Setup and manage SSD discussion thread

S

sinasdf

New Member
Hi guys I have a question from booting from the SSD

I have a SSD and a HD on my computer, but right now it auto boots from the HD.

I've tried going into BIOS but I don't see an option for SSD. Instead it shows options such as HD, my optical drive and misc. USB.

However, if I want to manually choose to boot form the SDD, I go to the boot menu and select Hard Drive, which opens up both the HD and SSD. However, my bios doesn't give an option to select priorities.

Is there any way for me to get my SSD to be boot priority?

BTW I think this is the same model as my motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128499
so I have a Gigabyte Touch BIOS

Sorry if I'm a bit confusing - I'm an intermediate user :)
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
sinasdf said:
Hi guys I have a question from booting from the SSD

I have a SSD and a HD on my computer, but right now it auto boots from the HD.

I've tried going into BIOS but I don't see an option for SSD. Instead it shows options such as HD, my optical drive and misc. USB.

However, if I want to manually choose to boot form the SDD, I go to the boot menu and select Hard Drive, which opens up both the HD and SSD. However, my bios doesn't give an option to select priorities.

Is there any way for me to get my SSD to be boot priority?

BTW I think this is the same model as my motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128499
so I have a Gigabyte Touch BIOS

Sorry if I'm a bit confusing - I'm an intermediate user :)
Click to expand...

That would be your boot order. There is usually another section that lists your hard drives and you change which drive is your number 1 drive. We need to verify which motherboard you have. Open the side of the case and look for a model number stamped on the board. Or you can run either cpu-z or Speccy and they will give you the model number.
 
S

sinasdf

New Member
Hi,

My motherboard is a gigabyte z68x-ud4-b3

I did see a boot order, but it doesn't show my solid state drive there. It only shows these options:

Hard Disk
CDROM
USB-FDD
USB-ZIP
USB-CDROM
USB HDD
Legacy LAN
and another wierd one with letters and numbers, but I checked my SSD and it has nothing to do with it
 
FuryRosewood

FuryRosewood

Active Member
honestly..i dont get the deal with the whole 'erasing the drive' TRIM handles that...set ACHI, turn off some windows features (indexing, defragmentation schedules on the SSD, Pagefile etc)...and it should be blazing, thats all i had to do...
 
linkin

linkin

VIP Member
I disagree with no pagefile on the SSD. Having it on the SSD speeds up the system and anything in the pagefile.
 
FuryRosewood

FuryRosewood

Active Member
linkin said:
I disagree with no pagefile on the SSD. Having it on the SSD speeds up the system and anything in the pagefile.
Click to expand...

...and in cases where you have enough ram that pagefile is unnecessary? to me if you have excess of 4 gig, you shouldn't even need that on, ive had mine off for months now...no issues, if your concerned with kernel dumps, ok maybe put a 2gb page on it? but really...not seeing the point
 
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Okedokey

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
FuryRosewood said:
...and in cases where you have enough ram that pagefile is unnecessary? to me if you have excess of 4 gig, you shouldn't even need that on, ive had mine off for months now...no issues, if your concerned with kernel dumps, ok maybe put a 2gb page on it? but really...not seeing the point
Click to expand...

That's because every operating system handles a 'page file' slightly different. And you can never truly turn it off. Plus 4GB on a Win 7 machine (again, doesn't overcommitt, such as linux distros), will benefit from over 4GB and suffer due to pagefile mis-settings (e.g. very low or on a slow drive).

The problem with your '4gb = redundant page file' logic is that it only really affects a single scenario: switching to an open application that you haven't used in a while won't ever grind the hard drive when the pagefile is disabled. It's not going to actually make your PC faster, since Windows will never page the application you are currently working with anyway.

The big problem with disabling your pagefile is that once you've exhausted the available RAM (not hard these days - my machine frequently pages more than 5 GB), your apps are going to start crashing, since there's no virtual memory for Windows to allocate—and worst case, your actual system will crash or become very unstable. When that application crashes, it's going down hard—there's no time to save your work or do anything else.

I run my pagefile on a seperate RAID config, which is part of a infrequently used 3 x 2TB drives. 15GB is dedicated to the pagefile, even with 8GB of RAM.
 
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voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Looks intimidating. Just got a quick question or two:

I'm going to be getting a Crucial SSD for my Latitude E6500. When I go to install Windows, when exactly do I install the AHCI driver? (I know Windows will already see the drive). Is it during one of those command prompt things?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
You'll have to load it at the beginning when it ask you where to install it and there is an option to load driver on that screen.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Okay I think I'll just have to read the thread over a few times. I'll be sure to report in on how it comes out.

Does running a virtual machine (On a dynamically allocated virtual HDD) cause any future performance issues with the SSD?
 
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Benny Boy

Benny Boy

Active Member
voyagerfan99 said:
Looks intimidating. Just got a quick question or two:
I'm going to be getting a Crucial SSD for my Latitude E6500. When I go to install Windows, when exactly do I install the AHCI driver?
Does running a virtual machine (On a dynamically allocated virtual HDD) cause any future performance issues with the SSD?
Click to expand...
I don't think it's going to matter when as long as it's before/and the bios is set before/ the 1st restart. But since John has has it, I'd use his recommended method.
You might touch base with Crucial in case there's a FW update/info you want. If you haven't already.
I don't know about your last ? other than if your going to change the configuration of pagefile.sys, it might matter.
 
Benny Boy

Benny Boy

Active Member
Different controllers but both reliable.
120gb vs 128.
Sata II vs Sata III.
3yr vs 5 yr warranty.
One costs less.
I think for me it would be the 128gb, Sata III, and $24 less.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
It's just I was reading the negative reviews about it dying and don't want to be one of those.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
reviews only cover so much though. I will almost guarantee that 90+% of the people that have issuewrite a review, but probably around 30 or so % that don't have issues write a review. I know I don't write one unless I have an issue.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Hope so :) Looks like Crucial it is! Just need my other Newegg birthday gift card to show up then I can order it :D
 
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