Switching over to SSD, which route do I take?

richiej1979 · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:15

Hi Folks,

I'm what you might call a bit of a noob but I've done some research but I wanted to get some opinions from the experts.

I've got win7 (OEM) installed on a 1TB HDD and just bought myself an SSD.

I don't mind doing a clean install but I am concerned that I won't be able to activate Win7 OEM again on the SSD. Will it just work or will I need to call Microsoft activation?

Would you advise me to do a clean install or doing a disk re-image?

Also I'm a bit confused about SATA3, my mobo supports SATA3 and so does the SSD but I don't have a SATA 3 cable, just a normal one. Will a normal cable transfer at the same speeds?

Thanks very much folks!

Edit - the MOBO only has one SATA3 slot which is SATA 3gbit ps

Daichin · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:20

It should work fine on the SSD. Windows 7 OEM is bound to your motherboard, not your Hard Disk.

EDIT: It's better to use SATA 3 cables. They have a better physical connection than SATA 2 cables. You can use SATA 2 cables because they are architecturally exactly the same, but you will probably lose speed.

Pc.robb · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:21

@windows 7 OEM, you should be fine since it's a new hard drive and not a new system but you may have to ring them to activate it, OEM license is usually tied to the motherboard.

And there is no SATA3 cable, there is a SATA cable and you have SATA2 and SATA3 slots on your motherboard where you connected your ssd to your motherboard.

And best to do a clean install realy.

richiej1979 · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:27

Daichin said:
It's better to use SATA 3 cables. They have a better physical connection than SATA 2 cables. You can use SATA 2 cables because they are architecturally exactly the same, but you will probably lose speed.

Pc.robb said:
And there is no SATA3 cable, there is a SATA cable and you have SATA2 and SATA3 slots on your motherboard where you connected your ssd to your motherboard.

That's great about win 7 - confused about SATA3 now though

Daichin · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:28

Just to clarify, there is most likely no difference at all.

'SATA 3' branded cables are better, so if you have one, use that. Otherwise, the difference is negligible. Some cables might not quite be good enough in theory, but the actual device determines the speed. If you see speed issues, it might be something to check.

http://www.serialata.org/documents/SATA-6-Gbs-The-Path-from-3gbs-to-6gbs.pdf

richiej1979 · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:30

Daichin said:
Just to clarify, there is most likely no difference at all.

'SATA 3' branded cables are better, so if you have one, use that. Otherwise, the difference is negligible. Some cables might not quite be good enough in theory, but the actual device determines the speed.

PERFECT - thanks very much to you both. That's my night in sorted.

Pc.robb · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:30

I may be mistaken but I don't think I am, theres a SATA lead and the SATA1,SATA2 and SATA3 is all a connection.

The sata lead is universal and if the deivce is sata3 it's backwards comptable with sata2, meaning it will work with sata2 but you won't get the added speed of sata3.

Daichin · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:34

Pc.robb said:
I may be mistaken but I don't think I am, theres a SATA lead and the SATA1,SATA2 and SATA3 is all a connection.

The sata lead is universal and if the deivce is sata3 it's backwards comptable with sata2, meaning it will work with sata2 but you won't get the added speed of sata3.

They are, but it is a case of cable quality. Cables of a lower quality might not be able to pump data along at 6gb/s. Thus, many retailers sell 'Sata 3' branded cables that are of a high enough quality to move data at this speed/meet the Sata 3 specification. A super cheap cable made to the Sata 2 specification might not be good enough.

Pc.robb · 17 Jan 2012 at 17:37

Daichin said:
They are, but it is a case of cable quality. Cables of a lower quality might not be able to pump data along at 6gb/s. Thus, many retailers sell 'Sata 3' branded cables that are of a high enough quality to move data at this speed/meet the Sata 3 specification. A super cheap cable made to the Sata 2 specification might not be good enough.

Thanks for clearing that up to me.

richiej1979 · 17 Jan 2012 at 20:33

OK well good news is the drive in installed, I'm just backing up all my important files in preperation for the switch over.

Thanks for clearing it all up, I've ordered a SATA3 cable to be sure.

.:SAmSuNG:. · 17 Jan 2012 at 21:03

Make sure you unplug all other drives and switch yo ahci mode before install.

richiej1979 · 17 Jan 2012 at 21:07

.:SAmSuNG:. said:
Make sure you unplug all other drives and switch yo ahci mode before install.

will do, thanks! - Been doing tons of research so I feel reasonably confident that I won't mess it up.

richiej1979 · 17 Jan 2012 at 22:23

richiej1979 said:
will do, thanks! - Been doing tons of research so I feel reasonably confident that I won't mess it up.

Spoke to soon, my motherboard is a gigabyte m68mt and I don't think it supports ASCI. I'm downloading some drivers which mention asci so that might sort it as there is no asci setting in the bios menu.

Drivers

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3967#ov

win 7 64

darael · 17 Jan 2012 at 23:20

richiej1979 said:
Spoke to soon, my motherboard is a gigabyte m68mt and I don't think it supports ASCI. I'm downloading some drivers which mention asci so that might sort it as there is no asci setting in the bios menu.

Drivers

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3967#ov

win 7 64

The drivers you are looking for are AHCI drivers, and can be found here after choosing your OS.

richiej1979 said:
OK well good news is the drive in installed, I'm just backing up all my important files in preperation for the switch over.

Thanks for clearing it all up, I've ordered a SATA3 cable to be sure.

For the sake of curiosity, can you run benchmarks before and after when you get the cable?

richiej1979 · 17 Jan 2012 at 23:59

darael said:
The drivers you are looking for are AHCI drivers, and can be found here after choosing your OS.For the sake of curiosity, can you run benchmarks before and after when you get the cable?

I couldn't work out how to install the drivers, do I burn them to a disc and boot from cd? I nearly installed win 7 without ahci but decided to wait to see if I could get it working.

Will defo show benchmarks.

darael · 18 Jan 2012 at 09:27

If you're installing during W7 installation, it's the part where you choose which drive to install W7. There's an option on the bottom left which says "Load Driver" - click that, put the USB stick in that holds the drivers and point the installer to where you copied the drivers.

richiej1979 · 18 Jan 2012 at 09:37

darael said:
If you're installing during W7 installation, it's the part where you choose which drive to install W7. There's an option on the bottom left which says "Load Driver" - click that, put the USB stick in that holds the drivers and point the installer to where you copied the drivers.

Thanks - I tried that last night but failed, well I was a fool. I didn't install the drivers from flash drive I copied the file to a cd and switched the discs over during the install. The drivers didn't install.

Anyway now I have a clean install of win7, what's the best way to remove that install?

I've now got the drivers on a usb stick ready to go. I realised how much of a fool I am on the way home to work this morning. 5 hours sleep is also not good

rapt0r · 18 Jan 2012 at 16:44

richiej1979 said:
Anyway now I have a clean install of win7, what's the best way to remove that install?

Boot from the Windows install disk again and you will have the option to perform a (quick)format before reinstalling the OS.

richiej1979 · 18 Jan 2012 at 17:20

rapt0r said:
Boot from the Windows install disk again and you will have the option to perform a (quick)format before reinstalling the OS.

Perfect - thanks.

richiej1979 · 18 Jan 2012 at 20:27

OK really stumped now. I've installed the Gigabyte drivers (at least I think I have) and I don't have a setting to enable AHCI on the drive.

How can I check that I have installed the drivers correctly?
Where would I find the setting in the BIOS to change to AHCI

Once again any help is greatly appreciate.