SSD Causes Temporal Anomaly

Spuff

Spuff

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Well, what I really mean is that trying to install a new Crucial M4 SSD has caused me to lose a whole weekend and most of today :bang:

Initially I tried cloning my HDD with a clean install* of Vista to the SSD. This went over OK but I couldn't get it to boot. (* and what a pita the clean install was - nearly 1GB of update files had to be downloaded :eek: )

So then I tried installing Fista from the DVD to the SSD but although it would let me select the SSD from the install wizard, it still wrote the new files to the old HDD :cuckoo:

So much for trying to minimize the amount of writes to the new SSD! Anyway, probably my fault for sticking with such an old version of the OS for so long - I have just ordered Win 7 to see if that makes things simpler.

Oh, and the icing on the cake - I haven't got an AHCI option in my BIOS. Is this likely to work with IDE or RAID (the only two options)?
 
I built a new machine a couple of weeks ago with a Crucial M4 and Win7 it went very quickly and without a hitch, but it was a new build so the bios has all the latest bells and whistles. Win 7 should make a big difference for you all the same.
 
What motherboard do you have? Might be worth seeing if there's an updated BIOS available. You really need AHCI for SSDs as it supports the trim command.
 
what andy said first off re bios updates.

Spuff said:
(* and what a pita the clean install was - nearly 1GB of update files had to be downloaded :eek: )
Click to expand...

download the service pack first, thatll save you doing updates, then rollups, then more updates.

but 1gb is about right for an established OS, OSX is the same for snow leopard. last count i think it was on 800gb or so?
 
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According to CPUID (the PC is a Dell Vostro 400) the motherboard is a Dell 0RN474 and my BIOS (which is the latest I can find) is 1.0.15 (06/2008).

It's good to hear that the install with Win 7 might be smoother. With regards to Trim is this a showstopper if I can't set the BIOS to AHCI? I thought I read that Crucial SSDs had some form of garbage collection (their term) that worked in the background and effectively did the same task as TRIM?
 
I'll do some before and after timings once I get Win 7. In addition my motherboard only supports SATA II so there's another compromise. But I've got a couple of essential software packages that I use which have large databases written in Access :gag: and the HDD has been a bit of a bottleneck performance-wise, so any improvement would be good.

If this works then I've extended the life of my PC by about a year for £100 rather than forking out for a new one!
 
Spuff said:
So then I tried installing Fista from the DVD to the SSD but although it would let me select the SSD from the install wizard, it still wrote the new files to the old HDD :cuckoo:
Click to expand...

When you come to install W7 disconnect the hdd so that the SSD is the only drive Windows can see. Do the install then reconnect the old hdd, it will stop windows trying to put files on both of the drives.
 
beanbandit said:
When you come to install W7 disconnect the hdd so that the SSD is the only drive Windows can see. Do the install then reconnect the old hdd, it will stop windows trying to put files on both of the drives.
Click to expand...

Yes. I always do a fresh install with only one hard drive connected.
 
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