SSD in an older computer

[Rollin Hand]

It is to go to 16GB. I have 8GB already in it. This would essentially duplicate to original RAM. 16GB is the limit on this rig.

[bleys21]

Definitely worth it then. Should make that computer hum right along

[Rollin Hand]

An update! Wow, I am slow on this stuff.

I finally got the SSD and additional RAM installed, and it seemed to be just in time, as the old hard drive was starting to breathe pretty hard. I used Samsung's data transfer software, and everything made it to the SSD, though it didn't clean out the old HDD as advertised. This created some issues, so I just left the old one unplugged.

And...holy schnikes, this thing is fast now (comparatively). It still takes a while for things to get started, but once it powers up, it reacts instantaneously, and with no concerning grinding noises. I am sold on this tech, to the point where if I need more storage (unlikely) I will get another SSD.

Makes me wonder what an M2 drive can do....

[bleys21]

Depends on the motherboard, but M.2 drives can kick up as high as 2500 Mbps, whereas a high quality SSD drive connected via SATA is going to top out at 450 to 500 Mbps.

Will you notice it? Unless you do a lot of write intensive stuff, probably not. I'm still rocking a couple Samsung SSD's...I may eventually get a M.2 drive, once prices settle down again.

[PoodlesAgain]

Somewhat related: say you need to replace an older large hhd, which hold OS and mostly static data, would it make sense to use two smaller SSDs, one for OS, and one for the bulk of the data?

In my case, with Linux, "Home" will stay with main drive for peace of mind.. and also resist the temptation to write another distribution on drive 2 - can be done but special steps are needed to share "Home", and probably Swap setup.

[mickey]

Somewhat related: say you need to replace an older large hhd, which hold OS and mostly static data, would it make sense to use two smaller SSDs, one for OS, and one for the bulk of the data?

In my case, with Linux, "Home" will stay with main drive for peace of mind.. and also resist the temptation to write another distribution on drive 2 - can be done but special steps are needed to share "Home", and probably Swap setup.

You also won't see the same sort of speed increase with Linux that you do with Windoze. I'm guessing, because Linux is already much faster handling disks than is Windoze.
I like SSD's in laptops because they run much cooler and you get noticeably increased battery life between recharges,

[PoodlesAgain]

On SSDs, what are the signs of impending failure, and commonly expected lifespan?

I did not realize they were so darn cheap now, at least the mid-grade ones , OK for older computers with slower SATA transfer rates (I think).
I usually buy Crucial.

[Rollin Hand]

Depends on the motherboard, but M.2 drives can kick up as high as 2500 Mbps, whereas a high quality SSD drive connected via SATA is going to top out at 450 to 500 Mbps.

Will you notice it? Unless you do a lot of write intensive stuff, probably not. I'm still rocking a couple Samsung SSD's...I may eventually get a M.2 drive, once prices settle down again.

I am not sure my aging reflexes could handle any faster. Besides that, pretty sure that my computer is too old for M2 drives. But my next computer is going to be all SSD or M2. I can't see why one would go any other way at this point except for cost vs. memory capacity.

[bleys21]

Older spinning drives typically have a Mean Time Before Failure (or MTBF) rating, usually measures in tens of thousands of hours. That number will vary among manufacturers, so its hard to say for sure. SSD drives have a total amount of data writes, as flash memory has a limit, so the firmware of the drive keeps writing to new locations until it has written to the entire drive, then starts re-writing back from the start, etc. The latest fancy Samsung drives have a 600 TB write limit, and a 5 year warranty.

And unfortunately, unlike spinning drives where a lot of the time you could hear the drive failing (weird knock noises, pings, odd vibration noises), SSD and M.2 drives just tend to fail. Its not real common, but that has been my experience, so backup backup backup! Sometimes you'll get lucky, and your OS will start reporting read/write errors on the drive, which is a clear sign to get your crap off of it, and buy a replacement.

On SSDs, what are the signs of impending failure, and commonly expected lifespan?

I did not realize they were so darn cheap now, at least the mid-grade ones , OK for older computers with slower SATA transfer rates (I think).
I usually buy Crucial.

[bleys21]

I like having two drives, and either doing what you propose (boot and data) or at home, I do dual boot, with Linux as my primary, and a Windows install solely for gaming.

At work, I do the Boot/Data setup, and that does make it really easy to just reload the OS wherever needed, as all your data will be on the other drive.

Somewhat related: say you need to replace an older large hhd, which hold OS and mostly static data, would it make sense to use two smaller SSDs, one for OS, and one for the bulk of the data?

In my case, with Linux, "Home" will stay with main drive for peace of mind.. and also resist the temptation to write another distribution on drive 2 - can be done but special steps are needed to share "Home", and probably Swap setup.

[Mossman]

Somewhat related: say you need to replace an older large hhd, which hold OS and mostly static data, would it make sense to use two smaller SSDs, one for OS, and one for the bulk of the data?

In my case, with Linux, "Home" will stay with main drive for peace of mind.. and also resist the temptation to write another distribution on drive 2 - can be done but special steps are needed to share "Home", and probably Swap setup.

With my current computer, I initially used the internal 500GB SSD for everything, until it started getting filled up. Now that I have an external SSD, I think it's best to keep the internal drive relatively clean, and only use it as a system drive (OS and programs). The external drive has more capacity (1TB), and I use that for file storage, and I use my 2TB hard drive to archive both SSDs.

[howardlo65]

Yeah, I should dig up the specs. Pretty sure it's a core i5, 1TB HDD.

Maybe I could add RAM too.....

Sounds much like the Dell I replaced the HD in with a 1 TB SSD this past summer. Same processor as what you seem to have and same size old HD.

Works much better and faster. Also while I was at it I put in more RAM, from 8 to 16. Really happy with the improvement.

Samsung has a program that works great to migrate to the new SSD. I decided not to use it and just start with a fresh Windows install after backing up important files to an external drive.

[Rollin Hand]

Well, got the " Windows couldn't start so you need to go into recovery mode today. Not good.

[mickey]

Well, got the " Windows couldn't start so you need to go into recovery mode today. Not good.

Sounds like a good reason to switch to Linux.

[Rollin Hand]

Or just fix it and stay with a system that has worked for me fine for years until a hardware change.

[nomadh]

We like SSD and they have been doing well for us the last few years. The only downside so far is of the 80 PCs with SSD the only 3 drive failures have been our security video workstations. We have had 1 HD failure also but those HD PCs are already over 3 years old. But for standard biz use on windows SSD are great.

[Rollin Hand]

Well, it seems that the computer needs the old hard drive to boot, and I can't seem to convince the SSD to come up in the setup screen to prioritize it. I am going to run the Samsung program again to see if it will do the work for me this time, like it was supposed to.

[deeaa]

As for M2, those come as regular SSD as well as NVMe drives; the latter is really fast indeed.

But the thing is, a normal SSD already provides data faster or as fast as the CPU can handle it. There's no real benefit to using a super fast NVMe drive for windows and programs.

I have a couple of NVMe drives as well as a few SSD ones. I had a fast NVMe drive as my C drive but I noticed that whatever bigger program I launched, or windows, there was hardly any activity for the hard drives. Launch Photoshop for instance, the drive gets used for a split second and most of the time goes into the program sorting itself out and using just RAM and CPU while at it.

So I switched an SSD as the C drive and there was literally no change in speed.

They do great for data drives, however, such as storaging large sound samples for drum machines and such. And of course multitrack recordings.

They could have great benefits as C drives if your RAM isn't enough, though, and you'd need swapping. I have 32GB in my machine and it rarely uses up much more than 26GB or so at best, so most of the time I'm working it doesn't use the HD at all.

[Rollin Hand]

In the end the simple solution was to leave the old HD out. Runs nice and quick now.

[deeaa]

In the end the simple solution was to leave the old HD out. Runs nice and quick now.

You can always use it as a backup disk. Just format it as an empty single partition and automate file transfers of important folders to it weekly or something. Never have to worry about backing up and it won't affect anything in the system.

Even better, get one of those empty USB HDD enclosures and use it as a portable backup disk.

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

[Rollin Hand]

I think it was on its way out, but at any rate, I could NOT convince the computer to stop booting from it. The SSD is humming along just fine.

[deeaa]

You have to go to the BIOS of the machine and manually choose the boot-up disk. Or it will default to some disk for some reason, be it SATA port number or whatever.

Usually pressing DEL or F10 or F2 when starting up will take you to the BIOS screen, if you've never used it. You can force it to boot off an USB disk even, or set a fixed boot order in which it will then work.

Sometimes it is handy if you want to use multiple OS in the same machine for instance, or boot off a Linux disk to fix a virus problem or such. Unless it's a really old BIOS the disks should be visible by manufacturer names such as SAMSUNG970GTBX and WD57893FFX or whatever, and the size should also be visible.

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

[Rollin Hand]

You have to go to the BIOS of the machine and manually choose the boot-up disk. Or it will default to some disk for some reason, be it SATA port number or whatever.

Usually pressing DEL or F10 or F2 when starting up will take you to the BIOS screen, if you've never used it. You can force it to boot off an USB disk even, or set a fixed boot order in which it will then work.

Sometimes it is handy if you want to use multiple OS in the same machine for instance, or boot off a Linux disk to fix a virus problem or such. Unless it's a really old BIOS the disks should be visible by manufacturer names such as SAMSUNG970GTBX and WD57893FFX or whatever, and the size should also be visible.

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I did. It would not work no matter how many times I tried. Apparently it is common with Dells.

At any rate, as noted, I am pretty sure the old drive is shuffling off this mortal coil to join the choir invisible, so the point, as Joey Tribbiani would say, is moo.