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Purchasing an SSD

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  • 27-11-2012 2:16pm
    #1
    Lovely Bloke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,748 ✭✭✭✭


    I'm getting an SSD from the jolly fat man in a month.

    It's for my originally Win7, now Dual Boot with Mint laptop.

    I'm not really au fait with how to install the SSD, but I'm aware that I need to pretty much copy the data from the HDD to the SSD via USB - will this work, when I turn on the laptop I get the Mint themed list of bootable OSs - will it be a simple case of just copying the data over?

    Cheers.

    I want to keep Windows, as the Sky player uses Silverlight, and it's not compatible with either Mint or Ubuntu, unfortunately.


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    #2
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    How big is the current HDD and how big will the SSD be?


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    #3
    Lovely Bloke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,748 ✭✭✭✭Lovely Bloke


    Khannie wrote: »
    How big is the current HDD and how big will the SSD be?

    Current 200gb, SSd will either be a 180gb or 256gb, depending on budget.

    I will be deleting everything I can from the HDD though, so the total on the HDD will come in below 180gb

    In all probability I'll be getting the 256gb, so work on that assumption.

    thanks


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    #4
    Stuxnet
    Registered Users Posts: 3,735 ✭✭✭Stuxnet


    imo you'd be best do a clean install of 7 while your at it ! update it, then copy over your docs and files etc...

    then install a fresh mint setup,.... shouldn't take long :)


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    #5
    Lovely Bloke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,748 ✭✭✭✭Lovely Bloke


    Stuxnet wrote: »
    imo you'd be best do a clean install of 7 while your at it ! update it, then copy over your docs and files etc...

    then install a fresh mint setup,.... shouldn't take long :)

    Yes, was going to do this, but there's no install disk


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    #6
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    When I got my SSD I considered using clonezilla to copy the existing HDD (that had win7 & ubuntu). But then, by chance, I discovered that gparted could copy a partition. I used a usb/sata adapter so I had the HDD & SDD connected simultaneously and literally did a CTRL-C and CTRL-V. Ubuntu didn't notice at all and windows had be go through the validation process again but it was painless. I mostly did the copy out of curiousity but it was so straight forward I kept it.

    IF the new disk is smaller than the existing disk, just use gparted to shrink the partitions first so they'll fit.


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    #7
    d31b0y
    Registered Users Posts: 2,028 ✭✭✭d31b0y


    Get this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005OK6VLS.

    It comes with a SATA to USB connector and Norton Ghost. I did not use Norton Ghost but it supposedly has a bootable disc version which allows you to do a copy of the entire HDD. It's a great price and a very, very nice SSD too.


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    #8
    Lovely Bloke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,748 ✭✭✭✭Lovely Bloke


    d31b0y wrote: »
    Get this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005OK6VLS.

    It comes with a SATA to USB connector and Norton Ghost. I did not use Norton Ghost but it supposedly has a bootable disc version which allows you to do a copy of the entire HDD. It's a great price and a very, very nice SSD too.
    Yeah, that's the one I'll probably get.


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    #9
    Nulty
    Registered Users Posts: 7,838 ✭✭✭Nulty


    This is a bit off topic, maybe very off topic:

    Does you system bus match the data transfer speeds of the SDD cause theres no point in getting a SATA III SDD if you system can't benefit from the performance.

    After a bit of digging I found my mobo is only SATA II capable. So don't get your hopes up about 6GB/s. It looks like most of the ones on the market are SATA III anyway.


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    #10
    Trojan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,412 ✭✭✭✭Trojan


    Nulty wrote: »
    Does you system bus match the data transfer speeds of the SDD cause theres no point in getting a SATA III SDD if you system can't benefit from the performance.

    After a bit of digging I found my mobo is only SATA II capable. So don't get your hopes up about 6GB/s. It looks like most of the ones on the market are SATA III anyway.

    It's a good point, the SATA III drives are everywhere now. But they are backwards compatible with SATA II devices, so no worries if you do get a SATA III drive - you'll be future proof for your next computer.

    Another aside: I've had SSD nightmares with the OCZ Vertex 3, and I couldn't recommend any drive with a SandForce controller. I recommend going with an Intel for reliability or the Crucial M4 for speed.

    🎙️ The Recognized Authority Podcast



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    #11
    Johnboy1951
    Registered Users Posts: 14,007 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    Trojan wrote: »
    It's a good point, the SATA III drives are everywhere now. But they are backwards compatible with SATA II devices, so no worries if you do get a SATA III drive - you'll be future proof for your next computer.

    IMO, selecting a SATA II SSD would be foolish even if a SATA III interface is not presently available.
    Another aside: I've had SSD nightmares with the OCZ Vertex 3, and I couldn't recommend any drive with a SandForce controller. I recommend going with an Intel for reliability or the Crucial M4 for speed.

    I bought one of those recently and have had no trouble so far.

    Is there something I should look out for?


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    #12
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    Johnboy1951 wrote: »
    I bought one of those recently and have had no trouble so far.
    **Gulp** me too :eek:
    114 days so far and no problem - that I noticed anyway.
    What should we look out for?

    Ps. I also have a M4 in the same laptop and it seems to sustain a higher read speed.


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    #13
    Johnboy1951
    Registered Users Posts: 14,007 ✭✭✭✭Johnboy1951


    croo wrote: »
    **Gulp** me too :eek:
    114 days so far and no problem - that I noticed anyway.
    What should we look out for?

    Ps. I also have a M4 in the same laptop and it seems to sustain a higher read speed.

    I don't have it connected to an Asus motherboard or run Windows on it so maybe that is part of the reason it seems to be reliable.


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    #14
    Trojan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,412 ✭✭✭✭Trojan


    Johnboy1951 wrote: »
    I bought one of those recently and have had no trouble so far.

    Is there something I should look out for?
    croo wrote: »
    **Gulp** me too :eek:
    114 days so far and no problem - that I noticed anyway.
    What should we look out for?

    If you haven't noticed already then you're fine. For me it presented as a BSOD every 5-30 minutes on Windows 7, or a complete disk I/O freeze on Windows 8 (I got to preferring the BSOD).

    AFAIK it happens with a combination of the Vertex 3 Sandforce controller, and certain motherboards.

    Machine spec:
    Asus U36SD-A1
    CPU: Intel 2nd Generation Core i5-2410M, 2.3-2.9GHz,32nm, 3MB, 35W
    RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333 Dual-Channel (4G X 2)
    HDD: 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 Solid State Drive SSD SATA III 6Gb/s
    GFX: nVidia GeForce GT 520M 1GB GDDR3
    OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit


    Crash Time (reverse order), Bug Check String, Bug Check Code, Caused By Driver, Comment
    22/11/11 11:58 KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR 0x0000007a rdyboost.sys Photo of BSOD: http://db.tt/bX6Ykl2u
18/11/11 04:30 CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION 0x000000f4 ? Physical memory dump FAILED with status 0XC0000010
18/11/11 02:30 CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION 0x000000f4 ? Physical memory dump FAILED with status 0XC0000010
17/11/11 04:55 SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x1000007e AMPPAL.sys
16/11/11 11:56 CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION 0x000000f4 ntoskrnl.exe
16/11/11 11:00 UPDATED OCZ FIRMWARE Upgraded OCZ firmware to v2.15 Freeze symptoms far less frequent, BSOD remains.
13/11/11 04:10 SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x1000007e AMPPAL.sys
11/11/11 20:23 SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x1000007e AMPPAL.sys
11/11/11 20:22 SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x1000007e AMPPAL.sys
28/10/11 11:58 KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR 0x0000007a Ntfs.sys

    As an aside, I upgraded mobo and ssd firmware (many times) swapped it into 4 other machines (including a desktop SATAII that still crashed) and tried lots of stuff. In the end I had to RMA the OCZ, and got the M4 replacement.

    🎙️ The Recognized Authority Podcast



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    #15
    mark renton
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,696 ✭✭✭mark renton


    http://lb.hardwareversand.de/Solid-State-Disk/56863/Samsung+SSD+830+256GB+SATA+III+Basic.article

    is this not cheaper?


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