The use of mSATA

[Saltgrass]

The question is not can you use it as storage, but is that preferable to using it as a Cache drive.

Since you do not show the "Create" tab on the IRST utility, I will assume you have not enabled the Smart Response Technology in the Bios using the SATA controller. Other systems which use the SRT need to have RAID enabled, so I have to assume the SRT option is about the same thing. But you might check the Performance tab first to see if it looks like my attachment and will allow acceleration to be set.

If you do have the Bios option, just changing it might cause problems, so the way I change a Windows 8 system to a RAID controller is to use MSconfig.exe to set the boot to Safe Mode.

Then reboot into the Bios settings and change the SATA option to RAID, or SRT in your case. Then save the settings and let it reboot into Safe Mode.

Once it is in Safe Mode, you can use MSconfig.exe again to remove the option to boot into safe mode and restart your system and let it boot normally. If you run into any problems, just reboot into the bios and set it back to AHCI. If it tries to enter a Repair scenario, better to stop and reboot to get back into the Bios. As you can tell, there are some risks associated with changing the SATA controller configuration.

My SSD is 60 GB so it only used 40 GB for the Cache. Your system will be able to use all the 32 GB of your drive.

These attachments came from a Clean install of 8.1.

 

[hummer7]

Good point. When I get home this evening, I will follow your instruction.
When I saw mSATA in BIOS, I thought that it is on.
I will check it again. I did not make a screen shot, when I right clicked on ISRT icon in system tray, there were 4 menu (options?). All were on, which implies that ISRT is on.

 

[hummer7]

I checked the ISRT system, I found that my computer did not have RAID system. No raid controller was found. When I checked mSATA drive in BIOS, there is no on or off option. It appears that it is On by default. Everything what you posted seems to be different from mine. I could not see "Create" option either.

 

[Saltgrass]

You need to check the link Theog gave you for the Dell Tutorial that shows where the Bios setting is. You are looking for the SATA configuration, not just the mSATA. You should have options for the setting of AHA or AHCI or Intel Smart response. If you are not sure, take a picture of where you think the setting is and what the options for it are. Your first bios picture is not the correct location. You need to be on the Advanced Tab, SATA configuration.

Then right click the Intel Rapid Storage Technology icon in the system tray and select open application. You should then see the windows I attached, or at least something similar. If you have not yet installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology, you may need to do that. But when you get the utility open, get us a picture.

 

[hummer7]

OK. I will look at Theog's links this weekend.
Upon reading your message, I looked at Bios Adv. (see attachment).
I see that [AHC1]. But I did not want to touch to avoid messing up the BIOS system.

 

[hummer7]

I just opened up BIOS Advanced again. As shown in the screen capture in the previous post, I tapped SATA Mode>[AHCI].

It prompted two options: AHCI or RAID. It seems that ADHI is the default setting. I did not try to tap RAID option.
Should I try hit RAID option?

 

[whs]

If I were you, I would install Windows on it. Clean up your C partition, get all the user data on a seperate partition, get rid of hiberfile and reduce the pagefile to 2GB. Then make an image of C and transfer it to the SSD. That will give you a nice performance boost.

 

[hummer7]

WHS, I am taking your suggestion seriously. Before proceeding to that approach, I need more of your advise.
In this computer, the size of C-partition is 250 GB but 150 GB is currently occupied by windows 8.1 along with tons of programs. I speculate that windows 8 could be installed on 32 GB of mSATA .

Here is my problem. I have never installed programs separately in a different partition or drive. Whenever I install a program, it automatically installs in the windows partition under Program Files or Program Files (x86) . How can I do that? If I know how, I would definitely try this interesting approach.

 

[hummer7]

WHS. I use Acronis True Image (ATI) to create images of C-partition. When I received this computer, I installed only one software (ATI) to create windows mirror images (or "tib"). I checked the first image which I created. It's size is about 25 gb. When I checked it, it looks good and and no indication of its corruption. I could install this image on mSATA drive (32 gb) to restore Windows 8.1. But I felt the size of the tib is too close to mSATA drive. Even though I install programs on a separate partition or drive, some or a few files will be automatically installed on mSATA drive. So the idea of installing windows 8.1 on mSATA seems to be risky. The 32 GB size is rather small for this purpose. Am I wrong?

 

[whs]

Programs are usually not the problem unless those are games. But nearly all programs give you the option to point them to the folder where you want them. We usually take C:\Program Files or Program Files x86 which are the default. But at this point you only have to browse and insert your own folder.

Your main problem though is probably the user data - Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos. Those are easy. You just define a folder for each of those in another partition - e.g. Documents xx, Music xx, etc. The xx is just a suffix and can be anything. I use Documents whs, pictures whs, etc. That avoids confusion with the default folders.

Then you move your user data to the corresponding folders. In Documents there are usually a few system and program generated folders. Don't move those - else the corresponding programs that use the folders will be discombobulated. Once your system is on the SSD, you navigate to those folders, right click on each and INCLUDE it into the corresponding library. You can also do that before you transfer the OS to the SSD.

Once you have appr. 25GB or less data on your C partition, you can image C and the System Partition. Use free Macrium (tutorial below). The size of the partition does not matter - only the size of the data (not sure whether Acronis can restore to a smaller partition - Macrium can). Before you restore the image(s) to the SSD, I suggest you format and align the SSD. Use these commands:


Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick ==> check your disk, it may not be in NTFS
Active
Exit


I suggest to start with moving your data to a seperate partition and then we'll see where we stand sizewise. Ask questions when things are not clear. And here is the Macrium tutorial link.

Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[hummer7]

I am trying to digest what you described above. I am tempted to try your suggestion. The easiest way which I think is to restore the 1st tib image (25 gb) to the mSATA drive directly (after cleaning it). Then, I could delete acronis program and hiberfile and shrink the pagefile to 2 GB. That is an easy part.

The major concern is that when I start to install programs (Adobe CS6 , Microsoft office 2013 suite or others) onto other drive, some of program files would be installed into mSATA drive too. The size of mSATA could easily exceed 32 GB as more programs are installed.

Another question is whether windows 8.1 in C-drive should be uninstalled before restoring the image to mSATA or not.

 

[whs]

1. No need to uninstall Windows from the HDD until you are really comfortable with the SSD version. All you need to do is change the boot sequence to set to the SSD before the HDD.

2. There is no need to worry about Office, etc. I have an ASUS Transformer that has only a 30GB SSD. It has full Office 2013 and a bunch of other programs and I still have 13GB free. I even made a small test partition of 1GB (what a luxery). I always keep a small test partition around - for all kinds of purposes.

And if you install the biggies on the HDD, there should be no problem at all.

This is Disk Management of my Transformer. D is a MicroSD card and E is a USB stick.

 

[hummer7]

Thanks whs,

Last night, I cleaned the SSD drive as you suggested.
The commands your described worked very nicely. THE SSD drive is confirmed to be NTFS-formatted.

I also downloaded the free version of Macrium Reflect.
What I got to do now is to shrink from 150 gb to about 20GB size in c-drive.
The attached image shows the size of folders in my c-drive.
I found an article on how to move folders from C-drive to other drive using Audit Mode.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4275-user-profiles-relocate-another-partition-disk.html
I will try to follow this instruction.

As seen in the attachment, Program Files , Program Files x 86, Program Data, Virtual machine and User folders are big ones. They must be moved to second drive. I wonder Users folder can be moved safely or not. Even after moving all of these folders to the second drive, the final size of C-windows would be much bigger than 30 gb. For example, the size of Windows itself (see the red arrow) is almost 30 gb.

Please guide me how to handle all these problems. I am very seriously interested in doing this transition.

 

[whs]

I found an article on how to move folders from C-drive to other drive using Audit Mode.
User Profiles - Relocate to another Partition or Disk
I will try to follow this instruction.

This is no good. Don't do that. Everything that belongs to the system should go to the SSD. Leaving system stuff on the HDD is counterproductive and will slow your system down. Just try to reduce the size of the data on C the 'manual way'.

The programs we have to sort out. There must be some big games or other unusually big programs. Please post a pic of the content of program files and program files x86.

Also run WinDirStat ( WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics ) - I always get it from Filehippo.com - is easier - just decline the junk. That will give us a better picture where the chunks are (see my 8.1 pic below). I also see virtual machines. Those can go on the HDD.

 

[hummer7]

I don't play any game. So I do not have any game on all of my computers.
Reducing of c-windows partition would be tough, I guess.
Again, my computer contains tons of programs. I attached two screen captures from the Total Commander.
The left pane of the first image is the list of Program Files and the rest (a total of three panes), the list of Program Files (x86).

View attachment 36683 View attachment 36684

I forgot to mention this: I am working in my office now. These screen captures are from my office windows 7 computer . But they are almost identical to that on my home Windows 8 computer.

 

[whs]

Hmm, you have indeed a lot of programs and some junk too - e.g. Bonjour. The big ones would have to go on the HDD (needs reinstall of the programs). In that case it may be better to reinstall the whole system on the SSD and start from scratch because you probably have a big winsxs folder which will not budge when you uninstall programs. Those .dlls stay forever. What do you think and do you have an installation DVD for your 8.1 ??

 

[hummer7]

OK. I have no idea what Bonjour is. I saw that in Windows xp. I read that it came from Apple. It really does not matter.
It came with Windows 8 Recovery Media.

About 2 weeks ago. My windows 8 crashed. Dell sent out a local Dell contractor and replaced a new motherboard. The tech installed windows 8 using the windows 8 recovery media. This computer is Dell. We could install Windows easily without typing product code. Since a new motherboard was installed here, I got type in the long product code to install windows 8.


BTW, how can I removed the attachment (of Program files). I do not reveal them as a privacy.

 

[hummer7]

whs,

I deleted the two attachments. Re-installing those programs is a time-consuming process.
I might try it when I feel comfortable later. Thanks for all your help.

 

[hummer7]

whs, I have a question for you about creating a bootable rescue media from Macrium. There were two options: Widnows PE 3.1 or Linus. Which one would you like to recommend for windows 7 or 8? Could you please describe pros and cons between these two options.

I have been using Acronis True Image for about ten years. It works super to me. Its bootable disk is based on Linus.

 

[whs]

Your best and easiest option is to download the .iso from my Skydrive and burn that to CD. The Linux version is usoless and creating the WinPE yourself requires a WAIK download (1.7GB) which will tie up your connection for 2 hours. The download from my Skydrive takes only a few minutes.