SSD and XP advice

[burns334]

I've now got my Crucial M4 128 and an ultra bay caddy and I want to get the SSD up and running. I'm going to use XP (as it's the only OS that I have and if it does not work out I can change). What is the easiest way to get my OS on the SSD? I also have R&R XP disks. Should I migrate the OS over to the SSD with something like partition assistant or should I just try and do a fresh install from the R&R disks, any advice appreciated greatly.

burns

[mikemex]

I don't know if it's a good idea to install XP on an M4. I have XP and an SSD, but it's a first generation Samsung one that does its own garbage collection, so it doesn't need to support TRIM.

[ajkula66]

If you absolutely must have XP, this is likely the best guide around:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=107229

However, Crucial M4 does not have its own garbage collection like some of the Intels and Samsungs do...which might affect both performance and longevity of the drive in question...

[burns334]

I had some time last night and got started. After searching around I downloaded the pmagic.iso image and burned a live cd using imageburn, no problems. When pmagic boots it has gparted inside it now. I then booted up the machine off of that cd and when it finished it ejects the cd, I then removed the cd drive and installed the ultrabay caddy with the SSD installed in it and formatted the drive and checked the partition alignment and it was also fine.

I tried to do a fresh XP install with the recovery disks but it took 50 mins to get thru the R&R disk and was a little better on disk 1 and disk 2 but on disk 3 it got caught in some sort of loop and I could not get thru it. I started over and it now bombed in the R&R disk. So moved onto AOMEI partition assistant and reformatted the drive. Then I used the migrate OS to SSD command and all went fine. I then moved the SSD into the main HD bay and it booted fine telling me there some corrupted files and I should run chkdsk and I did and it fixed all them. Still checking out the system will update later.

burns

[burns334]

Con't SSD update

I then wanted to get the machine into the ACHI mode and downloaded and installed "intel chipset s/w installation utility" version 9.1.0.1014. Then I installed the driver by going into the device manager, right click IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, double click the primary IDE device, click on the driver tab, click on update driver, chose install from a list or specific location, select don't search and next, high light Primary IDE Channel and choose have disk, the A:\ prompt will appear, choose browse, the file named iaAHCI.inf should be in the file name window, choose open, then OK in the next window and then drill down to the file named Intel(R)ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller, select it and choose next. Don't worry about the flag saying they are not sure if it is compatible. Restart machine and hit F1 during the first splash screen to get into the BIOS, choose configuration, go down to Serial ATA and switch from compatibility mode to AHCI mode, press F10 to save and then ESC to restart. Everything will load automatically.

I ran a AS SSD before and after and the overall performance changed as follows, the read went from 44 to 126, the write went from 81 to 120, and the overall score from 153 to 318.

The machine seems great so far, any questions just ask me, I had help from several guys here so thanks to all of you.

burns

[aoitenshi]

Good to hear that you are running AHCI mode for your SSD using WinXP *thumbs up

It was easy, wasn't it?

[burns334]

Good to hear that you are running AHCI mode for your SSD using WinXP *thumbs up

It was easy, wasn't it?

Thanks, it wasn't exactly easy, I had to get comfortable with a driver that did not match my chipset. By the way I went and put my other T60 non SSD into AHCI mode right after the SSD one in minutes.

burns

[cadillacmike68]

Need to set the paragraph editor on that post there burns, otherwise good job and congrats on getting it running.

[cadillacmike68]

Hi, does anyone know if Acronis Disk Director (not true image) will align partitions???

[ajkula66]

Hi, does anyone know if Acronis Disk Director (not true image) will align partitions???

What EXACTLY are you trying to accomplish?

[cadillacmike68]

Hi George, I'm just setting up the ducks in a row for when i eventually get these T61s set up with SSDs running W7. I know an SSD will have to have it's partition "aligned". I already have Acronis Disk Director, and if it will do the job, then i don't need to buy another program to perform that step.