A tale of two SSD's...

Charlie98 · 02-06-2013, 11:08 PM

My original build had a 64GB Agility3... nothing super duper, but it worked and worked pretty well. Within a year I realized the 64GB size was too small and finally bought a 256GB 840Pro... best of the best, right?

So I cloned the Agility3 over to the 840P, moved the rest of the files from the HDD over to the 840P and everything is wonderful, right? Not. It takes about twice as long for the new SSD to boot into W7... this is with fewer drives (only the SSD and a storage HDD are left, now) and with quick boot enabled. I've even disabled everything except the SSD for boot purposes. Once I get into Windows it's pretty snappy... except trying to load new content (i.e. Explorer) where it seems to hang just ever so much. I even OC'ed my RAM trying to get a little more responsiveness out of it...

Now the old Agility3? I wiped it and cloned the OS from my HTPC's HDD over... now it runs like a scalded dog. It boots into W7 so fast, you don't even see the W7 load screen... it flashes the Giga splash screen and BAM! you are looking at the login screen. It does take a bit to pull up the desktop... I'm assuming it's starting everything up... a little slower with the 2-core G620.

So, I guess my real question is... why is the new mighty Samsung so slow to boot? Is it the cloned OS? Is it the fact that everything is now on just the single SSD? There is still amost 90GB free on the Samsung (35%) but at the last only about 20% on the OCZ... (when it was still the OS drive in my desktop.) I'm just about ready to secure erase the Samsung and just fresh install W7 on the Samsung... but maybe I'm missing something.

The bench numbers for the Samsung are good... it's not an issue of I/O numbers... but something is not quite right.

beginner99 · 02-07-2013, 12:02 AM

I would not mind about boot time. My parents PC with a crucial m4 64 GB boots a lot faster than my Intel G2 and the Samsung 830 on my work laptop is in between the 2 but closer to my G2 even though it has better benchmark scores than the m4. (I admit that my parents pc also has the most light-weight install of all 3, least applications etc...)

Is it properly aligned? Is it on the Sata-3 port? Are you using full-drive encryption? Check BIOS if AHCI is enabled and it did not default back to IDE after changing drive.

Hulk · 02-07-2013, 12:32 AM

I have a feeling it's the cloning that slows down the boot somehow as I had a similar experience going from an Intel 320 to 330.

Charlie98 · 02-07-2013, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beginner99

Is it properly aligned? Is it on the Sata-3 port? Are you using full-drive encryption? Check BIOS if AHCI is enabled and it did not default back to IDE after changing drive.

Yes, it's on a SATA3 port (the only two drives in the system are on both of the SATA3 ports...)

Alignment I don't know about... they are both 512 byte sector drives and I used Acronis '12 to clone, it shouldn't be a problem.

Yes on AHCI...

I've also run all of the optimization utilities in Magician to make sure, although I manually set everything when I installed the Agility3 (no hibernation, etc...)

Quote:

I have a feeling it's the cloning that slows down the boot somehow as I had a similar experience going from an Intel 320 to 330.

I'm kind of thinking that, too...

Coup27 · 02-07-2013, 02:23 AM

Can you please post an AS-SSD benchmark of your cloned booted 840 Pro. Benchmarks are actually very useful for the people who know how to interpret them on finding potential setup problems.

Charlie98 · 02-07-2013, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coup27

Can you please post an AS-SSD benchmark of your cloned booted 840 Pro. Benchmarks are actually very useful for the people who know how to interpret them on finding potential setup problems.

Here is the most current one along with a benchmark I ran with Samsung Magician just yesterday...

Phynaz · 02-07-2013, 09:42 AM

Clean install Windows.

corkyg · 02-07-2013, 10:13 AM

Boot time and load time are two different things, but are generally integrated by the average user. Most of the delay usually seen is the OS (Windows) LOAD time. When it starts, the PC is already booted!

Load time depends a lot on what startup programs and apps are done automatically. Those you can control. Have you done a config.sys audit?

Charlie98 · 02-07-2013, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkyg

Boot time and load time are two different things, but are generally integrated by the average user. Most of the delay usually seen is the OS (Windows) LOAD time. When it starts, the PC is already booted!

Load time depends a lot on what startup programs and apps are done automatically. Those you can control. Have you done a config.sys audit?

Well, if I'm reading you correctly... PC boot time has increased. It hangs on the Gigabyte BIOS screen about twice as long. It was hanging on the peripherial search (which is why I disabled everything except the SSD on boot, that helped a little. The SSD is now the only system drive whereas before I had the small SSD and the HDD as system disks.)

It takes about twice as long to load Windows, now. Once I log in and Windows starts, everything is as fast or faster, except things like IE and populating the contents of a drive or folder when I open it... never a problem with the old setup.

Remember, this is a clone of the old drive... nothing except adding the Samsung Magician has changed (and moving the other files off the HDD onto the SSD.) I go into the startup config once in a while to make sure nothing has been added that I don't want.

corkyg · 02-07-2013, 10:56 PM

Thanks for that explanation, Chsrlie98. A good clone should not take longer to boot and load than the source HDD. Seems like it is looking for something.

Having said that, a fresh install is probably the best bet.

Charlie98 · 02-08-2013, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkyg

Seems like it is looking for something.

...exactly.

Puffnstuff · 02-08-2013, 08:52 AM

Your registry could also be corrupted. Have you tried running a repair on it?

Charlie98 · 02-08-2013, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puffnstuff

Your registry could also be corrupted. Have you tried running a repair on it?

I have not...

Old Hippie · 02-08-2013, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hulk

I have a feeling it's the cloning that slows down the boot somehow as I had a similar experience going from an Intel 320 to 330.

I'd say look elseware for the problem.

I've used clones and restored images for years and there's no difference.