Enhance computer performance by SSD

Solid State Drive (SSD) price has dropped to about $1.5/GB. I think its prime time for deployment on desk top PC’s has come.  It has been the default choice for tablet PC’s storage device, the choice for laptop PC’s storage by demanding users.

The following steps are just one way to do this:

1. Migrate all user files to a secondary hard disk by using folder redirection.
2. Move all folders that can be safely moved to the secondary hard disk.  The primary hard disk should eventually have only a few folders (e.g. Windows, Program Files, Program Files (x86), Program Data).
3. Clone the primary hard disk to an SSD

The most challenging part is step 3 – cloning a hard disk to a storage device of smaller size.  There are a few ways and tools to do it. The following is one of them:

1. Shrink the total volume of the two partitions (primary and System Reserved) to under the size of the target SSD.  This can be a very painful process due to unmovable files.  One may have to disable Windows Search, Paging, Hibernation, and clean some Windows restore point related folders to finish the shrinkage.
2. Create an image of the primary hard disk. Windows 7’s Backup and Restore tool can do the job, but it may not work.  There are quite a few other tools.  One of them is Macrium’s Reflect.
3. Restore the image to the target SSD. If Reflect is used, two partitions with the right sizes corresponding to the primary and System Reserved of the source disk need to be created on the SSD before the restore. New versions of Reflect allows the user to drag the System Reserved volumne to the target SSD, then drag the primary volume to use the rest of the space on the target SSD.
4. It is possible that the SSD with the restored image is not bootable due to some error. Usually, the error can be corrected by using a Windows 7 installation media (e.g. booting the PC with a Windows 7 installation DVD, then choosing repair).

One may think he can use EaseUS Disk Copy to copy the first N sectors to a smaller storage device once the used space of the source disk is smaller than the size of the target device, where N is the maximum number of sectors of the smaller storage device.  This may work only if the used space is entirely located in the first N sectors. Normally, used space is scattered through the storage device. Using the Computer Management tool of Windows to shrink the volume is a way to guarantee the used space is in the reduced volume that consists of the first N sectors.

RoboRestore from Macrium is supposed to be able to restore an image to a smaller disk, but it corrupts the partition table, and the error cannot be repaired by a Windows rescue disk.

RoboRestore from Macrium is supposed to be able to restore an image to a smaller disk, but it corrupts the partition table, and the error cannot be repaired by a Windows rescue disk. Computer Management tool of Windows shrinks a partition from the last sector toward the start sector until it reaches a sector with data. This means that there can be a lot of empty space that cannot be shrunk.  To maximize the shrinking, defragmentation is needed. Don’t be fooled by 0% fragmentation rate which means no files are fragmented, but the files can be scattered all over the disk.  Defragmentation will consolidate them.  Computer Management does the consolidation automatically when shrinking a volume, but it cannot handle unmovable files which have to be dealt with one by one manually.

ImageX can be used for cloning without shrinking any volume.  It is not a straightforward process.  It involves installing Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK), creating a Preinstallation Environment (PE) USB Flash Drive (UFD), and running a bunch of commands from DOS prompt.  ImageX is best for cloning multiple instances.

There may be tools, especially, paid premium tools do all the shrinking and mapping automatically.

My test on an SSD shows its speed is about 2x that of a 7200RPM Western Digital HD - 200MB/sec.

Crucial M500 SSD may not work with SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) in IDE(Integrated Drive Electronics) mode. One needs to switch the SATA mode from IDE to AHCI (Advance Host Controller Interface).  This should be done anyway regardless.

SSD prices have been dropping rapidly.  A Corsair 180GB SSD cost $240 on 2012-03-14.   You can buy a 240GB SSD today (2015-10-25) for $80.