit flamey, not the intention. I just see a lot of mis-informed opinion pushed as fact and i'm getting a bit old and cynical/quick to judge now :D
Click to expand...

No problems, i get what your saying and agree it would be easier in certain cases its just my personal preference i guess. I never keep anything on my OS drive thats worth me keeping before i reinstall so thats probably why i go down that road so quick. The OP was looking for best performance and it wont perform much quicker than with a fresh install. But as i said no problems we each have our own different ways of doing things. :cool:
 
Thanks for the feedback, I think will go the clean install router, will be doing a firmware update of the drive before install as well.

Am using the Asus PCI express addon card is there anything I should be aware of eg is it best to install first using the onboard SATA and then once installed install the Asus drivers and move to the Asus 6GB SATA connector. That is what I was thinking of doing but again suggestions gladly considered
 
I do really believe a reinstall in better and with a ssd only take 10-20mins its all the setting up (installing and updating drivers and software, transfering backup'd media) that takes the time.
I'm gonna get a sata III add-on card (for when i get a new ssd) to and am curious to know the answer to this aswell.
I imagine you just setup the ssd and controller (make sure its working on your current system) then just re-install windows onto it, then install drivers after os installation like normal
But Please correct if i'm wrong, so i know for the future and to help HomerJ :)
 
If it's a new SSD to the system go from scratch... ie fresh install

once you have it all setup and running sweet (controllers and all the tweaks you want) take a image as suggested by Mericuto :) I saves a ball of trouble and simplifies rebuilding the system if you have a complete b***s up or do some maintainance/firmware upgrade etc and loose the lot :)

Used this method when my SSD slowed down and needed to clean it up and flash the firmware :)
 
restored a trueimage home 11 backup today.
used the windows7 disk to create the partitions then stopped the install and booting into trueimage to restore the system images.

had to use the windows disk again to repair a boot problem but 15 minutes later i was running again, needed to turn off autodefrag and move the pagefile to hdd though.

paragon alignment tool reports all partitions are aligned.
 
I have and often use windows 7 backup. On the few occasions I have had to restore my OS back to my SSD, I have had no problems. 10 mins and all done. I did create a clean install initially though.
 
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