A few questions about setting up SSD

[woltej1]

So I read a couple guides on how to set up an SSD when upgrading an HDD. I know you're suppose to set up your bios to ACHEI or something along those lines, but my question is do I do this after I clone my HDD onto my SSD or after?
When first cloning do I just plug in my SSD without messing with any settings, then do the clone and then restart and mess with the bios?

 

[popatim]

Either.
You can do it now to make sure its working before your ssd gets here or you can clone the ssd and get it working "as is" and then change it when you are ready.

 

[woltej1]

What do you mean make sure it is working? ACHI mode or what? I'm mostly wondering what to do during the cloning process, when both drives will be plugged in. Does ACHI mode need to be enabled before both drives are plugged in or only after I clone and will actually be using the system for normal use.

 

[kaswyn]

If you can install the OS on the SSD without cloning, that would be best method. Cloning can work if you have the right tool, but a fresh install is always best. Windows will automatically make sure the OS is set up correctly to extend the life of the SSD. And yes, set the BIOS to AHCI mode *before* you install the OS on the SSD.

 

[woltej1]

If you can install the OS on the SSD without cloning, that would be best method. Cloning can work if you have the right tool, but a fresh install is always best. Windows will automatically make sure the OS is set up correctly to extend the life of the SSD. And yes, set the BIOS to AHCI mode *before* you install the OS on the SSD.

A fresh install would be easy for me to do, do you recommend unplugging the HDD for the install? And then also, If I want to transfer things like games, is it as easy as copy and paste or should I use cloning or do a fresh install (this I would rather not do since I'd have to re download the games and my internet isn't the fastest.)

 

[kaswyn]

-You do not need to unplug the HDD. You do need to go into BIOS and set the boot drive to be the SSD.

-You generally cannot just copy games and apps over since newer games and apps require an install. If you are willing to simply reinstall them, you could just download the games overnight or something because your internet is slow. Some games have saved files in specific places like My Games or C:\Users\[your login]\App Data\xxxxxxxxx\, which you can simply copy over and reinstall the games and it will work. It depends.

-Some cloning software will do it too, but you'll have to go do some research since I am fine reinstalling my things so I don't care about that. download.com (which will redirect you to http://download.cnet.com/windows/) is a great place to get things like that.

 

[popatim]

What do you mean make sure it is working? ACHI mode or what? I'm mostly wondering what to do during the cloning process, when both drives will be plugged in. Does ACHI mode need to be enabled before both drives are plugged in or only after I clone and will actually be using the system for normal use.

Either way.

You either want to clone to the SSD in ide mode, and them boot from the SSD (in ide mode) and make sure everything works ok and then change to AHCI and make sure everything works again.

or

Change to AHCI, make sure everything works and then clone to the SSD; and then boot from the SSD and make sure everything works again.


If you do it all in one step and something goes wrong you wont know which 'broke' your windows and probably wind up reinstalling everything.


and Lastly, the first step before you do any of this is having a valid backup or two of, at minimum, your important data (music, pics, videos, books, game saves, emails, passwords, docs...)


edit - By making sure everything works, you basically test your pc & programs. Nothing is foolproof or guarantied to work right so you need to make sure it all works. Ie - just because your pc boots off the ssd doesn't mean that all you pictures didn't get corrupted (for example) during the clone.

This is also what is meant by a "valid backup". Just because you made a backup doesn't mean its actually not corrupted. You need to check it and be sure. To give you another real life example here is that my sister-in-laws sisters laptop died and took all her wedding pictures with it. She thought she was safe because she made a dvd of them too but in reality the dvd she made was a dvd slideshow movie disk and all the pics were 640x480 at best.

 

[popatim]

-You do not need to unplug the HDD. You do need to go into BIOS and set the boot drive to be the SSD.
.

Yes for a fresh install of win7 you need to unplug the hdd otherwise the hidden system partition and boot files will get written to the hdd and not the ssd.

Everything else you say is pretty much correct (except for steam and origin games which can be moved afaik)