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NEW SSD, Motherboard, old HDD and Windows Issues, need some advice.
I have some issues and I really don't know what's the best approach.
For your reference, here are my system specs currently.
AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE
Windows 7, 64 Bit (Home Premium) - Not OEM, bought retail version few years back.
8 Gig Ram, HyperX 800 Mghz
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti
MoBo: GA-MA790X-UD4P
PSU: Either 550 or 600 Watts.... not sure though.. have to confirm.
500 GB hard drive 7200 RPM (but load times are hella slow, i'm thinking it's the 3 gb/sec mobo issue).
I want to migrate my operating system (Windows 7, 64 bit) to an SSD, while keeping my old hard drive with applications, photos, family videos etc. I also want to install 2-3 games on the SSD for faster load times.
The Problem is, my motherboard is really old. It doesn't support higher RAM processing speeds beyond 800 mhz, or at least it creates problems when I set it to 1333. So, I would like to get a new SSD, new motherboard, and new RAM to keep my computer up to date for the near and foreseeable future.
I've already created a system image on an external drive....(precaution)
I did some research... and found the following options re making Windows 7 system image be compatible with a new motherboard.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutoria [...] puter.html
I can buy the new mobo, use system image and the above option to make the mobo compatible with Windows 7 and my prexisting apps/programs and folders.
Then I can install an SSD in conjunction with my old HDD and use this
http://www.paragon-software.com/te [...] OS-to-SSD/
.... to migrate only the Windows 7 to the SSD while keeping all of my files/programs/ etc on the old HDD. I can reinstall my favorite games on the SSD with Windows.
What do you guys thinks???
My last question is this... assuming that the above actions work.... when I try to create a new system image, will Windows 7 be able to do it on an external harddrive even though my OS is on SSD w/ games and all other files/programs/presets are on another internal HD? Basicially, creating system image from two harddrives (SSD/HD) into one external HD?
Thank in advance.
For your reference, here are my system specs currently.
AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE
Windows 7, 64 Bit (Home Premium) - Not OEM, bought retail version few years back.
8 Gig Ram, HyperX 800 Mghz
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti
MoBo: GA-MA790X-UD4P
PSU: Either 550 or 600 Watts.... not sure though.. have to confirm.
500 GB hard drive 7200 RPM (but load times are hella slow, i'm thinking it's the 3 gb/sec mobo issue).
I want to migrate my operating system (Windows 7, 64 bit) to an SSD, while keeping my old hard drive with applications, photos, family videos etc. I also want to install 2-3 games on the SSD for faster load times.
The Problem is, my motherboard is really old. It doesn't support higher RAM processing speeds beyond 800 mhz, or at least it creates problems when I set it to 1333. So, I would like to get a new SSD, new motherboard, and new RAM to keep my computer up to date for the near and foreseeable future.
I've already created a system image on an external drive....(precaution)
I did some research... and found the following options re making Windows 7 system image be compatible with a new motherboard.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutoria [...] puter.html
I can buy the new mobo, use system image and the above option to make the mobo compatible with Windows 7 and my prexisting apps/programs and folders.
Then I can install an SSD in conjunction with my old HDD and use this
http://www.paragon-software.com/te [...] OS-to-SSD/
.... to migrate only the Windows 7 to the SSD while keeping all of my files/programs/ etc on the old HDD. I can reinstall my favorite games on the SSD with Windows.
What do you guys thinks???
My last question is this... assuming that the above actions work.... when I try to create a new system image, will Windows 7 be able to do it on an external harddrive even though my OS is on SSD w/ games and all other files/programs/presets are on another internal HD? Basicially, creating system image from two harddrives (SSD/HD) into one external HD?
Thank in advance.
Comments
I think you might be better off just installing Win 7 from scratch onto the SSD when it's in the new motherboard setup. I suspect you'd have to reactivate Windows anyway, since you're replacing the guts of your system (if you still have to activate Windows like that). Not sure about Windows 7, but every other version of Windows I've used does not like changing hardware, much less migrating to a new hard drive.
That doesn't even get into splitting things up between the two hard drives. It's not a real big deal running Windows on an SSD and having all your apps stored on an HDD, but doing that to an existing installation sounds like a huge pain. Like something you'd do because it's a challenging and interesting task, not because you expect it to work.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I agree with this. Windows will force reactivation anyway when it sees a new motherboard, and the mess with old drivers and programs moving will make just imaging the old drive a huge hassle.
Fresh install on the new SSD. Just pop the old hard drive in after the install and it should show up as
, with everything where it was untouched. You can just re-create shortcuts for programs already installed on the old drive (or in the rare instance that the program needs to be reinstalled due to registry entries, re-install those programs over top of their original install on 
)
I would also agree
New mother board = fresh windows install
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
When i do a fresh install on the SSD, and then plug in the old HD... what's going to happen with the Windows on the HD? Won't it interfere with the functions of windows on the SD... I'm just afraid the two operating systems will create a whole new mess.
It wont cause you any problems, but before you do anything I would transfer any files you want from your user/doc, pictures etc. to a temperary folder on your root drive.
Windows 7 has a nasty habit of not letting you access the files from the old drive if they are in the user folder's
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
When i do a fresh install on the SSD, and then plug in the old HD... what's going to happen with the Windows on the HD? Won't it interfere with the functions of windows on the SD... I'm just afraid the two operating systems will create a whole new mess.
Plugging the HDD in after installing Windows will just add another drive to your system. You'll see a new D or F drive.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Worst case, you need to go into the BIOS and tell it which drive to boot from.
9 times out of 10 though, nothing at all happens, and Windows will boot from whichever hard drive it was installed from most recently.
When i do a fresh install on the SSD, and then plug in the old HD... what's going to happen with the Windows on the HD? Won't it interfere with the functions of windows on the SD... I'm just afraid the two operating systems will create a whole new mess.
It wont cause you any problems, but before you do anything I would transfer any files you want from your user/doc, pictures etc. to a temperary folder on your root drive.
Windows 7 has a nasty habit of not letting you access the files from the old drive if they are in the user folder's
You can go into the File/Folder properties, under Security, and Change Ownership. That fixes it.
Depends totally on what software or method you are using to back up/make system images with. Good software will be just fine with it.
I only use Windows 7 System Image which makes an identical copy of my system....
Unless you know of third party sources which are great for migrating from one computer or hardrive to another.
Have you tried
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/backup-and-restore
Just using the File Backup, rather than (or in conjunction with) System Image
Ridylynn Ty.... I wil do that tonight.
Only issue is..i'll have to get an external 1 Terabit drive, the 500 gb isn't cutting it. The system image is already 400 gb.
I may just buy an external terabit and an Internal terabit HD so that I can two backup locations... one internal and one external... The internal can be the system image in case the HD fries and the external for just photos/movies/docs in case both internals fail...
Sounds like a plan.
In case I seem obsessive about this, I have 120 gb of home videos of my two sons... that's my most prized digital possession.
Well, if all you are really concerned about are the home videos, 500G is plenty of room. But if you just want to back up the entire system, yeah, a bigger drive is a good idea. Space is cheap, so long as you don't need speed with it.
No speed not necessary on most apps/files other than OS and Games (primarly MMOS). Hence why I wanted to get an SSD for the OS/Gaming and a convention 7200 rpm HDD for everything else. Heck most games don't need SSD either, but I read it has the most impact on MMOS and load times.
Why are you looking to replace your motherboard? Ordinarily, the reason to get a new motherboard is either because the old one died, or because you want to plug in a faster processor that the old one can't take. You seem to be looking for neither, but only DDR3 memory. I'd advise against replacing just the motherboard unless you're also going to get a new, faster processor.
Getting an SSD, on the other hand, is definitely worthwhile.
The motherboard speed is only capped at 3 gb/sec and also I've been having some compatibility issues with the onboad network driver (no longer driver support cause it's so old). Also my ram is 800 ghz and it doesn't support more, which I beleive is pretty slow considering 1666 ghz Ram is only $20 bucks.
I think i'll get the most bang for my buck if I get the SSD, +new Ram (faster) and 6 gb/sec motherboard capability. But if all of that really doesn't make the system any better, maybe i'm better off just leaving it alone.... Also, I just Realized that the mobo may only support two harddrives.
I intent on having two HDs and one SD. SD for OS/Gaming, HD for windows/APps/files and another HD as backup in case the main HD fries. I'll use a third party program or windows system image to automatically back up the system.
You've got eight SATA ports, which is a lot more than two. Your motherboard offers the six SATA ports built into the southbridge (yellow, facing sideways), plus the two purple ones in a separate chip that Gigabyte added. That's not a meaningful limitation for you. You'd rather have SATA 3 than SATA 2, but it's a very small difference outside of synthetic benchmarks, and not worth a $100 motherboard upgrade.
Faster memory only helps if you're bottlenecked by memory bandwidth. That may (or may not, depending on the program) happen to some degree if you're running a program that can push all four cores hard. But in programs that can't put more than two cores to good use, the faster memory will basically amount to a rounding error in performance. Even in programs that scale well to three, you probably won't see much difference.
Gigabyte says that your motherboard supports 1333 MHz memory. That's an extremely high clock speed for DDR2, even if it's on the slow side for DDR3. If your system is unstable at 1333 MHz memory, it's probably the fault of your memory, not the motherboard. Have you tried clocking the memory at 1066 MHz? If that's unstable and you'd replace it for lack of memory bandwidth anyway, you could try nudging the memory voltage up a bit to see if that makes it stable, and if you fry it, then you go ahead and replace it.
If you get a faster motherboard, processor, and memory all at the same time, then you'd see a huge performance jump, at least in programs where you're limited by the processor. But the only way I could see you upgrading the motherboard and memory now without a new processor is if you're set on upgrading to Vishera when it launches perhaps next month, and buy an AM3+ motherboard today for it. But that would be committing to buying a processor without knowing how it performs. Actually, we have a pretty good idea from Trinity of IPC, but clock speeds and the price tag are still unknown. And for gaming purposes, it's not likely to be a serious challenger to Ivy Bridge.
Is my processor considered slow?
AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition.
Not really. It was AMD's top of the line three years ago, but somewhat behind Intel's Core i7 quad cores (both Bloomfield and Lynnfield) even then. Today it's a more budget-oriented processor, and something that people might still buy new if they're looking to spend $110 on a processor.
The real question of whether to upgrade is whether you need a faster processor. If you haven't run into anything where your processor really struggles, then you might as well just keep using it until you do.
The thing about processors is that once you reach a certain point you got enough power to run almost anything. The 965 BE is not the best, but its good enough to be run in 95% of modern applications. The only ones it isn't are ones designed around making heavy usage of the processor that typically consumers never see like Rendering 3D images, calculating Pi, and running computer simulations. Even being a server is something plausible for the 965.
Games don't even touch the processor enough to make a 965 hiccup except 1 on certain settings, and that one is threaded to 12 cores.
The SSD I like are OCZ's Revo Drives that go in a PCI-e slot like a graphics card. They also cost as much as a high end graphics card. The things are blazing fast even running data through them faster then on SATA 6.0gb/s. However, its not a good boot drive, so it would be reserved purely for games. That would only help things load a fraction faster then SATA based SSDs.
My advice: Put in the SSD and format it. Copy over all personal stuff like documents, pictures and browser bookmarks.
Then install Windows from scratch on the SSD and move the backupped stuff to the right places. Reinstall your programs.
To ghost or backup C into the SSD is usually more work than reinstalling, and the windows register tend to fill up with crap so reinstalling it every 2 years is recommended anyways if you want it to run well.
It is not worth it, a fresh install is good enough. MMOs can usually be moved without you downloading all patches again if you install it but doesnt patch it and then copy the folder over from the old harddrive, but this is just recommended for people with slow connection, for the rest of us just leave it patching when you go to work or sleep.
See that you have all drivers you need downloaded and ready, particularly the lan card driver. Even if you have CDs download the latest driver from the manifacturer.
It is a bit annoying to reinstall windows once a while but it is worth it in performance, having the same copy of windows for 4-5 years is a pain even if you use something to clean the register. Windows is made so your computer will feel old and slow after a few years so you will buy a new computer with a new copy of windows (MS is smart and slightly evil). A reinstall and it will feel like it was when new.
It is good enough, I have a similar hexacore processor and it can easily max out any game.
If you want to upgrade, get a high end graphics card instead, it will give you more and together with a SSD means your computer will run really good. More ram never hurts either, it is really cheap right now.
Thank you everyone for your great suggestions and comments.
Last night i made backups of my photos, videos, docs and music. Two system images on two separate external hard drives and one stand alone copy of the docs/photos/music and videos.
Tonight I will do a fresh install of windows on the SSD. My HD is 1 TB with 400 gb used up. It won't fit on the 120 GB SSD. I copies the Guild Wars 2 folder to the SSD lastnight and the game worked fine. I may just do that for two three games with OS on SSD. Everything else will be stored on the old HD with routine backups of the files, here on out.