SOLVED Preliminary advice on installing window 7 to a SSD

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Anyhelp gratefully accepted, i want to try to avoid any problems when my software and SSD arrive, as my previous Vista upgrade was not straight forward.

Currently i have vista installed on my C: HDD, that was an upgrade licence from XP, but at the time it wouldn't let me overwrite xp as i had xp professional installed and my vista home premium apparently wasn't designed to upgrade from that
So I had to let vista create a new install and it set everything else into a new directory called win.old and installed vista in a new folder. So no real problems other than duplication on my HDD, i've since deleted the win.old folder and still no problems.

I've just ordered a 64g SSD and I want to install my win 7 upgrade licence to that as the boot disk, few questions come to mind:
  • what order will i need to do everything in?
  • shall i install ssd first and check it's all ok then install win 7?
  • Do I need to format the SSD?
  • will windows 7 ask me where i want to save it or will it just overwrite vista on the the HDD? in which case do i need to move the current vista win files to the SSD
  • do i need to do anything in the BIOS to alter boot disk drive?
  • Do I need to connect sata cables to a secific connector on the motherboard as the manual implies 1 &3 (red) for master boot disks and 2 & 4 (black) for slave data disk
Thanks for any help
 
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An SSD doesn't need to be formatted out of the box, but never perform a full/long reformat on the disk. Quick formats forever and ever.

It's best not to partition the SSD, so you should simply plug the drive in to SATA1 or SATA3 and install Windows 7 straight away.

I would personally back up your personal files from the Vista installation, then reformat that disk so that there is no chance that the 7 installer will write the new OS to a drive that isn't your SSD.

You will have to alter your BIOS boot order to place the SSD first in the chain.

Lastly, when Windows 7 is installed, disable all of these services: Windows Indexing Service, System Restore, Windows Defrag, NFTS Memory Usage, Date Stamping, Boot Tracing, Page File (move to RAMdisk or secondary mechanical drive), Prefetching, 8.3 Names, and Superfetch.
 
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Thrax, thanks that's very helpful.
Just to be sure I understand the process though, as my Window 7 licence is an upgrade on vista, which was itself an update of the earlier XP does it matter that I reformat the current HDD with vista on? Will the windows 7 just install to the SSD with no reference to the previous vista install on the HDD?
Also I read on some of the other posts, to disconnect other HDD's if installing win 7 to a new drive, would that have the same effect as reformatting the vista HDD drive during the install?
Sorry i don't follow your final point? Why do i do that? and are these windows 7 settings that are easy to find?
Thanks again
 
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Many Windows 7 upgrade owners find that their "upgrade" copy installs correctly without referencing a previous copy of Windows. Even if the Windows 7 installer looks for and cannot find a previous copy of Windows, there is a workaround that will let you install a fresh copy from an upgrade disc. You can use that to avoid having to reinstall XP, then Vista to meet the requirements of the "official" upgrade process. I'll post those steps if it comes to that, but you should try simply installing Windows 7 on the SSD with no prior OS.

Secondly, I would not advise simply disconnecting the Vista drive because then Windows 7 and Windows Vista's boot loaders will probably conflict. In other words, each drive will have the ability and the desire to boot an operating system, and that could confuse the computer. I suggest simply formatting Vista to avoid that possibility, but you can (and probably should) start with the Vista HDD disconnected. Format it once everything appears to be okay.

Lastly, all of these settings must be disabled because SSDs are built from memory chips that can only be erased and rewritten a limited number of times. All of these system services perform a large number of writes to a drive, but they're designed to enhance the performance of a mechanical hard drive. They offer little to no benefit to an SSD. You no longer have a mechanical drive, and you shouldn't sabotage the longevity of your SSD by leaving services enabled which write unnecessary data. If you Google each service, you will find out how to disable them.
 
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Thrax, thanks again I will try your suggestions, the software has arrived now, so I just need to await the SSD.
On your final point, does that mean there are many other non windows programmes that I should avoid adding to the SSD?
 
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You shouldn't worry about any other program running on your SSD. :)
 
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As i'm not a techie I wouldn't know, but I did look in my motherboard manual before I ordered the SSD and the manual distinguishes the SATA connectors by colour and description of purpose, so i assume 1 & 3 are better designed for use as the boot disk, but I'm sure someone more knowledgable will advise!
 
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Clifford, thanks very much for the comprehensive research. That looks like how I remember my manual. It seems from the thread on the other ASUS board that it might not be as straight forward as I had hoped, regarding just having the boot SSD in the red connector and my other drives in the spare red and a black connector. I currently have two HDD's connected to the red ports 1 & 3, a boot and a backup data disk (not set to RAID) I just manually back up what I want.
I was, perhaps naively, hoping to connect the SSD to one on the red ports and just move the two HDD's around. We shall see...
 

Nibiru2012

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This is a good article from Tom's Hardware Guide on SSD and Windows 7:

Got an SSD? Good. Got an SSD and Windows 7? Even better.
Zoom
Solid state drives are in our computing futures. While prices right now make them mostly impractical for those of us without unlimited cash cheat codes, prices will fall and we’ll be buying more of them instead of the standard magnetic, spinning hard disk drives.

Perhaps by the time that SSDs are affordable, we’ll still be using Windows 7 (which means within the next few years). Thankfully, Microsoft has included several features in Windows 7 that accounts for the presence of an SSD.

“Windows 7 tends to perform well on today’s SSDs, in part, because we made many engineering changes to reduce the frequency of writes and flushes. This benefits traditional HDDs as well, but is particularly helpful on today’s SSDs,” wrote Michael Fortin, one of Microsoft's Distinguished Engineers, in the Engineering Windows 7 blog.

When a solid state drive is present, Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching.

“These technologies were all designed to improve performance on traditional HDDs, where random read performance could easily be a major bottleneck,” explained Fortin.
One of the more notable advancements in Windows 7 is support for the Trim command. The reason for the command deals strictly with the way that data is written to NAND memory. For an exceptional explanation of why Trim is important, check out AnandTech’s article on the topic.

Fortin detailed how Trim will work in the upcoming OS:
“In Windows 7, if an SSD reports it supports the Trim attribute of the ATA protocol’s Data Set Management command, the NTFS file system will request the ATA driver to issue the new operation to the device when files are deleted and it is safe to erase the SSD pages backing the files. With this information, an SSD can plan to erase the relevant blocks opportunistically (and lazily) in the hope that subsequent writes will not require a blocking erase operation since erased pages are available for reuse.

“As an added benefit, the Trim operation can help SSDs reduce wear by eliminating the need for many merge operations to occur. As an example, consider a single 128 KB SSD block that contained a 128 KB file. If the file is deleted and a Trim operation is requested, then the SSD can avoid having to mix bytes from the SSD block with any other bytes that are subsequently written to that block. This reduces wear.


“Windows 7 requests the Trim operation for more than just file delete operations. The Trim operation is fully integrated with partition- and volume-level commands like Format and Delete, with file system commands relating to truncate and compression, and with the System Restore (aka Volume Snapshot) feature.”


Source : Tom's Hardware US
 
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everyone, thanks for your help on this installation. typing from my laptop but so far so good on the desjtop install.
I'll try to explain what I did so that any other non techies may benefit, and maybe one of the experts can add more.
based on the win 7 upgrade licence I wasn't asked to upgrade, as i chose custom install, apart from anything I decided to go from vista 32bit to win 7 64 bit.
moving my hard disks between SATA ports didn't seem to make much difference, i moved each one separqtely and checked whether it was still detectable before moving another. The data HDD is now visible on SATA port 2 (black), and the other bootable HDD I moved to SATA 3 (red -bootable). I also tried the vista hdd on port 2 black but that would not boot - just as per maual
description I guess.
I then checked the SDD (ocz agility 60g) would work under vista, no problems, but I did have to do a quick format (thanks Thrax) via the disk management programme to actually detect the SDD within the 'computer' option.
I used windows easy transfer to move from vista HDD to data HDD, striahgt forward but took over 8 hours and wanted to take all kinds of software (130g) not just user account data. not that clear as it didn't say what the 'other public data' was.
then as per Thrax's advice I disconnected the vista HDD. put the win 7 disk in and it seemed to install ok and asked me where to install - SDD naturally.
took a long tme, had me worried, and actually needed a physical restart rather than a soft reboot during the install, which thankfully seemed to work ok.
then I reconnected the vista HDD, did a quick reformat of that, renumbered my drives, and i'm now looking to transfer over the easy transfer data over to the newly formated HDD. However easy transfer seems to default to move everything back to the new boot disk (SDD), which at 60gig is not going to work, so I just transfered the user data 10g, and will see what else i need to do to transfer the rest hopefully to the new formatted HDD.
hope that helps someone else, and thanks again for your help!!
 
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win 7 SSD disable services

An SSD doesn't need to be formatted out of the box, but never perform a full/long reformat on the disk. Quick formats forever and ever.

It's best not to partition the SSD, so you should simply plug the drive in to SATA1 or SATA3 and install Windows 7 straight away.

I would personally back up your personal files from the Vista installation, then reformat that disk so that there is no chance that the 7 installer will write the new OS to a drive that isn't your SSD.

You will have to alter your BIOS boot order to place the SSD first in the chain.

Lastly, when Windows 7 is installed, disable all of these services: Windows Indexing Service, System Restore, Windows Defrag, NFTS Memory Usage, Date Stamping, Boot Tracing, Page File (move to RAMdisk or secondary mechanical drive), Prefetching, 8.3 Names, and Superfetch.

Thrax,

Can you give me some advice as to how to disable the listed services on my SSD now that it all appears to work.
I might post a new thread in any case
Many thanks
 
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Lastly, when Windows 7 is installed, disable all of these services: Windows Indexing Service, System Restore, Windows Defrag, NFTS Memory Usage, Date Stamping, Boot Tracing, Page File (move to RAMdisk or secondary mechanical drive), Prefetching, 8.3 Names, and Superfetch.
When a solid state drive is present, Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching.
Thrax suggest disabling manually.
I have read else where as well as Nibiru's post that Windows 7 will disable all the functions of Windows that are no longer needed and will eat up the life of the SSD.

My question is how you can tell if the functions are disabled without manually disabling them. One reason I ask is because you may still need these functions for the standard mechanical drives.
 
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Clifford, thanks good point, I still have two HDD's attached to the system as well as the SSD
 

Veedaz

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My question is how you can tell if the functions are disabled without manually disabling them
If you go to the functions within the OS (eg) indexing right click on C:\ > properties you can see if indexing is off or not and so on with the rest.
 
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If you go to the functions within the OS (eg) indexing right click on C:\ > properties you can see if indexing is off or not and so on with the rest.
I was thinking that the services was manually disabled completely on the system and not available for the existing mechanical drives. So what you are saying is that these features are manually disabled per drive.
 

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