Windos7 upgrade to an SSD noob

[Voltes_5]

So, I have an OCZ Vertrex 3 120 GB, which I forgot that I had, oh, for almost a year now in the shelf, LOL. I have a Windows 7 upgrade and have that on a WD 740 Raptor. Should I clone that hd to the SSD?  Don't forget now, I have never done any cloning or imaging to another hd before. Or should I just do a fresh install of Vista and upgrade to W7 on the SSD?

[freddie]

Just clone it if its going back into the same PC.


Acronis is pretty decent for cloning.

[wevsspot]

Yep, I'd use Acronis too.  Since you have the WD Raptor - you can download and use WD Edition Acronis for free; http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119

 

Install the new SSD in your current rig on one of the spare Intel SATA ports and make sure to format it and then check alignment.  When you're formatting it will ask you if you want to assign a drive letter - just say no.

 

Alignment is an important step to get the best performance out of your SSD so do not skip checking it after format.  If for some reason W7 doesn't format with the proper alignment you'll have to manually do it, but I've yet to find one instance where W7 wasn't SSD "aware" and failed to set the proper alignment during the format.

 

Once you've formatted the SSD and checked the alignment, open up Acronis and just follow the step by step instructions in the GUI.

[wevsspot]

Additional info;

There are a couple different ways to check the alignment - 

Windows 7 > Click Start > type Run > type msinfo32 > press enter > go to Components/Storage/Disks.  You'll see a detailed report that will show your partitions and their starting offset value - divide starting offset value of your SSD drive by 4096.  The result should equal a whole number.  

 

Easier Method - Download and install AS SSD.  Run the application > make sure to select your SSD drive since you'll have one or more hard drives to choose from.  Look in the top left hand corner of the AS SSD GUI.  If your drive is aligned or not (Green writing with the word OK or Red writing with the word BAD)