Am I doing this right? (SSD)

[Bubbleawsome]

EDIT: New question. SSD is at ~37c. I know HDDs are ok up into the 40s, where should I keep the SSD?


I know the guide up top says that an SSD should be plug-n-play but I'm going to err on the side of caution.

Just got a 480GB SSD in today. Planning to install 8.1 on it and move most of my stuff over (320GB used on my only HDD right now.)

My steps are
1. Wipe external hard drive, clone main HDD to it
2. Take out the HDD, put in SDD, install windows
3. Put in HDD, wipe it
4. Put pictures and videos back on HDD, games and stuff on SSD from external drive.

I've got a z87 board so it should be ok. I don't have a 2.5" bay though, so I'll rig it somehow. It might have an adapter in the box.

Am I missing anything?

 

[OlyAR15]

Seems you are overcomplicating things. I would install the SSD, do a clean install of Windows and apps onto the SSD. Delete all the unnecessary files from your HD and use it only for data storage.

 

[ArisVer]

Reverse steps 3 and 4.

I would convert the disk to GPT if is not already.

There are cheap plastic adapters available.

 

[Red Squirrel]

No need to do a clean install, just cleanup your current HDD's files to ensure it's smaller than the SSD.

Then image it to the SSD. Supposedly you should leave a 1MB gap before the start of the partition, does not hurt to do that. I never did it myself since I only heard of it after. Has to do with making sure the clusters align properly with the hardware clusters of the SSD and 1MB is just a safe spot to do it at as it should work in all cluster size cases. (something like that, never read fully into it).

Of course you may want to do various tweaks such as disabling defrag.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I would convert the disk to GPT if is not already.

What's that? It's the SanDisk ultraII.
As for the adapter I'll zip-tie it for now.

While I understand how making an image would work, I really need to get a 100% clean install. This windows 7 install is horribly broken, and I'm upgrading to 8. I might end up what OlyAR15 said though my internet isn't the fastest. That's why I was thinking of copying files.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Of yeah if you're upgrading (don't know if that's considered an upgrade but that's another subject. ) then yeah do a clean install for sure.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

It worked, and oh man is this awesome.

SSD on left. Windows takes about 3 second after POST.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Is it normal for an HDD to have 43 reallocated sectors? I used a SMART program to check the SSD (it's 100% fine) and saw the HDD had a caution marking on it. Should I be moving all my stuff over?

It's got 20.5k hours on it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

reallocated sectors ("grown defects") are somewhat normal, but they can also indicate that a drive is about to fail. Especially if they are increasing over a short period of time.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

New question. SSD is at ~37c. I know HDDs are ok up into the 40s, where should I keep the SSD?

 

[Quad5Ny]

New question. SSD is at ~37c. I know HDDs are ok up into the 40s, where should I keep the SSD?

Max 70c +/- 5c depending on the drive.