A Geek Question

[hamz9561]

I decided that my desktop needed to be a bit faster on the boot-up, so I bought one of the new Seagate 750 GB Hybrid drives after a lot research. So here's my question:

Should I clone the old boot drive or do I try a clean install and hope I can find all of my software to install again?

 

[alien13]

Clean installs are always the best route. Cloning keeps everything that made it slow in the first place.

 

[TaterX]

Clean installs are always the best route. Cloning keeps everything that made it slow in the first place.

+1 Clean install is the way to go.

 

[hamz9561]

I was figuring that I was going to have to that, I just hate having to reinstall all of my games and other software. Well, it looks like a fun day tomorrow after I back up all of my documents and the like to my server.

 

[Zdragon71]

Upgrade the ram too. More memory equals faster processing as well. Also++1 for a clean install.

 

[TaterX]

Upgrade the ram too. More memory equals faster processing as well. Also++1 for a clean install.

The ram is also about the best price/performance upgrades you can do. Its a good idea to upgrade it while you have it apart. When you get done it will feel like a new machine.

 

[hamz9561]

It's going to take about 5 business days to get the RAM for this. I'm going to upgrade that as well from 4GB to 8GB. Installing RAM isn't that hard.

Edit-I've built my own PCs for the last 20+ years. It's just a hassle to wipe and reinstall everything.

 

[WoodiE]

Edit-I've built my own PCs for the last 20+ years. It's just a hassle to wipe and reinstall everything.

I used to hate it too, but now I don't mind it to much. Probably cause I've weeded out the stuff that I really don't need.

My process though makes things a bit easier for me...

1. I have a Windows 7 with SP1 already installed that I use to install the OS
2. Go to http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect - and let it auto download the main drivers like the chipset, wired and wireless network, and video (if intel based) drivers.
3. Then download any other drivers needed from the manufactures website (audio, video, etc).
4. Go to http://www.ninite.com/ and select the various applications I need and let it download and install them all for me.
5. From there I just install the rest of my programs which tend to be Photoshop, Vmware junk and that's about it.

I use a second hard drive and dropbox to store all my documents, etc and use the Sync feature in Firefox to store all my bookmarks and such so I don't have to worry about backing up my old profile before doing a reinstall.

Still takes about an hour or so but it's not to bad.

 

[hamz9561]

Thanks, Woodie. I've got all of my docs, pictures and downloads already backed up to my server, so that's not a problem. I've figured out a way to keep using my main desktop while I do a clean install. I forgot all about one of my "test bed" PCs that isn't doing anything that I can use to do the actual install.

 

[hamz9561]

I've got everything installed app-wise and this thing is fast. It's taking 40 seconds from initial Graphics BIOS screen to login screen and it's fully in Windows seconds later.

 

[hamz9561]

I hate thunderstorms! I had one come through last night and wreck a lot of equipment. I lost my tower, 3 UPS's and a Blu-ray player. Ouch. At least I managed to save the new hard drive.

 

[Rolex]

I hate thunderstorms! I had one come through last night and wreck a lot of equipment. I lost my tower, 3 UPS's and a Blu-ray player. Ouch. At least I managed to save the new hard drive.

Damn!
I've been using the APC back-ups on everything I own for about 15 years. 1 for my stereo system and keyboards, on for the TV and theater system and an XS 1300 for my computer system. I've been through some severe storms, including some that breed tornadoes. NEVER lost a thing.
They are the most important investment you can make.

http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=13&subid=5

 

[hamz9561]

Thank goodness for the APC UPS's I was running. I'd hate to lose my 42" LED/LCD TV and my good home theater receiver.

I just got finished pricing a replacement PC and it came out to only $950 for an equivalent level of CPU, Motherboard and memory.

 

[Wolfgang10]

A friend of mine has two hard drives, a regular and a solid state. The boot up happens off of the solid state hd and its way faster than normal. The only problem is sometimes the computer wants to save files to the solid state vs the regular hd.

 

[hamz9561]

That's why I got the Hybrid drive. It boots as fast as an SSD and has the storage of a traditional mechanical drive.

 

[godale03]

Hybrid drives are the cats meow man! I can't wait until solid state drives really start to become more mainstream and come in larger capacities.

Woody thank you for the ninite link. I never knew about this... it is now in my favorites folder! LOL

Tom

 

[Greywolf74]

Why buy a hybrid when you can buy a 120GB SSD for 100 bucks? And if all your changing is the HDD then theres no reason you can't just clone it....assuming theres nothing wrong with your OS now it will run exactly the same after its been cloned. Now if your switching OSs definitely re-install and if you change MoBo's if your running Win 7 you can probably get away with cloning it but in uncommon occasions it will BSOD on you if theres conflicting drivers on it. like say the Mobo has an Nvidia graphics card built into it and you had ATI drivers loaded. That can still be dealt with but it can be a bit of a hassle to track down especially if theres multiple problems.

 

[hamz9561]

I got the 750 GB hybrid drive for $179 and it's replacing a WD 1 TB Green drive that was extremely slow as the OS drive. I went ahead and just started fresh with Windows 7 Ultimate and all of my other software. It's not as quick as an SSD but 40 seconds from video card BIOS splash to Windows login screen is really good in my book.

 

[WoodiE]

Woody thank you for the ninite link. I never knew about this... it is now in my favorites folder! LOL

Welcome! By the way, if you keep the downloaded exe installer you can also add that to a windows scheduled task and have windows run it anytime you like, say once a month, the installer will then download those same programs again.

Perfect way to ensure you're programs are always up to date.


-Michael