Windows 10: SSD worth it?

Not because of eBay, but because I use Paypal exclusively for online purchases.
Amazon does not accept paypal.
I will not give out my credit card number.

I will buy from Newegg for exactly the same reason..... paypal.

 

OK, bullet bitten. 1 TB Mushkin SSD and 3.5" bay adapter will be here Thursday.

 

Good deal. A full report of your impressions would be appreciated - once you bounced it around a bit.

 

No worries. studying best/easiest migration solutions now. Also replacing a small older hd with a new 1 TB model, second identical old one will be removed to make room for the ssd.

 

OK, parts will be here tomorrow. Doing my backups now. Question: Obviously migrating the OS to the SSD, what about the system reserved and recovery partitions? Do they go too?

I plan to use "Mini Tool Partition Wizard Pro" to do this, it has a wizard that will supposedly do it all at once. Space on the SSD is plenty to handle the entire contents of the current HDD so figured on moving everything then going back and moving a lot of data (user folder stuff) back onto the other drive afterwards.

Final thoughts and ideas welcome before Thursday evening!

 

The system reserved has to go also - else you cannot boot. You can however copy the bootmgr to the C partition. Then you don't need the system reserved.

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD - Windows 7 Help Forums

For the migration I have made this little tutorial. IMPORTANT - since you will not use the OS installer, you will have to align the SSD (second link).

SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System - Windows 7 Help Forums

SSD Alignment - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

Don't see why you need to change anything, meaning your partitions. Unless you need hard drive space. Here is what a member here who is VERY good at this. Topgundcp wrote this to another user today.

Here's an easy way to do it, With your SSD connected.

• If not already done. Create a backup image of your current Windows HD. From Macrium, click on "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows"
  NOTE: you could actually clone the disk, but create a backup then restore will allow Macrium to correctly align the cluster size and perform trimming on the new SSD.
• After step 1 is done, click on Restore tab, select the image from step 1 then click on Select different target disk, select the SSD as destination disk then click on Next->Finish. No need to use/boot from Rescue disk. It will be faster and Macrium will also perform trimming on the new SSD.
• Disconnect the HD and reboot. Windows should boot up with the new SSD.

All you need is Macrium Reflect......nothing else.... Mike.

 

Yes their well worth it.
my 7 year old laptop got a great boost from fitting one, gave it a new lease of life.
Even my new pc has been made even better adding one

 

Perfect. Thanks Mike!

 

You can get a pre-paid card from a place like Walmart and just put in what you need to make a purchase and just use it for say, Amazon. That way you can use Amazon and not give away your primary credit information online.

 

OK, its done. running off the SSD now. A few little issues along the way but sorted out easily enough. Getting everything moved around and figured out now; will post more later or maybe tomorrow. Thanks for all the great help!

 

Hi there

A really easy way to do this is to Image the system as people have said before - then simply restore it to your new SSD BEFORE installing the drive. - connect the SSD to a USB port for this process with a USB2-->SATA connector -- really cheap. You can use a USB3 -->sata connector but these are more expensive and given the nature of the SSD and the restore you are doing - the extra expense probably isn't worth it.

Now simply remove old HDD and replace with SSD and your system should boot straight away.

As far as the original question the OP asked -- the answer is MOST DEFINTELY YES (Caps intended) !!

Cheers
jimbo

 

He has a Desktop so it couldn't be any easier than just connect the SSD to one of the Sata port then do backup/restore a lot faster. Why would he has to use the USB adapter ?

 

Good to go, Wreckwriter! You might want to double check that Windows sees your SSD as an SSD now and not an HDD - check how it's displayed under "Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools\Defragment and optimize your drives".

 

Hi there

If it was a laptop then certainly using the USB method might be less hassle - even using a desktop - in case of a boot failure it's easy then to re-connect the old HDD to analyse the problem without having an inoperable system or having to use a second machine.

The USB method also allows you to prepare your new HDD BEFORE opening the case and messing around with the Ports -- sometimes these cases aren't the easiest things to open too.

That way once you've got the case open you can just unplug (not remove) the old HDD and plug in the new one and test your Boot before proceeding. If it doesn't work just plug in the old HDD SATA connector, boot and analyse the problem.

People have different ways of doing these things -- I have mended so many PC;s and have usually found the USB method the most sure way of getting a working system.

Whatever method works for you -- the essence anyway is to "Clone" the original OS to the new drive, changing partition sizes if required.

Cheers
jimbo