install backup image on SSD

[Lite Beer]

I am getting a few X-25M 2G at end of month. While I am waiting I am building some new Core I7 PCs. I am planning to install OS on a raptor drive on new PC using AHCI without the 100mb reserved partition. I plan on doing backup image of raptor and restoring on X-25M when I get them. Will this work?

I expect the Core I7 with the X-25M to be unbelievably fast machine.

 

[taltamir]

It is probably a better idea to do a clean install. actually, why exactly ARE you not doing it? if your only purpose in doing so is avoiding the 100MB partition, know that the 100MB reserved partition is a windows7 thing for bitlocker (useless waste).
You can avoid it by partitioning AND ACTIVATING the drive first before installing.

 

[Lite Beer]

Thanks for the response.

The only reason that I am not doing is I would like to get these PCs in use asap and it will be probably a month before I can get some X25Ms. I am trying to figure out the downside of not doing fresh install. I have restored backup images on hard drives before that were not the same hard drive the image was made on without problems. I am trying to figure out the downside of not doing fresh install. Is it a driver issue for the X25M? The Windows OS should recognize the X25M without any special drivers.

BTW I only mentioned the 100 mb partition because it is confusing to me. By activating I assume you mean making the partition active.

 

[Emulex]

just do a sector erase 000, then defrag for size, then reduce the partition down to the smallest size possible. which is about as close as to "thin-provisioning" as possible then copy that over using acronis or BESR. i know BESR (symantec ghost) skips unoccupied sectors for speed.

you don't want to copy a bunch of trash when you do copy, image, or offsite your data.

your drive is thick now; you want to make it as close to thin as possible then ghost it over then expand it.

acronis easy migrate (free trial) will handle the ghost it over and expand it for free.

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: taltamir
It is probably a better idea to do a clean install. actually, why exactly ARE you not doing it? if your only purpose in doing so is avoiding the 100MB partition, know that the 100MB reserved partition is a windows7 thing for bitlocker (useless waste).
You can avoid it by partitioning AND ACTIVATING the drive first before installing.

The reserved partition serves more of a purpose than that....
Windows 7 sizes it so that your system partition after it will have an SSD friendly 128KB alignment.

XP default partitioning (and Acronis TrueImage as well!!) is to start the first partition on sector 63, which isn't even 4KB aligned, so you potentially have a stupid situation like the one below, where to write filesystem cluster 9984 (if you aren't also writing 9983 and 9985), the disk must first read clusters 9999 and 10000 to see what was there before rewriting them since you are only replacing part of the data.

Edit: for some reason the attach code feature is stripping out my CR. Maybe just regular text will work better?

|---------SSD cluster 9999----------|-----------SSD cluster 10000---------|
filesystem cluster 9983-------|------filesystem cluster 9984---------|-----filesystem cluster 9985

 

[Emulex]

you can use diskpart with any o/s i thought to align it? windows 2008 seem to auto-align which i suppose means vista does to. windows storage server 2003 even auto-aligns. it must have been the older o/s like XP and windows 2003 that did not auto-align for best i/o performance.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Emulex
just do a sector erase 000, then defrag for size, then reduce the partition down to the smallest size possible. which is about as close as to "thin-provisioning" as possible then copy that over using acronis or BESR. i know BESR (symantec ghost) skips unoccupied sectors for speed.

you don't want to copy a bunch of trash when you do copy, image, or offsite your data.

your drive is thick now; you want to make it as close to thin as possible then ghost it over then expand it.

acronis easy migrate (free trial) will handle the ghost it over and expand it for free.

you wanna do all 1 in an SSD, and you want to use a special "secure erase" ATA command or it will go all over and waste a lot of writes and times.

 

[taltamir]

The reserved partition serves more of a purpose than that....
Windows 7 sizes it so that your system partition after it will have an SSD friendly 128KB alignment.

A 100MB partition is not needed for alignment, less than 100 sectors are.
If you manually partition AND ACTIVE said partition to avoid 100MB bitlocker partition, you obviously should align it correctly.

Also. the partition DOES do more than just bitlocker, it also stores some boot files, but they can go on your regular partition with no issues

 

[WonderSausage]

Originally posted by: Emulex
you can use diskpart with any o/s i thought to align it? windows 2008 seem to auto-align which i suppose means vista does to. windows storage server 2003 even auto-aligns. it must have been the older o/s like XP and windows 2003 that did not auto-align for best i/o performance.

Auto-alignment is performed by DISKPART (or Windows Setup) with:

- Windows 7
- Windows Vista
- Windows Server 2008
- Windows Server 2008 R2

Use Vista/Win7 IMAGEX from the WAIK to clone to an SSD, NOT a sector-based tool.

WS

 

[WonderSausage]

Originally posted by: taltamir
the partition DOES do more than just bitlocker, it also stores some boot files

Those boot files are there to allow you to enable Bitlocker without re-partitioning the drive.

When Bitlocker is enabled, the system volume is encrypted, so you cannot boot from it directly. You must boot from amother partition which unencrypts access to the system volume.

Yes, you could switch to booting from the main volume if you don't use Bitlocker, but you'd have to kill the 100MB boot partition, boot with the install DVD and do a boot repair to get the system partition bootable (or if you're a masochist, do it manually with BCDEDIT).

There is no reason to go to all this hassle just for 100MB, besides, it would prevent you from using Bitlocker in the future without re-partitioning.

 

[taltamir]

What you said ONLY applies IF YOU ALREADY INSTALLED WIN7 AND HAVE A 100MB PARTITION.
Using a "repair install" to remove it is indeed pointless, I am leaving it on my current install. But in future installs I will prevent it from ever EXISTING. Which just requires you to manually partition before installing windows.

 

[Lite Beer]

Thanks for all the info.

So in simple steps:

1. Can I use Disk Management snap-in tool in Windows 7 to partition and format SSD wtih NTFS and set it active.

2. Restore backup image from my raptor to the SSD.

Did not understand some of the other procedures mentioned such as sector erase 000 and the alignment issues and not sure if they really apply to what I am trying to accomplish.

I am just trying to use the keep it simple method.

 

[taltamir]

alignment always applies for SSD, it is a big deal about their performance.
erase 000 means use secure erase and set every sector in the drive to 0 (remember, binary is a sequence of 0 and 1). Which is wrong anyways, you should never do all 0 on an SSD, you should do all 1

there is also no reason to do all 1 on an SSD unless you sell it and are worried about your privacy

 

[Emulex]

don't forget stripe size don't want a monster stripe size on a ssd