New SSD Install Sequence

[nedjinski]

Hi and thanks for the help.

I am about to upgrade my system to include a new SSD. I want to make sure I get the sequence of events correct before I start.

What I have -

Gigabyte EP45
8 gb ram
Q6600
Win 7 Pro 64bit.
1 TB HD divided into several partitions - C:, E:, F:, etc.
SATA in IDE mode.

What I want to end up with -

New SSD (Mushkin Chronos Deleuxe 120GB) as primary system drive with all of the old Win 7 programs & files from the C: ONLY not any of the other partitions. current C: drive is 265GB with 85GB used.

Keep the old HD as backup / storage drive.

My choices are I guess,
do a clean OS install on the new SSD -
clone the old C: drive to the new SSD -

Sequence - what to do first - when do I change the BIOS to ACHI? etc. If I do a clean install of the OS can I restore all of the old programs & files from a backup? what happens to the old OS files in that case? if I do a clone what happens to the partition sizes? does the new SSD get confused about partitions?

I have a third HD to use a backup location if necessary.

Thanks for your help!

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I would recommend the clean install option unless you don't have install media/file for the programs you want to keep. If you can't reinstall your programs, your only option to keep them is to image.

You'll want to change your BIOS to AHCI as soon as you put the SSD in there. You don't actually need it in AHCI mode until you're installing Windows, but are you going to remember to do it in the middle of everything there? You'll already be rebooting your computer to put the SSD in, just change your BIOS as soon as you turn it back on with the SSD in there.

If you install clean on the SSD, you can simply tell your BIOS to boot from the SSD first, and just have your old hard drive hooked up like normal. Windows will have a nice clean new C: and your old hard drive partitions will all show up as D:, E:, F:, etc. You can then copy all your files (not your programs) wherever you want them, and once you're sure you can safely do it, delete the partitions on the old drive and repartition the whole thing into one big D:.

If you go the image route, you'll just need to make sure to use an imaging program that knows how to align the partition on the SSD. I'll let others give you specific recommendations there. I always go for clean installs myself. Two days of slight pain reinstalling programs is well worth not having weird issues trying to get a clean image restore. Just my opinion.

 

[FAUguy]

Have you made sure you're BIOS has a setting for AHCI?
I guess right now it's just set to IDE for the current Windows 7 drive.

What I did was first to download the Intel Rapid Storage drivers.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20624&lang=eng
Open a command prompt and run the file with a "-a" switch at the end, will look like iata_enu_10.8.0.1003.exe -a
That extracts the files to the Program Files/Intel folder. Then go in there and copy the x64 drivers from it to the Windows/system, system32, and syswow64 folders. Next, go to the Regedit and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci and change the value of the Start from 3 to 0.
Next reboot the system and go into the BIOS and change it from IDE to AHCI, save, restart.
Now when Win 7 loads, it will look for those Intel drivers that you copied over to the three System folders. It will install the new drivers and require a restart. When Win 7 loads again, now run the iata_enu_10.8.0.1003.exe program on it's own, as it will install the full program instead of just extracting the files, after it's done restart.
Now the current hard drive is setup and work with AHCI.
At this point if you clone the drive to a SSD, the clone will also have AHCI active on it too.

The info for making the registry edit AHCI I got from here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html
But you had to already have the Intel drivers downloaded and placed in the System folders so that Windows can find them.

 

[FAUguy]

If you go the image route, you'll just need to make sure to use an imaging program that knows how to align the partition on the SSD. I'll let others give you specific recommendations there. I always go for clean installs myself. Two days of slight pain reinstalling programs is well worth not having weird issues trying to get a clean image restore. Just my opinion.

I agree. After trying to do a clone using Norton Ghost from my HDD to a Samsung SSD, it was not booting right with the boot manager:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html
Now the Samsung SSD is "locked" and I can't get it to work right, plus the two Seagate 3TB drives have started to fail making loud clicking sounds.
So I'm sending it all back and re-ordering Western Digital 2TB and then will look at SSD again after, but would end up doing a clean install -even though I wish I could do a clone so I wouldnt have to reinstall all my programs/settings again.

 

[dryfly]

Have you made sure you're BIOS has a setting for AHCI?
I guess right now it's just set to IDE for the current Windows 7 drive.

What I did was first to download the Intel Rapid Storage drivers.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20624&lang=eng
Open a command prompt and run the file with a "-a" switch at the end, will look like iata_enu_10.8.0.1003.exe -a
That extracts the files to the Program Files/Intel folder. Then go in there and copy the x64 drivers from it to the Windows/system, system32, and syswow64 folders. Next, go to the Regedit and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci and change the value of the Start from 3 to 0.
Next reboot the system and go into the BIOS and change it from IDE to AHCI, save, restart.
Now when Win 7 loads, it will look for those Intel drivers that you copied over to the three System folders. It will install the new drivers and require a restart. When Win 7 loads again, now run the iata_enu_10.8.0.1003.exe program on it's own, as it will install the full program instead of just extracting the files, after it's done restart.
Now the current hard drive is setup and work with AHCI.
At this point if you clone the drive to a SSD, the clone will also have AHCI active on it too.

The info for making the registry edit AHCI I got from here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html
But you had to already have the Intel drivers downloaded and placed in the System folders so that Windows can find them.

Any benefit to doing this and using the Intel Rapid Storage drivers if the motherboard manufacturer supplies AHCI drivers?

 

[FAUguy]

Any benefit to doing this and using the Intel Rapid Storage drivers if the motherboard manufacturer supplies AHCI drivers?

The ones that come with motherboard's CD disc (including my ASRock Fatal1ty Z68) are going to be an older version. I would always use the newest drivers available, which is the ones on Intel's site. ASRock hasn't even listed the new Intel drivers on their site yet, and they've been out for a month now.

 

[nedjinski]

WELL SO FAR i CAN'T GET THE MACHINE TO BOOT INTO achi NO MATTER WHAT i DO - AND i HAVE DONE ALL THE ABOVE CHANGES.

so my options are to do a clean install -

I did install the SSD by itself and when it was alone I could make the BIOS ACHI settings work.

I have a full system backup both from Acronis and the Win 7 backup utility stored on another HD - my concern is that the restore from one of those may not work.

 

[FAUguy]

I got in my two Western Digital 2TB drives that replaced the two Seagate Baraciuda 3TB that were crashing after a couple days. I was able to once again clone my old hard drives to the new 2TB drives and then get AHCI to install after the clone by doing the above steps on placing the Intel drivers in the Windows/System folders and making the regedit.

 

[nedjinski]

it seems like a lot of this problem in general has to do with the motherboard and whatever chipset it has.
mine will not start in achi no matter what i do.

i don't mind doing a clean install on the SSD - I just want to be able to do a restore from the backup i made from the old C: drive.

 

[FAUguy]

Maybe try the AHCI drivers on the site from 2009?
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3013#dl
I'm wondering if its an incompatibility issue with the newest drivers.

 

[bryanW1995]

Clean install is easiest/best solution.

 

[nedjinski]

now doing clean install -

hope I will be able to do a restore from my old drive

something I noticed -
during post I see "no drives found" under a Gigabyte SATA/RAID/ACHI heading.

the computer boots anyway. and I am in SATA ACHI mode.

 

[Ihmemies]

What I did:
1. Install & update Ghost 15 which came with Samsung 830.
2. Clone the C partition to SSD
3. Tried to boot from SSD and realized drive letters are borked -> back to original windows, in regedit loaded SYSTEM hive from SSD's windows/system32/config and removed all entries from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
4. Booted from SSD, now Windows generated new drive letters and everything worked ok.
5. Ran in-place upgrade to Windows 7. Waited 1h and was back again using my pc

 

[Paratus]

What I did:
1. Install & update Ghost 15 which came with Samsung 830.
2. Clone the C partition to SSD
3. Tried to boot from SSD and realized drive letters are borked -> back to original windows, in regedit loaded SYSTEM hive from SSD's windows/system32/config and removed all entries from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
4. Booted from SSD, now Windows generated new drive letters and everything worked ok.
5. Ran in-place upgrade to Windows 7. Waited 1h and was back again using my pc

I'm having a similar issue. I tried to clone my C drive to the Samaung 830 using Ghost. The new SSD is now the O drive and I'm unable to change the drive letter to C.

What worse unless I have both the SSD and my prior boot drive attached I cannot boot correctly into windows. Gives me a windows is not genuine error.

I need help.

 

[FAUguy]

I'm having a similar issue. I tried to clone my C drive to the Samaung 830 using Ghost. The new SSD is now the O drive and I'm unable to change the drive letter to C.

What worse unless I have both the SSD and my prior boot drive attached I cannot boot correctly into windows. Gives me a windows is not genuine error.

I need help.

I noticed the same thing about the drive letters.
When I would boot off the SSD, and then run a program, it would read it off the HDD and not the SSD. I wasn't sure how to fix it.

 

[ElFenix]

If you go the image route, you'll just need to make sure to use an imaging program that knows how to align the partition on the SSD. I'll let others give you specific recommendations there. I always go for clean installs myself. Two days of slight pain reinstalling programs is well worth not having weird issues trying to get a clean image restore. Just my opinion.

ugh really? what a pain

 

[LokutusofBorg]

ugh really? what a pain

Are you saying installing clean is a pain? If so, did you not read the replies immediately above yours?