Installed SSD,W7, performance questions & curiosities.

[CZJZ]

Hi Taltamir, thanks for the help. Yes the bios does post. Yes when I "hit any key to boot from dvd" it starts the loader. The loader screen (black and white) with the percentage bar at the bottom loads all the way, then I get a color screen that looks the same as the windows login screen (background) but no icons at all, othing but the background shows and the mouse cursor is there and it will move. But nothing else is on the screen at this point, period.

I never do get to a point where it asks if I want to install w7, repair, delete a partition etc.

 

[Drsignguy]

I had this very problem with installing windows 7 upgrade with just a SSD and I figured out the best way I could figure.

I used a spindle HDD with windows XP already installed. Windows needs a complacency test so all it needs is to see if you have a previous version. When I booted with the Win 7 disk, Made sure I formatted the SSD and did a "custom" install on the SSD and that's it! It will not let you upgrade from boot. You would have to from inside a previous version of windows.

So, If you have a HDD with an op sys on it, use it to install and then remove it once installed.....

 

[Termie]

I had this very problem with installing windows 7 upgrade with just a SSD and I figured out the best way I could figure.

I used a spindle HDD with windows XP already installed. Windows needs a complacency test so all it needs is to see if you have a previous version. When I booted with the Win 7 disk, Made sure I formatted the SSD and did a "custom" install on the SSD and that's it! It will not let you upgrade from boot. You would have to from inside a previous version of windows.

So, If you have a HDD with an op sys on it, use it to install and then remove it once installed.....

It sounds like what the OP should do is hook up the WD drive that already has Win7 on it, and then when he gets to the Win7 installer screen, just do a custom install on the SSD.

I've messed around with the Windows upgrade DVDs - they are a pain. On one system I could never get it to install over Vista. I'll always go for an OEM full version from now on, even if it costs a bit more.

 

[Drsignguy]

True that the full blown version is a bit more expensive but if you have multiple windows OS's (like me) then upgrade is the same. All an upgrade is looking for is a previous version, a compliance test and that's it. Other than that, it is the same. So, If the Op has a previous version on another drive, He should use it.

I don't really know if he can use his windows 7 previously installed on an HDD and do a "custom" install from that. If he can, great but I don't think so though......

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Word of warning, it did not align the SSD Partition correctly for me; which means that you will wear your drive out faster by doing more writes than necessary. You should check that the partition is aligned correctly.

What does that mean?

 

[MrPickins]

Hi guys. Thanks for the tip Auric I had already ran the Intel toolbox ssd optimizer & it said everything worked out great but it did not increase the performance. I also made a backup image the very first thing before I started any changes.

Okay, so I tried to format the SSD (C drive last night but I am running into a snag I have never had before with 95,98,XP.

I have only my SSD hooked up to Sata-0 and my Sata dvd\cd drive as slave on Sata-1.

I went into the bios to change the AHCI settings for the format and fresh install, changed the first boot device to cd drive, second to usb flash and third to Hd, saved and rebooted.

Of course when i reboot it comes up and says press any key to boot to cd\dvd, I do because i have W7 on dvd. The next screen that comes up (black & white) says loading windows 7. I assumed i would be taken into the section where I can delete partitions, format, install etc but then it will come up to the W7 background screen (in color) but no icons.

I rebooted and tried 2 more times but the system always hangs at the color background, no icons.

Since the W7 dvd wasn't working i decided to try my XP disc to try and format C and then I would put the W7 dvd in afterwards to load the OS.

My XP disc did allow me to get into the familiar screen of :To delete the partition, :To setup windows now,:To repair windows etc.

So i choose to delete all the partitions on the C drive (SSD) and then I created one "new" partition to install W7 onto. (I never had the option to quick format C or full format C)

At this point I removed the XP disk, put the W7 disk in, rebooted, press any key to boot from dvd, W7 loading (black and white screen) then it comes up to the color screen, no icons and hangs.

The SSD does show up in the bios but I know i am missing something. I searched a little before making this post and someone recommended using Eraser or Killdisk and I also saw something about using Hiren's boot disk but I have not looked at it yet because I wanted to post here for suggestions.

I did try to use the W7 USB tool that Docp suggested but it said something like I could use the tool if I purchased the iso but I have a physical dvd and did not get it offline so I did not want to buy something from MS when I already had a dvd & valid key.

I appreciate the help and look forward to hearing \ knowing what I am doing wrong on the format\install.

How long did you wait when the install hanged?

I have had this issue several times when installing Win 7, but after waiting for a few minutes (never more than 5), the process starts itself again.

 

[samboy]

What does that mean?

This link seems to have the easiest method:-
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/checking_ssd_alignment

Or:-
To check the alignment of your SSD's partition, it is quite simple.

In windows 7, run msinfo32 by typing it into the search box on your start menu and hitting enter.

click on: components => storage => disks

Look for your SSD and check the partition starting offset.

It needs to be divisible by 4096 (ie return a whole number when you divide by this) otherwise the alignment is not correct.

====================================

The information for my Intel G2 SSD is:-
The last number "Partition Starting Offset" should be divisible by 4096

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model INTEL SSDSA2M120G2GC
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 1
SCSI Bus 0
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 0
SCSI Target ID 3
Sectors/Track 63
Size 111.79 GB (120,031,511,040 bytes)
Total Cylinders 14,593
Total Sectors 234,436,545
Total Tracks 3,721,215
Tracks/Cylinder 255
Partition Disk #1, Partition #0
Partition Size 111.79 GB (120,031,543,296 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes

 

[CZJZ]

Okay guys here's some updates to some of the suggestions and my status now on the machine. My W7 disk is not an upgrade disk but a full version. I did wait over 5 mins to see if the windows loader screen would come up (when i arrive at the black color screen upon boot from cd) but it never did give me any options from there.

I have managed to get a fresh install on the SSD by doing the following. Now this is not the preferred way I am sure but it was the only way I was successful.

This goes along with what Termie suggested. I was talking to my buddy in CA Sat night who talked me into getting the SSD in the first place. He has a different W7 OS disk than me but he said the way he loaded his SSD was to power up the old hard drive and the new SSD.

Go into control panel, disk management and format the SSD thru the valid W7 OS, then load W7 fresh onto the SSD drive from the cd\dvd drive. Once the OS finished loading on the SSD, which the system assigned as drive letter E:, i shut down the system and unplugged the power to the old C: (WD) drive and hooked up the SSD (drive E to Sata0 where the old WD was.

I booted up and did the regedit tweak and then rebooted into the bios and changed to AHCI, saved, rebooted and tried to go into W7 on the SSD (E). I think i had to switch back to IDE mode to be able to boot to the SSD (E but I cannot remember since I have messed with this thing so much and that was 3 days ago. I do know I have to change to ide if I use my WD drive. Nonetheless, I did get into the SSD OS (E) and did all my driver updates, W7 updates etc.

I had to leave after this and have not really had time to "test" the system to see if it is any faster than before with programs loading.

I will check the thing Samboy recommended tonight and load BFBC2 and play it tonight and see if there is any difference.

I appreciate all the assistance!

 

[Termie]

Okay guys here's some updates to some of the suggestions and my status now on the machine. My W7 disk is not an upgrade disk but a full version. I did wait over 5 mins to see if the windows loader screen would come up (when i arrive at the black color screen upon boot from cd) but it never did give me any options from there.

I have managed to get a fresh install on the SSD by doing the following. Now this is not the preferred way I am sure but it was the only way I was successful.

This goes along with what Termie suggested. I was talking to my buddy in CA Sat night who talked me into getting the SSD in the first place. He has a different W7 OS disk than me but he said the way he loaded his SSD was to power up the old hard drive and the new SSD.

Go into control panel, disk management and format the SSD thru the valid W7 OS, then load W7 fresh onto the SSD drive from the cd\dvd drive. Once the OS finished loading on the SSD, which the system assigned as drive letter E:, i shut down the system and unplugged the power to the old C: (WD) drive and hooked up the SSD (drive E to Sata0 where the old WD was.

I booted up and did the regedit tweak and then rebooted into the bios and changed to AHCI, saved, rebooted and tried to go into W7 on the SSD (E). I think i had to switch back to IDE mode to be able to boot to the SSD (E but I cannot remember since I have messed with this thing so much and that was 3 days ago. I do know I have to change to ide if I use my WD drive. Nonetheless, I did get into the SSD OS (E) and did all my driver updates, W7 updates etc.

I had to leave after this and have not really had time to "test" the system to see if it is any faster than before with programs loading.

I will check the thing Samboy recommended tonight and load BFBC2 and play it tonight and see if there is any difference.

I appreciate all the assistance!

I'm wondering if you could have done this from the W7 DVD installer with the WD drive connected, rather than from within Windows, but that's fine. Also, I have previously found that if you have two drives on the system that have an OS loaded on them, and AHCI is turned on, both of the OS drives must have the regedit applied. So if you want to have the WD drive connected at the same time as the SSD, you'll need to go back and use it as as your boot drive under IDE, do the regedit, and then switch back to AHCI.

If you actually need to be in IDE for your SSD to boot, something about the regedit didn't take. Try using the script on this Microsoft support page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

 

[CZJZ]

Hi Termie and others. Well I went to test out the SSD the other night, after my finally successful fresh install, but I cannot get the computer to boot up with the SSD\W7 in either AHCI or Ide mode, but if you recall or see my previous most recent post I was able to get into the SSD\W7 install because I did all my Windows updates, drivers etc.

I tried this on Wed night and have just left it because I needed a break from the failures.lol

I did notice something that may help some of you diagnose my problems. I went into the bios to check my settings before I tried to boot into the W7\SSD drive and the SSD DOES show up as the master hard drive on sata-0 and the dvd drive shows up as the master or sata-1. I saved and exited, rebooted and the system begins to post.

After the splash screen for Gigabyte and during the posting process thru the RAM ck, i see that it finds the SSD and dvd drives, then it moves thru to the point where it gives you the IRQ listings and the "SMART disk feature is enabled" or something like that. All is still well.

Then it continues and at the top of the screen it posts some type of check for the drives again and it lists the SSD Intel first then the dvd drive second, then just under that it will say "detecting drives" and out to the right it will flash 1 real fast but then it flashes to 0, then in 1 or 2 seconds it will give me the error "no disk, failure yada yada"

So basically it is not finding the SSD disk and the W7 install at this point but yet it does show the disk in the bios, it does find it when it posts initially and I did boot with success to the SSD just prior to my Wed night test attempt.

I have contemplated to purchase a new W7 disk thru the College student offer and use the USB tool this time instead of getting a hard disk, i can get it for $30. My buddy in CA also suggested he send me his W7 home version disk just to see if the SSD will allow the OS to load correctly, and if so I will buy a valid CD key and life is good.

If his W7 won't load correctly then perhaps I have something freaky going on with the Intel SSD and need to thinking about exchanging it.

So this is where I am. If I need to clarify anything just ask, i know some of my terms are not the correct technical names but hopefully I described what I am seeing well enough for you to know what I mean.

Thanks as always!

 

[Termie]

First of all, I want to make sure you don't have the original Western Digital OS hard drive connected. Please confirm that.

Second, I would probably just disconnect the DVD drive at this point for trouble-shooting purposes.

Third, I'd like to know if your currently have the storage configured to IDE or AHCI in the BIOS. I'd also like you to try booting with one and then the other setting configured, making sure to review the boot drive settings in all relevant sections of your BIOS (since boot priority is not under the IDE or AHCI menu).

If you are unable to get the system to the Windows splash screen (at the minimum) in either IDE or AHCI mode with all drives disconnected except the Intel SSD, I would guess that your W7 installation is not valid.

I do not think you have a physical problem with the SSD. It was working, at least in some capacity, prior to this reinstallation of Windows.

The next step would be to reinstall Windows, with a valid and full installation license. I would not bother with anything that says "upgrade" at this point. While those disks can work, you're having enough problems as it is.

 

[Robtl]

Hello All,

Great thread - thanks!

I just installed a 120 gig Intel X25M-G2 as the boot drive in my Toshiba Qosmio laptop and moved the 500 gig Hitachi to the secondary bay for data.

I used Intel's [Acronis] data migration software to make the move. When I read this thread, I thought uh-oh about partition alignment but, when I ran msinfo32, the partition starting offsets for all three partitions are divisible by 4096:
Partition Disk #0, Partition #0
Partition Size 531.00 MB (556,793,856 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes
Partition Disk #0, Partition #1
Partition Size 101.09 GB (108,549,636,096 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 557,842,432 bytes
Partition Disk #0, Partition #2
Partition Size 10.18 GB (10,926,161,920 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 109,107,478,528 bytes

So, it appears the software worked OK . . .

The reason there are three partitions is that there were three on the original primary drive. The 531 mb is labeled "system" [??], and the 10.18 gb is a hidden recovery partition.

I would respect your insights on three partitions instead of one . . .?

Also, I have read a lot about manual overprovisioning and have noted that the threads regarding it seem to all pertain to OCZ SSDs and Sandforce controllers.

Is overprovisioning applicable to all SSDs?

Is it actually advantageous to do this?

Again I would respect your insights.

Thanks ahead of time!

Best Regards,
Bob