Re-Installing Windows 7 Fresh on SSD Questions?

[magmag]

I've the Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB and I've partitioned into two: SSD1 (100 GB) for the OS (Windows 7 Pro) and SSD2 (rest of space) for storing my files. I've over provisioning set to 10% as recommended by Samsung Magician.

I'd like to format & clean install Windows 7 x64 on SSD1 partition again, for some reasons, and I've got a question before I do so:

Will the over provisioned space on my second partition, SSD2, be lost in anyway due to my formatting and re-installing of the OS? and is there any possibility of data corruption/loss on my D: (SSD2)?

 

[bigmck]

I've the Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB and I've partitioned into two: SSD1 (100 MB) for the OS (Windows 7 Pro) and SSD2 (rest of space) for storing my files. I've over provisioning set to 10% as recommended by Samsung Magician.

I'd like to format & clean install Windows 7 x64 on SSD1 partition again, for some reasons, and I've got a question before I do so:

Will the over provisioned space on my second partition, SSD2, be lost in anyway due to my formatting and re-installing of the OS? and is there any possibility of data corruption/loss on my D: (SSD2)?

You don't want to make the 100 MB partition. When Win 7 installs, it will make the partition itself, if it is needed. If you want to make a partition for your C: drive, you will need about 40 GB for Windows 7. You would add to that the space needed for your programs (maybe an additional 100 GB). You would make the remainder your D: drive for your documents, pictures, personals files. By having a separate partition for your personal files, you will not have to worry about them if at some later point you need to do a clean install of Win 7 or decide to go to Win 10. == In answer to your question, if your files are on the D: drive they will be safe from any formatting on the C: drive.

 

[whs]

What is this 100MB partition. Is that a typo.

 

[starchase]

That's a system boot partition if you want to use the encryption software from Microsoft that usually comes on OEM machines. The boot files are there. You can install your OS fresh without it is what he is referring to, the boot files will be in the C drive.

 

[whs]

Looks like it was a typo. It is changed now.

 

[magmag]

sorry for the typo and the confusion it made. I didn't mean to ask anything other than making sure that my D: will remain safe but still not sure about the over provisioned data on D:. Is it independent of what is happening on C:?

Many thanks for all the inputs

 

[whs]

Overprovisioning is a unit matter - not a partition matter.

 

[bigmck]

sorry for the typo and the confusion it made. I didn't mean to ask anything other than making sure that my D: will remain safe but still not sure about the over provisioned data on D:. Is it independent of what is happening on C:?

Many thanks for all the inputs

If you have a C: partition and a D: partition on the same SSD, formatting C: will not erase what is on D:.

 

[phenix]

I used Mini Toll Partition Wizard to do this for my SSD.
It worked just fine.

 

[whs]

Make sure your SSDs are aligned. Always good to check.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html?ltr=S

 

[dsperber]

I think there are several confusing posts here.

And with Win7, all partitions are automatically created "aligned" at system install time. Furthermore Partition Wizard also creates partitions "aligned". Everybody knows about SSD and the importance of "alignment" and using standard procedures every partition will be created aligned correctly.

Just start with an empty SSD drive. Win7 installed "cold" to the drive will create a small 100MB "system reserved" partition marked "active" which is where Boot Manager gets placed. The rest of the drive will be allocated as a large C for the install of Windows.

Once the install is complete and you boot to the newly installed Win7, you can then install Minitool Partition Wizard and resize C down to your objective of 100GB. You can start this under Windows and it will need to reboot to complete the operation at reboot time, and then it will finish up and put you back at the Windows welcome screen. When you come back up you will have the 100MB "system reserved" and 100GB Windows C, and the rest of the drive will be unallocated. You can then run Partition Wizard again and create your second D partition in that unallocated space, reserving about 48GB (10%) to remain unallocated to the right of D for Samsung's over-provisioning. Note that this over-provisioning area isn't part of D... it's just unallocated space on the drive for use by Samsung Magician.

Or, if you already have the standalone boot CD for Partition Wizard you can do all of this at one time. Boot to the CD, resize C down to 100GB, allocate D from the unallocated space to be large enough so as to leave 48GB still unallocated to the right of D. Now APPLY and everything will all be done at one time, while running standalone booted to Partition Wizard from the CD.

However you get there, at the end you will have 100MB "system reserved" marked "active", Windows C of 100GB, D of about 332GB, and unallocated of about 48GB (my numbers may be off, but you get the drift).

Then install Samsung Magician and invoke the over-provisioning feature. It will be perfectly satisfied with your 48GB of unallocated space. That's all you need to do.

If you have 8GB or more of memory in your machine I would suggest you also activate Samsung Magician "rapid mode". This uses free RAM as a cache for the SSD, improving performance even more dramatically.

NOTE: the above discussion assumed legacy BIOS and MBR partitions, not UEFI BIOS and GPT partitions. But even with UEFI and GPT the story and approach is very similar. You still want to just let the Windows installer do its thing, then use Partition Wizard after the fact to resize C and create D (leaving 48GB for over-provisioning use by Samsung Magician).

 

[AddRAM]

Wrong, a System Reserved Partition is a waste of time and space and using Rapid Mode is a no no, we went over that years ago.

But I totally agree with you about doing everything with a PW Boot CD. And using Samsung`s Over Provisioning feature, it automatically set mine at 23.85 GB

When creating a partition for windows it has to be/should be aligned. (Even though aligning a drive has just caught on in the last few years or so, WHS`s tut was made in 2010, before that we didn`t even talk about it here)

99% of computer users don`t even know what alignment is.

 

[whs]

I keep getting back to the alignment question because without alignment, the performance can be up to 3 times slower. With a fresh install there is no problem. The installer takes care of it. But often people clone an OS and then there is no automatic alignment.

 

[dsperber]

Wrong, a System Reserved Partition is a waste of time and space

It's only 100MB. That's not much space at all. And it actually has about 28MB in there that's used, so there's only 78MB "wasted". A pittance, to be sure.

And on a clean drive the Win7 installer will create it. If, say, you were to add Win7 as a second OS to an existing WinXP environment where Boot Manager lives within C for WinXP (and that C-partition is "active'), then Win7 would install its Boot Manager and boot menu in that existing partition and would not create that 100MB "system reserved". But on an install to an empty drive, that's what you get by default.

Yes, you can then go through steps to eliminate the 100MB and move Boot Manager into Win7's C, but honestly I don't know what the fuss is about.

and using Rapid Mode is a no no, we went over that years ago.

I guess I didn't see that discussion, as I only came into the SSD world in 2013.

Can you point me to that old thread, or tutorial, or whatever was making the case for why Rapid Mode isn't good?

And using Samsung`s Over Provisioning feature, it automatically set mine at 23.85 GB

You must have a 256GB SSD, so that your 23.85 number is still about 10%. OP's drive is 512GB, hence the 48GB or so needed.

When creating a partition for windows it has to be/should be aligned. (Even though aligning a drive has just caught on in the last few years or so, WHS`s tut was made in 2010, before that we didn`t even talk about it here)

Again, OP was discussing a fresh install to SSD, not a cloning of an old HDD install. No question having partitions aligned on an SSD is crucial for performance.

But with a from-scratch cold install, the Win7 installer will detect the target SSD and automatically align any partitions created. Partition Wizard does the same thing.

And just to be sure, PW can be used to quickly check any partitions on the final SSD for proper alignment, and can correct the boundaries if necessary by doing the appropriate RESIZE for you. We really could not live without PW.

 

[whs]

And just to be sure, PW can be used to quickly check any partitions on the final SSD for proper alignment,

PW or command prompt ==> see "Verification":

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html?ltr=S