Brand new SSD help.

[Darkleoco]

Earlier today I purchased a Kingston SSDNow 200 128gb SSD for use in my laptop and I am just wondering what the best way to install it is.

I am using this drive to supplement the 1TB 5400 rpm storage drive in my laptop.

Also a large reason for my reluctance to move my operating system install is sheer inability to do so. I around 600 gb of files that I have no way to move off of my laptop. I have played around with Homegroups and nitroshare but neither works correctly for me.

A few things.
- I do not generally have issues with the way my laptop boots up or wakes from sleep as it is hardly ever shut off.

-I game ALOT and that is one of the main reasons for purchasing this drive.

-There are also a few miscellaneous programs I use often that I would like to add to my SSD. I also host my own minecraft server which I know will benefit greatly from the increased speed.

My questions.

-Is it worth it to install Windows 7 on my SSD if I very rarely end up restarting my laptop and I am happy with how quickly it wakes up from sleep (near instant anyway once I type my password).

-Can I just use it as a supplemental drive and migrate certain games onto it and leave my windows install on the storage drive? The games I have in mind are Skyrim/BF3/Borderlands/Borderlands2 and World of Warcraft.

-Are there any games notorious for benefitting from being on a SSD?


Darkleoco

[manofthem]

Since you've already purchased the ssd and are going to install it into the laptop, I would definitely have it as the OS drive, as it will make everything faster/snappier. Otherwise, I'd say that there's little point in the ssd at all, might as well throw in another hdd (assuming you need space) or just do nothing (maybe throw it in your dekstop rig as an OS drive).

In regards to saving data, can't you just throw your data onto your desktop rig through whatever network you have at home? If not, you could always remove your laptop hdd and plug it into your desktop, back up everything you need (it looks like your rig has space), reformat the hdd, put the stuff back, and that should be it. (assuming you want/need to wipe the latpop hdd of any unnecessary OS and system files)

My too cents

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Since you've already purchased the ssd and are going to install it into the laptop, I would definitely have it as the OS drive, as it will make everything faster/snappier. Otherwise, I'd say that there's little point in the ssd at all, might as well throw in another hdd (assuming you need space) or just do nothing (maybe throw it in your dekstop rig as an OS drive).

In regards to saving data, can't you just throw your data onto your desktop rig through whatever network you have at home? If not, you could always remove your laptop hdd and plug it into your desktop, back up everything you need (it looks like your rig has space), reformat the hdd, put the stuff back, and that should be it. (assuming you want/need to wipe the latpop hdd of any unnecessary OS and system files)

My too cents

Making it an OS drive with some games installed was my first plan but then Homegroup gave me problems (didnt work at all) and Nitroshare failed to send files from my laptop to my desktop yet worked perfectly sending them from my desktop to my laptop

Also could I simply remove my laptop hard drive and connect it to my desktop to back up my data? I am unsure how that would work which is why I was hesitant to just try it out of the blue.

As for my desktop having plenty of room I have about 1.2TB which will go down to around 800GB when I install all of the Steam games I purchased while at school so I can still manage a backup just fine.

[sneekypeet]

just power down the desktop and plug in the lappy drive. Connect it all up, boot the desktop and get into bios. Make sure the desktop drive still has boot priority, then boot to windows.

The desktop drive will boot just fine and when its done sorting things out at the beginning, you will then get a popup that windows found a new drive and it assigned a letter to it.

Then just open the new drive and drag what you need over to the desktop.

As you say, the software allows you to shift to the laptop so you are already good there

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

just power down the desktop and plug in the lappy drive. Connect it all up, boot the desktop and get into bios. Make sure the desktop drive still has boot priority, then boot to windows.

The desktop drive will boot just fine and when its done sorting things out at the beginning, you will then get a popup that windows found a new drive and it assigned a letter to it.

Then just open the new drive and drag what you need over to the desktop.

As you say, the software allows you to shift to the laptop so you are already good there

Going to give that a try now, here goes nothing

Edit: Copying over all my steam files now, then to trim everything else lol

[Darkleoco]

Should I clone my Hard Drive once I get as much excess data off of it or is there a way I can install windows onto the SSD with one of the disks that came with my laptop?

Also what is the most effective way to have certain Steam games located on a separate drive? I want to have my main Steam install and some specific games on my SSD and others to be located on my storage drive.

[Jstn7477]

Yes, you can install Windows on the SSD from the recovery disc that came with your laptop. You can try Steam Mover but it doesn't work on all games and I don't recommend bothering putting any Steam games on your SSD because they aren't going to load instantaneously. http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

The biggest thing is getting Windows and core applications onto the SSD. Then install Steam on D:\ and use it for your games and stuff. I know Steam rapes the HDD every time you start it up, but that's how I have it set up on my desktop.

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

Yes, you can install Windows on the SSD from the recovery disc that came with your laptop. You can try Steam Mover but it doesn't work on all games and I don't recommend bothering putting any Steam games on your SSD because they aren't going to load instantaneously. http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

The biggest thing is getting Windows and core applications onto the SSD. Then install Steam on D:\ and use it for your games and stuff. I know Steam rapes the HDD every time you start it up, but that's how I have it set up on my desktop.

I was mainly thinking of putting Skyrim/Battlefield 3 and WoW on my SSD I know that WoW will benefit greatly from it and I assume that Skyrim and Battlefield 3 will as well.

[Jstn7477]

I mean, if you have the space for non-Steam games then you can go ahead and install them on the SSD if you want. I was just suggesting that you shouldn't bother with Steam and junction points on the SSD. Skyrim doesn't really have terrible loading times on an HDD, at least on my 2TB Seagate 5900RPM drive. Getting Windows off the drive and onto the SSD seemed to help a bit if I remember correctly. Just be warned that a base Windows install and programs will eat nearly half of your 120GB SSD right off the bat.

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

I mean, if you have the space for non-Steam games then you can go ahead and install them on the SSD if you want. I was just suggesting that you shouldn't bother with Steam and junction points on the SSD. Skyrim doesn't really have terrible loading times on an HDD, at least on my 2TB Seagate 5900RPM drive. Getting Windows off the drive and onto the SSD seemed to help a bit if I remember correctly. Just be warned that a base Windows install and programs will eat nearly half of your 120GB SSD right off the bat.

How much space should I expect the windows install to take up? I have seen widely varying amounts from as little as 14 gb to around 30 gb and am unsure exactly how much to expect.

[Jstn7477]

Raw files are about 20GB (Win8 Pro) plus a page file matching the amount of RAM you have (a lot of people forget about that). Consider moving your page file to the HDD. Installed Windows 8 Pro again yesterday after my SSD died after a year (reminder, keep frequent backups as SSDs typically die without warning) and it is just the OS and small programs.

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

Raw files are about 20GB (Win8 Pro) plus a page file matching the amount of RAM you have (a lot of people forget about that). Consider moving your page file to the HDD. Installed Windows 8 Pro again yesterday after my SSD died after a year (reminder, keep frequent backups as SSDs typically die without warning) and it is just the OS and small programs.

Is there any way to put a new install of Windows 7 onto my SSD if I can't find the disc that came with the laptop?

I actually don't think any recovery CD's came with my laptop at all.

[Jetster]

Don't move your page file just reduce it to 1 Gb =1000 and shut off system restore. Windows Install should be about 18 Gb

[Darkleoco]

So I have trimmed the majority of my unnecessary data off of my hard drive but I am still sitting with 132 gb used and I cannot fathom why :/ I also have a 25gb Windows Properties folder is that the main install? Is it deletable?

So cloning is out and I have no idea what is eating up that much space besides the odd properties folder :/

Also if I installed a completely new version of Windows 7 Ultimate would I need to re-download Asus specific drivers for my laptop and such?

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by Darkleoco

So I have trimmed the majority of my unnecessary data off of my hard drive but I am still sitting with 132 gb used and I cannot fathom why :/ I also have a 25gb Windows Properties folder is that the main install? Is it deletable?

So cloning is out and I have no idea what is eating up that much space besides the odd properties folder :/

Also if I installed a completely new version of Windows 7 Ultimate would I need to re-download Asus specific drivers for my laptop and such?

Are you talking about your Windows folder on your C:? Mine is 20GB on Win8.

Did you turn off hibernate and shrink pagefile? That saves a lot of space, as others said.

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Are you talking about your Windows folder on your C:? Mine is 20GB on Win8.

Did you turn off hibernate and shrink pagefile? That saves a lot of space, as others said.

Haven't gotten to that yet but my main concern is I simply have no way to install Windows on it as Asus does not provide recovery CD's and it tells me I need 6 CD's to make a recovery and I have no idea why that is necessary at all (I only have 2 on hand and I am leaving back to my University on Sunday).



I am about to attempt to return this drive out of sheer frustration because this is completely ridiculous first no recovery CD's are provided then it tells me I need 6 CD's to make a recovery!!!!

It takes only a single CD for a recovery that is the same as it has always been.



As of right now my laptop is in an unusable state simply because Asus decided they were too cheap to.
A. Provide recovery CD's
B. Provide a decent pre-installed software to burn a recovery CD.

Never dealing with Asus again period.

Also unable to take my main drives used space under 120GB no idea what gives with that at all this is completely stupid.

[manofthem]

My questions about shrinking pf and turning off hibernate applies to your current hdd. If those haven't been done, do them on your hdd, and it may put you under the space you need. You'll need to reboot after doing those.

Or is your hdd now in your desktop?

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by manofthem

My questions about shrinking pf and turning off hibernate applies to your current hdd. If those haven't been done, do them on your hdd, and it may put you under the space you need. You'll need to reboot after doing those.

Or is your hdd now in your desktop?

It was in my desktop however I have it back in my laptop and am attempting to burn a recovery disk to a single CD rather than the 6 it is mistakenly telling me are required

Cloning is not a viable option as I need a sub 60 gb install of windows on my SSD and cutting another roughly 70gb even if I reduced my page file by 7 gigs does not seem likely unless hibernate uses a ridiculous amount of space.

Also as a side note Asus is the single worst company I have ever done business with and if I can help it I will never deal with them again after seeking Arrakis and his nightmare of an RMA and my experience with an Asus representative hanging up on me after feeding me some bullshit about policy not allowing them to help me. I pay $1400 for a laptop policy be damned!

[Jstn7477]

Every manufacturer these days has you burn your own media and it usually takes 2-3 DVDs tops. The last notebook I had with factory install media was my 2008 Toshiba X205-SLi4, which became a $2400 paperweight after eating 2 motherboards and 4 pairs of blatantly defective NVIDIA 8600m GT GPUs. Consider yourself lucky that you actually have a laptop that shouldn't break every 3 months.

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

Every manufacturer these days has you burn your own media and it usually takes 2-3 DVDs tops. The last notebook I had with factory install media was my 2008 Toshiba X205-SLi4, which became a $2400 paperweight after eating 2 motherboards and 4 pairs of blatantly defective NVIDIA 8600m GT GPUs. Consider yourself lucky that you actually have a laptop that shouldn't break every 3 months.

I don't understand how it can take more than a single DVD however? When they used to be provided it was always a single one. Also the recovery CD I am burning will just be a complete factory re-install if I am correct?

[sneekypeet]

just use the retail copy of the OS and use the desktop to get the drivers for the laptop from ASUS.

IMHO you are really over thinking the whole thing. Just pop in the SSD and build the OS just like you would for a desktop. then install that other drive after it is clean, then transfer all the stuff back.

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

just use the retail copy of the OS and use the desktop to get the drivers for the laptop from ASUS.

IMHO you are really over thinking the whole thing. Just pop in the SSD and build the OS just like you would for a desktop. then install that other drive after it is clean, then transfer all the stuff back.

My problem is that the only windows 7 CD I have is from the Home Premium I purchased for my desktop, would I be able to just use that with my laptop's serial code? I would have been done ages ago if Asus had simply provided me with a recovery CD from the start since how to get a fresh install of Windows 7 on my SSD became my main problem and main source of my current migraine

I am currently attempting to burn a recovery CD and will see how that goes I am hoping it solves all of my troubles.

[sneekypeet]

no but my guess is the key you have on the desktop will also verify on the laptop. If not you have 30 days to gain access to a working key.

I say try it, if the key dont work, what are you out, just dont mess with the HDD until you find out what happens.

[Darkleoco]

Originally Posted by sneekypeet

no but my guess is the key you have on the desktop will also verify on the laptop. If not you have 30 days to gain access to a working key.

I say try it, if the key dont work, what are you out, just dont mess with the HDD until you find out what happens.

Just finished burning a backup CD and if that doesn't work then I will just use the Windows 7 install disk from my desktop and try to use the same code since it makes no difference to me really.

Edit: So done with Asus, 2.5 hours and the recovery CD won't even function correctly forget that. Old Windows 7 disk it is.

[Jetster]

Yes do a clean install. The great thing about 7 is use can use the install disk from your desktop sand the key on your laptop. Ive done this.