evenin' all
For no particularly good reason I've decided to stick an SSD in my XP netbook. 30 quid for a 64GB jobbie from PC World. Googling produces all sorts of vague/out of date/contradictory advice, so I'm thinking this is the 'easy' way to do it. I really really don't want to do a clean install.- the current XP install is only a couple of months oid anyway.
So:-
1 - stick SSD in USB drive caddy and connect as external drive to Win 7 laptop.
2 - Format drive as NTFS, 4K sector size (assuming Win 7 will align sectors automatically)
3 - move caddy to XP netbook
4 - clone boot partition on netbook to SSD in caddy.
5 - move SSD from caddy into netbook
6 - boot netbook into BIOS and set to SATA AHCI mode
7 - reboot and hope XP boots......
8 - turn off drive indexing and reduce swap file allowance to 200MB
9 - marvel at 10 second reduction in boot time
Does that sound like a cunning plan?
|
Looks a plan to me.
My PC is full of SSDs now. Well, three anyway.
Started with a 60Gb one as C drive, all apps data & My Docs on old HDD. Upgraded C drive to 75Gb, apps still on HDD. Now I have a 120Gb C drive (faster than the others) with 41Gb used, with most apps on, a D drive with My Docs and an F drive with my iTunes library, all SSDs.
I have some fairly heavy duty and barely used games which have their data on a removable 1Tb HDD, that also has backups of backups on (backups are on 6Tb NAS). Also a 3Tb HDD for media. Plus a couple of 2Tb USB drives and another 2Tb NAS which has some old work stuff on.
Anyway, the point is, it certainly was quick, and probably still is, but you soon get used to it. It's when you go back to a non-SSD boot that you notice the difference. The big games seem quicker to load but that might be wishful thinking.
I made my first SSD using Ghost and it had problems with the boot sector, repaired using the Windows7 repair utility.
I've never worried too much about turning off indexing, or reducing swap file size - I suppose you're doing this to avoid excessive writes - but the number of writes before they break is quite a lot, and in my view if it breaks I'll replace it. (Of course, indexing under XP could be a real processor hog).
|
>>
>> I made my first SSD using Ghost and it had problems with the boot sector,
>> repaired using the Windows7 repair utility.
>>
>> I've never worried too much about turning off indexing, or reducing swap file size -
>> I suppose you're doing this to avoid excessive writes - but the number of writes
>> before they break is quite a lot, and in my view if it breaks I'll
>> replace it. (Of course, indexing under XP could be a real processor hog).
>>
I'll turn off indexing anyway, but fair point on the swap file. There's also TRIM to consider, but I haven't got my head round that yet.
I appreciate I'm using a 2001 OS on a 2008 netbook with a 2012 SSD so 'fun' may ensue!
|
|
Ah yes, TRIM. I think that's built into Win7/later SSDs but I do recall using it at first.
|
Why you Using the win 7 machine? just do it all on the xp netbook.
|
>> Why you Using the win 7 machine? just do it all on the xp netbook.
>>
From my random Googling it seems that if I format the SSD using the XP machine I will still have to use another utility to align the sectors on the SSD, whereas Win 7 will do that automatically.
One of the challenges here is working out what information/advice on SSD usage is still relevant in 2012, as teh technology has matured rapidly over the last few years.
|
Your plan will work, and seems the logcal way if you wish to avoid an install. I wouldn't do the W7 bit, unless its because you have some missing functionality on the XP Netbook.
I'd do a clean install.
I realise you specifically said that you don't want to, but unless you have a load of your own software to move, I'd suggest it’s the simplest.
For no particular reason, let me just let you know of a gotcha which caught me recently; the version of XP used on Netbooks is not the same as a normal XP. Consequently, you need your own installation disks (or God forbid, a recovery partition). I have no idea if this is always the case, but it was the case on one I got into a pickle with recently.
For the one I was fixing, no version of XP I had, or any version I could download, was compatible with the Product Key supplied with the Netbook. I ended up having to use an alternative Key from a computer that was not in use.
It worked fine, and has been running for months now with a standard XP version. However, not everybody has spare keys lying around.
Good luck.
|
>>
>> For the one I was fixing, no version of XP I had, or any version
>> I could download, was compatible with the Product Key supplied with the Netbook. I ended
>> up having to use an alternative Key from a computer that was not in use.
>>
>> It worked fine, and has been running for months now with a standard XP version.
>> However, not everybody has spare keys lying around.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
Thanks for the tip, I've pretty much been down that road already in that the machine was bought as a 'refurb' and when the original HDD died I had the same problem as you, it ended up inheriting the XP disk and COA from a dead desktop I had, which worked fine despite the old desktop (and presumably mobo) being a different OEM.
|
Contrary to what others have said, that will not work!
You cannot change an existing XP installation to use AHCI as the drivers are different to the standard SATA ones and XP will be unable to find its boot device once mounted natively after the BIOS bootstrap process completes.
If you really want to switch to AHCI, you'll need to run an "upgrade in place" over XP afterwards:
1) Boot XP CD.
2) Take all the options to run a fresh installation.
3) It'll detect the existing Windows setup and offer to install in a different directory. Override this and force it to install in the existing C:Windows.
4) It'll do its stuff, rework all the drivers and also preserve all your existing settings.
NB: I have a sneaking suspicion that most XP install media didn't come with an AHCI driver included. If that applies to you, you'll need to rip the disk and slipstream in the driver. Look at "nlite" for a "does it for you" approach.
It may be simpler to just live without AHCI, XP lacks TRIM support and such anyway, so there's little advantage in turning it on.
|
>>
>> It may be simpler to just live without AHCI, XP lacks TRIM support and such
>> anyway, so there's little advantage in turning it on.
>>
Thanks for the advice, I might miss out that step then. I've got as far as cloning the boot/OS partition onto the SSD, that took about half an hour, used EaseUS todo backup, did a sector by sector clone and ticked the 'SSD friendly format' for the copy, whatever that does.
Just awaiting motivation to strip down the Aspire One - the HDD lives underneath the motherbaord so it's a complete stripdown (Renault would be proud) - and do the swap.
|
migrating XP to an SSD, is this the way to do it? - smokie
