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So, a friend of mine has a brand new M4 SSD from crucial that he isn't using, and decided to sell it to me for $50. I figured $50 was a good deal on a 256GB SSD, so I snatched it up.

This is it



The instructions claim that it is meant for a notebook, but there should be no reason I can't use it for my desktop, right?

I have no idea even what kind of cable that thing is, but I'll be searching my computer tomorrow to see if I have one that fits.

Edit: Upon inspection, that looks just like an ordinary SATA cable. So I don't think there will be any problem installing this into a desktop. I'll just need to pick up a bay converter to fit it into a 3.5inch bay, and then figure out how to move my OS to it while keeping my other media on my HDD.

Seems cool. Should be no problem fitting it in your pc.

....So what do you need help with?

Bubble181 said:

Seems cool. Should be no problem fitting it in your pc.

....So what do you need help with?

Click to expand...

Was mostly just looking for confirmation that there's nothing different between a notebook ssd and a desktop.[DOUBLEPOST=1343175642][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, if anyone has advice on a relatively easy way to move my OS to the new drive, while keeping my other programs on my HDD. I don't want to have to install windows all over again, but if I have to...

Ravenpoe said:

Was mostly just looking for confirmation that there's nothing different between a notebook ssd and a desktop.

Click to expand...

Ah. No, it shouldn't pose any problems. Most hard drives and SSDs (well, all as far as I'm aware, but I want to keep my options open ) advertised "for notebooks" or "for netbooks" are completely regular normal drives, in 2.5" instead of 3.5" packagings. Same with external/internal drives: they're all the same in a slightly different casing. With the proper adaptor you won't know the difference.

Hmm, it's possible to clone Windows without reinstalling completely; most HDD/SSDs you buy will have a cloning/partitioning/imaging/etc software kit on the CD along with it. Perhaps you can download it for free from the Crucial site, though I didn't look. It's not especially hard, but it is something you can easily screw a lot up with (2 HDs with the same version of the OS on it can confuse a computer, depending on the boot order), so be careful.
I think it's
1. Install cloning software
2. Clone HDD onto SSD
3. Disconnect one drive
4. Meddle around in your boot sector
5. Reconnect that drive
6. ...
7. Profit!
8. use both drives

But I'm honestly not sure enough to tell you to just go ahead and do it . PatrThom will be able to be more helpful, I'm sure

Anyway, I *can* assure you that it can be done fairly easily, without reinstalling everything.

I don't want to clone my drive, because I don't want to transfer everything to the SSD, only the OS. I suppose I could create a new partition on my HDD, transfer the stuff I don't want cloned onto it, and then clone the remaining OS partition.

Or I could just slap the SSD into my notebook, take it to work, connect it to the sweet sweet fiber we've got there and just let everything update on a fresh install.

First of all, I hope you're using Win7 or better, or else your performance could be cut in half. Second, yes that's a standard SATA. Third, make sure you aren't missing any important firmware updates for that drive. Fourth, you don't want to take the drive to work in a notebook, or else it will install the drivers/settings/etc for the notebook, not your desktop.

Partition Master is a utility that has a free version for cloning HDDs. I've used it, it did what it said it would do.

Personally I would do a fresh reinstall to the SSD just to make sure everything is exactly where you want it to be and you don't have anything extra, THEN clone an image of the SSD onto the regular drive, tweak the settings/whatever on the SSD until you get it all perfect (with your image as a backup so you don't have to reinstall again and again), then go from there.

--Patrick

There is a procedure to almost painlessly set up an install of the OS on the SSD and the user side on the HDD. I just don't have them handy right now. But mostly it consists of doing the install with a dummy user, setting up a new user on the HDD, and then pointing all the relevant registry entries away from the dummy user to the new user.

There is really no reason to go through all of the trouble (and danger) of messing with registries or cloning your OS. Just reinstall the OS on the SSD. Hopefully you have access to at least one external hard drive to move your media from your HDD so you can reformat it, but even if you don't you don't have to do that, just remove the HDD, boot with just the SSD installed, install the OS to it, then instal the HDD. It should only boot from the SSD at that point, so now you can remove the old OS from your HDD.

Necronic said:

There is really no reason to go through all of the trouble (and danger) of messing with registries or cloning your OS. Just reinstall the OS on the SSD. Hopefully you have access to at least one external hard drive to move your media from your HDD so you can reformat it, but even if you don't you don't have to do that, just remove the HDD, boot with just the SSD installed, install the OS to it, then instal the HDD. It should only boot from the SSD at that point, so now you can remove the old OS from your HDD.

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That makes sense. I do have a 1TB external drive with most of my stuff already backed up on it. And I could probably use a fresh install of windows anyway. I think I'll just do that, and then migrate the programs I want on my SSD from the HDD.

I don't know if it will actually make a difference but you may want to just reinstall the programs as well (assuming you still have access to the installation CD/whatever) as opposed to copying it over. It may not make a difference, but it will blow your mind how fast programs install on an SSD.

Owning an SSD has made me completely change my mentality about storage space.

Necronic said:

I don't know if it will actually make a difference but you may want to just reinstall the programs as well (assuming you still have access to the installation CD/whatever) as opposed to copying it over. It may not make a difference, but it will blow your mind how fast programs install on an SSD.

Owning an SSD has made me completely change my mentality about storage space.

Click to expand...

The programs in question are games, of which the majority are online based. I do have my old wow install discs, but they are so outdated that it would take forever to patch

Completely on a tangent, I'm jealous, I want a 256 M4 Crucial for $50 too.

Ravenpoe said:

The programs in question are games, of which the majority are online based. I do have my old wow install discs, but they are so outdated that it would take forever to patch

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If you have cap to spare, just download the updated client from B.net.

As to me, I put an SSD as my boot drive in a brand new PC build, and the OS installed completely in less than 20 minutes. It was mind-boggling.

SpecialKO said:

If you have cap to spare, just download the updated client from B.net.

As to me, I put an SSD as my boot drive in a brand new PC build, and the OS installed completely in less than 20 minutes. It was mind-boggling.

Click to expand...

It was 15 minutes. I am completely impressed. That was entirely painless.

Update!

Everything is installed, and the new drive is FLYING. Fresh install was definitely the way to go. It was an incredibly simple process of unplugging my original drive, plugging in the SSD, installing windows 7 (which took 15 minutes!) and then plugging back in the old drive to access it as a storage drive and migrate over what I wanted to migrate.

Thanks for the advice.

Pfft. I was just trying to be helpful with suggesting other things 'cause specifically said you didn't want to reinstall Windows. Huh! (we don't seem to have a fake-indignation-arms-crossed-huff-smiley. We should get one.)

Glad everything works great now

Bubble181 said:

Pfft. I was just trying to be helpful with suggesting other things 'cause specifically said you didn't want to reinstall Windows. Huh! (we don't seem to have a fake-indignation-arms-crossed-huff-smiley. We should get one.)

Glad everything works great now

Click to expand...

And I appreciated it! I just didn't realize how fast installation goes on a SSD. Me likey.

Ravenpoe said:

And I appreciated it! I just didn't realize how fast installation goes on a SSD. Me likey.

Click to expand...

I have to admit, whenever anyone mentions "reinstall Windows" to me, I get flashbacks to WinXP installs and Win95 installs, taking 4 or 5 hours, demanding you to press F1 without installing the keyboard first, requiring 4 restarts, and still leaving you with no drivers to speak of and no working appliances.
We have come a long way. I'm almost tempted to buy a PC with Win7 and free update to Win8 instead of waiting for Win8 to come out, just so I can enjoy the isntallation process now

Bubble181 said:

I have to admit, whenever anyone mentions "reinstall Windows" to me, I get flashbacks to WinXP installs and Win95 installs, taking 4 or 5 hours, demanding you to press F1 without installing the keyboard first, requiring 4 restarts, and still leaving you with no drivers to speak of and no working appliances.
We have come a long way. I'm almost tempted to buy a PC with Win7 and free update to Win8 instead of waiting for Win8 to come out, just so I can enjoy the isntallation process now

Click to expand...

Those were dark days.

"You need me to install windows for you? Let me clear my day..."

Ravenpoe said:

Those were dark days.

"You need me to install windows for you? Let me clear my day..."

Click to expand...

Well, I remember installing Win 3.11 from...err...13 floppy discs? I think? All went well, until the second-to-last-one turned out to be damaged and I had to restart all over again. Many swear words were used that day

Hey, once I get everything in my XP machine set up the way I want, I always clone that sucker. That way, reinstalls take 20min, tops.

--Patrick