Increasing from 128GB SSD to 240GB-SSD but programs also installed on

[Valkery]

I have a machine that I installed a 128GB SSD in May 2011. I use this a my boot drive with the OS on it but I also installed programs on a 1TB Sata drive D: to conserve space on the SSD. I would like to upgrade the SSD to at least a 240GB or larger price pending. My problem is that Windows Image wants to also use the drive D: as part of the image. Is there a way to just image the SSD and install that on the new SSD?

Thanks

 

[DavidE]

You can use Macrium (free) to create images of just the SSD.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

Also, if you have a WD or Seagate HD you can get a free version of Acronis from the HD manufacturer site.
I use Acronis (paid), but I've tested Macrium free and it works well for me.

Macrium and Acronis allow much more user control than Windows Backup...

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
as the previous poster says - it will work fine -- I've just done the same thing -- Samsung 128GB 830 SSD to Samsung 250 GB 840 SSD.

However I'd install both OS AND programs on the "C" partition -- just use the other drives for data (multi-media, documents, email, photos etc).

I'm running a decent Windows system including Ms Office professional, Visual Studio, full Adobe CS6 suite which includes of course photo shop CS6, a Multi media server program, VMware workstation, NERO, some DVD playing software and various other things. This all occupies less than 55 GB.

The advantage to separating OS plus pgms from data is that you can then restore either if the HDD or OS fails. For example in your situation even if the OS is OK if you were to get a problem on your HDD "D" you'd have to re-install your applications again.

Keeping the OS / pgms on a separate partition isolates them from user data and it's very easy to move / backup / copy the OS and also you can backup your DATA at times convenient to you --user data can be backed up in smaller amounts --if you have say 1 TB of data you don't need to back it all up in "One go".

Also by having the programs on the HDD you lose the extremely good benefit of being able to load an application up very quickly from the SSD when the program starts --for instance even on a smallish powered laptop my copy of Photo shop starts and is ready for use within 3 (YES THREE) secs of clicking the CS6 icon.
(Save the DATA / Layers etc to HDD but have the application on the "C" drive).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[DavidE]

+1 Jimbo, I'd rep you if I could!

The only thing I'll add is if the OP is a Gamer, installing Games on a different HD/partition might be better...
I'm not a Gamer, but from what I know they can use a lot of space and don't benefit (enough) being installed on an SSD...

 

[jimbo45]

+1 Jimbo, I'd rep you if I could!

The only thing I'll add is if the OP is a Gamer, installing Games on a different HD/partition might be better...
I'm not a Gamer, but from what I know they can use a lot of space and don't benefit (enough) being installed on an SSD...

Hi there

Thanks.

Games are another issue -- I'm not a gamer myself either. It's still amazing though how people don't realize that poor DISKS are usually the major source of frustratingly slow and poor PC performance. I've seen people install i7 processors and 32 GB RAM and still can't understand why they haven't seen SIGNIFICANT improvement - when they are still using old IDE 5400 RPM spinners.

If you MUST use spinners get one with the fastest RPM (certainly no less than 7200 - better 10,000 if you can find one of those) and with the largest CACHE you can find and make sure its SATA / e-sata --NOT IDE.

What W7 and W8 do now is try and analyse your use of applications and data on your machine and using a very complex algorithm attempt to load into the cache area (a fast internal memory area in the disk controller) data it thinks you WILL need shortly. It takes a few runs of Windows before the data base is properly built up but once the DB is built it's pretty reliable. This data load is called "Pre fetching" and is loaded into the disk controller when the computer is not busy - for example waiting for keyboard input.

What then happens is that your application wants data - and if it's already in the cache (has been "pre-fetched") then the data can be accessed immediately without waiting for the HDD to physically rotate to the sector on the disk and then physically read and transfer the data.

With an SSD there isn't any rotation - but the prefetch is done anyway -- the algorithm keeps an Index of where the data is on the SSD which is just a sort of "External RAM". Decent prefetching reduces "Wear" on the SSD - but these days SSD's are just as reliable (if not more so) than HDD's and last just as long.

Nicely too -- prices are coming down reasonably -- my 840 Samsung 250 GB SSD was CHEAPER than the 830 Samsung 128 GB SSD that I'd bought about a YEAR earlier -- and you don't need to be a Lottery winner to buy the nearly 1 TB models on offer now -- although still expensive they'll be affordable I'm sure in a year or so -- so NO MORE SPINNERS except for my Media server where speed isn't important -- capacity is.

So anybody struggling through this post -- probably the BEST thing you can do to improve PC performance is to fit SSD's. Once you've done it you'll wonder why you didn't do it before and you won't be able to use a system which doesn't have any.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Valkery]

Thanks David and Jimbo for suggestions. I am a gamer as noted, but I also do photo and video editing. So these programs are on the SSD. The other not speed important programs are on the esata d: drive.

I'll have to try Macrium program and see how it works. Waiting for a 240gb SSD to go on sale.

Chhers

 

[Dude]

+1 Jimbo, I'd rep you if I could!

The only thing I'll add is if the OP is a Gamer, installing Games on a different HD/partition might be better...
I'm not a Gamer, but from what I know they can use a lot of space and don't benefit (enough) being installed on an SSD...

In game performance will be the same, but the "loading maps" part of gaming will improve greatly.