SSD Newbie here ...

Adnams Drinker · 18 Aug 2015 at 20:56

I'm about to make the leap to an SSD in my gaming rig, but I'm a bit unsure of the installation procedure once it's inside the case. Planning to use it just for the OS and apps.

Am I right in thinking programs like Macrium or TrueImage are capable of cloning my current boot HDD to the SSD such that it can be used to boot from, without the need to reinstall the OS from scratch?

wazza300 · 18 Aug 2015 at 21:00

yeah provided the current os/install will fit onto the ssd

what motherboard you have? if you originally installed windows in ide mode then clone it to ssd,ssd needs to be in ahci mode and you cant switch from ide/ahci after windows install

but there is a reg tweak to get you around that (for windows 7 anyway,windows 8 is more complicated last time I looked into it)

mushtafa · 18 Aug 2015 at 21:02

Is there a specific reason you don't want to do a fresh install?

Adnams Drinker · 18 Aug 2015 at 21:16

Motherboard is getting on a bit - a Gigabyte EX58-UD5.

Is there any way I can tell whether Windows was installed in IDE mode?

Current OS is Windows 10 - I purchased Windows 8 from OcUK a couple of years ago and recently got the free upgrade from Microsoft. The only reason I want to avoid doing a fresh install if possible is sheer laziness on my part!

wazza300 · 18 Aug 2015 at 21:24

Yeah it will be in ide,those boards default to ide mode

Tbh your better doing a clean install,first set the sata ports to ahci mode in the BIOS then install windows onto the ssd

Adnams Drinker · 18 Aug 2015 at 21:49

If I remember rightly, when I originally installed Windows 8 I had to boot from the CD in order to install - presumably changing that BIOS mode won't prevent me doing that?

LOL, I did say I was a noob ...

wazza300 · 18 Aug 2015 at 22:02

No just connect your ssd,unplug your old HDD,insert windows disc and at gigabyte splash screen press f12 and boot from CD from,then install windows

Remember to set sata ports to ahci mode in the BIOS before you do any of the above

Once windows has installed reconnect your old HDD,then set the new ssd as first boot device in your bios

Mercutio · 18 Aug 2015 at 22:21

There's also plenty of ways around the IDE to AHCI switch so don't let that put you off.

Adnams Drinker · 19 Aug 2015 at 01:00

wazza300 said:
No just connect your ssd,unplug your old HDD,insert windows disc and at gigabyte splash screen press f12 and boot from CD from,then install windows

Remember to set sata ports to ahci mode in the BIOS before you do any of the above

Once windows has installed reconnect your old HDD,then set the new ssd as first boot device in your bios

That's brilliant, thank you. Sure it'll make sense once I get the BIOS screen up.

One more thing - my SSD has been supplied without cables and has two ports on the back of it, one narrow, one wide.

I'm guessing one of these would be okay for the data connection:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-039-AK&groupid=1929&catid=1928

But what about the wider connector, which is presumably power? Might be looking in completely the wrong section, but just had a quick nose around the OcUK shop page and can't find anything obvious ...

Joe! · 19 Aug 2015 at 02:15

Adnams Drinker said:
But what about the wider connector, which is presumably power? Might be looking in completely the wrong section, but just had a quick nose around the OcUK shop page and can't find anything obvious ...

Yup, that's the small cable you want - A SATA III cable, however 1 meter long seems a bit big

As for the bigger cable: If you take a look inside your case and look at the cable plugged into your HDD in the bigger slot, that's the same one that plugs into your SSD. There's generally 3-4 of those SATA power connectors in one cable, so, depending on what PSU you have, you might not even have to go looking for one that looks the same, just use the chained one!

Adnams Drinker · 22 Aug 2015 at 14:00

Fitted the SSD this morning and when I went into the BIOS it turns out my SATA ports were already working in AHCI mode, so Macrium Reflect is doing a clone whle I'm typing this ...

EDIT: Appears to have worked - Windows now sees the SSD as the C: drive and boots from it, so have wiped what was the old startup HDD

FURTHER EDIT: A couple of days on and the difference in boot-up speed of my machine is huge - previously it was a case of "Stuff this, I'll go and make a brew" while the thing was booting up, now it's to the desktop and usable in less than a minute. Really chuffed with it - one of these will be going in all new machines from now on