Larger HDD to smaller SSD questions

[AzJazz]

I am trying to convert my 750 GB system HDD to my new 256 GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD.

I am running Win7x64 Pro. I have Acronis True Image Home 2010 and Acronis Disk Director 11 Home installed on my PC.

I have 3 partitions on my HDD: System Reserved [95 MB] , C: (Win7x64 System) [571 GB], and P: (Extra Programs) [127 GB]. I only want to copy the "System Reserved" and "C:" partitions over to the new SSD. The C: partition will need to be shrunk from 571 GB (200 GB in use) down to the 238 GB partition on the SSD.

Here is what I have done so far:

1) I backed up my HDD MBR, "System Reserved", and "C:" partitions using Acronis True Image.
2) Using the Microsoft Disk Management utility, I created two new partitions on the Vertex 4 SSD: A new NTFS 96 MB "System Reserved" partition, and a new NTFS "Win7" partition that took up the rest of the SSD.
3) Using Acronis True Image, I restored my "System Reserved" partition from the backup to the SSD's 96 MB "System Reserved" partition. I also made this SSD partition "Active".
4) Using Acronis True Image, I restored my "Win7x64" partition from the backup to the SSD's 238 GB "Win7" partition.

Before I try to boot off the SSD, I have a few questions:

1) Will this even work?
2) Is there anything else I need to do before trying to boot from the SSD?
3) Will my SSD partitions be properly aligned after this?
4) Considering that my SSD will only have around 38 GB of available space (out of 256 GB) after I have finished (which will only get smaller over time), am I running a risk of early SSD failure because there isn't as much space available for write "wear leveling"?

Thanks!

AzJazz

 

[AzJazz]

OK, that didn't work.

My PC booted from the HDD, even though I set my BIOS to boot from the SSD.

I tried using EasyBCD v2.1 to allow me to boot from either drive until I get things figured out. While I was able to boot from my SSD in this way, the PC spontaneously rebooted while going to the Windows logon screen. I think it is because the SSD wasn't being recognized as the "C:" drive. The EasyBCD setup listed the SSD as my G: drive.

Is there a way I can configure EasyBCD to allow booting from either drive?

Thanks,

AzJazz

 

[ddrueding]

That is a tricky thing you have going. If you can, I suspect the easiest way to go about it would be to back up your P: drive elsewhere and delete the partition from the 750GB drive entirely. Then just do a whole drive copy to the SSD (it will resize as needed).

 

[Stereodude]

You probably need to resize the large partition on your HD so that the number of sectors in use on the HD are less than the number on the SSD and then clone the entire HD to the SSD.

 

[LunarMist]

You probably need to resize the large partition on your HD so that the number of sectors in use on the HD are less than the number on the SSD and then clone the entire HD to the SSD.

That should not be necessary. I regularly change partition sizes with True Image without needing to do anything special. Obviously the target partition must be large enough to restore the amount of data in the TIB.

 

[mubs]

38GB free on a 238 GB partition does not sound like a safe operating situation.

 

[Tannin]

Not really the answer you are looking for, AzJazz, but my suggestion (for other readers of this thread) is to use a hybrid drive. Seagate make an excellent little 750GB hybrid, the Momentus XT. It is a small flash drive and a fairly fast mechanical drive all in one, with very clever software which leverages the fast flash-based storage to get the best possible performance out of the combo. No drivers, no software, does not care which operating system you use, just plug it in and go. Quite cheap, plenty of space, and very nearly as fast as an SSD. Brilliant!

 

[Mercutio]

That is counter to my experience with the Momentus XL, which I found to only offer improvement in terms of boot and resume time and almost no benefit for actual help for other disk-based latency.

 

[AzJazz]

That is a tricky thing you have going. If you can, I suspect the easiest way to go about it would be to back up your P: drive elsewhere and delete the partition from the 750GB drive entirely. Then just do a whole drive copy to the SSD (it will resize as needed).

Thanks for the great advice, guys!

ddrueding - I followed your suggestion above with deleting my P: partition, then cloning my drive using Acronis. I am now up and operational - and amazed by the performance improvements! My 6 minute+ boot up sequence now completes in about a minute, and sometimes less! After cloning and booting from my SSD, I used the Acronis Partition Recovery tool to restore the P: partition on my HDD.

I deleted / moved a number of video files and applications to my HDD, and now my SSD is around 40% full. Much more room to play with.

Everything is running great now. My CrystalMark results are posted below my sig.

Now that my drive is under 50%, it brings up another question: I understand that the Vertex 4 has a "Performance Mode" that is enabled when the SSD is under 50% full. Once you cross over 50% full, there is a one-time SDD restructuring and the Vertex 4 goes into "Storage Mode" after that. However, since I started with my drive at close to 80% full, I know that the SSD was sent into "Storage Mode" immediately. My Crystal Benchmarks are identical at 40% full to what they were at 80% full. I think I am currently stuck in Storage Mode.

Now that I am comfortably under 50% again, is it possible for me to get the SSD back into Performance Mode?

Thanks again,

AzJazz

HDD (SATA II):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 113.544 MB/s
Sequential Write : 104.701 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 36.542 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 44.438 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.422 MB/s [ 103.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.823 MB/s [ 200.9 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.871 MB/s [ 212.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.843 MB/s [ 205.8 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [L: 35.2% (200.9/571.5 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/12/15 1:14:03
OS : Windows 7 Professional [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


SSD (SATA II):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 279.136 MB/s
Sequential Write : 268.315 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 236.416 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 265.639 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 31.762 MB/s [ 7754.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 86.864 MB/s [ 21207.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 206.833 MB/s [ 50496.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 197.599 MB/s [ 48242.0 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 78.0% (186.0/238.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/12/14 10:22:38
OS : Windows 7 Professional [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


SSD (with SATA III PCI card):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 381.809 MB/s
Sequential Write : 427.583 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 335.098 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 426.888 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 29.556 MB/s [ 7215.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 70.661 MB/s [ 17251.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 330.678 MB/s [ 80731.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 350.399 MB/s [ 85546.7 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 78.6% (187.4/238.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/12/15 6:14:07
OS : Windows 7 Professional [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

[AzJazz]

Not really the answer you are looking for, AzJazz, but my suggestion (for other readers of this thread) is to use a hybrid drive. Seagate make an excellent little 750GB hybrid, the Momentus XT. It is a small flash drive and a fairly fast mechanical drive all in one, with very clever software which leverages the fast flash-based storage to get the best possible performance out of the combo. No drivers, no software, does not care which operating system you use, just plug it in and go. Quite cheap, plenty of space, and very nearly as fast as an SSD. Brilliant!

Thanks, Tannin ... For most users, the Momentus is a great suggestion.

However ... the 750GB drive I am moving from is actually a 750GB Momentus! While I suspected that the Momentus hybrid drive might be improving some of my performance, I was never able to point to anything specific that I could see an improvement in.

Most folks would probably see an improvement in boot-up time with a Momentus drive, but I don't. My system is turned on 24/7, so the Momentus has decided to move other applications to the faster hybrid memory area instead of my Windows startup applications. As a result, my boot time is always around 6 minutes (or, more).

Overall, now that I have my OCZ Vertex 4 operational, I can see a lot of performance improvements all around my system. I'm a happy camper. :-D

 

[AzJazz]

Apparently, my previous posting on my solution didn't appear to make it up to the forum. I will post it again:

That is a tricky thing you have going. If you can, I suspect the easiest way to go about it would be to back up your P: drive elsewhere and delete the partition from the 750GB drive entirely. Then just do a whole drive copy to the SSD (it will resize as needed).

Thanks for the great advice, guys!

ddrueding - I followed your suggestion above with deleting my P: partition, then cloning my drive using Acronis. I am now up and operational - and amazed by the performance improvements! My 6 minute+ boot up sequence now completes in about a minute, and sometimes less! After cloning and booting from my SSD, I used the Acronis Partition Recovery tool to restore the P: partition on my HDD.

I deleted / moved a number of video files and applications to my HDD, and now my SSD is around 40% full. Much more room to play with.

Everything is running great now. My CrystalMark results are posted below my sig.

Now that my drive is under 50%, it brings up another question: I understand that the Vertex 4 has a "Performance Mode" that is enabled when the SSD is under 50% full. Once you cross over 50% full, there is a one-time SDD restructuring and the Vertex 4 goes into "Storage Mode" after that. However, since I started with my drive at close to 80% full, I know that the SSD was sent into "Storage Mode" immediately. My Crystal Benchmarks are identical at 40% full to what they were at 80% full. I think I am currently stuck in Storage Mode.

Now that I am comfortably under 50% again, is it possible for me to get the SSD back into Performance Mode?

Thanks again,

AzJazz

HDD (SATA II):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 113.544 MB/s
Sequential Write : 104.701 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 36.542 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 44.438 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.422 MB/s [ 103.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.823 MB/s [ 200.9 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.871 MB/s [ 212.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.843 MB/s [ 205.8 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [L: 35.2% (200.9/571.5 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/12/15 1:14:03
OS : Windows 7 Professional [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


SSD (SATA II):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 279.136 MB/s
Sequential Write : 268.315 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 236.416 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 265.639 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 31.762 MB/s [ 7754.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 86.864 MB/s [ 21207.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 206.833 MB/s [ 50496.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 197.599 MB/s [ 48242.0 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 78.0% (186.0/238.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/12/14 10:22:38
OS : Windows 7 Professional [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


SSD (with SATA III PCI card):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2012 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 381.809 MB/s
Sequential Write : 427.583 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 335.098 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 426.888 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 29.556 MB/s [ 7215.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 70.661 MB/s [ 17251.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 330.678 MB/s [ 80731.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 350.399 MB/s [ 85546.7 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 78.6% (187.4/238.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/12/15 6:14:07
OS : Windows 7 Professional [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

[ddrueding]

Glad that worked out for you Azjazz. Now that SSDs are getting cheap enough per GB we can finally get HDDs out of the system entirely in some cases. That makes life much simpler.

 

[AzJazz]

That is a tricky thing you have going. If you can, I suspect the easiest way to go about it would be to back up your P: drive elsewhere and delete the partition from the 750GB drive entirely. Then just do a whole drive copy to the SSD (it will resize as needed).

Glad that worked out for you Azjazz. Now that SSDs are getting cheap enough per GB we can finally get HDDs out of the system entirely in some cases. That makes life much simpler.

Thanks, ddrueding - I followed your advice from above to get my SSD operational. I also deleted enough stuff off my SSD to get down to "40% full".