Samsung Evo SSD

[stevenrw]

I've been agonising over taking the SSD route for a while now, and my HDD is now getting full so I need to take the plunge.
But what to buy @ 250Gb? The Samsungs seem to fit the bill and I've just seen this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E391OX6/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers
...which won't include fittings, adapters for 3.5 bays etc, but does include the Samsung Magician 4.2 Software, which looks to contain cloning software.
Has anybody used this software? I'm a bit puzzled as cloning is normally done by partition and Windows7 (in its wizdom) sets up 2 partitions, one OS and another small "System Reserved" partition.
I have a third partition on my HDD which is the largest and is used for archives.
So, can you clone two out of the three partitions with this tool? Anybody used it?

[psp83]

Just a little tip, if you do go with SSD & clone your drive to it (I suggest you don't) - reasons below.

Please make sure your bios settings is set to AHCI for SATA drives - http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Why-do-i-need-AHCI-with-a-SSD-Drive-Guide-Here-Crucial-AHCI-vs/td-p/57078

I suggest you don't clone your old hard drive to the SSD, start fresh. This way windows 7 + automatically sets up the drive correctly (enables trim and disables defrag etc)

I've not used the Magician software but hear good things about it, I normally use Macrium Reflect to clone drives.. This software lets you clone any partition or all of them.

Now here's my suggestion.

1. Backup your HDD.
2. Disconnect your old drive & connect the SSD.
3. Install your windows onto the SSD & activate it.
4. Connect your HDD & Reformat it.
5. Point my documents, pictures etc to this HDD. (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/redirect-a-folder-to-a-new-location)
6. Restore personal files to the HDD.

This way you keep the SSD for OS and programs and the HDD for general files.

[stevenrw]

Thanks for the info, and of course a new clean install would always the best option. Its just that reinstalling everything from scratch is such a pain. Methinks it is maybe worth cloning first, disabling defragging and see how it goes. I can always fall back to the full clean reinstall if I don't get the results I'm expecting.
Purely by chance more than anything else I have already loaded Windows 7 with AHCI enabled in the BIOS. Especially fortunate when you consider that for some reason Gigabyte boards default to IDE, so I think I'm well placed to clone, taking into account disabling automatic defragging.
Redirecting the folders is a new feature to me, so I'll give that some serious consideration.  BTW it appears that Samsung have thoughtfully considered what I'm proposing should be made as simple as possible (for dummys like me) so the drive comes bundled with Samsung's own migration software which will clone the reserved space as necessary.
Quote from Samsungs SSD Data Migration software user manual:

On systems with two (2) drives or more (e.g. "C:", "D:", and "E:" drives) with the
operating system installed on the "C:" drive, only the first two drives will be cloned.
The "System" partition that is created during Windows installation is automatically
replicated.

[psp83]

Thanks for the info, and of course a new clean install would always the best option. Its just that reinstalling everything from scratch is such a pain. Methinks it is maybe worth cloning first, disabling defragging and see how it goes. I can always fall back to the full clean reinstall if I don't get the results I'm expecting.
Purely by chance more than anything else I have already loaded Windows 7 with AHCI enabled in the BIOS. Especially fortunate when you consider that for some reason Gigabyte boards default to IDE, so I think I'm well placed to clone, taking into account disabling automatic defragging.
Redirecting the folders is a new feature to me, so I'll give that some serious consideration.  BTW it appears that Samsung have thoughtfully considered what I'm proposing should be made as simple as possible (for dummys like me) so the drive comes bundled with Samsung's own migration software which will clone the reserved space as necessary.
Quote from Samsungs SSD Data Migration software user manual:

If you clone then these will be good reads for you..

http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid+state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows
http://lifehacker.com/5802838/how-to-maximize-the-life-of-your-ssd

Good luck 

[stevenrw]

Interesting stuff there. Thanks for that. Some is a bit heavy for me, but I'll get a lot of useful info from those. Thanks.