New computer HDD & SSD questions...

Dfn · #1 01-09-2012, 05:34 PM

I'm putting together a new pc this week and I had two questions.

1) Will I need to wipe a hard drive if I'm moving it from one computer to another? It was on a i7 920 on an evga 1366 board. New computer is an i5 2500k on an asus 1155 z68 board.

Will any problems arise from the OS being installed while using a different setup? Or can I just hook it up and go? It will have the same video card, if it matters.

2) In a few weeks I'll be adding a 120gb SSD to hold the OS and a few applications, everything else will be stored on the HDD. At that time will I need to wipe the HDD? Or can I just install the OS on the SSD and choose to boot from the SSD without clearing the HDD? I've never used multiple internal drives before.

Thanks

Gwence · #2 01-09-2012, 05:43 PM

1) No

2) No you won't need to wipe the HDD. Yes, just make sure it is booting from the SSD.

Dfn · #3 01-09-2012, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gwence [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

1) No

2) No you won't need to wipe the HDD. Yes, just make sure it is booting from the SSD.

Cool. So in #1 I won't have issues with drivers conflicting from different motherboards?

Skope · #4 01-09-2012, 06:10 PM

Yes and Yes. Yes to both, actually. Don't listen to Gwence.

Microsoft attaches your Windows Authentication code to your motherboard, so if you built that PC with an OEM version you'll have to plead with MS to let you use it again or if you've bought the PC from a manufacturer (OEM version almost certainly) it'll lead to the same result. Always format when swapping your HDD (with your OS on it) or motherboard. The other parts don't require a format and can be swapped freely without consequences other than uninstalling a particular driver.

You'll have to wipe the HDD of the Windows installation, because the win7 installation will notice that OS and there is no way to "uninstall" a windows OS and partition. But you can actually avoid a full format when you put in the SSD because the Z68 boards have Intel's SRT cache system. The SSD can act as a massive cache that will speed up whatever programs are most frequently used, like your OS and any particular games. Though the SRT-cache is quite awesome, but it's useless with an SSD with so much capacity so you'll get better speeds and more reliability if you just installed your OS onto the SSD and backed up whatever you want to keep after the format.

When your SSD comes in, make sure it's updated to the latest firmware (check manufacturer's website). If it isn't, use your current OS install/partition to update it. If it is then format the hard drive (which you should have backed up by now) and install the new OS. Don't use imaging software to clone your OS to an SSD. Those are unreliable as shit and can give you an endless amount of headaches.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2593 SRT is best used with a smaller SSD. OCZ offers a cache-SSD without Intel's Z68 chipset that can be used on any PC, but it's kinda expensive.

Find out what your Windows Installation is. If it's the non-OEM version you should have no problem. If it's the OEM version you may run into some problems and you'll have to contact MS over the phone to ask them to use your auth key again.

Gwence · #5 01-09-2012, 06:43 PM

you sure know how to go off on tangeants

rapid storage? lol no one was talking about it, no one cares about it, it's the most useless technology ever. Not to mention there have been loads of reported issues when trying to utilize it.

Win 7 OEM, again never did he ask about this.

He did ask if he needed to format his harddrive before installing on a new motherboard, and while yes you certainly can and is probably the easier route, you don't have to. Google it if you aren't familiar. Suffice it to say if you plan on have HDD as a non-boot sector you most certainly DO NOT need to format it, but you can if you want.

and why would he have to format HDD due to installing win 7 on SSD? that makes no sense it's 2 completely different drives, if the installation is having issues because it's already reading a drive with an OS installed, well I guess you can reach your hand in and unplug the sata cord to the HDD, I know I know.. really tough stuff. But with Z68 he has UEFI and I guarantee that you can go into that and have start up ignore your HDD completely while you're installing windows on the SSD.

Skope · #6 01-09-2012, 07:05 PM

Don't take shit so personally, you fucking retard. you're complaining because i'm giving him advice on an OEM installation? are you that fucking stupid? You're right, let me avoid giving him any advice whatsoever that may pertain to the question at hand, including giving him links so he can read about the features on his chipset, advising him on firmware updates and whatever else I can manage to think up with my dumb brain. Gwence, go fuck yourself you shit-for-brains worthless troll. If you're gonna help the man you do it properly instead of nitpicking about useless shit so you can get a jab in on me. You were a complete useless douchebag a year ago and I'm glad nothing's changed. Are we done here?

Good.

Dfn, you'll likely have to wipe the OS on your HDD because you'll be using it as a storage device and you can't wipe windows that easily, even if it's on another HDD so it'll sit there wasting space. You could potentially create another partition to keep all your stuff on and wipe only the OS and your current install from the current partition, but that may create problems (windows doesn't pack data neatly and can erase shit when increasing or decreasing partition sizes). Keep your OS partition on your HDD until you've made sure that you're up-to-date on the firmware and you'll need to boot into an OS to do that. You can do it with a linux boot disk or USB, but it's just easier since you'd already have a Windows OS to do that from.

What SSD did you buy, btw? because Marvell recently uncovered they were having issues with their drives and SandForce is notorious for their problems. Crucial hasn't yet issued a firmware update for the new problem but there should be a fix within a week or two, and the SandForce issue has more to do with compatibility than the drive dying, but a relatively new firmware update (think it was released in october or november?) has fixed many of the issues people were having. If you've got a SandForce drive make sure to read the SSD manufacturer's forums to see if there's any compatibility issues because it may require a driver update.

Great guide for an SSD install
You can use this to benchmark the SSD drive and make sure it's running optimally.
http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-S...p/79094#M24083

Now let's wait and see what stupidity Gwence has decided to inject into this thread.

Dfn · #7 01-09-2012, 08:02 PM

Thanks for the advice.

I haven't bought the SSD yet. I was trying to decide which one to buy. I was originally going to get a 64gb ssd and use the caching from the z68. After doing some research though it sounds like I'll get much better performance by just getting an SSD big enough to hold my OS and any applications I want and booting to that instead of smart caching or w/e.

The SSD I'm considering atm is an OCZ Agility 3 120gb SandForce http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0364780

I'll be sure to check those forums to see if there's any compatibility issues with that one and my motherboard.

I've never had multiple hard drives before - I'm assuming the installation is pretty painless and I'll want to put them in ACHI instead of RAID?

The first link is pretty good and I'll be following that when I put everything together.

Gwence · #8 01-09-2012, 08:08 PM

haha you seem to be the one taking it personally, not me.. and you threw the first jab in your post, albeit you were wrong, but that's expected.

yea congrats on your copy/paste form some wiki site, Im sure you know next to nothing about what you're trying to "explain".

And I base that off this paragraph

Quote:

What SSD did you buy, btw? because Marvell recently uncovered they were having issues with their drives and SandForce is notorious for their problems. Crucial hasn't yet issued a firmware update for the new problem but there should be a fix within a week or two, and the SandForce issue has more to do with compatibility than the drive dying, but a relatively new firmware update (think it was released in october or november?) has fixed many of the issues people were having. If you've got a SandForce drive make sure to read the SSD manufacturer's forums to see if there's any compatibility issues because it may require a driver update.

lol, recently uncovered? Been issues with marvel and sandforce since day 1 and they've been known.

and whats' more than that who the hell uses marvel controlled port for anything other than external storage or maybe raid card.. if you're intelligent enough to build a rig, you know which sata ports to use for what.. aka if you're plugging an SSD into anything other than chipset controlled port you (like skope) are an idiot.

Also you should know that you don't fuck with firmware unless all other options have been tried, flashing firmware is last resort thingy because you can brick your drive and render it unusable. AKA if your SSD works out of box at speeds within spec, who gives a fuck what firmware version it is.

Also if you buy Mushkin cronos (sandforce controller) I'll say you're gonna get a drive with latest firmware 95% of the time, so you won't have to worry about it. I can't speak for Crucial never had one, but I know they use an older controller making for slower read/write speeds in most cases.
4k read/writes have little difference between controllers, which makes up a good portion of the data that gets read on a daily basis.

Skope · #9 01-09-2012, 08:10 PM

Yea, follow the link and you should have no issues. AHCI is a must [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I have a corsair 90GB SF-2281 drive and it's great. The two drives are essentially the same other than the brand name and yours having a slightly higher capacity. Very very fast and after the recent firmware update they're relatively pain free. You'll still want to browse their forums, because i know they have some small issues with Intel platforms, but they can be avoided with firmware/driver updates. Marvell drives are more expensive but they have fewer overall issues. marvell-based drives are also faster with uncompressible data whereas the SandForce drives are slower in that respect, but generally slightly faster everywhere else.

Cache drives are awesome because they're somewhat hassle free; basically plug-n'-play. They don't provide the same performance as do optimized SSD drives but free you from the uneasy feeling that if your SSD fails you'll lose your data, because it's still stored on the platter drive.

Definitely a good investment. Night and day difference between 7.2KRPM platter drives and SATA III drives. Hope it works out [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] if you've got any questions feel free to ask.

Gwence, check the date on that Crucial link then read your response. After you've done that, pick up the remainder of your credibility off the floor. Not much left of it now I'm guessing.

Gwence · #10 01-09-2012, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dfn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thanks for the advice.

I haven't bought the SSD yet. I was trying to decide which one to buy. I was originally going to get a 64gb ssd and use the caching from the z68. After doing some research though it sounds like I'll get much better performance by just getting an SSD big enough to hold my OS and any applications I want and booting to that instead of smart caching or w/e.

The SSD I'm considering atm is an OCZ Agility 3 120gb SandForce http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0364780

I'll be sure to check those forums to see if there's any compatibility issues with that one and my motherboard.

I've never had multiple hard drives before - I'm assuming the installation is pretty painless and I'll want to put them in ACHI instead of RAID?

The first link is pretty good and I'll be following that when I put everything together.

before you install OS, switch your data mode to AHCI, they are usually defaulted to IDE.

also if you go with OCZ, you want vertex 3, agility is a stepdown, but I'd recommend mushkin over any OCZ.