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What do i need to change in my bios or in Windows 7 once i've installed the SSD?

S

SEIZETHEDAY4EVA

Member
As it says in the title really, i've never installed a SSD so i'm just wondering what if anything i need to change in my bios settings or in Windows 7?

I'll be only using the SSD no other hard drives will be installed and i'll be doing fresh install of Windows 7, the SSD is brand new: corsair gs 360 gb.

Thanks for any advice, as always, much appreciated.
 
In general, you shouldn't have to change anything in the BIOS nor in Windows. Windows will just be super quick - no need to tell it that it needs to be or anything.
 
Two settings to configure in BIOS (don't worry about changing Windows 7 setup stuff, just install it normally):

1) change IDE to AHCI - it's a mode for the SATA ports/hard drives, probably under your hard drive configurations. Some motherboards even let you set different modes for different SATA ports, in case you have an older optical drive or something that you want to keep in legacy IDE mode (e.g., for booting to the optical drive - BTW, who does this anymore when you can boot to USB much faster?). However, I noticed an improvement on my optical drive when I set it to AHCI mode (specifically, ripping a DVD was much faster). Anyway, your computer likely will already be set to AHCI mode for hard drives, so maybe you won't have to change anything, but it's unfair to the SSD if you run it in IDE mode, they really like AHCI mode.

2) Set the order of the SATA ports - essentially you make your SSD be top on the list, and then your hard drive be 2nd, etc. On my motherboard, the setting is under a different category, but it lets me set which SATA port should be #1. This is actually pretty cool, because you don't need to worry about old school jumpers or cabling to change which is master or slave, you just set it in BIOS and can use any order of SATA devices. Also, I can boot to my old hard drive really easily, just set the hard drive to SATA #1 and the SSD to SATA #2, and boom I boot up to my old Windows installation. Then just switch it back and I boot to my SSD installation. I almost always leave the SSD as drive #1, but occasionally I flip back to use some obscure program that I don't care to reinstall onto the SSD. After about 6 months I'll just wipe the hard drive's windows installation so then I'll not switch back and forth anymore, but it's very handy to be able to when you are first dealing with the new installation - it's like a safety net.

3) BONUS TIP - unplug the SATA cable for the hard drive when you install windows onto the SSD. Physically disconnect that hard drive, make sure the SSD is the only drive connected to your computer during installation. After you install windows and everything is good to go, then you can plug the hard drive SATA cable back in. Just a precaution to prevent windows from spreading the new installation files onto both drives.

So in a nutshell, you'd do the following:
1) Create your USB Windows installation, including the Windows install and any drivers etc. that you downloaded, and Microsoft Security Essentials or your favorite anti-malware thing.
2) turn off and disconnect the hard drive from the computer
3) connect SSD drive
4) boot into BIOS and set your SATA mode to be AHCI
5) install windows/software from USB
6) turn off and connect hard drive
7) boot into BIOS and check the SATA order; make sure the SSD is the first drive and the hard drive is the 2nd
 
Thanks very much for both of your replies.

So as i'm only using an SSD all i basically need to do is check in the bios that it's set to AHCI mode. Then i can simply install Windows and reap the benefits of faster load times, can't wait until tomorrow.
 
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