Is it time for SSD?

As my computer (and my wife's) seemed to get slower and slower with age and each Window's update, I started looking at new computers. Yes, I did all the tuneups and defragging, but that gets old in a hurry. It became obvious that prices had dropped quite a bit on SSD and hybrid drives. Being a thrifty person, I considered adding a small SSD for the OS and Logos. I was pretty well set on ordering a 256G or 512G SSD when Prime Day rolled around. Well, today Crucial 1T SATA SSDs were $155 for a short time. I couldn't resist, so I bought one for each of us. I know it won't run as fast as a new computer would, but for that price it's got to be worth a try. And I can always install it in a new computer if I go that route.

Questions: Both of our computers have 1T HDDs. After I clone each of the HDDs, should I put it on the shelf for a backup or leave it installed? Am I going to have to reinstall any of the software or will a successful clone take care of all that? It will be interesting and I hope, beneficial. Yes, I also ordered the $8 mounting & cable kits.

Any helpful tips will be appreciated, Dale Heath.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Small Heath

Sandisk SSDs are also on sale.

JT (alabama24)

After I clone each of the HDDs

Others will give you their 2¢, but my personal opinion: Do a clean install. Consider it "belated spring cleaning." [:P]

BillS

When I upgraded to an SST, I bought a USB case adapter ($20) that fit the drive that I had upgraded from, & I now have a 750 Gb hybrid drive as an attachable USB drive. Even better, I still have access to all the files on my old drive, should I need one for any reason.

:-)

Brother Mark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/986967#Comment_986967

Others will give you their 2¢, but my personal opinion: Do a clean install. Consider it "belated spring cleaning."

Windows notoriously slows over time. Its just a fact of life with Windows OS. 'Bama is spot on with his recommendation to do a clean install periodically (depending on your use case, how frequently you install/remove applications, updates, et al) and once or twice a year will keep your computer speedy and healthy. Yes, a SSD will give you an immediate and significant speed boost, but new hardware doesn't eliminate the need to occasionally wipe it all slick and reinstall everything. Which, of course, means that you need a robust backup plan to restore your data from. For example, I have a 4TB server located in my shop (detached building), and do a differential backup of the USER directories on all my computers every day. I use FreeNAS, Fastcopy, and Windows Task Scheduler (all of which are free and work perfectly for me).

Dave Hooton

Am I going to have to reinstall any of the software or will a successful clone take care of all that?

A clone is an "image" of the original drive, so all the software will work without a problem.

Questions: Both of our computers have 1T HDDs. After I clone each of the HDDs, should I put it on the shelf for a backup or leave it installed?

You could leave it installed, wipe it, and then use it as a backup device for the SSD.

I've never subscribed to the theory that one should reinstall Windows periodically for a speed boost, but I defrag the C: drive periodically on HDD's to maintain performance. An SSD makes HDD performance measures unnecessary, but don't overload it i.e. only use 80% of its capacity.

(‾◡◝)

my computer (and my wife's) seemed to get slower and slower with age

In addition to the SSD, you should regularly check what programs/apps are automatically starting with Windows. Many programs/apps run in the background but never tell you that they have set themselves up to do so. After a while, your Windows setup can get so larded up with unnecessary programs/apps that it will definitely affect Windows' performance. For many people this is a major cause of sluggish computer response.

There are many programs that can show you what is starting up along with Windows and give you the option of either 1) leaving them alone and allowing them to run in the background, 2) disabling their auto-load ability, or 3) deleting their ability to auto-load. Two fairly straightforward programs are 1) CCleaner (Tools > Startup), and 2) the Startup tab in the Windows Task Manager. For those who want to dive deeper and see and control everything that starts up with Windows there is AutoRuns from Microsoft.

As you might expect, caution is strongly advised before any disabling or deleting occurs.

HERE is one of many articles that discuss speeding up Windows (in particular, see point number four).

p.s. I agree with Dave H re: his seeing no need to reinstall Windows on a regular basis.

Small Heath

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/988130#Comment_988130

Thanks to everyone. Lots of helpful information. I stumbled my way through the hardware installation OK. I tried cloning only the C: partition and leaving off the restore partition, but the software got hung up on that. I ended up cloning the entire drive, took about 2 hrs. It booted up OK, but the Crucial disk management software wouldn't work because the BIOS SATA mode was set to RAID, which the software doesn't support. When I set it to AHCI, it wouldn't boot. I had to do a registry hack to fix that. All together, about a 6 hour job. I should be able to do my wife's in less than 3 hours.

The performance improvement in general is great and with Logos it's spectacular. I'll probably end up redoing it and getting rid of the other partition unless I can find an easy way around that. Total cost for 1T, $163. I'll keep my old HDD unplugged until I'm sure everything is working fine for a few weeks.

Thanks again, Dale Heath

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/988473#Comment_988473

Good job working through the technical difficulties.

I'll probably end up redoing it and getting rid of the other partition unless I can find an easy way around that.

If the software "got hung up" previously, I doubt there will an easy way to fix the registry. Otherwise, Partition Manager software can remove the partition and divide the space amongst the other partitions.

Small Heath

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/988595#Comment_988595

Partition Manager software can remove the partition and divide the space amongst the other partitions.

Yes, I found a few that should do the job. It's not an issue right now as I have over 30% free space in my C:, with several large folders I can get rid of. I'm a happy camper with no issues so far.