With regard to physically installing the drive, it’s actually more or less similar to installing an HDD.
- If it’s a laptop, you just replace the HDD with an SSD (assuming that the laptop has a 2.5-inch drive bay).
- If it’s a desktop PC with a 3.5-inch HDD, then all you need is a 3.5-inch to 2.5-inch converter bracket. The electrical connections are the same as a SATA HDD, but there are some things that you should be aware of before you use the SSD.
- For technical reasons, that are incidental to this guide, the partition on an SSD needs to be aligned. This is to make sure that the NAND pages start at the correct offset. Failure to align the partition will result in lower performance and will induce higher wear on the NAND.
- Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 will align the partition correctly when you create the partition. Windows XP won’t. So if you are using XP, then perhaps it’s time to update.
FOR A NEW WINDOWS 7 OR 8 BUILD. #
- Simply connect the SSD then enter the system BIOS and set the SATA transfer mode to AHCI. IDE mode is not recommended for an SSD, as IDE mode can’t support NCQ (native command queuing).
- Place your Windows 7/8 DVD in your burner and boot from the burner. When you get to the installation screen, select the advanced options, then click on Create a partition (selecting the SSD). The SSD will be initialized, and the partition will be automatically aligned when it’s created.
FOR AN EXISTING BUILD. #
- Connect the SSD to a spare SATA socket, start the system and when it boots to the desktop, right-click on the “Computer Icon”, and then select “Manage”, followed by “Disk Management” from the menu. If the SSD is new it will need to be initialized and a popup should appear. When it does, select the MBR option. The SSD will then be initialized.
- Once this is done the RAW partition should appear in the list. Right-click on the SSD and select “Create a simple partition”. Select the default which would normally be NTFS, and make sure you select the quick format option (NEVER do a FULL FORMAT ON AN SSD).
- Once this completes you are ready to install the operating system on the SSD, or use it as a storage drive, if that’s what you prefer.
