I'm thinking of replacing my C:> (system) drive with an SSD. I foresee two problems with this.

1) I have no more available SATA ports on my motherboard. The current system drive is IDE. I could free up a SATA port if there is another way to connect my CD/DVD burner as I need a new one, mine will no longer burn CDs, although it plays CDs and burns/plays DVDs with no problem.

2) I am really reluctant to nuke and repave the C:> drive, I have a lot of software and drivers installed (in Control Panel, my "Programs and Features") folder shows 109 items, at least 80 of which I would reinstall in a clean system, and my "Downloads" directory has 280 folders of which I would keep at least half.) Can I make a byte for byte copy of my C:> drive to an SSD drive (using an external eSATA dock to make the copy), then replace my old IDE C:> drive with the SATA SSD and have it work? If it does, will Windows see the replacement drive and decide it's now in a different computer and make me jump through hoops with Microsoft to re-authorize it?

I have a bootable Linux Live DVD (Knoppix). Will that make things easier? I would need very detailed and explicit instructions for that option to work for me.

Of course, the rational thing to do would be to get the SSD drive and use that as an excuse to change over to 64-bit Windows 7, but that Nuke and Repave thing is something I want to avoid if possible. As contemptuous as I am of Vista, I have spent enough time tweaking and installing service packs and devising workarounds for some of its shortcomings that it is actually working pretty well for me now.

So, to summarize, can I:
1) Get a CD/DVD burner that will work in an IDE port?
2) Make a byte-for-byte copy (using an external eSATA dock) of my C:> to an SSD?
3) Put the SATA SSD in place of the old C:> IDE drive and have it work as a system drive?
4) Will Microsoft give me trouble about my copy of Windows being on a different hard drive?
5) If 1), 2), 3) and 4) are possible, will a Knoppix Linux Live bootable DVD be of use to me?
6) Would I be crazy to not upgrade to Windows 7 when I do this? (No, I won't switch to Linux, sorry, Mark )

tanstaafl.

1) I'm sure IDE optical drives are still available. They haven't exclusively switched over to SATA to my knowledge. Should be cheap.

2) ans 3) As long as the SSD is larger than the original C: drive, then yes a byte for byte copy should just work (using dd). To make use of the extra space you'll need to resize the partition afterwards. I'm not sure what's the best (free) tool these days to resize NTFS

4) Don't know for sure but you can always try. Worst case you can put the old C: drive back in. As long as it's a properly licensed copy, I don't think MS will have any issues authorising the new hardware particularly if it's XP. I did it just recently using Acronis True Image Home (paid for app) and had no issues.

5) Yes. Boot Knoppix and run dd from the command line. It should be as simple as "dd if=sda of=sdb" where a and b you will need to determine. It may be best to disconnect any other drives whilst doing this to prevent overwriting something else. Don't assume sda would be the original C drive. Sometimes they come up in a funky order. I'd use "hdparm -i /dev/sda" etc to print the details of the drive and then you look at model numbers and serial numbers

6) Not necessarily. There are some things I don't like in Windows 7 that work just fine in XP.

The one concern I'd have is how Windows Vista is going to deal with changing from IDE to SATA for the boot drive. I don't have any recent experience moving Windows between controllers, but it was a not so simple process with XP/Server 2003.

What you propose is, as usual, trivial for Linux users. But you continue to prefer to pay money for your software, and the situation is different there.

For disc-burning, I still have great success with external USB2 connected burners -- so that's one way to free up a SATA slot.

Good luck!

Gag. No wonder people think Linux is difficult.
How about something slightly simpler:

cp /dev/sda /dev/sdb

or even:

cat /dev/sda > /dev/sdb

Not that this will work either, since the SSD is pretty much guaranteed to be smaller than the original mechanical drive.

Cheers

I should have had "dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb" but anyway...

Gag? Come on. They only are marginally less cryptic particularly for someone not used to the command line. Compared to something like Norton Ghost or similar that does it in a GUI I think they are all equally difficult.

Hi.

Another option to using a linux live CD, which will also allow resizing of the drive in the process, is Acronis True Image. Admittedly you have to buy it, but it's not all that expensive, and is a very good backup solution as well.

It has a facility to produce a bootable recovery cd (which is almost certainly based on linux, amusingly) which allows drives to be cloned, amongst other things.

IDE CD/DVD drives are certainly still available, although the range is steadily shrinking. Also, you can get SATA to IDE converters that will allow a SATA device to be used on an IDE port. I have had odd results with some motherboards using these in the past, because of weird BIOS incompatibilities, but if this happens using a 40-way cable rather than an 80-way one seems to cure it, albeit at the cost of slowing things down.

pca

I've had problems getting Windows XP to boot after doing an image clone from one drive to another. If you have your installation media handy, you can clone and then do a "non-destructive re-install" to fix it. Not sure if this is still valid advice on Vista or Win7.

Ah, but I have my software now, already bought and paid for, and am satisfied with it. A quick scan of the non-free software I have shows:

AVG 9.0 (2 licenses)............$ 55...I appreciated the free AVG so much I upgraded though I didn't need to.
dbpoweramp ripper...............$ 36...Much more polished and faster than EAC.
Driver Detective................$ 40...Expired now, I won't renew it.
Hyperterminal Private Edition...$ 60...Regular HT doesn't work well with empeg.
Infothek Scan 11................$ 00...This was purchased for me by my employer, list cost $80.
Microsoft Office 2003...........$ 00...Employer (site license), they said I could keep it.
MP3 Tag Studio..................$ 19...So useful, no way was I going to deprive Magnus of his two sawbucks.
Nero 7..........................$ 30...Older version came bundled with DVD burner, upgrade -->7 was ~$30.
Quake III Arena.................$ 40...and worth every penny! Bought it the day it came out.
Rosetta Stone Spanish...........$395...Expensive, but necessary.
Total Recorder Professional.....$ 30...For use with my professional recording studio.
Tunebite v6.....................$ 30...For removing DRMs from audio books downloaded from the library.
TurboFloorPlan 3D...............$ 80...I have spent hundreds of hours with this program designing my house.
WM Recorder.....................$ 30...Semi-satisfactory program for capturing internet video and audio.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total cost of bought software...$885...For five years on this computer, plus some from previous computers.

I probably have well over 100 other applications installed, nothing pirated, mostly applets and utilities like Adobe Reader, Auslogic Defrag, ClipTrak, Emplode, Google Earth, ICQ, memtest, Microsoft ICE, Recuva, TweakUI, ZDoom etc. Above is just tip of the iceberg. So under $1000 for my software costs is not unreasonable, and even on a Linux system I would still have had to pay for most of it, as I don't think there would be free Linux substitutes for dbpoweramp, Rosetta Stone, Tunebite, TurboFloorPlan, Quake III, etc.

Doh! Of course. Brilliant idea, Mark, I'm embarrassed I didn't think of that myself. I don't imagine there would be a speed penalty with USB, as the bottleneck would be in the burner hardware itself. Of course, I already have 15 USB cables attached to my computer (counting the two cables daisy-chaining the pair of 7-port hubs) but some of those are just occasional use (like all the proprietary cables for three different cameras, iPods, iPhones, Kindles, GPSs, etc.) so I can find room for one more cable easily enough. WHY do manufacturers use proprietary USB cables? But that's a topic for another thread, I guess.

As always, thanks, Mark!

tanstaafl.

As it turns out, that is not the case.

My IDE system drive is an 80GB IDE drive. (We built this computer back in the days when 80 GB was considered useful, and 300 GB was huge. I am now up to 6.7 TB of space!) I will replace it with a 128 GB SSD.

Would you be willing to recommend a particular SSD drive for this application?

tanstaafl.

Command lines don't scare me, I have been comfortable with a C:> prompt since the 1970s. In the 1980s I was pretty adept with a Xenix system (this was before the days of *nix GUIs) and in years past I was a demon with DOS batch files. Then Windows came along and I got lazy and I have forgotten most of what I knew then.

tanstaafl.

True, there still anything out there that is quite as good a ripper/auto tagger as dbPowerAmp.

A quick google suggests that dbPowerAmp works just fine using Wine.

I've had success with GParted Live. It might even support copying the disk first, but don't quote me on that.

Doug, have you checked out Quake Live? It's a free version of Quake III that works through your browser via a plugin.

It also works within VMWare

So, let me get this straight. I should get rid of Windows and run Linux so I can run my Windows programs under Linux in a Windows emulator?

I guess I'm just a Luddite at heart. I have a good-performing Windows system with the software I want in it, running quite well with good stability and speed. There are things that Linux will do more easily (such as cloning a system drive!) but I just don't do those things very often, and when I need to do them there are usually Windows workarounds, albeit sometimes clumsy ones. I have too much invested (time, money, learning curve, etc.) in Windows to capriciously switch to another OS for what I perceive to be marginal gains.

If I were starting from scratch (rather than being chained down by more than 30 years of computer experience) I would seriously consider Linux. But, you know how it goes. Old dogs, new tricks...

tanstaafl.

ps: I claim another bbs first usage for the word "capricious".

10 years too late

http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/s...ursday#Post8710

The Intel SSD's are still amongst the best. Then there's the ones based on the Indilinx chipset like the OCZ Vertex or the ones based on the Sandforce chipset (like OCZ Vertex 2). Avoid all others.

Also keep in mind: if you clone a regular HD to an SSD, almost certain your SSD drive's partitions will not be aligned. Make sure to align them properly before continuing to use it. Performance will be degraded immensely if you don't.

No... Wine Is Not an Emulator -- it's a re-implementation of the .dll libraries. That said, my response was less to you, than to Andy. There may be no open-source equivalent as richly featured as dbPowerAmp, but since the original works under Wine, it's not an argument for keeping someone off of Linux. Just because the OS is open-source doesn't mean you aren't allowed to use paid-for/closed-source apps on it.

FWIW, I note that you left off the cost of the operating system in your list of things you paid money for. And, if you want to be fully compliant, you really ought to ensure that the terms of the site license allow you to continue using that software once you're no longer part of the "site". Just because they said you can use it doesn't mean the license permits such use.

But then you still have to pay the Microsoft Tax.

Completely unneeded.

Faster than EAC because it doesn't use the secure ripping methods that EAC does. Which are largely not needed. There are any number of free CD ripping utilities for Linux. I'm not aware of any that support EAC's secure ripping methods, but I haven't looked in a while, either.

Unnecessary

Waste of money, even under Windows. There are better free options for virtually any OS. Under Windows, I use PuTTY for a terminal emulator these days.

There are a variety of scanner frontends for Linux. Don't know what might be special about this one.

Um, that's in violation of Microsoft's license. OpenOffice.org works just fine. There are certainly differences. I find that they work in OO.o's favor about half the time and in Office's favor about half the time. (And mere irrelevancies the "other" half the time.) There are other free options, too.

Unlike many of the other programs here, this won't work under Wine, because it's written using self-modifying code (!). I had a problem with it because of that and Magnus basically told me to take a flying leap. That said, there are a variety of free tagging programs for Linux.

Wouldn't touch this one with a ten foot pole under Windows anymore, if I could help it. They keep adding bloat while making the burning part seemingly worse. Again, a variety of options under Linux. Free options for Windows, too.

Released for Linux shortly after the Windows version came out.

You got me here. AFAIK, there is not any equivalent to Rosetta Stone.

There are free audio editors. I have no idea what might be special about this one.

Just an analog hole exploiter. I'm sure there's something equivalent, again, for free.

Dunno much about architectural CAD for Linux.

I don't have much knowledge in this area, either, but I have seen things in the past.

Available for Linux for free, though there are better PDF viewers for both Linux and Windows

Unneeded under Linux, better free options for Windows.

There are a variety of such utilities for Linux, including one that's a stock part of the GUI.

JEmplode, though I do find that Emplode tends to work better.

Available for Linux

Any number of IM apps for Linux

Not specific to any OS.

The photo stitcher. I have no knowledge here. I imagine Mark does.

There are undelete applications, though backup is always preferable.

I can assure you that you can tweak more of the UI on Linux than you can on Windows.

There are a huge variety of Doom engines for Linux.

You might be right with those.

You're definitely wrong here, though.

tl;dr version:

Just try it. There are versions of Linux you can run without making any sort of destructive change to your computer, and even versions that can run while you're running Windows.

Doug, I know you like to fiddle. It continues to amaze me that this is one area in which you seem to have no desire to fiddle.

That isn't correct.

dbPowerAmp includes all the same secure ripping methods that EAC does. It also includes AccurateRip which was created by the guy behind dbPowerAmp (EAC also optionally uses AccurateRip).

AccurateRip is the key to fast and accurate ripping. When you have it setup correctly dbPowerAmp does its first rip with the fastest method, compares the rip against the AccurateRip database and if the rip matches then it doesn't need to worry about using the slow securing ripping methods.

EAC can also use AccurateRip, but the whole process is much more manual, the joy of dbPowerAmp is that it automates the while rip fast, check, rerip if needed iteration process.

dbPowerAmp also has access to much better meta data than I have seen in other rippers, it really does do a better job of getting the tags filled in right.

I believe there is one Linux ripper that uses AccurateRip, though I forget which one and if I remember correctly it took a more EAC approach than a dbPowerAmp one.

Not that I'm a big proponent of desktop Linux, but I never did understand the argument of "I've been on Windows for ages, other things are hard to learn." Windows hasn't exactly stayed the same, and has had some major shifts. Going from just a fancy shell on top of DOS (Win 1-3) to a fancy shell on DOS with a completely reworked UI (95-ME), to a completely different underbelly (XP), and then more underbelly and GUI changes going into Vista and 7. My experience editing PIF files from the 3.x days does me little good now, and same for all that Config.sys tweaks. Even troubleshooting and maintaining the various versions has changed dramatically over the past many years.

I definitely don't regret my switch away from Windows. It's not something I've solidly replaced just due to my gaming habits and nature of my job, but overall I'm glad I made the jump. Though I can't comment much on the switch to Linux, as it's something I've never really considered for my desktop OS. I'm happy with it as a server OS.

Fair enough. Bad assumption on my part. I think the Linux ripper you're thinking of is Rubyripper. Seems that dbPowerAmp's metadata is culled from a number of different sources and compared for accuracy. Good idea.

How about Kingston? I'd always heard that their memory chips were among the best.

Isn't that an XP problem that doesn't arise with Vista and later versions? I know that the documentation that came with my 2-TB drives said I had to align them or use a jumper to force alignment if I was using XP, but that Vista and Windows 7 did not require it. Perhaps the SSDs are different?

tanstaafl.

I guess I just don't see the advantage of spending a lot of time, trouble, and money to change something I am satisfied with. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I am not a bleeding-edge sort of person, I don't anticipate my computer needs changing significantly in the future. The newest game on my computer is eight years old, my office software is seven years old. My computer does what I want, is reliable, and I know and understand and have already paid for the software that is in it, so what advantage to me is it to give all that up just so I can be even more geeky than I am now? (Not that that would be a bad thing.) Probably there are Linux solutions for virtually everything I currently have in my computer, but would they work better than what I have now and understand?

tanstaafl.

Oops -- my bad. I meant "capriciously", not "capricious"

tanstaafl.

It does. Of course most of the metadata sources it uses require a paid annual licence, which I guess open source rippers wouldn't be keen to use.

As long as it uses an Indinlinx or Sandforce chipset, you're good. Don't buy anything else. The brand, like Kingston, is not all that important, the used chipset is. I believe Kingston uses Samsung memory chips anyway (most SSD munfacturers do).


While it's true the problem doesn't arise with Vista and 7, this is only true IF you do the partitioning with said OS'es. But if you clone an older HD to SSD, and the older HD was not partitioned with Vista or 7 to begin with, the target drive, in this case the SSD, won't be aligned either. Vista or 7 will not magically align an unaligned partition if you used it with those OS'es, you'll need to do that manually.

I know you may not have enough sata ports, but just in case you do manage to temporarily free one:
how about simply adding the new disk, creating a mirror from the old one, then breaking the mirror and removing the old one for good? That's extremely easy with Windows Disk Manager.


Edit: Oops, no, forget it. XP Pro does not do mirroring IIRC. Win Server 2003 does, only. I don't have an XP box close by to check in this very moment, but I'll check as soon as I can.

Edit: Also, I am assuming the new disk is larger than the old one, which is not necessarily true with SSD... Is it?

My computer is Vista, not XP. The system C:> drive is the IDE drive, it is a small (by today's standards) 80 GB drive which I will replace with a 128 GB SSD.

All of the hard drives (six of them, 4 internal, two external, connected 4@ SATA, 1@ IDE, 1@ USB, 6.7 TB total) were formatted/partitioned with Vista. All disks are single-partition.

No problem temporarily freeing a SATA port - one of my SATA ports is dedicated to an external eSATA dock so the mechanics of formatting and cloning the system drive are simple enough. It's the details of just how to do it that I am uncertain of. Can you explain that mirror trick in more detail?

tanstaafl.

Of course! IIRC Vista should be able to create mirrors via software, that is directly from the disk manager and w/o needing a dedicated hardware raid controller. If I am wrong, you will simply not find some of the menu items I am listing below.
I am basing the simple procedure below on Windows 7, but Vista should be pretty much the same in terms of menu structure.

0. Connect the new drive to your PC. Possibly placing it in its final location and using its final SATA port and cable. So you won't have to remove it later. It'll just stay there "for good". Boot your PC.
1. Start->Right-click on "my computer"->Manage
2. Storage->Disk Management.
3. Activate/import (whatever needed) your new disk, and upgrade it to Dynamic
4. Upgrade your old disk to Dynamic if it is still basic (right-click where it says basic)
5. Right-click to your old disk, selec "Create Mirror" . If Vista has this feature locked for license reasons (As I was saying, I can't remember which of Vista flavours, other than the Server - aka Windows Server 2008 R1 - is capable of doing mirrors and which is not) you will simpli not find the option there and this whole thing is not possible.
If you find the "create mirror" option, just click on it and select the new disk when prompted.
6. Let it build the mirror. It may take from 10 minutes to hrs, depending on the size of your disks, more precisely on the amd of data in the old disk. In your case, I'd expect 20 mins.
7. When done, you have a mirror system in place. Reboot your machine, just to be sure all is ok.
8. Shut down, remove old disk from your case, boot again. You will be prompted whether you want to boot from the mirror (C: duplex) disk as the old one is gone. Say yes. You system will boot, and if all is ok it will be blazing fast due to the SSD.
8. Logon, back to the Disk Manager. You will find your old disk there, marked as missing. Right-click on it, select to break mirror, accept all disclaimers, and then "remove" it logically (right click, remove).
9. Done.

Should anything go wrong, you can always plug your old disk in and boot from there, so it is fairly safe.

I've done this zillions of times in Windows Server of all flavors in the last 10 years, since Windows Server 2000 times, and I never had an issue. And, you've got 9 points up here just because I am trying to giude you step by step. What you're doing is really a piece of cake process, quite obvious and streight-forward.

I actually keep a mirror in my home server as well, so my HDD upgrades simply involve adding a couple of steps to create a new, larger mirror. Very convenient and simple.

I hope this helps. If not, let me know and I'll try better



Edit:
I forgot. When the process is complete, you will find yourself with a 80GB partition only in the new 128GB SSD. Still in disk manager, right click on the partition and expand it to fill the remaining space. Remember its a "Dynamic" disk, you can do a lot more basic formatting, resizing, moving stuff with it, now.

One more consideration.

If you are planning to move to Windows 7 32 bits (since you ahve Vista 32bits), the upgrade process from Vista takes a long time, but is very accurate and completely automatic.
I use daily a laptop that I had formatted last to install Vista RC1. It got updated several times, and actually the whole hdd migrated to more powerful laptops three times, and eventually upgraded to Widnows 7 Ultimate when it was released; in spite of all this fiddling, it is fast and nice.
So, if this is your case and your Vista flavor does not allow mirrors, you may consider upgrading to 7 Ultimate first, and then migrade to your new SSD via the mirror trick.

Too bad not going to 64 bits, however, since you're at it. Unfortunately, that means formatting.

Reportedly works under WINE.


The architectural cad world is very well represented on Linux, but predominantly through expensive profressional-grade CAD software packages. I suspect that Doug's use trends more towards the 3D floorplan visualization, than the CAD side of things. Probably sweet home 3d is the most comparable (which is java, and works on Windows, too). Moving up a few notches from there is CYCAS.


Especially since the ability to undelete depends on what filesystem you're using. The last time I needed an undelete program, I had to dd the disk to a file on a different filesystem, and grep for strings I knew the files contained (fortunately, the deleted files were just plain-text).


And you don't even need a downloaded program to do it!

That is a lot of really good information. Thank you very much.

I know for certain that my computer does indeed support mirroring, since when the guy built it for me (he was chief engineer at the radio station where I worked) he set it up as a RAID system. The RAID failed and, not being a fan of RAID I changed over to a setup of individual hard drives. Since that time my hard drive storage has increased from 680 GB to 6.7 TB, nearly a ten-fold increase. And of course, every bit and byte stored in my computer is crucially important. Yeah, right.

I still have to shop for the SSD, and am not having much luck finding the Intel or Sandforce models you recommend. Any recommendations as to where to look? Edit: That's because Intel doesn't make a 128GB SSD. They have 80GB and 160GB. If their 80GB is smaller than my 80GB mechanical drive, I can't do the mirror, so I guess I'm looking at the 160GB.

I did have one thought of a minor problem: I am replacing a 3.5" drive with a 2.5" form factor, so of course the mounting hardware isn't going to work. Are there 2.5"<-->3.5" mounting adapter kits out there? There must be.

This really does look to be a straightforward process, unless I run into problems because my BIOS is unhappy with the SSD instead of a mechanical drive, or Microsoft is unhappy because my copy of Windows is registered to a certain hard drive. Hopefully if either of these problems arises it will be relatively easily solvable.

If I move to Windows 7 (no really compelling reason to do so right now) I will bite the bullet and reformat and go 64-bit. I have heard too many horror stories about upgrading to a new OS (rather than nuke and repave) because when you upgrade you are just bringing all the old faults and registry problems along with you. My install is five years old now, and I'm sure there are little things not quite right, lots of software has been installed and removed over the years and we know how that leaves detritus. Maybe next year, when the new SSD is all installed and settled in and I am looking to increase my frustration level by an order of magnitude.

tanstaafl.

There's a possibility that it does so via hardware controller built into your mb, in which case the procedure I suggested is going to be useless because you are going to create a mirror via the BIOS+Intel (typically) utility that comes with the raid controller.
However, the concept is unchanged: add new drive, create mirror, then break it, then remove old drive.


I got my Intel 80GB x25-m from Amazon.co.uk last May...


... and it comes with the adapter kit. I would assume many of them do.


I think that's very unlikely.



Correct, that was my point actually. I myself have actually gone through many horror stories up to the Vista->7 upgrade. It is the only one that took an entire night to complete, provided me with a very thorough analysis of what was done and how each piece of installed software would behave with the new OS, and worked just fine.
Admittedly, an entire night is a long time. Still, if you let it run and leave, it could be worth a thought.
Actually, I just dislike the idea of the upgrade to a new OS per se. I just tried it out of curiosity, ready to format all and reinstall since that particular install had gone through similar upgrades previously and was moved to new hardware three times, and I figured it was really time not to be lazy any longer and restart from scratch. But I wanted to see how bad the upgrade would be. And after 1 year I am still using that same machine every day happily. It is just fast. 3 GB RAM helped.

How about this one?

tanstaafl.

Duct tape and cardboard work amazingly well, and cheap, too!

Remember, these SSDs ain't your grandpa's Fireballs!

96GB? I'm not familiar with that exact model. But I did just now pause and pull out the 120GB SSD from the notebook I'm typing this one -- looks exactly the same on the outside, and I love this one.

(..and then plugged it back into the guts of the notebook, waited a few seconds for Linux to figure out what happened, and then things continued as normal.. no reboot).

EDIT: Ah.. just saw this part of the spec: "Sustained Write: up to 100 MB/s" --- That's slow for a state-of-the-art SSD, so it's more like an Agility series I drive than a true Vertex model.

Not according to Google.

Right. As I mentioned earlier, I meant to claim credit for "capriciously", not "capricious".

tanstaafl.

There, you see? It's why I rely on you good folks on the empeg bbs instead of my own limited knowledge.

Can you point me towards a site where I can purchase an SSD in the 120 GB range (a little smaller, a little bigger, not a problem) in the $200--$300 range? An SSD that you would be happy with and recommend?

tanstaafl.

Ok, I just clicked on the link, and if that's what happened to you, yes, you did have a hardware-based RAID. That's not what I am referring to above. Which may still work, anyway.

If you want to check in advance, just go to disk manager and upgrade your current drive to dynamic. Than right click on it and if you see a grayed "Add Mirror" option, you can create a mirror and all the system is waiting to enable that option is a second hard drive with enough empty space.

Here's what I see... (right-click to view image, zoom to read it.

tanstaafl.

I bought my original 120GB Vertex from newegg. They have a ton of different drives there now. The other drives I have here are vendor samples.

From the Vertex line, I really like the 100GB "Vertex LE", which has a lightening quick Sandforce controller inside. But it is only 100GB of space..

Cheers

Bummer, it only let's you create spanned and striped volumes, not mirror ones. What a silly thing to disable the feature.

You'll have to create the mirror via "hardware" (Bios + Intel utility).

Or you may hack a system file with an hex editor to enable the mirroring (I should have the info needed somewhere). At the next update that system file may (and will eventually) be replaced by a new version uncapable of mirroring, but by then you'll be on the SSD. I don't know whether I'd recommend something like that. I did it once in XP and irt worked, but stil...

Mark, the reviews at Newegg on that SSD are a bit unsettling, a third of them are negative. However, the performance numbers are astounding. Should I put much credence on the reviews?

100GB is plenty of room for my system drive, I am only using about half that much space now. I guess there are enough different ways to clone my existing drive that even though taym's suggestion of mirroring then breaking the mirror won't work for me it won't be a huge problem. I'll wait a couple of days and if nobody comes up with a better suggestion, I'll buy the drive you recommend. You haven't steered me wrong yet!

tanstaafl.

Is this a process easily explained, or should I look at alternative methods of cloning? You mention an Intel utility... my CPU is AMD, my chipset is Nvidia. Is that relevant?

tanstaafl.

AMD+Nvidia: I don't know how to create a RAID there. Best case scenario is only having to operate in the bios. But whether it is possible to do so without loosing data in the original disc or not, I don't really know either Sorry I can't help there.

There are firmware updates at OCZ for their drives, and you should install the latest firmware immediately on receipt of the drive. That will solve most complaints.

The performance numbers are quite real, but assume a 3gb/sec SATA interface. Otherwise they max out at 128 M-Bytes/sec R/W.

Cheers

Note: The Agility-II series are *excellent* drives, and probably cheaper/larger. I would go for those if spending my own cash now.

Cheers

Like this one?

tanstaafl.

Edit: How important is the TRIM function? This drive (and all OCZ drives, if I understand correctly) support TRIM, but Vista does not. Is the Garbage Collection feature enough to keep the drive happy? I was going to say that my C:> drive doesn't get written to very much, but on reflection that is incorrect. All the temp files, email, internet browsing, downloads, word processing, paint programs... myriads of small files that come and go are going to clutter up whatever the equivalent of the file allocation table is. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy the drive and put Windows 7 64-bit on it to begin with.

db

Yeah, that's the model I'd buy today, were I buying.

TRIM is primarily for helping with file deletions, not overwrites. It's nice, and can prevent a 10-15 percent degradation that might build up over a long period.

But.. that's 10-15% of a very very fast drive, and you'd be unlikely to ever notice it.

And.. the built-in garbage-collection (GC) will probably handle it anyway, giving back 8-12% of that 10-15%.

Cheers

One caveat: whilst running a slightly older firmware release on my 120GB Vertex drive, earlier this summer some kind of bug hit hard, and wiped the drive.

No problem, I just restored from the previous night's backup, after first upgrading it to the latest firmware (two revisions newer than what crashed).

Stuff can happen. That's the first catastrophic failure I've ever had from any drive. In theory, that bug got fixed in the newer firmware. In practice, one never knows.

Do note that I'm still using the (upgraded) drive as my main "everything" drive again now, despite having a choice of others.

Cheers

In the last 7 years, I've been keeping my files on a mirrored volume, and I back it up every night, and I keep weekly and monthly backups as well.

Still, these things just scare me.

Surprisingly, it would be easier to deal with the loss of my system drive than any of my data drives. I just took a quick look through it, and there really isn't anything on it I couldn't either do without or easily replace from backups. The big annoyance would be having to reinstall all my software. Since I have original media, passwords, etc. for every piece of software in my computer and the downloaded software source material is all stored, organized, and cataloged on my primary data disk, also on that data disk's backup, and finally on the data disk backup's backup, losing my system drive would not be a catastrophe, just time consuming.

tanstaafl.

Well, my backups are boot-able mirrors of the actual drive. So a system restore consists of:

cat /dev/sdb > /dev/sda
(after booting from a USB stick)

..eventually followed by a "trim" of the unused space:

wiper.sh --commit /dev/sda1

-ml

Heh.. along the same lines, note that a *full* image clone of a 120GB system drive might take only a few minutes, if both drives are modern SSDs on SATA-II interfaces.. over 200MBytes/second.

Unfortunately, my main (notebook) machine only has SATA-I, so it takes about 15 minutes for a full system clone.. aw..

What an excellent idea. I think I can do that, I just need to work out the mechanics of cloning (Acronis? Linux? Ghost? ??) and I can clone to one of my old 300GB drives using my external SATA dock.

300GB... hmm, I could partition it into three 100GB partitions, and alternate A-B-C clones and have the ability to return to a previous configuration.

tanstaafl.