Storage, Drives & Media

[voodo123]

I'm going to migrate my win7 os to ssd, I note Partition Assistant home is free to do this, but what I care  is whether there is some thing I need to do previously before I migrate os. and their site havent displayed about this. I'm worring...

[osprey4]

Hi voodoo123,

If you're going to migrate, then you'll have your original drive with your files and the OS image. And you should have already prepared recovery DVDs using Dell DataSafe. That should cover everything.

Keep in mind that a clean reinstallation onto the SSD provides some advantages.

[voodo123]

I'm in pain on reinstallation, I'm afraid unable to handle this process. Thanks for your suggestion, I will do backup before I migrate my OS. I'm afraid I'll lose performance...

[skylarking]

Read this SSD Primer and this SSD Optimization Guide.

[rdunnill]

Osprey's right -- a clean install works better. I did this myself a few weeks back and the results were spectacular.

To copy over your important files and settings, use Windows Easy Transfer.

[voodo123]

If I change IDE to AHCI mode before i migrate my os, will i gain the full performance?

I noted from somewhere, migrating os to ssd needs working in AHCI mode and change the register key value " HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Msahci" to "0", thus could get the full performance of SSD.

That is one of the reason why I choose migrating os, and Aomei Partition Assistant 5.0 home edition is free, i dont want to pay much money for a 1 shot operation.

[skylarking · Accepted solution]

The pro's and con's of migrating verses fresh install was discussed in the links provided in my earlier post. There was also mention within these links re. IDE / AHCI driver boot issues if you migrate, though it was very brief.

This forum post also describes how to enable AHCI mode on your boot drive for an existing Windows 7 install using IDE mode, and discusses it over 4 pages. Read them all especially the referenced link to the MS KB922976 article, which discusses registry changes for using either MSAHCI or IASTOR drivers (though a little unclear) :)

Briefly, on a working Win7 system using IDE drivers, first you apply the registry change to set the desired mode (either AHCI or IASTOR), reboot, enter BIOS and set to AHCI (or AHCI+RAID), reboot, start Windows and let it load the appropriate drivers, reboot again and all should be OK. Remember that you can't just change the BIOS setting before the registry change is made otherwise you will get BSOD! Also, it's an either or registry setting for MSAHCI or IASTORV and it depends on your motherboard chipset !

The SSD Optimization guide states MSAHCI is OK to normal users but for possibly optimum SSD performance, you may need to use your specific motherboard chipset drivers. Now you may or may not have INTEL RAID capability and thus may or may not need the Intel Rapid Storage Technology package which includes the chipset (iaStor) drivers.

Further, the SSD Optimization guide recommends Windows tweeks you can make to optimize SSD performance and ensure longevity for your SSD. Such issues are discussed in the link provided in my earlier post. Worth a read.

As for migrating, you can also:

0. fix the IDE / AHCI issue
1. use Disk management to shrink your current windows partition to as small as possible
2. make another partition on the old HDD to temporarily hold some recovery data,
3. use Windows Backup and Restore to create a System recovery CD + System Image on this new HDD partition (for temp use only),
4. install the new SSD on fastest available SATA port(0?) and install the old HDD on other SATA port(1),
5. set BIOS boot order to DVD then HDD,
6. boot the System Recovery CD you created earlier and restore your System Image from the new data partition on you old HDD,
7. shut down, remove the old HDD and restart,
8. using Disk Management, expand the windows partition on your SSD,
9. optimize for SSD's and when your happy all is working as you expect, reinstall your old HDD as a second data drive,
10. reformat the old HDD and create a new data partition,
11. use this new data partition for your system backups (you do make backups don't you?).

With the above process, there is no need for any 3rd party partitioning tools, no need to spend any money other than for the SSD itself & you now have somewhere to store your system backups :)

Hope i haven't confused you further :)

[edited to clean up my dislexia and clarify some points]

[voodo123]

Hi skylarking,

Thanks for your reply, it's really help for. I have learned a lot from you.

[skylarking]

Glad i could help :emotion-1: