SSD install advice?

[growbag]

I just received my 128 gig SSD hard disk - woohoo

I was wondering if I should first install Windows7 and PCLOS on a spare hard disk, do all my setting up and customisations, then make an image, swap the SSD in, and write the image onto it?

I'm a little concerned about all the writing/rewriting that occurs at install time.

Thanks .

[muungwana]

At install time, the data on the installation image is just blasted on the disk. I dont think you can avoid this part and this part will happen only once and hence shouldnt be the part to be concerned.

System files do not change that often and hence most of the tearing wont come from them, i would worry more on temporary storage locations because these are the locations where a lot of writing and rewriting happen automatically during the course of using different programs, you may also need to pay attention on how many/fast you create and delete files on partitions on the drive.

What good will the drive be to you if you change your computing routines to avoid it tearing away quickly?
 
If you like to use it as little as possible, put only system files on it, they dont change that often if at all

[rubentje1991]

I would suggest your to do a search for SSD in this forum, there are some suggestions / tips in different threads about SSDs and their life time...
Success with your fast disk!

[Ferdes Fides]

I just received my 128 gig SSD hard disk - woohoo

I was wondering if I should first install Windows7 and PCLOS on a spare hard disk, do all my setting up and customisations, then make an image, swap the SSD in, and write the image onto it?

I'm a little concerned about all the writing/rewriting that occurs at install time.

Thanks .

I don't think it really matters as long as it does get installed and you make an image
backup at times during the process.  Whatever is less work.

Post back with how fast that drive really is when you're finished.


regards,

Patrick013

[leirob007]

SSD's are supposed to have it all from the reviews I have read including durability.
Why worry about the disk read writes?
I'd treat it like any other drive and install on that puppy!
if you wanted windows. you can install it first.
then pop in the pclos disk and rock and roll.
but personally I don't do windows
I may be wrong on the read writes but I really don't want a drive I can't use like a drive

I just received my 128 gig SSD hard disk - woohoo

I was wondering if I should first install Windows7 and PCLOS on a spare hard disk, do all my setting up and customisations, then make an image, swap the SSD in, and write the image onto it?

I'm a little concerned about all the writing/rewriting that occurs at install time.

Thanks .

[growbag]

Yeah, turns out most of the stuff I read about SSDs is quite outdated, and is only relevant to the older first generation drives.  I simply selected "noatime" as my partitioning option, and changed /tmp to RAM.

The latest generation drives have better firmware load-levelling routines and stuff that fixes earlier issues.

My drive is a 128GB SuperTalent UltraDrive GX FTM28GX25H 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA II, and I get the following "real world" boot times.

I'm really not interested in throughput figures, all that interests me is boot time and faster loading apps.

Both are now amazingly fast, I'm very satisfied .

I timed them from a cold start to a network connected fully functioning desktop, ie from pressing the power on button to seeing the network strength bars appear.

Windows7 64bit - 38 seconds
PCLinuxOS - 47 seconds (sadly the wireless takes a lot longer to connect under Linux)

...that includes 16 seconds of BIOS mucking about, so if you don't count that then I'm getting 22 and 31 seconds respectively, and apps on both systems startup in a flash.  Even Firefox which normally takes a long time to start, is ready immediately.

My original boot times were horrendous, close to 2 minutes with both systems (on a 7200 RPM Seagate Momentus hard disk), so I regard the €175 price tag for the SSD as good value. 

I managed to squeeze a 1TB hard drive into the second slot in my beast, which I use as a temp/file transfer/storage drive, so I still have extra space if I need it, although I still have 39 gigs free on my Windows SSD partition after all my games were installed (I use Windows only for games).

[Was_Just19]

I would lilely have done a couple of things differently .......

not used noatime ......  I think the default install now uses relatime, but if not then I would have used that.

I would not use RAM for /tmp .....  it can have undesireable results, I would not have worried about the disk in that respect at all.

I would also have considered putting my home partition on the 1TB HDD ......  and kept all the fast  SSD for OS only .....  but at the size you have I guess there is plenty room for /home on it.

I have been considering a small disk of this type but reckoned they are still a lttle dear .....  maybe after Xmas ...... 

[Ferdes Fides]

My original boot times were horrendous, close to 2 minutes with both systems (on a 7200 RPM Seagate Momentus hard disk), so I regard the €175 price tag for the SSD as good value. 

Faster than a big Seagate, well that's pretty fast.  There's a Kingston 64gb I looked at
but the price is going up instead of down.


Patrick013

[rubentje1991]

My original boot times were horrendous, close to 2 minutes with both systems (on a 7200 RPM Seagate Momentus hard disk), so I regard the €175 price tag for the SSD as good value. 

Faster than a big Seagate, well that's pretty fast.  There's a Kingston 64gb I looked at
but the price is going up instead of down.


Patrick013

That's always the same with flash disks and memory....
Goes up and down and ...., so wait a little, and it'll go down again (they are building new factories for flash memory (NAND-memory) only, I think  )