Hello! Decide to prepare an article in which you will talk about how to properly install Windows 7 on an SSD drive, and how to configure Windows 7 on an SSD drive after installation so that it works for a long time and without problems. I recently bought a laptop, took an Asus K56CM and immediately bought an OCZ Vertex 4 128 GB SSD drive for it, I really wanted to experience all the speed that an SSD gives.
In our case, the model of laptop/computer and SSD drive does not matter; my instructions can be said to be universal. I will write what needs to be done immediately after SSD installation drive into a computer and how to set it up operating system after installation on an SSD. If this is your first time encountering an SSD, then you are probably wondering why there is such attention to setting up the operating system for these drives compared to conventional hard drives. I will now explain everything in simple words.
SSD drives have a limited failure time compared to hard drives. Simply put, they have a certain number of rewrites. Now I won’t say what this number is, it varies and what is true and what is not is difficult to understand. For example, for my OCZ Vertex 4 in the characteristics it was written that the operating time between failures is 2 million hours. And the operating system writes a lot during operation, deletes and writes again various temporary files, etc. Services such as defragmentation, indexing, etc. serve to speed up the system on normal hard drives. And they only harm SSD drives and reduce their service life.
In fact, installing Windows 7 on SSD almost no different from installing on a hard drive. But after installation you will need to make some settings in Windows operation 7, but there is nothing complicated there either, we will do everything using the utility SSD Mini Tweaker 2.1.
What should you do before installing Windows 7 on an SSD drive?
Well, first you need to install an SSD drive in a laptop or computer, it doesn’t matter. I will not describe this process. There is nothing complicated about this, and this is a topic for another article. Let's say that you have already installed the SSD, or it has already been installed.
If you will use a regular hard drive in your computer next to the SSD drive, then I advise you to disable it while installing Windows 7, this is so that you do not get confused when choosing a partition to install the OS, but this is not necessary.
All you need to do before installation is to check if our solid state drive is working in AHCI. To do this, go to the BIOS; if you don’t know how, read the article. Next, go to the tab "Advanced" and select the item “SATA Configuration”.
Select the item, a window will open in which we select AHCI(if you had another mode enabled). Click F10 to save settings.
Now you can start Windows installation 7. The installation process on a solid-state drive is the same as on a hard drive. I just want to give you one piece of advice:
Try to install the original image of the operating room Windows systems 7, or Windows 8. I recommend installing only one of these operating systems, because only seven and eight can work with SSD drives. Do not use different assemblies, and if you install Windows assembly 7, or Windows 8 downloaded from the Internet, then try to choose an image close to the original.
We install the operating system. You may find the following articles useful:
Once the operating system is installed, you can proceed to setting up Windows for SSD.
Setting up Windows 7 to work with an SSD drive
More precisely, Windows 7 will work anyway, our task is to make sure that our solid-state drive lasts as long as possible and without various errors.
As I already wrote at the beginning of the article, for Windows optimization for a solid-state drive, we will use the SSD Mini Tweaker utility. You can disable all unnecessary options manually, but SSD program Mini Tweaker can do all this in a few clicks. You will only need to manually disable indexing of files on local drives.
First we need to download SSD Mini Tweaker. Download version 2.1 from the link below:
There is no need to install the program, just extract it from the archive and run it.
Launch the SSD Mini Tweaker utility.
You can tick all the boxes, or rather, it’s not possible, but it’s necessary. I have checked all the boxes, except that you can leave only SuperFetch; disabling this service may increase the startup time of programs. Check the boxes for the required services and press the button “Apply changes”. Almost everything, in the same utility there is a “Manual” item, this means that you need to manually disable services. There are two of them, disk defragmentation on a schedule and indexing the contents of files on the disk.
If scheduled defragmentation is disabled automatically after the changes we have made, then indexing of files on the disk must be disabled manually on each local partition.
Disable indexing of file contents on disk
Let's go to "My computer", and press right click to one of the local disks. Select “Properties”.
A window will open in which you need to uncheck the item “Allow the contents of files on this drive to be indexed in addition to file properties”. Click “Apply”. 
We are waiting for the process to complete.
When you do this procedure on drive C, you will most likely receive a message stating that you do not have rights to change system files. I just clicked “Skip all”, I think that if you skip a few files, nothing bad will happen.
That's all, Windows setup under the solid state drive is completed. You know, many people say that these are different myths, that nothing needs to be turned off, etc. Maybe so, but if they came up with it, then it means it’s necessary and I think that in any case it won’t hurt.
It seems that I wrote everything I wanted, if you have additions, comments, or something is not clear, then write in the comments, we’ll figure it out. Good luck!
With the readers of "KV" about the experience of purchasing at an eBay auction using a Visa plastic card. Now it’s time to talk about my experience of creating a solid-state hard drive based on a CompactFlash-miniIDE adapter from the Chinese manufacturer noname and a four-gigabyte CompactFlash card.
A little water has flown under the bridge since I repaired my Dell Latitude LS, and my old work computer has a Compaq 3250 HDD ordered to live long. The problem with the repair turned out to be that for such an ancient laptop (Pentium120 manufactured in 1996) it was impossible to find a 4 or 6 GB hard drive (the BIOS 3250 did not understand a larger disk capacity).
An intermediate solution to the problem was found simply: a 540 MB laptop IDE hard drive was removed from long-standing supplies, and a system with a minimum of necessary programs, and additional memory is realized using a 4 GB CF card connected via a CF-PC Card Type II adapter. Everything would be fine, but the good old 540 MB hard drive turned out to be extremely noisy for a laptop.
Hoping to find a small SSD hard drive to replace its noisy counterpart, I turned to the Internet. Quick search among the stores on shop.open.by did not give anything, I had to turn to eBay.com.
There were no solid-state hard drives at an affordable price, but during the search I found a Chinese seller of various adapters from standard memory cards to miniIDE and IDE interfaces. Among the adapters was the CF-miniIDE adapter for 2USD. Noticing that there were only a few minutes left until the end of the auction, without hesitation, I clicked the “Place Bid” button and turned out to be the happy buyer of this device.
The payment problem surfaced a little later, when I discovered that the Chinese seller only accepts PayPal, and my Visa International will not help me, since PayPal fundamentally does not work with citizens of Belarus.
For some time I had to forget about my purchase, but the eBay service carefully reminded me of the need to fulfill the buyer's obligations. After a little googling, I found the office WMBelarus.com, which provides intermediary services, including purchases on eBay via PayPal.
I filled out the order form on the intermediary’s website, reluctantly gave them my account password, paid for the order via WebMoney and a few hours later received an email with a successful PayPal transaction number. This number was entered into the field for resolving payment conflicts between the seller and the buyer, after which I received a joyful message that the purchase was on its way.
A week later I received a notification from the post office that the parcel could be collected. On the envelope with the adapter there were stamps with the time of dispatch and arrival of the parcel. It turned out that the parcel traveled from China for 24 hours and was checked by our customs for about 5 days.
After fiddling around a bit with a miniIDE-IDE adapter and a CF-miniIDE adapter, I managed to connect a 4 GB CF card to my desktop computer. The shamanism involved removing one extra leg on the CF-miniIDE adapter, due to which the adapter refused to be inserted into the block (this fact indicates that the Chinese have already crossed the threshold of maximizing the cost of devices - with two thousand legs they could save almost a kilogram of copper: ).
The card was immediately identified as a PATA hard drive, which made it possible to format it as a DOS boot disk for the FAT32 system without any problems. The flash drive was also loaded with the Windows95 distribution.
The system launched perfectly on a large computer, but the old laptop refused to work with the newly made SSD hard drive. Using the "scientific poke" method, the flash drive was inserted into a Dell Latitude LS, where it also worked like a charm.
For me, what happened turned out to be a small surprise; while searching for a solution to the problem, I came across an interesting fact on the Internet: CF cards contain controllers that are not entirely compatible with older versions of IDE, similar to those in large hard drives. And the higher the speed of the CF card (mine is marked as 133x), the smaller the number of devices that support it.
Despite the partial failure, I tested the performance of my SSD. Under Windows95, the speed of system installation and operation turned out to be slightly slower than on a standard hard drive. When working with many small files or loading large ones, the homemade SSD HDD began to noticeably “slow down”.
Concluding a short excursion into the world of homemade solid-state hard drives, I would like to note the amazing silence that accompanies the operation of the Dell Latitude LS with an SSD HDD. If it weren't for the hard drive's activity LED, you might sometimes think that the computer was frozen. For those readers who dare to repeat my experiment, I advise you to choose a memory card with the maximum available speed for your quiet hard drive. I wish good luck and direct hands to the experimenters!
Dmitry SPITSYN
(speed of operation, fault tolerance, low energy consumption, etc.)
Our reader Mikhail Ivanovsky noticed that even if the selected laptop model does not have an SSD, you can easily install it yourself. At the request of the editors, Mikhail wrote a simple and understandable guide for installing an SSD for a laptop.
For those who prefer to watch, we have prepared a video version of this article:
While Windows was loading, you managed to forget why you turned on the laptop in the first place? So it's time to change something. And this “something” is not necessarily the entire laptop.
Causes slow loading may vary, but they all affect the speed of the system and installed programs. Only one thing can be said for sure - a system installed on a good old hard drive (HDD) is, in principle, incapable of breaking records. But don’t despair and stock up on glycine!
If previously few could afford a laptop with an SSD drive, today such models are becoming more affordable. Alas, manufacturers are not yet in a hurry to install them on all laptop models, since such an option will still significantly affect the price. Not everyone is ready to overpay for a laptop with an SSD, especially if the purpose of use does not go beyond the usual scope.
Especially for those who want to enjoy all the advantages of a system on a solid-state drive, but do not have the desire or opportunity to purchase a top-end laptop, we have prepared this guide. With its help, you will be convinced that installing an SSD with your own hands is not at all difficult (easier than assembling a chest of drawers from IKEA).
Moreover, the increase in laptop performance and the pleasure from the work done are not comparable with the effort expended.
There may be several installation options. It all depends on your needs, as well as the size and configuration of the laptop. Let's consider the most common case, when an SSD is installed in the standard place of a native hard drive(HDD), and that, in turn, replaces the optical drive. This configuration is recommended, since the interface for connecting an optical drive is not always able to provide the SSD with the required data transfer speed.
Whether we like it or not, CD and DVD drives in laptop computers are becoming an atavism and will probably soon disappear completely (as once happened with floppy disks and dinosaurs). Remember the last time you inserted a disc into your laptop? But the drive takes up space, periodically hums, consumes electricity, and even gets hot.
So, here's what we need for the upgrade:
- SSD standard size 2,5”
- Adapter for HDD\SSD 2.5" for laptop drive
- Utility for transferring system and programs from HDD to SSD
Let us only note that it is reasonable to use an SSD first of all to host the operating system and programs on it, and only then to store data. Therefore, it is logical to determine the volume based on the current load of your C drive, and take into account that for effective SSD operation It will require about 25% of free disk space, so it’s definitely not worth taking “back to back”. For most users, a capacity of 80 to 120 GB will be sufficient.
Having decided on the volume, budget and based on reviews in online stores, choosing an SSD will not be difficult.
With adapters the situation is even simpler. Their purpose is to ensure comfortable placement of the SSD in place of the optical drive. You can take any adapter that matches the size of our SSD (2.5”) and the thickness of the drive (usually 12.7 mm, but in thin laptops it can be 9.5 mm). From time-tested options, you can choose Espada adapters.
Adapter
The installation process in general looks like this:
- Turn the laptop over and remove the battery
- We find the cover with the disk storage marking, unscrew the screw securing it (it may be hidden by a plug), remove the cover and carefully remove the HDD, having first disconnected the cable with the wiring
- We install our SSD in place of the HDD, insert the cable, return the cover and tighten the screw
- We install the HDD into the adapter and secure it to it with the screws included in the package.
- We find the screw (may be hidden by a plug) with the drive marking and unscrew it. In most laptops, this is all that is held on optical drive
- Open the tray using a needle (the hole next to the button) and, holding the laptop with one hand, carefully remove the optical drive with the other
We take out the drive
- We remove the front panel with the button from the tray and replace it with the adapter so that the surgical intervention does not affect the appearance laptop
Adapter with bracket
Everyone is here
- Insert the adapter from the HDD into the drive location and tighten the screw
- Don’t forget about the plugs, if there were any.
- Turn on the laptop
We install, follow its simple instructions and voila! Our SSD is ready to go. It's time to arm yourself with a stopwatch and, with bated breath, time the system boot time. Although the difference “before and after” will be noticeable to the naked eye. The system performance index will increase significantly if not overall assessment, then in the “Main hard drive” column it’s exactly from 5.9 (the maximum possible index for the HDD) to 7.9 (the maximum performance index in principle).
In conclusion, one more thing is worth mentioning important point. Since the operating principle of an SSD has its own specifics, to extend its service life and greater reliability, it is recommended to perform several optional, but useful settings systems. Windows 7 will already make friends with an SSD without any problems, but by taking a few minutes to configure it, you are guaranteed to extend its life.
Tips for optimizing the system can be easily found, for example. To begin with, we just wanted to convince you that anyone can install an SSD. We hope we succeeded.
Happy upgrades!
Mikhail Ivanovsky
Do you want to offer new topic or publish your text on “We are ESET”? Write to us:
Based on the size of SSD drives, they can be divided into two unequal groups: 2.5" and 3.5". 3.5-inch ones are practically never found in stores (only hybrid solutions). You can additionally purchase a special container for installation in the case system unit computer or just put it neatly inside and secure it with 2-sided tape wherever you want: the SSD does not heat up, does not vibrate, and the working position does not matter for it. You will also need a SATA interface cable to connect the device to motherboard. To power an SSD drive, a standard flat connector on the power supply (SATA Power Connector) is usually used. Description of power supply connectors.
A method for transferring an operating system (OS) from an old HDD to a new one is described. The link to the article also discusses our option: transferring the OS from the IDE or SATA drive to an SSD using special program Paragon Drive Copy 11 Professional and its included Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 2.0 (there is a link to the program), it is necessary, since most utilities for creating backup copies saves the clone in accordance with the old sector logic (the next paragraph discusses preparing an SSD disk for OS transfer alternative way if you don't want to use Paragon Drive Copy 11). After transferring the system to the SSD, you will only need to change the boot sequence in the BIOS. We set the SSD as the second device, and the CD/DVD as the first. After this, the operating system should boot. If you plan to install the operating system from scratch, then you will not need to transfer the OS.
Preparing the SSD for OS migration (alternative method)
Acronis Disk Director - this program will help you perform any operations with hard drive described below. (Attention! A small feature of this program is that you must click the “perform operation” button after changing the disk settings [marked with a finishing flag]).
First you need to initialize the SSD to create the MBR (main boot record). You can do this using the above program. Next, you need to partition the SSD disk and create an active partition on it. In Windows 7, the active boot partition can be as small as 100 MB. So we'll use the section you just created. In the next step, you will need to reduce the original partition size to 100 MB (and not a byte less). This will be quite difficult to do using Disk Management, so I again recommend Acronis Disk Director 11.
In the free space of the hard drive, you need to create a partition C on which the operating system will be located. This partition should not be active and should not be the primary partition (because the previously created 100 MB partition already includes the operating system boot loader). After this, create drive C from the remaining disk space. It can be a simple logical partition. Also, your old HDD may have more than one partition, but several, which imposes certain restrictions due to inconsistencies in free disk space. Some information, including the factory reset section, can simply be burned to DVD.
After all the preparatory procedures are completed, you can proceed directly to copying the operating system. Next we will work with the hard disk image (system image). There are many programs for image processing (choose) or you can use standard ones Windows tools 7 - (pretty easy, but a little more time consuming). Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore - Create a system image (in the left column).
Now you need to copy the system image to an external hard drive (you will probably have to assign a drive letter to the 100 MB partition so that the program can identify it), and then to the SSD drive (using boot program for processing disk images). Restore this way, section by section. Thus, you will have to perform recovery for the 100 MB partition and drive C.
Attention! Majority free programs for working with images, they do not know how to reduce the size of the source partition in order to rewrite it to the allotted space on an SSD, whose data capacity is very limited, even if the amount of recorded data corresponds to the allotted space. In this case, drive C on the HDD must be reduced to the appropriate size. For this work, I again recommend Acronis Disk Director, since it is more difficult to achieve the same effect using only seven.
The amount of data on your HDD on drive C should not exceed the capacity of the created drive C on the SSD. If the source partition contains a lot of user data, then you can simply try to move it to another partition of the hard drive or even write it to optical drives. When the system is written to the SSD, right-click on the user folders on the disk and include them in the appropriate library. With this approach, you won't be required to copy your folders later.
Now change the boot sequence in the BIOS (Boot section). We set the SSD as the second device, and the CD/DVD as the first, or vice versa. After this, the operating system should boot.
Attention! Before booting the operating system from the SSD, it is recommended to install in the BIOS AHCI mode. It is better to do this before you change the boot sequence of devices, and then set the appropriate settings in Windows 7.
Defragmenting partitions on SSDs makes no sense and, moreover, is very harmful. In the case of a laptop, go to Services, find Disk Defragmentation in the list, right-click on the entry, and the Properties window will open. Just disable this service.
In case of desktop computer You can disable defragmentation only for the SSD drive, so that the HDDs running in the system do not lose performance.
While the defragmentation service is disabled, you will not be able to resize the partition. This process requires this service to work.
Hibernation Mode – Most of us do not use hibernation mode but prefer standby mode. However, the file still takes up precious space on your SSD, and its size depends on the number of random access memory on your computer. To get rid of this misunderstanding, enter in command line following:
powercfg –h off
If you need to return everything to original state, then enter:
powercfg - h on
Copying user folders to your hard drive
This process is very simple. Create a partition on the HDD. Create appropriate folders on it (Documents, Music, Photos, and so on). The name can be anything, the system will rename them anyway.
Open Explorer and right-click on, for example, the My Documents folder on the left. Go to properties and click on the Location tab. Click Move and select the folder on the HDD in which you would like to store your documents.
Attention! You need to select a folder directly on the partition. You cannot select the root directory, otherwise there will be confusion.
Frequently asked questions about solid state drives
Before we answer any questions, we'd like to remind you that we are convinced that SSD storage for laptops and desktops (as well as for enterprise servers) has a bright future ahead of it. SSD is truly capable of providing high performance, improved system responsiveness, increased time battery life, high reliability, more fast loading, reduction of vibrations and noise. As prices come down and storage quality improves, we believe more and more computers will be sold with SSDs instead of traditional HDDs. With this in mind, we have focused the necessary engineering efforts to ensure that users can fully experience the benefits of working with a new type of storage device.
Q: Will Windows 7 support tweaking?
Oh yeah. This has already been discussed above.
Q: Will defragmentation be disabled by default for SSDs?
Oh yeah. Automatic start Defragmentation tasks will not include partitions created on the SSD or identifying themselves as such. In addition, if the system partition shows random read performance higher than 8 MB/s, it will also be excluded from the list for defragmentation. Performance levels were determined through internal testing.
The threshold performance level test was added to the final version due to the fact that only a few of the SSDs on the market identify themselves as SSDs in the system. 8 Mb/s is quite modest. SSD performance ranges from 11 to 130 MB/s. We tested 182 HDDs, and only 6 of them exceeded the 2 MB/s bar in the random read test. The results of the remaining 176 lie between 0.8 and 1.6 Mb/s.
Q: Will Superfetch be disabled for SSDs?
A: Yes, for most computers with SSD. If the drive is an SSD, and if it shows adequate random write/overwrite results, then Superfetch, Prefetch for loading and running applications, ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive will be disabled.
Initially, these features were supposed to be disabled for all SSDs, but we found that this resulted in poor performance on some systems. Exploring possible reasons such a situation, we have found that some early SSD models have serious problems with random writes, ultimately leading to the fact that reading from the disk stops altogether and for a long period of time. With Superfetch and Prefetch enabled, performance in everyday use again improved noticeably.
A: Compressing files helps save disk space, but requires additional processor power for compression and decompression, which leads to increased power consumption on laptops. Strictly speaking, for folders and files that are used very rarely, compression can serve good tool saving expensive SSD space – in case free space is really so necessary.
However, we do not recommend using compression in cases where folders and files are constantly in use. Your Documents folders and the files in them are not a problem, but temporary Internet folders and mail directories should not be compressed, since they are constantly writing and rewriting a large number of files in batch mode.
Q: Is the indexer working differently? Windows search on SSD?
Q: Is Bitlocker encryption optimized to work with SSDs?
A: Yes, on NTFS. When Bitlocker is first configured for a particular partition, it is read in its entirety, encrypted, and written back. As soon as this happens, file system will issue a command to carry out adjustments that optimize the operation of the drive.
We encourage all users concerned about the safety and protection of their data to use Bitlocker on their drives, including SSDs.
Q: Does Media Center do anything special when configured on an SSD?
Oh no. Although SSDs have advantages over traditional HDDs, the price per 1 GB for solid state drives still significantly higher than for conventional disks. For most users, the HDD optimized for multimedia content remains the best option, since such content involves a significant write and playback load that has sequential read/write characteristics.
Q: Does write caching make sense for SSDs and how does Windows 7 help support write caching if the SSD supports it?
A: Some manufacturers install RAM chips on their devices not only to operate controllers; they should, as with traditional disks, cache reads and, if possible, writes. For drives that cache writes in fast, non-volatile memory, Windows 7 assumes that the presence of overwrite and write-queue commands will be no less effective than for HDDs. Additionally, Windows 7 assumes that user settings that disable caching will be treated by the SSD as if it were a regular drive.
Q: Does it make sense to configure RAID for an SSD?
Oh yeah. The reliability and performance gained by configuring RAID on traditional drives is maintained when using an SSD.
Q: Do I need to place the page file on the SSD?
Oh yeah. The main operations with the paging file are random writing of small volumes or sequential writing of large amounts of data. Both types of operations work fine on an SSD.
By analyzing telemetry focused on estimating writes and reads for the pagefile, we found that:
reading from Pagefile.sys takes precedence over writing to pagefile.sys in a 40:1 ratio,
The read blocks for Pagefile.sys are typically quite small, with 67% of them being less than or equal to 4 KB and 88% being less than 16 KB.
The write blocks in Pagefile.sys are quite large, 62% of them are greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% are almost exactly 1 MB.
Generally speaking, the typical page file usage patterns and SSD performance characteristics fit together very well, and it is the file that is highly recommended to be placed on the SSD.
Q: Are there any restrictions for using hibernation mode with an SSD?
A: No, hiberfile.sys is written and read sequentially in large blocks, and can be located on either an SSD or HDD.
Q: What changes have been made to the Windows Experience Index to correctly reflect SSD performance metrics?
A: In Windows 7, these are new criteria for evaluating random writes, overwrites, and reads. The best samples can receive an index from 6.5 to 7.9. To qualify for this range, drives must have outstanding performance for the specified types of operations and be able to withstand heavy loads of these types.
During the Windows 7 beta testing, there were cases where the index varied from 1.9 to 2.9, or as if the drive (SSD or HDD) was not performing as expected at all when running a performance benchmark. We received a lot of feedback on this issue, most objecting to such low ratings. As a result, we have simply banned SSDs with potential performance issues from competing for the 6.0+ and 7.0+ tier ratings that were recently added. SSDs that are not among the favorites in this type of race will receive indices approximately the same as they would have in Windows Vista, without benefiting much from the improved random write performance in Windows 7.
Michael Fortin
program manager of the Fundamentals team
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