[Crunchy409]

SSD... yeah.. duh.. THANK YOU for pointing me toward the updated Samsung Magician! You are correct that the new version for my drive includes RAPID, and the version that it shipped with does NOT. I researched and read about RAPID- wow! Sounds great!

Thanks for asking about the 2 browsers- My wife and I each tend to leave a browser open with all of our tabs on it. Keeps things separated. It works well and I want us both to have the benefits of the speedy drive.

The article you linked to is something I've been searching for actually. Explains exactly what I needed to know!

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Don't know about Mozilla, but Chrome you can place the default download folder to the Data drive and display the save windows with the option to save in a different place, just in case you want to save to say, the desktop or C drive.

[iammykyl]

Don't know about Mozilla, but Chrome you can place the default download folder to the Data drive and display the save windows with the option to save in a different place, just in case you want to save to say, the desktop or C drive.

[Crunchy409]

Definitely planning on doing that, and had already checked out where that setting is.

Quick question that crossed my mind: I'm preparing my HDDs now. I have cloned my main 1 Terbayte WD drive, so I now have 2 identical HDDs. The plan is to install the OS on the SSD and then format ONE Of the WD drives. I will then hook up the other drive (that was cloned) to get files transferred such as photos, videos, etc.

Questions:
1. Does this sound like an adequate plan?
2. I just had a concern pop up in my mind- I am expecting to have to re-enter license info for Windows 7 when I install with a new motherboard. Will the secondary drive work ok when I hook it up to transfer files, or will it fight the motherboard at all? I think I should be ok?
3. Should I try to run MemTest all night tomorrow after setting it up?

thanks!
~Matt

Edited by Crunchy409, 04 March 2014 - 07:27 PM.

[iammykyl]

I think you may be doing one step too many. Cloning to a drive then installing that drive and formatting it appears not to achieve anything, you might as well just install and format. I would backup all my important Data to the 500gb drive for safety, instil the OS to the SSD. install a 1TB (not the original OS drive) format and prepare, move my doc folder, etc. install the original OS drive, transfer Data to the appropriate folders.

I am expecting to have to re-enter license info for Windows 7 when I install with a new motherboard. Will the secondary drive work ok when I hook it up to transfer files, or will it fight the motherboard at all?

To prevent any kind of problems with OS software installation, follow these steps.
first., check the SSD user manual, so you know how or when to update Firmware, driver and software.


1. Install onlythe SSD and OD.
2. At first Boot, enter the BIOS, > set time and date, > set boot order to OD first, USB second (if present) SSD third, > ensure AHCI is selected for SATA/Drive controller, > save and exit.
3. Install the OS, > install MB drivers and utilities, (if possible, try not to install trial or freeware) > update MB drivers/utilities, > Windows update should be running, wait for it to finish.
4. Install Anti virus only, no browsers > restart.
5. Run MemTest, couple of hours should be OK, but overnight if you wish. you should now have a clean stable system.


Let us know if that is enough instructions to start with, or do you want more for the next steps for instyalling other HDDs.?

[Crunchy409]

This is great to get me started!

Would there be a problem installing a browser prior to running MemTest?

[iammykyl]

Gday. You will have IE already installed by default. You could put Chrome on, was just keeping it simple to start with.

[Crunchy409]

Alright! Got things going!

Currently running the new setup on just the SSD. I've installed Windows (involved way too many phone calls with people not nearly as smart as on this forum!), Chrome, Firefox, and AVG. Samsung Magician and all of the Gigabyte drivers were also installed (non of the Gigabyte "apps" yet though- waiting to research which are worthwhile). I also enabled Samsung RAPID. Do I need to ensure that Windows 7 will no defrag the drive, and also be sure TRIM is enabled?

I stayed up way too late getting it going like this so did not have time to start the Memtest. Probably run that Friday night. Things seem to be running smooth.

I had to install windows 4 times (at the request of tech support), and I had an unfortunate power issue where it cut out during boot up and had to go through the windows repair screen, ultimately performing a system restore, so things aren't quite as pristine as I would like but we're good!

[iammykyl]

Gday.
Glad to see you got it going. Was all the problems with windows install? If you do have any doubts about the system, consider another fresh instll know that yu know about any issues you had.

Do I need to ensure that Windows 7 will no defrag the drive,

AS far as I know, is only run when you tell it to do so or it has been set to run ias a scheduled task.

and also be sure TRIM is enabled?

There is a tool in Samsung Magician you can use, or see page #4, item #16 from the link, a excelent SSD optimization guide. Have a read, if it does not answer all your questions about installing the DATA drive, please post.
> http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-ultimate-windows-8-edition/

[Crunchy409]

Windows would not accept my product key. I tried installing 4 times and for some reason the final time it went through ok. I think it had to do with the checkbox to "automatically activate windows" and the fact that I did not have internet access at that point in the install? Should have been something easy for them to point out to me. Oh well. It worked.

I can't decide whether I should do everything from scratch or not. I already have quite a bit set up the way I would like. Great article about SSD optimization that I will check out in more detail this weekend!

[iammykyl]

OK,
Slow and steady is the way to go.

[Crunchy409]

I think that windows repair when I did a fresh install will forever haunt my dreams if things get weird in a couple years. I think this weekend I will go ahead and re-install windows fresh. I hope I don't have the random product key issue again

[iammykyl]

You are being wise. I think it best not to activate during the installation in case it gets stuffed up.

[Crunchy409]

Alright, re-installed clean (glad I did.. thanks for the encouragement) and have added a couple programs, and followed a couple optimization guides from you and others I found. I've listed what I've done with some questions

1. Power options to high and set "turn hard disk off" to NEVER
2. Disabled restore point
3. Moved Pagefile to HDD (does this defeat the purpose? I was confused here)
4. Disabled drive indexing
5. Moved search index to HDD
6. Disabled Superfetch
7. Moved the user files Downloads, My Documents, My Music, and My Pictures onto my HDD

I was a little confused throught his. Let me know if anything should be changed!
thanks!

edit: I also saw something about moving the firefox & Chrome cache. thoughts?

Edited by Crunchy409, 08 March 2014 - 11:21 AM.

[iammykyl]

Great, looks like it went without to much problem this time.

2. Disabled restore point

users with multiple internal storage devices in their system can redirect the storage location of “System Restore” via the Windows System Restore Dialogue Box, which is accessible via the “Advanced” tab in Magician. I leave it on and reduce the size, reason being, Windows Update has caused problems. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, you get system problems, first step is look in system restore, if a windows update has just been done, rollback.

3. Moved Pagefile to HDD (does this defeat the purpose? I was confused here)

Correct. some programs don't work well without a page file, so as long as it it somewhere for access, is good, You should also reduce the size as it is set to high by default.

I also saw something about moving the firefox & Chrome cache. thoughts?

Not done that, so can't make recommendations, to start you off,
> http://www.techntrix.com/how-to-alter-google-chrome-cache-size-and-location/

[Crunchy409]

2. System Restore- I followed your steps with the "advanced" tab on magician and can't see where there is an option to relocate the system restore? I turned it back on and capped it at 1% (1 GB). Thanks for this tip- I didn't really feel comfortable turning it off completely!

3. Pagefile- I turned it back on with a minimum size of 500 MB and a maximum of 2 GB. I didn't know how much space to give it. Suggestions?

Things are going great- just installing things, moving picture files, etc.!

BACKUP- I am retaining one of the 2 one terabyte drives for backup I think. Is there any easy way to backup the SDD and the other 1 TB HDD onto the same disk? (Obviously if they are both full I would run out of space)

RECYCLE BIN- Can it remain on SDD? Wasn't sure if the repeated reads/writes would give unnecessary wear?

EDIT: Just got a blue screen during Windows update configuration. I think it may have said something about pagefile before shutting off. I restarted normally, it continued configuring updates, and all is well again. Let me know if I should follow up on this somehow

Edited by Crunchy409, 09 March 2014 - 01:52 PM.