Is there any way to make my mouse driver boot sooner on start up?  

ICit2lol said:

ok now on the clone to the SSD it is quite easy using Macrium (free) Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
the only thing is that in general the drive to be cloned to - needs to be the same GB size or larger then the donor drive.
For example if you had a 256GB SSD and the original drive was 500GB the it will not clone to the SSD because of the available space - it would be a bit like trying to tip a five gallon drum of water into a 2 gallon drum it just will not be possible - a ridiculous example but you get my drift.
There is a way of dragging and dropping partitions into the recipient drive but I have never had much luck with that. So if you have a 500GB spinner then you would need a 500GB (usually 516GB) SSD.
An option is for you to install the OS onto the SSD - (use this Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 make sure you ick only the version you have originally - see pic )
after making a system image with Macrium first -
Imaging with free Macrium
I do that onto an external drive on a weekly basis and then reimage the new install with saved stuff. There is a tutorial for that and I cannot find it right now. But using that ISO you will have the freshest version of your Windows available (usually not so many updates afterwards)

I prefer Samsung SSD's over the rest they are just great and have a really good software program called Samsung magician that will keep the drive in top condition. They are usually quite inexpensive but if you like the Corsair they are good too. Other brand I have used are Crucial and SanDisk which again are very good.

I am glad you liked that tutorial as it is very good and to be honest I don't use all the tips but start up and shut down are brilliant. Glad you sorted the CCleaner stuff too it is good for that and many other tools it has are good stuff too.

I looked at the samsung ones and liked them alright, for the product its self. My problem with them in general, though, is that I have had a lot of poor experiences with samsung, lately. Mostly just still angry that they locked down my phones bootloader and then un-rooted it with an update that ran even with updates off..... I just don't care for the business model, even though their mobile departments and PC Hardware departments are likely under completely different management. I am not super attached to corsair, but I have never had a reason do distrust them in the past. I am also looking at the crucial ones, as well as a few Intel ones.

As far as cloning to a different sized disk. My HDD is 750gb but only 400gb is currently in use. Is it possible that I could uninstall any unneeded programs. Defrag. Shrink the partition as much as possible. and then clone the existing partitions? If I uninstall anything that I am not going to be keeping on the SSD, regardless of cloning, that will be maybe, MAYBE, 350gb. I am looking at getting a 480-510gb SSD, so I should have plenty of storage available between the System Reserved, my restoration partition, and my C:\ partitions. I know it is possible, to still make this clone, but I guess my question to you would be, is, provided this worked, what is the chance of success (and the data safety) in using this method? Obviously there is always a risk, every time you manipulate an existing partition or transfer large amounts of data without backups, but is it something that is particularly risky, in your opinion? or do you think it would likely work fine?

Thornton said:

ICit2lol said:

ok now on the clone to the SSD it is quite easy using Macrium (free) Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
the only thing is that in general the drive to be cloned to - needs to be the same GB size or larger then the donor drive.
For example if you had a 256GB SSD and the original drive was 500GB the it will not clone to the SSD because of the available space - it would be a bit like trying to tip a five gallon drum of water into a 2 gallon drum it just will not be possible - a ridiculous example but you get my drift.
There is a way of dragging and dropping partitions into the recipient drive but I have never had much luck with that. So if you have a 500GB spinner then you would need a 500GB (usually 516GB) SSD.
An option is for you to install the OS onto the SSD - (use this Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 make sure you ick only the version you have originally - see pic )
after making a system image with Macrium first -
Imaging with free Macrium
I do that onto an external drive on a weekly basis and then reimage the new install with saved stuff. There is a tutorial for that and I cannot find it right now. But using that ISO you will have the freshest version of your Windows available (usually not so many updates afterwards)

I prefer Samsung SSD's over the rest they are just great and have a really good software program called Samsung magician that will keep the drive in top condition. They are usually quite inexpensive but if you like the Corsair they are good too. Other brand I have used are Crucial and SanDisk which again are very good.

I am glad you liked that tutorial as it is very good and to be honest I don't use all the tips but start up and shut down are brilliant. Glad you sorted the CCleaner stuff too it is good for that and many other tools it has are good stuff too.

I looked at the samsung ones and liked them alright, for the product its self. My problem with them in general, though, is that I have had a lot of poor experiences with samsung, lately. Mostly just still angry that they locked down my phones bootloader and then un-rooted it with an update that ran even with updates off..... I just don't care for the business model, even though their mobile departments and PC Hardware departments are likely under completely different management. I am not super attached to corsair, but I have never had a reason do distrust them in the past. I am also looking at the crucial ones, as well as a few Intel ones.

As far as cloning to a different sized disk. My HDD is 750gb but only 400gb is currently in use. Is it possible that I could uninstall any unneeded programs. Defrag. Shrink the partition as much as possible. and then clone the existing partitions? If I uninstall anything that I am not going to be keeping on the SSD, regardless of cloning, that will be maybe, MAYBE, 350gb. I am looking at getting a 480-510gb SSD, so I should have plenty of storage available between the System Reserved, my restoration partition, and my C:\ partitions. I know it is possible, to still make this clone, but I guess my question to you would be, is, provided this worked, what is the chance of success (and the data safety) in using this method? Obviously there is always a risk, every time you manipulate an existing partition or transfer large amounts of data without backups, but is it something that is particularly risky, in your opinion? or do you think it would likely work fine?

I would like to add a side note, as well. I just installed AOMEI Partition Assistant, because to be honest, I hate windows partition manager. I notice that it already has an option to clone a partition to SSD or HDD. It seems legit. Others seem to have had success with it, so I might give it a try, but still, you seem to have more experience with this and I would like to hear your thoughts.

ICit2lol said:

Well in a nutshell I have never tried doing what you are proposing I think the program whatever one you use for cloning - unless there is one I am not aware of - will still :"see the original drive as larger no matter how much you shrink and partition. That is much the same way that the BIOS would see them too.
As I mentioned dragging and dropping the partitions is the only way of getting the partitions to "clone" to another drive but again I have not had much luck even though it can be done. Maybe it was something I was doing wrong but.....


Now the best partition tool that I have used an still do is this Free Partition Manager for Window PC | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition it has a lot more than just partitioning abilities and it is free. For example it has a drive wipe which is just as good as the DISKPART clean all feature.

As for the drive (SSD) Corsair is fine it is just I have a preference for the Samsung - the others I mentioned also are really good. When they first came into general and affordable use lots of the brands suffered from controller problems but now most of that has been sorted.

Ok, well, if it doesn't work and I have to do a clean install on the new disk, it is what it is... Not ideal, by any means, given my lack of time availability with my recent college courses, but if that is what it comes down to then it doesn't sound like there is a whole lot I can do about it anyways.

I appreciate the help and your input. I have only opened up and taken a look at this AOMEI software once. I have not used it, yet (no reason to, yet). I will take a look at mini. From all I can tell, they are not all that different, so I think it will come down to which application I feel more comfortable using and best suits my immediate needs.

Again, thanks so much. Your suggestions have been very helpful. If there is anything else that ever comes to your mind that you think might benefit me even further, I would be very interested in hearing.