Ssd Drives

[Grandpappy]

Will I be able to install an SSD drive into my Dell Dimension 5150 that has as it's main drive a 1Gb and an exrenal drive of 1Gb with 4Gb of ram memory but with Windows7 32bit system. The system is nearly 6yrs old and can I do the job myself or will it have to go to 'the shop'? Will I see much improvement and which is the best one/size to buy?
Many thanks for any help
Cheers

[hc4361]

Use this tool to find out if you can install an SSD drive:
http://uk.crucial.com/

You don't need a huge capacity SSD. The idea is you put your OS on it and keep your data on your old hard drive. This will make the PC boot up very quickly and help with cooling. I would definitely do it if my pc were able to take one.

[Old_Geezer]

I bought one then got cold feet install it when I learn that the are 'prepared' slightly differently than a standard drive. Can't recall the details but it's something to do with the formatting or thereabouts, so I reckoned a disk copy might not work properly. The new drive has sat by the monitor ever since.

[Grandpappy]

Thanks for both replies. The Crucial site is extremely good and I looked up their own drives,not rated too highly but cheap at £85 for the 240Gb,but a bracket is needed for holding the 2.5" drive into the 3.5" bay! another £20. Apparently if I do a Macrium backup to another drive,then swap the drives and then do a Macrium Restore onto the new drive,everything should be fine!!!
Afraid I'm with Old_Geezer on this one! But, I shall keep watching.
Thanks a lot folks.

[bibblebub]

Something that you might want to try, if only to see whether an SSD would provide a system improvement, is RAMDisk http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

I have been using the free version for a number of years (so don't know if it's as simple to download and install as it was back then), and use it to have a 0.5GB RAM drive from which I run my internet browsers.

[bibblebub]

Sorry, I misread your question and got into thinking that you were looking for a drive of just a few GB.

[hc4361]

Well it makes sense to have backups of your files in any event, Grandpappy. If your hard drive becomes corrupted you could lose everything unless your files are backed up to either another drive such as an external hard drive, or dvds.

There are plenty of step by step guides on how to install an SSD. If you have a Windows OS disk it is easy peasy. If you don't it is still doable for a novice who can follow instructions. Obviously, you'd print the instructions before you start if you don't have a second pc, laptop or tablet. :D

OG, it's time to grab the bull by the horns. Get that screwdriver out.

[Old_Geezer]

Hmm...

I bought a 128Gb one. At the time I was hoping to simply do a disk copy and carry on with the PC with no perceived change (save a bit faster). Now I have 492Gb used on the C: drive. Were I to leave most of that on a magnetic drive then chances are loads of stuff would stop working :-(

Probably easiest to do this sort of thing when starting from scratch.

[hc4361]

Nothing should stop working, OG. You need to find out the size of your Windows partition before you do anything. That is the only thing you would transfer to the SSD.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah but past experience suggests it will. Links get broken, data not found where expected from config files, stuff like that. Then one gives up and reinstalls if one can dig out the DVDs, or whatever. I'm going to need to 'byte' the bullet at some stage but it is one of a few jobs I seem to have put on a permanent back-burner.

[hc4361]

I'm jealous because I can't install a SSD on my pc.

[Old_Geezer]

:-)
One of the benefits of building your own.

[hc4361]

If you built your own it should be easy. Do you have the original OS disk(s)?

[Old_Geezer]

Oh yes. But that brings me back to the discussion above. I initially wanted to just disk copy and carry on as if nothing had changed. Then I read of differences in blocks or something (I'd have to dig the details out) which might be an issue, so I put it aside. For sure I could start a new drive from scratch, but then would get the broken link type issues so lost enthusiasm.

[Grandpappy]

Hi all!
I've just read that if I get the size of my main drive (C) down to a smaller size than the SSD drive that I buy, then the whole lot should just 'transfer' back onto the new drive and 'off we jolly-well go' - or am I simplyfying things a little? I, like OG, expected to just use my new drive as my main drive (C) and everything would just move like s**t off a shovel! Surely Windows7 should accomodate these 'tweaks'? Or am I heading for disaster???

[hc4361]

Grandpappy, have you got the original Windows 7 disk?

[hc4361]

Is this what you've been reading?

[hc4361]

http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2014/06/02/migrate-solid-state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows

[Old_Geezer]

Aye, I found the reference that put me off. Apparently SSD drives align their partitions differently. They use 64 blocks in the first partition as opposed to 63 blocks. I don't think it stops it working, but stops it working optimally, which sort of negates the object.

Ah typical. That link looks very familiar hc :-)

[Old_Geezer]

If I ever get to upgrade the drive I might even get around to using the CPU cooler I bought, and then didn't use when I found the CPU came with one anyway. I thought it was only for use when overclocking, and a mistake to have purchased since I didn't do that, but today's games seem to really up the temperature of both CPU and GPU. But let's not derail GP's thread further.

[hc4361]

Overclocking? Games?

OG, you are full of surprises :D