Windows 7 - OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SATA II

I wanted to upgrade my PC but ridiculous high price stopped me from getting one. My windows crashed last night so thought its time to get SSD as I'll be installing fresh windows anyway so ordered OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SATA II which was dispatched today and will be with me by tomorrow or day after.

I was going through web and found video's/threads regarding installation, is it like just plug n play like normal HDD or do I have to do some setting in BIOS (like AHCI/IDE) as mentioned in below video. Also I saw in another video changing registry file for optimization

take all other hard drives out. change to AHCI and then boot with windows cd in simples

You're getting ahead of yourself.

Just install the SSD like any HD. The process is exactly the same. The SSD will work fine in either IDE or AHCI mode, but for a (sometimes very slight, sometimes quite noticeable) performance boost, AHCI mode is preferred.

What you read about changing the registry must have been how to prepare an already-installed Windows system for AHCI mode. This applies if, and only if, that Windows system was installed while the SATA controller was set to IDE mode. In that case, Windows disables its built-in AHCI driver and will fail to boot if the controller is subsequently switched to AHCI mode. For that reason, a registry edit is necessary in Windows before rebooting and switching the BIOS setting from IDE to AHCI.

But again, this has nothing to do with the actual SSD or how to install and use it correctly. There are no special issues compared to installing a new HD.

SSD - Install and transfer the Operating System

To add to the excellent points already made:

1. When you install Windows 7 on the SSD, unplug all other disks. Replug them when the installation is complete.

2. Set the BIOS to boot from the SSD second (first should always be the CD/DVD reader).

3. As you are probably not using hibernation, get rid of the hiberfile (saves you some GBs of space). The command is powercfg -h off

4. Stay away from all those "recommended" tweaks. In the best case they do very little for you, in the worst case they muck things up. With a new Windows 7 installation, the installer already makes the requred settings.

PS: Just saw that Gary (Britton) linked one of my tutorials. I had skipped that because it is really intended for people that move the OS from a HDD to the SSD. But maybe you find the reading interesting anyhow.

very good write up. lots of information in there

Also is it possible in anyway to keep all the current softwares/games on HDD and do clean installation on SSD and remove windows from HDD/registry and still use the softwares/games or do I have to format HDD and reinstall everything on it afterwards.

Thanks

With a new windows installation on the SSD you have to reinstall all programs/games too. You can diret them to be installed in a program file on the HDD, but using programs on the HDD from a previous installation is not possible.