Need help upgrading HD to SSD....

[atwnsw]

I currently have the following setup:
Dell XPS Studio 8000 Desktop
Intel 5i CPU 750
Windows 7
6GB Ram
1 TB HD (only about 500GB used)

I would like to upgrade to a 1 TB SSD as my primary hard drive as my machine is working fine but the original hard drive is getting old. I did buy a USB 3.0 to 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD Cable w/ UASP to transfer the data. My new SSD is going to be a Samsung Evo 1 TB.

Having googled this upgrade, I see that my system isn't setup with ahci. It is my understanding that i have to do change some settings within windows to make it work properly and then change the Bios. I believe (not 100% sure) that my system won't take full advantage of the newer SSD but it will offer higher speed and more stability. I have never done this and would really appreciate your guidance and laying out the sequence of events.

Thanks

Anthony

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Anthony.

First I'd recommend that you remove your e-mail for security reasons.
You can check out the answer in this thread on switching from IDE to AHCI: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2347183/change-ide-ahci-reinstall-windows.html. Do that before the OS migration process.
If you have available SATA ports and cables in order to connect another drive, you can simply connect the SSD internally and you won't need a SATA to USB adapter in order to migrate your OS. Check out this tutorial on how to migrate your OS from an HDD to an SSD: http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid-state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows. In your case it will be even easier as your SSD will be bigger than what you have on the HDD and you won't have to trim it down in size. Note that you can use whatever cloning/migration software you'd like, I'm just sending the article because of the tutorial. As far as I know Samsung provide their own cloning software so you'd be OK with it.

Oh and no payment necessary whatsoever. It's a community where basically everybody helps each other with whatever knowledge they can offer and no money is involved.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD

 

[atwnsw]

Hi Boogieman_WD,

Thanks for replying to my post.

I have a few follow up questions:

Please look at the 2 pieces of hardware that I am buying for this project (yet to pull the trigger) and welcome any feedback:
1) Samsung 850 EVO - 1TB - 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E1T0B/AM)
2) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GJ7XW94/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2P5I4NW0QQAX1

I followed your links to the process and have a few questions:

1) Should I setup with a RAID configuration or ACHI? The SSD will be my primary hd. Should this be a consideration?
2) You mentioned simply plugging in the SSD and not doing the transfer using the USB cable.
Is your logic that the migration of the OS and all of the data would happen internally after plugging in the SATA ports and cables on the new hard drive?
3) What would your setup suggestion be, if anything, for the old hard drive?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Sure thing!

You shouldn't need the mounting kit if your case has 2.5" drive bays. Anyway even if you get, it should work just fine with the SSD. Basically SSDs don't have moving parts (unlike HDDs) and it's not that big of a deal if they are not centered perfectly.

1. You should use AHCI, not RAID. Follow the tutorial on how to change it though.
2. Yes, for the cloning process it really shouldn't matter what's the type of the connection (internal or external). The only thing that matters is that both drives are recognized by the cloning software.
3. Since you'd be cloning your whole drive, you can simply reformat the HDD (once you're sure that the cloning process is successful and all the data is intact - you can do that by disconnecting the HDD and booting to Windows via your SSD alone) and use it as a secondary storage drive. Having an extra 1TB will probably come in handy at some point (especially if you're into gaming, video editing, etc), even if you're using only 500GB at this point.

So hopefully I've been able to answer your questions, but if there's anything else - don't hesitate to ask.

 

[atwnsw]

I feel like a complete moron as I can't get my Bios to switch to AHCI from IDE.

1) I went to regedit and changed the Start folder to 0 from 3.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci

2) I exited regedit and rebooted the machine. I then pressed F2 to enter Bios and
was only given the following options of ATA or RAID mode.

http://oi65.tinypic.com/bj60d2.jpg

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

 

[atwnsw]

I am frustrated beyond words trying to get AHCI enabled on my computer and could use your help.

Current Setup:

Dell Studio XPS 800

Win 7 Home Premium

Intel i5

Seagate 1TB HDD (Only about 50% used)

6GB Ram

My goal is to move everything to my new Samsung 850 Evo 1 TB SSD since my machine is older...

I have purchased the Samsung drive, mounting adapter and transfer cable but cannot get AHCI option

to appear in my BIOS.

After spending countless hours on what I thought would be a seemingly simple project I am ready to go postal.

I have done the regedit changes from 3 to 0 for the mcachi + mcachi and IastorV + mcachi+ Iastor + IastorV without success.

Then I read the my computer runs an Intel P55 controller which (I am lost at this point) means that I have to run Intel RST to be able to activate AHCI. However when I run the Intel RST I get a message that the platform isn't supported....

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19482762?pi21953=2

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19512659

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25165/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver?v=t

I am chasing my tail and could use some help.

Thank you.

Anthony

 

[Boogieman_WD]

In response to your private message and your posts here. I what I've suggested didn't work and judging by what you've told me, it really seems like an issue with the motherboard more than anything else. Perhaps the best way to go would be to contact the computer manufacturer's customer support for more info on that.

Note that TRIM does work in IDE mode (no matter what you've read) as well, it's not necessary to return you SSD just because you can't switch to AHCI. Here's an example: http://www.overclock.net/t/747658/trim-works-in-ide-mode

 

[atwnsw]

Since I can't change the computer to AHCI mode, I have a few questions:
Can I still transfer everything including windows 7 o/s from my existing hard drive to my new SSD in IDE Mode?
If so, what is the process?
What is the downside other than not utilizing the full speed of AHCI?

The alternative is to mail back the SSD to amazon and just keep using my Hard drive/machine until it dies.....

Thanks

 

[ArtPog]

Since your motherboard's BIOS settings provide an option for configuring the SATA mode to RAID, select that setting even though you're not setting up a RAID multi-disk configuration. While RAID, of course, is specifically designed for such multi-disk configurations, that SATA controller operating mode can be utilized for a single-disk configuration and will provide the basic feature set that is available in AHCI. At least it's worth trying in your situation.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Give @ArtPog suggestion a try, it really should work if everything's OK, because as he said RAID has the AHCI functions and there's no issue of using it in a non-RAID environment.

If you leave IDE ON, you should be able to simply clone/migrate your OS over to the SSD and everything should work fine as it's installed with the SATA controller set to IDE mode.
As for the performance I've seen quite a few benchmark tests and in most cases the difference doesn't seem like it would be noticeable during everyday usage.