Problems SSD Installation

[_Paz_]

I've been trying to move everything that isn't necessary off my C drive before formatting-transferring-installing the new SSD drive.

My "windows_old" file is a hangover from long ago. Last time I changed to a new hard drive a few things did not work correctly until I found various files I had saved to a backup drive. Windows-old is what was on that backup. I have transferred the windows_old file to a 4TB drive but there are six files that apparently will not move until I shorten their names.

How can I figure out which six files they are???



thanks,

Paz

[_Paz_]

If I click "skip" without checking the "do this for all" box, will it skip this file and then give the name of the next file?

I already know that if you click the 'do this for all of them' box that it just closes the dialog box and it is all over.

[sidd finch]

If I click "skip" without checking the "do this for all" box, will it skip this file and then give the name of the next file?

You are correct it will just skip that file.

Sidd

[_Paz_]

Thanks, Sidd! That worked!

Turns out the files had to do with an internet speed test and would not have had anything to do with whether the system would operate or not. Yay!

[_Paz_]

I thought I'd copy the vast majority of the files on my C drive to an external drive (F) before attempting to transfer my system to the new 1T SSD drive.

I've read that SSD drives should not be defragged and thought it would be a good idea to defrag my now 'mostly empty' C drive using IObit's Smart Defrag Prioritize. (I believe this prioritizes in such a way as to make programs run faster).

I've made a backup of my email addresses, I hope, and decided it was time to make a copy of programs, etc., that I have left on C drive before getting into the defrag process and then the transfer to the new SSD drive.

This is where things don't add up.

Start>Computer: C drive = 620 GB free of 931 GB



Library> right click C Drive =
Used: 310 GB
Free: 621 GB




Copy C drive and paste to a folder in

External F drive, C Drive = 125 GB




C drive feb_2016 on F external = 96.0 GB



==================


I assumed I must have lost connection or something, so I copied the C drive to the F (external) drive again. Same thing.

2nd attempt: C drive on F external = 96.0 GB


By the time the C drive, at 125GB instead of 311 GB is transferred to the external drive and then becomes 96 GB, some 211 GB have been lost. How can this be?

[Bob]

How can this be?

You're looking at three different things. 1) the disk utilization, 2) the copy operation, and 3) the directory listing. They won't match because they are reporting different things.

The disk utilization does reflect the amount of space being used on the drive. The copy operation reports on what is being transferred and may contain hidden and protected system files. The directory listing does not include space taken up by the file system or any objects using the ntfs shadow service -- there are things on the volume you simply can't see that way and they won't be copied. Hidden protected system files will also not be counted in your directory listing.

You can't backup a system drive by simply doing a file copy operation. Not everything you need will be copied. You need to use backup software that knows how to deal with the complexities of how to deal with drive contents.

One thing you may want to consider doing is a cleanup of your system drive. Right click on the drive in Explorer and select "properties". In the General tab, click on "disk cleanup". It will calculate how much space you can recover. Once it displays the result, click on the "clean up system files" button. It will do the calculation again, this time with additional things you can delete. Review the list and uncheck the items you want to keep and check the ones you don't. There can be a tremendous amount of space taken up by some of the system categories such as service pack backup files and Windows update cleanup. You can safely delete those, but it will mean that you can't back off the applied patches that you removed.

[_Paz_]

You can't backup a system drive by simply doing a file copy operation. Not everything you need will be copied. You need to use backup software that knows how to deal with the complexities of how to deal with drive contents.

Yes, I understand. The drive comes with a transfer software so I'll use that. I copied my 3 times back OS drive this same way and after transfer did not have all the drivers I needed. The fact that I still had them on the copy made things a lot easier.

They won't match because they are reporting different things.

Oh.

I'll check disk cleanup and make another check to ensure that unnecessary files are gone, but now I'm wondering...

I remember suggestions to create a say, 35 GB partition for OS and programs only. At the time I felt like my OS and programs section "grew" at an alarming rate and decided against that and let the C drive be one, not partitioned, drive. Now I see my OS and programs 'grew' to 311 GB. Obviously a 35 GB partition wouldn't work.

Also, if I keep a 7500 rpm 2nd drive, will that bog things down if all my video files are there?

Perhaps before formatting this 1T drive I should get another SSD, say a 500GB for programs and OS. Would that be a better way to go?

Thanks!!!

Paz

[Bob]

I wouldn't recommend the 35GB partition route either. It can be done, but your system drive space utilization will grow even if you aren't putting any of your personal files there. You'll likely be spending an inordinate amount of time managing your disk space. In my opinion, it simply isn't worth it. What size SSD you'll need will vary with the type of usage. A modest browse the Internet and send email type of user won't need much. A user with a lot of installed programs and heavy use, will need substantially more.

I, for example, don't have any personal data on the system drive, but I do have a lot of programs installed and am a heavy user. My system drive consistently hovers around 200GB and I use a 256GB SSD. I've been very happy with it.

Have you already purchased an SSD drive? If so, what did you get?

[_Paz_]

Yes, I bought a 1T Crucial SSD:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1116798-REG/crucial_ct1000mx200ssd1_1tb_mx200_sata_2_5.html

I have room for two drives in my laptop and have been using two 7500 rpm 1T drives for a total of 2T. (never enough room)

If I keep the old 2nd 7500 rpm drive, will that make a bottleneck?

I have Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc. The 4k files really fill things up quickly. I had thought I should try an SSD to see if that will sustain the life of my laptop. But if there is a bottleneck, it might not help enough. Not sure how much I want to invest if this machine still won't hack it. 4k files, that is.

But then, SSD drives could, in theory, go into a new machine if necessary. Maybe. Will the SSD HHD combo create a bottleneck at the HHD part?

[Peru]

If I keep the old 2nd 7500 rpm drive, will that make a bottleneck?

5400 or 7200?

[_Paz_]

7200

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0097LG9U8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_19&smid=AVCN3MVCVULPH

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

...But then, SSD drives could, in theory, go into a new machine if necessary.

Yes.

[_Paz_]

Today I returned my Crucial 1T SSD drive. It started off really well:

http://www.just-add-water.co/muvi/parkd ... b_2016.jpg

Even so, I realized almost immediately that I had to give up 4K as there was not enough performance increase for 4k to play with any of the various viewer programs I tried.

I began shooting the highest 1080p resolution video with the GH4. Within a day or two the new SSD seemed slower than my my old 7200 rpm drives. For a long while I thought I was imagining it but it began to be so slow and so hot in my lap that I couldn't deny it any longer... yesterday I ran read/write tests three times during the day.

This was the fastest of the speed tests:

http://www.just-add-water.co/muvi/parkd ... 0_2016.jpg

And then there is this:

http://www.just-add-water.co/muvi/cruci ... 9_2016.jpg

128C = 265F, well above boiling. I have a hard time believing it. My laptop should be melted, shouldn't it? Web reading says some SSD drives don't have temperature sensors but the same test indicated about 40C for the SSD drive early on and I've watched the rating for the SSD drive temperature rise and fall so it seems like the test program is able to read the temperature to me.


Windows Hard Drive test says the drive is....Working Properly ??? How can that be? The only hint Windows gave as to what might be wrong is that some kind of Fetch Program was not enabled. (EDIT: SuperFetch:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... bf5?auth=1 )



Reading on the web, many people say this program uses a large amount of CPU and they consider it to be like a virus and they turn it off.

Oh, I also ran a Deep Virus scan. Nothing was found.



I formatted the drive then put it in an external case, connected it and ran tests. Back up to speed!

http://www.just-add-water.co/muvi/forma ... 1_2016.jpg

And the temperature was down to a reasonable level: (0 - 100C = normal operating temperature according to the Crucial website.)

http://www.just-add-water.co/muvi/cruci ... _temps.jpg


All these tests have been done when viewing video footage only. Not with any intensive programs (such as Photoshop, PrePro, After Effects, etc.) running. Only viewing the video. Overall CPU usage with the high 1080p footage did NOT sit on 98 - 100% with all cores, so that was good, but still, when it isn't 4k anyway, it might do as well with 7200rpm drives that don't slow to molasses while HOT, HOT, HOT.

What could have caused this to happen?

Something about my computer or is it likely the SSD drive malfunctioned even though Windows says it is OK?


I don't know where to go from here. Perhaps try a smaller SSD for OS and programs only and get a four bay 2.5" SSD docking station and move almost everything off my laptop to leave enough space for scratch files?

Does this sound like a problem with my system or a fault of the particular Crucial drive? Why would the drive get back up to normal speed after having been formatted?

thanks for any thoughts or suggestions,

Paz

[_Paz_]

Is it possible there was some change that needed to be made in the BIOS? I didn't make any. Would a drive connected via SATA (internal) be any different than one connected by eSATA? (external) Even if so, why did the drive appear to work well after initial connection both times?

[Bob]

Something doesn't look right. The SSD temperature is way too high. The specs from Crucial indicate that the MX200 has an operating temperature range of 0 to 70 degrees Celsius. SSDs do run hotter in a laptop than a desktop because of the reduced air circulation, but 128 degrees is much too high. Also, that SSD has adaptive thermal protection to keep it from overheating. The program you're using to monitor the temperature might be misinterpreting the sensor.

It's normal for superfetch to be disabled when using an SSD. SuperFetch is a service that runs in the background to cache up the most frequent used application and data into memory based on your prior usage. The basic idea is that it's faster to retrieve data from RAM rather than the considerably slower HDD. SuperFetch is neither needed or desired when using an SSD. If your SSD had a setup/optimization function that you ran after installing the drive, it probably disabled it.

The slowing you describe is suspicious. That sounds a lot like what would happen if TRIM is disabled.

As for the bios, the only parameter that would make a difference is the AHCI setting for the sata drives. SSDs perform much better if AHCI mode is enabled. That requires that the bios be set to that and the operating system has to have the AHCI drivers installed and enabled. If the driver is missing or disabled, you won't be able to boot the OS if the Bios is set to AHCI. The OS has to be setup properly ahead of time. Windows 7 will automatically do that if the bios is set to AHCI when Windows was installed.

Did your SSD come with an optimization Program? I have a Samsung SSD and it came with a utility called the Samsung Magician which checks for the SSD optimizations and can perform them for you.