Restoring a Ghost drive image onto an SSD

[Tekkie19]

Hello, first time poster here, so please bear with me.

 

As you can see in my specs, I am running the 36GB Raptor as the system-and-apps drive with all my data sitting on the Seagate HDD. Both SATA, of course.

Now, will I notice any tangible speed up in daily usage (web, a game of Dawn of War once in a while, some PhotoShopping and video editing) if I replace the Raptor with an SSD (thinking Corsair X series, 32 or 64GB)?

 

Also, can I take the most recent Ghost image of my Raptor (Windows and apps) and just restore it onto an SSD or use a drive cloning software to move the Windows/apps from Raptor to the SSD? I would hate to reinstall Windows and apps from scratch (please, do not tell me that Windows should be reinstalled once every six months anyway, I have better things to do with my time).

 

Thank you for any info,

 

Tekkie

[Davyc]

What operating system is the image of: XP (which SP?), VISTA or Windows 7?

 

It is possible to image a SSD, but to be perfectly honest with you its a bit hit 'n' miss depending on the OS - it is best to do a clean install first and then image your SSD for best re-imaging results; you can use Ghost or Acronis, either work.

[Tekkie19]

Davy, I am afraid you misunderstood the question. I do not want to image an SSD. I wanted to know if it is possible to take an image of my current system/apps drive (XP SP3, 32bit on WD Raptor) and then restore that image to an SSD. If this can be done, what are the pros and cons of such an operation? I would like to avoid re-installing Windows and apps from scratch onto the SSD (if I get one) but if that is the best way to utilize the SSD, then I would consider doing that, albeit very reluctantly.

 

thanks,

 

Tekkie

[Davyc]

Hi Tekkie

 

I've just answered a similar question on another thread lol. Theoretically it is possible but there "may" be issues, especially with alignment. I know how much of a chore it is to do a fresh install, re-install all your programs and then tweak everything up to where you want to be. I hate doing this as it takes the best part of a full day, but sometimes it's better to bite the bullet and do things right to make sure nothing falls over.

 

You can certainly try to restore your images taken from the HDD and see if it works, but I would not do this with the XP image unless you pre-align the drive first; you would need to do this with DISKPART, even then it "may" cause problems down the line.

 

If the XP image fails then you will have no recourse but to do a fresh install.

 

For Diskpart you will need either a Vista or Windows 7 installation disk - doesn't matter if its a beta or RC - and follow these steps:

 

Boot with your Windows 7/Vista disk and then get to the second screen where it asks you to install? Select the option bottom left to "Repair Your Computer".

 

Once in there go to a Command Prompt: type in -

 

DISKPART

 

then type the following commands

 

LIST DISK

 

If you see your SSD in the list take a note of the number:

 

Now type:

 

SELECT DISK X (X being your SSD disk as numbered in the list ... i.e. 0)

 

Now type:

 

CLEAN ALL (if its a new SSD omit the ALL from the command)

 

Now type:

 

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY ALIGN 64

 

Now type:

 

ACTIVE

 

Finally type EXIT and reboot your computer with your imaging restore disk in your drive and proceed to reinstall your image. Let me know how it goes :-)

[techspec6]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/

 

There is a trick to aligning a partition that is misaligned without a reinstall.

 

Download the gparted live CD from the link above and burn it.

Boot to CD

Identify which drive you are re-aligning. Select the drive

Make sure you uncheck the box that says "align to cylinders"

When you size the partition, leave exactly 1MB of space before the OS partition. This will give an offset of 1024kb or 2048 sectors, which is the default alignment for Vista and W7.

 

Make sure you have a image of your disk prior to tampering with it incase you make a mistake. You have been warned.

 

Running defrag before resizing the disk to consolidate the data is also advised.

 

Jason

[wielk]

Hi Tekkie

 

I've just answered a similar question on another thread lol. Theoretically it is possible but there "may" be issues, especially with alignment. I know how much of a chore it is to do a fresh install, re-install all your programs and then tweak everything up to where you want to be. I hate doing this as it takes the best part of a full day, but sometimes it's better to bite the bullet and do things right to make sure nothing falls over.

 

You can certainly try to restore your images taken from the HDD and see if it works, but I would not do this with the XP image unless you pre-align the drive first; you would need to do this with DISKPART, even then it "may" cause problems down the line.

 

If the XP image fails then you will have no recourse but to do a fresh install.

 

For Diskpart you will need either a Vista or Windows 7 installation disk - doesn't matter if its a beta or RC - and follow these steps:

 

Boot with your Windows 7/Vista disk and then get to the second screen where it asks you to install? Select the option bottom left to "Repair Your Computer".

 

Once in there go to a Command Prompt: type in -

 

DISKPART

 

then type the following commands

 

LIST DISK

 

If you see your SSD in the list take a note of the number:

 

Now type:

 

SELECT DISK X (X being your SSD disk as numbered in the list ... i.e. 0)

 

Now type:

 

CLEAN ALL (if its a new SSD omit the ALL from the command)

 

Now type:

 

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY ALIGN 64

 

Now type:

 

ACTIVE

 

Finally type EXIT and reboot your computer with your imaging restore disk in your drive and proceed to reinstall your image. Let me know how it goes :-)

 

This worked great! I used it to restore a misaligned Windows7 on an Intel SSD. Followed your steps, then set back a Ghost 15 image, and now it is perfectly aligned. Thank you.

[liom79]

going back to the original question: an SSD will (very probably) downgrade the performance when compared with a Raptor 10,000 RPM.

[x509]

This worked great! I used it to restore a misaligned Windows7 on an Intel SSD. Followed your steps, then set back a Ghost 15 image, and now it is perfectly aligned. Thank you.

 

Out of curiosity, what if you wanted to use a pair of SSDs in RAID-0 as your new "OS drive?"

 

Would this same approach work for doing the alignment? For doing the actual restore?

[RAM GUY]

I believe you can use Ghost 15 in Raid.