Installed SSD,W7, performance questions & curiosities.

[CZJZ]

Hi, I need some general help getting my Intel x25-m SSd, W7 working at peak performance.

I just got the SSD and I migrated (copied) the contents from my WD 500GB drive to the SSD via the Intel Migration Software that Intel recommended in the SSD literature.

I read many sites which said you should do a fresh W7 install & others that stated a migration would work fine.

I figured wth let me try and copy the HD contents and if it fails I will format the SSD then do a fresh install.

So, I made a boot cd with the Intel migration tool, followed instructions and the HD contents were copied successfully.

I unhooked my WD drive, hooked the SSD up to Sata-0 (where the WD use to be) removed the power from the WD also and booted the SSD to the DT no problem but I did not notice very much difference in boot time or opening of programs over my old WD drive.

I then remembered reading about making sure to optimize the SSD after install, i went to yahoo and found a site with recommendations to change in the bios.

I rebooted and went into the bios and changed from ide to ACHI (or AHCI whichever) mode in 2 places available. After saving & reboot I was not able to get into W7 so after a couple more reboots and changing the settings back to IDE I booted no problem again.

I went to the Windows Performance scoring and noticed that my score went from a 5.9 to a 6.4. My buddy that was the catalyst in talking me into upgrading to a SSD said I would just be blown away with an SSD upgrade but I knew there must be something I was doing wrong because I really did not see any difference.

I thought perhaps because i copied the drive instead of a fresh install of W7 was the issue. I read today that I need to change the AHCI setting in the registry and then change it in the bios to gain performance.

I will try this tonight when I get home and see if it helps performance. I also noticed I have orange colored SATA ports on my Gigabyte mobo and purple colored SATA-2 ports, should I have my SSD plugged into 0 on one of the SATA-2 ports or leave it on SATA-0 for best performance?

Also, if I do want to end up doing a fresh install of W7 on the SSD what software can I use to quick format the drive? My W7 cd will not work, i tried already.lol

Once I do the registry edit for AHCI and the bios change should I see a real difference in performance then?

I can still use the computer by switching the HD's power\cables' but do I need to "undo" the AHCI registry setting if I power up the WD SATA drive to use the comp?

Just some general info about the system, if it helps any:

The Intel SSD is a 120GB and I have 40 gigs free after the migration. The mobo is a Gigabyte-ep45, 12 GB G skill RAM, BFG GTX 275 video card, Corsair 650 mod PS,SATA dvd drive, Antec 900 case.

Thanks for your time, advice and help.

 

[docp]

just do the registry changes for your ahci and install the drivers for intel controller in your motherboard and check performance after enabling ahci.
if no good,download windows 7 usb tool and re install.
hope this helps.

 

[Termie]

Here's simple instructions from Microsoft on how to make the registry change: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976.

Come back to us after you've made the change. Right now your SSD is crippled by using IDE, so you can't make performance comparisons. If there are still problems after the registry change, then you'll need to do a fresh install. Download Intel SSD toolbox to format: http://www.intel.com/support/go/ssdtoolbox/index.htm.

You'll be able to use the old WD drive at your boot drive if you switch the BIOS back to IDE. Registry changes (like switch to ACHI) only affect the drive they're made on.

And SATA-0 is a safe choice for the boot drive.

 

[CZJZ]

Okay, thx Docp and Termie. I will do the reg change tonight and see how it goes and report back. I appreciate the other recommendations concerning formatting also (if needed).

I will post soon.

 

[CZJZ]

Hey guys thanks for the tips. I was able to alter the registry with the MS fix Termie posted and I went to Gigabytes site and dl'd the AHCI driver for the mobo like Docp said. I then went in and changed the bios settings to AHCI mode instead of IDE mode in the two places I could. It updated the drivers on reboot and said everything was good to go and reboot again.

The process went off without a hitch but the performance is still less than impressive. I ran the Windows Performance scan and my score went from the prior 6.4 to a whopping 6.6, Oooooo.lol I even ran the Intel optimizer in the toolbox dl.

I am hoping the migration is causing the lack luster performance because programs still seem to take 3-4 seconds to load and Battlefield BC2 still takes the same time frame to load as before.

Unless you guys can recommend something else to check before I wipe the SSD clean and do a fresh install I plan on trying that this weekend. I have a NASCAR league race tonight or I would start it then.

I really hope a fresh install does the trick but if not I really do not see the big deal in a SSD, especially not 200 bucks for 120 gigs.

I will keep an eye out on the thread before I wipe the drive clean in case a revelation strikes someone

 

[Termie]

Hey guys thanks for the tips. I was able to alter the registry with the MS fix Termie posted and I went to Gigabytes site and dl'd the AHCI driver for the mobo like Docp said. I then went in and changed the bios settings to AHCI mode instead of IDE mode in the two places I could. It updated the drivers on reboot and said everything was good to go and reboot again.

The process went off without a hitch but the performance is still less than impressive. I ran the Windows Performance scan and my score went from the prior 6.4 to a whopping 6.6, Oooooo.lol I even ran the Intel optimizer in the toolbox dl.

I am hoping the migration is causing the lack luster performance because programs still seem to take 3-4 seconds to load and Battlefield BC2 still takes the same time frame to load as before.

Unless you guys can recommend something else to check before I wipe the SSD clean and do a fresh install I plan on trying that this weekend. I have a NASCAR league race tonight or I would start it then.

I really hope a fresh install does the trick but if not I really do not see the big deal in a SSD, especially not 200 bucks for 120 gigs.

I will keep an eye out on the thread before I wipe the drive clean in case a revelation strikes someone

Sorry that didn't do the trick. Do the fresh install - unfortunately, that seems to be necessary to get top performance. My X25-M scores 7.5 in WEI, and the improvement versus my old Raptor was night and day. You can't judge it yet - yours obviously isn't performing up to its potential.

Before you wipe it, though, I'd try running an SSD benchmark to see if you're even in the ballpark, or if some area in particular is suffering. WEI is a very imprecise measure of performance, and doesn't really tell you anything about what's wrong.

Conveniently, the AS-SSD download page actually posts sample scores for an Intel SSD : http://www.alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/downloads.php?cat_id=4

It looks like a newer version of the program is available here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/AS-SSD-Benchmark-download-2569.html

 

[taltamir]

1. WEI is crap, you will be blown away by the performance; but it wouldn't register on the super-extra terrible WEI benchmark. Use any other benchmark, or just see for yourself how much faster it is in your day to day usage.

2. Windows, by default, disables its AHCI support if it does not detect you are running in AHCI mode during installation. This is a stupid and arbitrary decision by MS that serves no useful purpose. It results in windows failing to boot if you just switch AHCI on without first doing the registry thing. If you were to install windows with AHCI enabled, you would be able to freely change back and forth between IDE and AHCI as many times as you wanted.

3. It is important that you enable AHCI to get maximal benefit from your SSD... actually it will significantly improve the performance of most modern spindle HDD as well in multitasking situations.

4. A whole bunch of websites have a bunch of really bad advice on how to optimize for your SSD... don't follow any of it. All you have to do is install windows 7...
HOWEVER, AFAIK windows 7 detects and sets everything up correctly for an SSD if you install it on an SSD... however, I am not sure I trust any migration software to do so. for example, windows 7 does NOT load up its defragmenting software one boot, it runs it only when scheduled. and will configure it by default to defrag spindle drives and exclude SSDs. This is done on a drive by drive basis and you could tell it to defrag your SSD and it would (which only harms the SSD, no benefit at all). Anyways, if you had a spindle drive C and then migrated to SSD, the SSD is now drive C... does the windows defrag get reconfigured? How about alignment, is the partition correctly aligned for 4k sectors? (advanced format spindle drives and SSDs).

5. Windows 7 can quick format your SSD during the install, i use an intel G2 and it does on mine.

I suggest you look at: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2069761
To install and optimize windows 7 just follow the advice here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2072259
its as simple as 1, 2.
Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you should. Can you use a migration tool? yes, its simple, easy and it works. Should you? probably not, it will be better to do a clean install of windows.

 

[samboy]

I have the same drive and used the Intel content migration tool.

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.

In the end, I did the first part of a windows 7 install and formatted the SSD; confirmed that the partition was aligned properly. Restored a Norton Ghost partition image and then did a Windows 7 recovery on the SSD.

I was pretty disappointed that the migration tool did this and created a whole bunch of additional work on my side.

 

[taltamir]

TBH intel just rebrads a migration tool from someone else... it hasn't even been modified to correctly account for the target being an SSD.

Being misaligned not only costs you more writes, it also lowers your drive's performance quite a lot. But a consumer that can't be bothered to do a proper install is not going to notice either, probably. At least that is the logic... I think its more a of a checkmark feature... kinda like how all mobos must have a software raid5 option. For years i saw... i honestly don't remember if it was intel nvidia or amd get ragged on for not having mobo RAID5... despite all mobo raid5 implementations on the market being total trash that you should avoid like the plague... well they eventually got it... so now ever mobo you get will have raid5... and they all suck, badly.

 

[bobdole369]

we moved to all x25-m drives and the first one rolled through here yesterday. My tech was totally floored. It took < 10 seconds to boot, browsing wasn't snappy, it was instant. Loading our crazy database heavy app was damn fast too.

 

[taltamir]

we moved to all x25-m drives and the first one rolled through here yesterday. My tech was totally floored. It took < 10 seconds to boot, browsing wasn't snappy, it was instant. Loading our crazy database heavy app was damn fast too.

tell him to install some windows updates... and compare the time to install the same one on a machine with a spindle drive.
I have to say that by far the biggest difference I have seen is in the time to install patches / programs.

 

[CZJZ]

Thanks on all the feedback. I hate I will not be able to format tonight. I am really excited to get the drive working to its capabilities but I know right now it is not.

 

[Termie]

Thanks on all the feedback. I hate I will not be able to format tonight. I am really excited to get the drive working to its capabilities but I know right now it is not.

Good luck - it's a bummer that moving to an SSD is more work than swapping an HD, but it's worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Auric]

I cloned an HDD installation of W7 to an X25-V and did not encounter any issue (alignment is correct too). WEI is 7.7. AHCI was selected first but I don't see how that could be an issue or a fresh install ever necessary. Once installed, the Intel driver can be used for both AHCI and IDE so may even negate having to manually switch via registry. SSD Toolbox can automatically configure Windows correctly as well.

 

[docp]

how do we check alignment of drive?

 

[CZJZ]

If the fresh install does not work I will be very disappointed. The migration and the adjustments afterward said they completed just fine but the drive is really no faster than my old WD drive.

I know prior to installing my SSD i read many success stories ghosting a HD over and many that said a fresh install is the only way to go. I guess I was not lucky enough or knew enough to make a successful ghost.

Tonight I will format and I hope it gives me the Ferrari speed it can do instead of the Pinto pace it does now.

 

[Auric]

Drive manufacturers provide free alignment and clone tools commonly from Acronis and Paragon. The latter promoted their own branded Alignment Tool (unrestricted) last year with a give-away but it now costs $30.

CZJZ, have you run SSD Toolbox diagnostics? If you've spent any time installing software beyond Windows then you may want to make a backup image first in case a fresh install is not the solution.

 

[CZJZ]

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.

 

[Termie]

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 did you get W7 loaded in the first place? I know it wasn't on the SSD (since you cloned it), but you must have loaded it on a hard drive at some point. I assume you didn't have any problems then. What in your system has changed since then besides the SSD?

This what I would do:
1) pull out all but one memory stick.
2) confirm that BIOS is at all default settings for cpu and memory overclock, and set memory voltage to correct value for your memory.
3) confirm AHCI is selected.
4) confirm which drives the BIOS detects (should be SSD and DVD). There is no reason to have any USB drives connected at this point.
5) set boot drive to DVD, second drive SSD.
6) reboot with W7 disk in.
7) see if it takes you to the installation screen.

If this does not work, try all of this again, but with the WD hard drive plugged in to the SATA-0 slot. If it takes you to the install screen without any problems, then something is hanging with your SSD. I don't like the fact that you formatted it under WinXP. I've never tried that with an SSD, but as far as I know, WinXP doesn't handle SSDs correctly. If you have another Win7 computer, I'd try formatting the SSD on that system.

 

[CZJZ]

Hi Termie. Yes, i had no problems installing W7 on the WD drive but that was 6 months ago. The case has never even been opened until I went to put the SSD in since the original build. I do not not overclock, and have never messed with any voltage settings etc and no other hardware changes have been made.

I have installed BFBC2, GTL, Ventrillo, Steam, NASCAR 2k3, COD B\O and Medal of Honor and any Windows updates recommended, also MS security essentials and Malwarebytes during the six months i have had the computer.

The only additional thing that I can think of (now that I think back) that may be throwing a monkey wrench into this is my W7 dvd was ordered thru a College student University program from MS. This was not the exact same link as the time I bought it but it's the same offer: http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/windows/buynow/default.aspx

Anyway, at the time I remember some people asking if you could do a fresh install with this disc and the answer was yes but you have to choose something once the disc loads to get to that option.

Obviously, whatever that option was I did because it is on my WD drive but like I said that was 6 months ago so I cannot remember all the details but maybe that helps explain the problem or maybe not???

Thanks

 

[Termie]

Hi Termie. Yes, i had no problems installing W7 on the WD drive but that was 6 months ago. The case has never even been opened until I went to put the SSD in since the original build. I do not not overclock, and have never messed with any voltage settings etc and no other hardware changes have been made.

I have installed BFBC2, GTL, Ventrillo, Steam, NASCAR 2k3, COD B\O and Medal of Honor and any Windows updates recommended, also MS security essentials and Malwarebytes during the six months i have had the computer.

The only additional thing that I can think of (now that I think back) that may be throwing a monkey wrench into this is my W7 dvd was ordered thru a College student University program from MS. This was not the exact same link as the time I bought it but it's the same offer: http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/windows/buynow/default.aspx

Anyway, at the time I remember some people asking if you could do a fresh install with this disc and the answer was yes but you have to choose something once the disc loads to get to that option.

Obviously, whatever that option was I did because it is on my WD drive but like I said that was 6 months ago so I cannot remember all the details but maybe that helps explain the problem or maybe not???

Thanks

So you did a clean install using this W7 upgrade disk on your WD drive 6 months ago? If that is so, then it should work, but if you only id an upgrade from Vista, then that's a different story.

If you did actually do a clean install using this disk, then you know the disk works. There may be a trick to it, though - perhaps you should look into that before proceeding.

Also, I'd recommend you try booting to the disk partition menu of the W7 installation using the WD drive, just to check whether something about the SSD is stopping you from getting to that menu.

 

[taltamir]

If you are talking about alignment, you actually need to let windows 7 create the partitions for you. Now just do a "clean install". That is, you need to tell it to delete the existing partitions, the make new partitions.

 

[Termie]

If you are talking about alignment, you actually need to let windows 7 create the partitions for you. Now just do a "clean install". That is, you need to tell it to delete the existing partitions, the make new partitions.

That's good advice, but now he can't even get to the installation menu on the W7 disk for some reason.

 

[CZJZ]

That is correct Termie, the WD install was a fresh install, the entire rig was built when i got my copy of W7 so everything was virgin. That is why I was confused because I have never ran into it where I could not format\delete and resize the partition by booting ffrom the cd\dvd.

I went to the Student MS site I linked to looking for that question I mentioned above but I have not been able to locate it yet.

I understand what you are saying about trying to get to the installation menu thru the WD and I will try that.

I have a USB dvd drive and I thought I might try to boot from it before i try the WD \ w7 disc boot option.

 

[taltamir]

what stage fails exactly? does the bios POST? does the windows DVD load the installer? does the installer finish? does activation fail?

It is very important to know exactly at what stage things go bad.