Reusing a master HDD with corrupt OS as a slave...couple questions!

[whs]

Here is a detailed analysis of the 840 - if you have time to read. It is 12 pages long.

Samsung’s 840 Series SSD reviewed | Ars Technica

 

[Lauratron]

Do you have a flash stick plugged in at time you reboot, or any other drive?

Try setting SSD first to boot in BIOS setup to be sure.

Run a full Disk Check

Alrighty, did this. Restarted it three times and it worked fine. Going to use it a little and then do a couple more rounds of restart to see what happens.

 

[whs]

Here is a good alternative at an excellent price: Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Watch the promo code which is only today 12/3

 

[Lauratron]

We restarted multiple times yesterday, even after using it for most of the day, and we weren't able to get the error to come up again. Do we assume we fixed the issue with Disk Check and keep the SSD? I haven't even bothered loading any more programs yet because I don't want to have to go through the trouble again if we're just going to have to reload windows on a new SSD BUT I don't want to get a new one if what we were experiencing was minor and is now resolved.

 

[whs]

That is a tough call and very hard to say. Just monitor it during the time frame where you can still return it. If it crops out on you again, get rid of it. There are always special offerings at Newegg.

 

[Lauratron]

Here is a detailed analysis of the 840 - if you have time to read. It is 12 pages long.

Samsung’s 840 Series SSD reviewed | Ars Technica

Just got a chance to read this finally; really informative and even though a lot of it was over my head it still gave me a general understanding, so thanks!

The write times for RAW were saddening, but then I'm not entirely sure I fully grasp what constitutes "writing" on a SSD/HDD set up and how it will impact me with how I use it. With Photoshop for example; this is how the process works for me. I shoot images in RAW, open them in Adobe Bridge, edit about 10 images at a time, open in Photoshop and edit further. Then each image gets saved as a PSD, a high res jpeg, and a web ready jpeg. I save all of these on an external HDD (each year of my photography business gets its own HDD) and then I save a backup of the PSD files on my internal HDD and my husband's. Obviously now with the SSD it will be about the same except I'll never save the files to the SSD. So will the RAW write times really effect me in this case?

I'm going to be most paranoid about making sure that what I'm doing isn't causing rewrites on the SSD and decreasing its life...if I'm understanding that correctly. Like, I do a lot of Internet browsing. Is keeping the temp folder for Firefox on the SSD decreasing it's life? Are certain games going to decrease the life with file rewrites? I just want to make sure I'm doing what's best for keeping it running efficently.

Is anyone getting annoyed by my sad lack of knowledge yet??

 

[whs]

The write performance will largely depend on the blocksize of the files. But in any event, it will be a lot faster than to a spinning HDD. So I would not worry about it.

And:

I'm going to be most paranoid about making sure that what I'm doing isn't causing rewrites on the SSD and decreasing its life...

That is another one of those fairy tales. In no way will you ever wear out the SSD with write operations for the lifetime of the SSD. Lifetime meaning the amount of years you will probably keep it. One of my 3 year old SSDs still has a life expectency until 2022. By that time it will be since long in the bin.

 

[Bumpkin]

Don't confuse the term RAW. A RAW photo file has no relation to the RAW specs of SSD drives.

As whs posted, if you have more problems with the drive, replace it with another.

 

[whs]

Don't confuse the term RAW. A RAW photo file has no relation to the RAW specs of SSD drives.

As whs posted, if you have more problems with the drive, replace it with another.

Right - RAW image formats and RAW disk formats are two different things.

 

[LittleJay]

We restarted multiple times yesterday, even after using it for most of the day, and we weren't able to get the error to come up again. Do we assume we fixed the issue with Disk Check and keep the SSD? I haven't even bothered loading any more programs yet because I don't want to have to go through the trouble again if we're just going to have to reload windows on a new SSD BUT I don't want to get a new one if what we were experiencing was minor and is now resolved.

The thing I would do is create system images of your SSD before and after you install all your programs. That way, if the SSD gives you trouble, you can restore the image you saved on your second HDD, to the replacement SSD. You can use the native imaging program in Backup and Restore, or a third party software, like Macrium Reflect, Easeus Todo Backup, Acronis True Image, etc. I know WHS is a fan of Macrium Reflect and can give you pointers on how to use it.

 

[vaidas3]

It will actually not re-designate the original folders. Those will stay put but will be empty - except the Documents folder that some programs use as repository for small files. The new folders on the HDD will be an extra entry in the library which YOU will use as repository for your files.

You'll see, it works very well.

The alternative would be to change the location of reference of the original folders - and that can be messy.

actually changing actual folders for user files after clean isntall isnt so messy.. i always do this on all my systems and no problems so far.

 

[whs]

It will actually not re-designate the original folders. Those will stay put but will be empty - except the Documents folder that some programs use as repository for small files. The new folders on the HDD will be an extra entry in the library which YOU will use as repository for your files.

You'll see, it works very well.

The alternative would be to change the location of reference of the original folders - and that can be messy.

actually changing actual folders for user files after clean isntall isnt so messy.. i always do this on all my systems and no problems so far.

An initial move is OK. But when you move them several times, it can get iffy - especially if you moved them to the root. Creating new folders is just easier and it keeps the folders that the programs create (mostely in Documents) seperated from your own stuff.

 

[Lauratron]

Update and a Question(s)!

Ended up ordering the Samsung 830 (128GB) and that one hasn't given us any problems this weekend as we've been reloading everything back on my computer so major relief there!

After we got my files all backed up from my old hard drive, my husband formatted it on his computer. But, when he took it out and tried to restart his computer, his computer wouldn't load anything from HIS HDD. He pllugged my formatted HDD back in to his and started it up and it loaded windows from his HDD just fine. Totally lost on that!

Also, wondering if I should load my fonts on the SSD or the HDD...

 

[whs]

1. leave the fonts on the SSD

2. Regarding your boot problem, I suspect a bootmgr problem. Post a picture of full Disk Management with both HDDs attached and we'll see where this bugger is.

 

[Lauratron]

.....

 

[whs]

This is hard to tell. The OS could be living off either 100MB active partition. I suggest you transfer the bootmgr to C. Then you should not have any problems without the second HDD. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

 

[Lauratron]

This is hard to tell. The OS could be living off either 100MB active partition. I suggest you transfer the bootmgr to C. Then you should not have any problems without the second HDD. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

Thank you thank you! That worked! You are a kind soul, helping out like you do

 

[whs]

No problem. Any time.

 

[bigmck]

This is hard to tell. The OS could be living off either 100MB active partition. I suggest you transfer the bootmgr to C. Then you should not have any problems without the second HDD. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

WHS -- I don't understand what you did. C: already had a System Reserved. When the F: System Reserved was moved, did it overwrite the C: or were there two? Thanks,

 

[gregrocker]

Formatting is not sufficient when you have a booting System Reserved partition on a HD. The drive should be wiped with http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html. Then you can repartition it in Disk Mgmt.

If you unplug the wiped HD and the OS HD will not boot then check that it's System Reserved partition is marked Active and set to boot first in BIOS setup, then run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

If you only copy the boot files to C using EasyBCD then you may have lost http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html on the F8 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html as they will not re-establish their hotlink without running Startup Repairs - the reason why we have always used that method here.