Windows 7: Install Win 7 on SSD

Greetings,

I wasn't happy with the partition changes I'd made to my system. It worked thanks to the help and suggestions of the folks here on this forum. I just ended up with too many drive letters (Instead of a floppy drive, I have connections for just about every type of flash data device now in use. This gives me a ton of drive letters that are only used on occasion.)for a number of reasons) to easily manage my system. So this got me to thinking.

I have a 64GB SSD drive that is the new 6GB/sec transfer speed SATA (which, although recognized by my ASUS P6x58 Premium Mobo, isn't by Win 7). Can I safely reinstall my Win 7 OS to this SSD (C drive, make a 250GB partition on my WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD for my programs, and then make partitions on that drive for my Data, Music, Pictures,and Video? Is this a safe and reliable configuration?

My other questions is that both of my drives are true SATA 6.0GB/sec. I have two SATA 6.0 GB/sec. connectors on my mobo but Windows 7 doesn't seem to recognize them. I can only attach these drives to the SATA 3.0GB/sec connectors. Is there something I have to do to get my Windows 7 64-bit OS to recognize these? (As a side note, it is the fact that my HDD data connections are so slow that takes my overall 6.9 system rating down to 5.9. I'd like to correct that, if possible.)

Thanks you,

On a new build here I have the advantage of channel #4 for Sata III HDs and presently have one WD Black edition model in use there. They are also supposed to be backward compatible with Sata II as well. Have you partitioned and formatted them?

As far as using the SSD as a the host OS drive that would need to be set as the default boot device and hopefully seen as Drive #0 or HD0 by the Windows installer in order to see all boot files and information placed there making that one bootable.

The partitioning options for any secondary drives are personal preference there. You can easily elect to split up the storage drive as well as decide on one large single partition for storage and backup purposes. Splitting the drive up however will also mean adding one more logical drive in Computer and Windows Explorer.

Once the S3 drives are partitioned and formatted you may have to manually assign them a new drive letter in the Disk Management tool in order to see them initialized. The partitions on each are then mounted in Windows as new logical drives with the drive letter for each.

Phroneo,
RE:6.9 rating dropping to 5.9, unless the new Seagate Hybrid drive they just debuted breaks the 5.9 rating in WEI the best a traditional hard drive can get is a 5.9. If you want to use an SSD in your system it's easily added.

I have 3 systems running Windows 7, the oldest is a nearly 6 y/o DELL XPS Gen 1 laptop with a 160Gb HDD and it get's a 4.8 WEI due to the video card that cannot be upgraded futher, the HDD gets a 5.9.

The second is my Alienware M17x r1, it has a 320Gb HDD and a 160Gb SSD, I load the SSD with the OS and keep all my programs and files on the HDD. It has a WEI of 7.1 with the CPU being the lowest score, the SSD is 7.5, video is 7.4. My SSD is Drive1 or the D: drive.

The third PC is my DELL Studio XPS 435T/9000, it has 2 1.5Tb internal HDD's with Vista 64, Windows Home Premium 64 and Ubuntu loaded on them, I also have a 3rd 1.5Tb as an external drive connected as eSATA and it is the network drive off this PC when it is running. The Windows 7 Ultimate 64 OS is loaded on the M: drive a 256Gb SSD and the WEI is 7.6 which is the low score on the video card an XFX 5870 XXX Edition, the SSD runs at 7.7 and CPU 7.8 (an i7 975 Extreme).

I would not let the WEI numbers bother you, if you are concerned with Benchmarks there are better ones out there to make you feel better but the reality of this is if your system performs for you the way that you expect there is no better Benchmark no matter what the numbers show.

If you do decide to go with an SSD, spend some time reading about how the different models from the manufacturers perform, they are not all equal. If you will delegate the SSD like I have which is to only run the OS then TRIM may not be a requirement since you realistically will not load anything other than OS updates. If you will use it for programs as well TRIM will be something to look at, not all of them handle garbage collection alike.

What I find invaluable is the software program Acronis True Image, this allows me to keep an image of my SSD. I alternate my image saving between the eSATA network drive and the network drive I have attached to my router which has saved me quite a bit of time reloading the SSD in both the PC and the M17x when I was experimenting, all I needed to do was format the drive, reload the OS and then re-image from Acronis giving me a full running system in very short order. Hope some of what I posted here is of assist to you, welcome to the 7 Forums.

Thanks Night Hawk and FishnBanjo, I appreciate your response to my questions.

My concern about the WEI number is that this system has very good components in it. It might be that I don't have my HDD drivers set correctly. I'll have to go back an explore that before I reinstall Win 7 on my SSD.

Yes, my disks are SATA III 6.0GB/sec rated as are the gray connectors on my mobo. One is a WD Caviar Black 1TB and the other a Kingston 64GB SSD (which is not in use.) I wish I'd the advice of fishnbanjo before I purchased my SSD but I have it and will work with it as best as possible. I had to move the connectors to regular SATA connections because the SATA III aren't seen by Win 7. When I have them connected, I get a message during boot that no HDD are detected. It's strange, I was still able to boot but I opted for the conservative and switched to the SATA II connections.

I think the information I wanted the most out of this post was to know if I could safely keep the OS separate on the SSD and the programs on the HDD. You've answered that question for me.

Thank you.