SSD install (mostly works)

[A_Guy]

I just installed a 120GB OCZ SSD and it seems to be working great (with one small exception*).

I did not follow the standard advice of performing a clean install of Windows as I had zero interest in reinstalling all the applications and losing all of my desktop personalizations.

Here's how I got it to work.

1. Several weeks before I bought my SSD I partitioned my one 500GB hard drive.
a) First up was major defragging and clearing of free space (CCleaner, Defraggler - free downloads from filehipp.com)
b) Using Windows built in Disk Management tool I shrunk the main partition and created a new partition. (97 GB = C: = "OS", 343 GB = 😧 = "DATA")
c) I moved all my C:/Users data to the new 😧 as D:/Users and created a Junction from C:\Users to D:\Users so that all the pre-existing paths would continue to work.
d) Then I let it run for several weeks proving this new arrangement worked.
2. I bought my new SSD (OCZ Agility 3, 120 GB)
a) I made a good and complete backup of my computer. My preference is the backup provided with Windows Home Server (v1.0)
b) download driver for the network card. You want the 32bit Vista drivers even if you're using 64bit Win 7 (because the backup/restore software doesn't care one whit what OS you boot from when you're using their restore CD). Unzip this (don't get the .EXE version) and copy it to a USB stick.
c) (turn off, unplug, remove battery) I moved the HDD from bay 1 to bay 2 and installed the new SSD in bay 1. Reboot and use Disk Management to partition and format the SSD. (This step might be unnecessary)
d) Boot computer on restore CD and restore the C: image to the new SSD.
e) Reboot computer (you're still on the old OS partition for now) and in an Admin CMD window use bcdedit to make the partition on the SSD bootable.
f) Reboot and you'll be prompted to choose which of two OS images to boot from. They have the same name so you might get it wrong the first time.
g) Once you're booted on the SSD, use Disk Management to remove the drive letter from the old OS partition. I also used diskpart to mark the partition as inactive.

I plan on leaving the old OS partition intact for a few weeks until I know the new SSD is working well. Then I will make a backup, remove all the partitions on the HDD and restore my data to it, enjoying all the new space re-acquired form the old OS partition.




*My one trouble spot is that I cannot refresh the Windows Experience Index. My old HDD based value was 5.9 and that low number dragged down the stats for the whole machine. From what I've read, I expected a number over 7, but instead the tool that updates the rating crashes every time. Everything else seems to be running happily. The boot times do not scream, but they are faster - and not in a way that you have to use a stopwatch to prove it, you can tell.

[Dark]

Windows Experience Index. is not worth worrying about it's stupid just do some bench marking
run prime extra and base your score on this. as Windows Experience score's are not 100% most times with new build's i learn this as my score dropped to 2.2 lmao n yeah was so weird seems all my bits are at 7.9 lowwest is now 6.9

[A_Guy]

Dark wrote:
Windows Experience Index. is not worth worrying about it's stupid just do some bench marking
run prime extra and base your score on this. as Windows Experience score's are not 100% most times with new build's i learn this as my score dropped to 2.2 lmao n yeah was so weird seems all my bits are at 7.9 lowwest is now 6.9

The bench mark is not the issue here. The issue is that something is broken and crashes when it does intense type work - the same type of work that my games might be doing.

So far the only thing I've run since the update is Kerball Space Program and it's not very graphic intense.

[dstrakele]

Confirm you've installed the latest firmware for your SSD.

Run Prime95 and Furmark to exercise your CPU and GPU. See if this causes any issues. See if your Windows Experience Index persists.

[dstrakele]

Did you confirm the Windows Experience Index refreshed properly on the HDD after CCleaner and Defraggler?

Confirm you've installed the latest firmware for your SSD.

Run Prime95 and Furmark to exercise your CPU and GPU. See if this causes any issues. See if your Windows Experience Index persists.

[A_Guy]

Already checked the firmware and it shipped with the latest. Running Prime95 now and Task Manager shows CPUs pegged at 100%

[dstrakele]

Try deleting the "Initial" files in the \Datastore folder as suggested by @Hollywood2001 in http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/windows-experience-index-cras....

[A_Guy]

dstrakele wrote:
Try deleting the "Initial" files in the \Datastore folder as suggested by @Hollywood2001 in http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/windows-experience-index-cras....

Hmm, had already done a similar thing. That advice said to create a directory names "saved" under it and move ALL files into it. I had 19 files that all had a .xml suffix and zero of the files were named winsat.etl

Ran FurMark (scored 1201 in full screen 1280x720 mode) and it would not run in full screen full resolution. Guild Warts 2 beta is in a couple hours so I'll get to try a graphic intensive game then - although re-running the assessment absolutely showed the crash to be in the hard drive analysis right at the end of the progress bar there.

FurMArk wrote:
SCORE: 1201 points (20 FPS)

Submitted (anonymous mode) on July 20 2012, 4:42 pm

Bench duration: 60 seconds
Resolution: 1280 x 720
MSAA samples: 0
Window mode: fullscreen

Primary renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M
Device ID: 0x10de - 0x1251
GPU clock: 776 MHz
Memory clock: 1250 MHz
Graphics drivers: 8.17.13.142 5-15-2012 - GLnvoglv64
GPU temperatures (start/end): 42°C / 61°C


Number of GPUs: 1
GPU0 - Vendor: 0x10de - Device: 0x1251 - Max GPU temp: 61 °C - Max GPU load: 98 %

CPU: IntelR CoreTM i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
CPU speed: 1995 MHz
Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit build 7601 Service Pack 1

But the link you provided showed me where the log file was.

215312330 (5936) - winsat\logging.cpp:0815: --- START 2012\7\20 10:45:09 AM ---
215312345 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:4301: Command Line = "C:\Windows\system32\winsat.exe" formal -cancelevent 256109a0-6bed-4740-aeb4-dea0a743794e
215312345 (5936) - winsat\processwinsaterror.cpp:0095: ERROR: tried to read resource strings, unknown exception occured
215312345 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:4474: > IsFormal=TRUE IsMoobe=FALSE.
215312377 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:4585: Watch dog system enabled
215312377 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:4600: Main watch dog timer set to 600.0 seconds
215313079 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:2490: > DWM Running.
215313765 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:2497: > turning off DWM.
215313765 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:2470: > EMD service will be restored on exit.
215314077 (5936) - winsat\syspowertools.cpp:0983: > Read the active power scheme as '8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c'
215314077 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:2793: > power policy saved.
215314139 (5936) - winsat\syspowertools.cpp:1015: > Set the active power scheme to 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c'
215314139 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:2814: > power policy set to maximum.
215314483 (5936) - winsat\logging.cpp:1763: ERROR: pahse enter/leave imballance
215314483 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:0948: > IsOfficial=TRUE IsFormal=TRUE IsMoobe=FALSE RanOverTs=FALSE RanOnbatteries=FALSE
215314483 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment features
215314763 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment dwm -aname DWM -time 10 -fbc 10 -disp off -normalw 12 -width 1280 -height 1024 -winwidth C(1144) -winheight C(915) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3 -nolock
215327634 (5936) - winsat\processresults.cpp:4018: > Wrote video memory bandwidth to the registry 20014200
215327634 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:2037: > DWM Assessment results processing SUCCESS
215327634 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment d3d -aname Batch -time 5 -fbc 10 -disp off -animate 10 -width 1280 -height 1024 -totalobj 300 -batchcnt C(10) -objs C(26) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3 -texpobj C(1)
215334108 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment d3d -aname Alpha -time 5 -fbc 10 -disp off -animate 10 -width 1280 -height 1024 -totalobj 300 -batchcnt C(75) -objs C(26) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3 -texpobj C(1)
215340644 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment d3d -aname Tex -time 5 -fbc 10 -disp off -animate 10 -width 1280 -height 1024 -totalobj 500 -batchcnt C(125) -objs C(20) -noalpha -texshader -totaltex 10 -texpobj C(4) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3
215347368 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment d3d -aname ALU -time 5 -fbc 10 -disp off -animate 10 -width 1280 -height 1024 -totalobj 500 -batchcnt C(125) -objs C(20) -noalpha -alushader -totaltex 10 -texpobj C(1) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3
215354154 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment d3d -dx10 -aname Batch -time 5 -fbc 10 -disp off -animate 10 -width 1280 -height 1024 -totalobj 300 -batchcnt C(10) -objs C(26) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3 -texpobj C(1)
215360831 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment d3d -dx10 -aname Alpha -time 5 -fbc 10 -disp off -animate 10 -width 1280 -height 1024 -totalobj 300 -batchcnt C(75) -objs C(26) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3 -texpobj C(1)
215367336 (5936) - winsat\main.cpp:1775: > Run Assessment d3d -dx10 -aname Tex -time 5 -fbc 10 -disp off -animate 10 -width 1280 -height 1024 -totalobj 500 -batchcnt C(125) -objs C(20) -noalpha -texshader -totaltex 10 -texpobj C(4) -rendertotex 6 -rtdelta 3

So it died on that final "Tex" operation. And perhaps related that failure to read resource strings? I'm not running Kaspersky, so that suggestion is not helpful - still looking.

[A_Guy]

Hmm, new symptom (and a Microsoft Typo!)

Poking around under the Advanced Tools menu in system properties and I see an option to "Generate a system health report". Clicky. It runs a while, then error.

Microsoft wrote:
Error:

An error occured while attempting to generate the report.


The wait for the report generation tool to finish has timed out.

I figure this is a rarely used corner of the OS, otherwise that typo would have been fixed in some update or other. I'm running 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate with Service Pack 1 applied.

Interesting typo there.

[A_Guy]

Hmm, new symptom (and a Microsoft Typo!)

Poking around under the Advanced Tools menu in system properties and I see an option to "Generate a system health report". Clicky. It runs a while, then error.

Microsoft wrote:
Error:

An error occured while attempting to generate the report.


The wait for the report generation tool to finish has timed out.

I figure this is a rarely used corner of the OS, otherwise that typo would have been fixed in some update or other. I'm running 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate with Service Pack 1 applied.

Interesting typo there.