Migrate from Vertex 2 to a Crucial M4?

[kornfan71]

Hello all,
I currently have an OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SDD (34nm), and I'm thinking of buying a Crucial M4 128GB (25nm) to replace it, and then putting my Vertex in my laptop.

However, is it possible to move all of my existing partitions from the Vertex to the M4? I have 3 partitions on it: Windows' "System Reserved," Windows 7, and Ubuntu 11.04. Can I just use GParted's copy feature to move the partitions over, or do I need to use some kind of cloning software?
If I have to use cloning software, is there a free one available somewhere?

Or, does moving the partitions not work at all, and I'd just need to spend a few days reinstalling Windows and Linux? :|

Thanks in advance! :biggrin:

 

[nanaki333]

any low level drive image cloning program will work for moving everything to a new drive.

i would recommend against the M4. it has a lot of problems and crucial has yet to address problems even exist. you would be better off with a C300.

 

[dbrons]

If you don't mind me asking, I'm in similar situation. Have 34nm Vertex2 120gb. and I'm doing new build with Asus z68 v pro board.

My Vertex2 is great but I'm wondering if since I'll be doing a fresh install would it be worth it to get a Vertx3, or C300 one of the new drives?

Dave

 

[sequoia464]

any low level drive image cloning program will work for moving everything to a new drive.

i would recommend against the M4. it has a lot of problems and crucial has yet to address problems even exist. you would be better off with a C300.

I returned two 128 gb M4's that were seriously underperforming for me. The only response that I got from Crucial was check for latest drivers and bios. They did perform better than my 60 Gb Vertex 2's and Intel 80 gb M25's, but just barely (all of these drives were paired in raid0). On the flip side of this however, I have seen benchmarks from M4's that are pretty impressive.

 

[kornfan71]

Thanks all for the responses!

i would recommend against the M4. it has a lot of problems and crucial has yet to address problems even exist. you would be better off with a C300.

nanaki, which problems are you referring to? I know about the drive "freezing" (which also happened on the C300s before a firmware update), but it seems to be an Intel issue, based on this Crucial forum post; I'm running an AMD machine.
Is that freezing issue not only on Intel machines? Are there any other issues I should be aware of? :\

sequoia, as far as RAID goes, I don't think you can pass TRIM commands to the drives yet, so that would make sense. Based on the Anandtech reviews of the Crucial C300 and M4 drives, the garbage collection doesn't seem to kick in as early as it should, leading to performance degradation. (That's just as I understand it, I could be wrong! :whiste I wonder if they would perform better as just single drives?

 

[sequoia464]

Thanks all for the responses!

nanaki, which problems are you referring to? I know about the drive "freezing" (which also happened on the C300s before a firmware update), but it seems to be an Intel issue, based on this Crucial forum post; I'm running an AMD machine.
Is that freezing issue not only on Intel machines? Are there any other issues I should be aware of? :\

sequoia, as far as RAID goes, I don't think you can pass TRIM commands to the drives yet, so that would make sense. Based on the Anandtech reviews of the Crucial C300 and M4 drives, the garbage collection doesn't seem to kick in as early as it should, leading to performance degradation. (That's just as I understand it, I could be wrong! :whiste I wonder if they would perform better as just single drives?

My AS SSD score on the two raided M4's with a fresh install ranged from 657 to 745, ATTO reads never topped 660,000 - they should have been over 800,000. I secure erased after adjustments and re-testing. Trim and degredation shouldn't have played any role in the scores. The best ATTO read score for a single was 310,000 - they should hit 400,000. Didn't bother to run AS SSD on a single - probably should have. I appreciate the input though, I am aware of the late GC on these drives and was a bit hesitant to use them for a raid setup, but I only used about 75% of the available storage, and from what I have read, even with the slow GC these drives work OK in raid. My raided 60 gbVertex 2's and Intel 80 M25's were not far behind these drives. Sequential read and write of incompressable data is what I am looking for for this set - looks like the Intel 510's are where I'm going to be looking next.

This is on an AMD 850 southbridge. Like I said, it might just be an issue with my system because I have seen some pretty good results posted for these drives. They just didn't work for me. Thankfully Amazon took them back.

Here is a good price on a Micron C400 if you're interested (same thing as an M4) - $200 after discount - free shipping. Tax for me in Ca though. http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...28GB-RealSSD-C400-SATA3-Solid-State-Drive-MLC

 

[nanaki333]

my crucial, as someone else stated, under preforms and freezes sometimes when used as an OS drive. i have my 256GB M4 set as my steam/games drive now and it seems to do OK. the freezing isn't so much an intel issue, it's just a terrible drive with very little support. my main drive is 2x intel 320 160GB drives in raid0. copying to and from the M4 i can barely hit 300MB/s. i know it's not a limitation of my intel drives, because when i had my vertex 3 as my steam drive, i could easily top out over 400MB. the v3 went in my wife's computer though as her OS drive. a c300 with the most up to date firmware is going to be a better performer and more reliable than the M4. look up benchmarks, you'll see the c300 preforms equally or in some cases, better than the M4.

 

[kornfan71]

nanaki,
I saw that the C300 had a lot of the same issues the M4 has (freezing, performance degradation, etc). Have all of these issues been fixed in the firmware updates Crucial released?
(The main reason I was looking at the M4 is that it's cheaper than the C300. It's only a matter of $15, though, so if all of its issues have been hammered out, I'll go for the C300.)

EDIT:
I just went ahead and bought the C300. Thanks for the advice, nanaki! :biggrin:

 

[nanaki333]

no problem. the c300 is a great drive with the latest firmware now. the m4 will get there eventually, but it's just not there yet. overall, the c300 is a much better drive. also, being that it is not 25nm, it'll last longer too

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The m4 is an insanely fast drive. So is the C300. I believe the Vertex drives are overrated. Many people at XS laugh at AT's benchmarks, as they've shown time and time again the Vertex drives such at 4k random read/writes which is what 95% of people will care about anyway for a SSD. The m4 should trounce the Vertex 3.

My m4 is not slowing down at all, but then again its only been a month.