Question about upgrading to HDD

I want to upgrade my stock 160GB HDD from my M11xR1 to a Momentus XT 500GB Hybrid drive, and I was wondering how it would be possible to transfer the contents of my 160GB drive into the Momentus?
Would I have to just fresh install Win7 using the key under my M11x?
And if I did that, would there be any way to get the AW drivers for keyboard and other backlighting?

Thanks in advance!

 

Here's what I did (using my desktop):

1) Created two partitions on my Momentus XT, one partition of about 200 megs formatted with default File Allocation Unit Size (4096 bytes), and a second using 64K File Allocation Unit Size using the remainder of the drive (if you want to make a 3rd so your second can be short-stroked go ahead, but also format it 64K). My desktop has Win7, so the partitions are already partition-aligned by default when you create them.

2) Before I even fired up my M11x R2 for the first time I pulled the hard drive out and made a complete disk image using Acronis. I mounted the image in read-only mode on my desktop and assigned drive letters to all three partitions.

3) I copied bootmgr, ResSys.ini, and ST_InstallBackup.ini (you only really need bootmgr) and the \\Boot folder over to my 200 meg Active Partition on my Seagate Momentus XT.

4) I then copied the entire contents of the OS partition of the original drive over to my second partition on my Seagate Momentus XT.

5) I removed all drive letters on my Seagate Momentus XT in Disk Manager.

6) Installed my Seagate Momentus XT into my M11x R2 and hooked up my external USB DVD/RW loaded with the Dell Alienware Win7 disk in preparation to have it repair the existing install.

7) Failboat since the Dell/Alienware disk did not give me an option to repair, but it did give me the option to reinstall, which would have worked, but then you're left with a Windows.Old directory and have to reinstall all the other programs.

8) Popped in a normal copy of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade that I have and it let me do the repair option, which it succesfully did, I rebooted and was greated by the "Setting up Windows of the First Time" message. Mission accomplished.

 

I have no idea why MassiveOverkill went through so many steps.

Use a program like Acronis TrueImage to clone your drive to the new Seagate Momentus XT, install the Seagate Momentus XT into your M11x, and that's it. No need to reinstall anything, or load new drivers.

 

For the uninformed, Acronis can ruin your partition alignment. It's a long-standing and known problem.

Care to take a screenshot of your alignment? (doesn't have to be 1 meg, but 64K or multiples of 128K)

 

I used the Acronis True Image 2010 trial to clone my stock 160GB drive to a Momentus XT and it did not set the partition offset to 63. Performance on the new drive is great. 29 second boot to desktop load.

EDIT: And I agree with Kent. It really is a simple "clone it and go" operation.

 

Thanks for all of your inputs guys, I really appreciate it.
So to clone my drive I have to have both drives hooked up to my desktop, then use Acronis TrueImage, correct?

 

So when you cloned it did it set the proper partition offset or not?

 

I cloned my stock HD directly to my XT via USB and then swapped drives. That's it.

I believe it's been reported here that the new trial version of TI has the clone utility removed from it, so you might need to track down the 2010 version.

 

So can you at least type in MSINFO32 and take a screen shot of your partition offset so we can see it? Also, alot of people are downloading the free version of Acronis from Seagate or WD, not the 2010 trial.

Believe me, I don't like going through all that BS to make sure my drives are aligned, but this problem with Acronis has been around for a LONG time. I deal with their Enterprise Support reps and every time I've asked this question to them, they've dodged it. If they've fixed the problem, they've only fixed it very recently and like I said, that behavior may not have made it into the free versions supplied by Seagate or WD.

 

Just ordered my Momentus off Amazon, so it should be here tomorrow. I'll give the clone disk thing a try and update you guys on it.

 

What does that mean?

I fresh installed and I have exact same numbers as you do where you highlighted.

 

Of course you would. Installing from fresh would give you a properly partition-aligned disk if you let Windows 7/Vista create your partitions. It means you're all good cause your disk is parition-aligned. Our debate is using Acronis to copy a disk image or clone a disk, which in the past (and present until someone steps up and shows me a screenshot) ruins partition alignment.

 

So what's the result of having ruined partition alignment? Sorry for too many questions x). I guess like HD failiure? If so, reformmat would solve the problem?

 

In the very limited info I dug up on this yesterday I thought I'd read that if your first partition was set to 63k that was evidence of a mis-aligned offset. I also read that the offset, whatever it ended up being needed to be a multiple of 128. If that's not the whole story then I've obviously got more research to do. Here are my offsets.



EDIT: Also, every single article or forum post I'm find on the subject of partition alignment being important is referring to SSDs and RAID setups. Does partition mis-alignment have any bearing on HDDs or the XT? What sort of negative impact does mis-alignment have on a drive?

 

Consider that Microsoft decided to get wise and change the default partition offset to 1 meg from 63K starting with Vista and Server2008, I would say it's substantial. I've done my own testing on both servers and desktops and saw a substantial improvement, warranting going through the headaches.

Your partition is misaligned. 32,256 bytes x 2 = 64,500
64,500 / 1024 = 62.98828125 or 63K = misaligned

1048576 bytes / 1024K = 1 megabyte = partition aligned.

The reason why they went with 1024K (or 1 meg) vs 64K (both are valid for partition alignment) is because when using RAID, 1024K is more compatible when you start using different stripe sizes and File Allocation Unit sizes.

All my XP boxes are now partition-aligned. I used Paragon (they had a freebie special for a month so I snagged it) to align my partitions. This is the only tool I've found that will parition-align a volume after its been populated.

If your OS volume is misaligned, every partition thereafter will be misaligned. To re-align your OS volume without something like Paragon, you have to basically delete it and re-create it..............not fun.

You're going to see performance hits on the lower size random read/write files, not so much on sequential throughput, but random small read/write is what causes your bottlenecks as far as disk I/O performance is concerned.

 

Thanks, MassiveOverkill. +1 rep.

So to clarify, all I need to do is to fix my OS partition? Or am I screwed at this point and need to backup data and flatten my system?

Luckily I too downloaded Paragon during a one day freebie notice on Lifehacker. Or something like that. At least I hope I still have that somewhere...

 

Thanks Slickie.

You should be able to align both partitions with Paragon. It will be easier if you slave the drive in another computer with Paragaon and align it that way. Paragon will do a 2 meg offset instead of 1, which should be fine.......definately better than 63K.

If you install Paragon on the Seagate and align it 'live', it will reboot and perform the alignment on the reboot.

Make sure you defrag afterwards as it has to move all your files around while it's correcting it......kind of like getting a bump out of a rug or carpet.

I doubt the 4 gig of SSD on the Momentus is going to put any sand in the vaseline, but making the disclaimer just in case.

 

Thanks again. And yes, the NAND memory shouldn't come into play. Will be interesting to see if there is any change in performance. I'll be sure to run CrystalMark before and after.

 

So if I clone disk from my 160GB to the XT, the partitions will be misaligned?
Would it then just be better to fresh install Win7? And If I did, would I be able to just download the drivers for lighting since I don't have the AW disk?

 

Using Acronis the chances are very great. There are other disk imaging/cloning utilities that do a file-copy backup that will work better. Unfortunately some of them aren't Win7/Vista friendly. I have used XXClone and recently EASUS backup. Both have file-copy vs sector/image backup, so you can pre-create your partitions on your target drive first and then just copy the files afterwards and then make one partition bootable.

 

Have any of you Momentus users noticed any improvement while gaming? I did a little reading about it and read a lot of people saying that only 4 gigs of SSD doesn't really change much, I saw a few benchmarks proving that as well... Have you Momentus guys experienced otherwise?

 

I used to use XXClone quite a bit a couple of years ago and it was actually the first cloning utility I tried out for my XT. Something didn't work on that first run and I didn't care to mess with giving it another shot. I'm sure it was something I missed.

As it turns out I freakin' deleted Paragon after having downloaded it not long ago. Think I'll go ahead and flatten the system and start from scratch.

 

The only reason I don't want to start from scratch is getting the backlighting to work.

 

Isn't getting all that to work as simple as popping in the alienware driver disk that came with the m11x? I plan to upgrade to a SSD at some point, probably when the price comes down a bit... I assumed the "alien effects" would be as simple as reinstalling the mobo drivers, is this not the case with the m11x?

 

You mean the keyboard backlighting? That's just a matter of installing Command Center.

 

Oh alright. I got mien used from someone so I don't have the disk, that's my only problem. I'm guessing Command Center can be downloaded from AW?

 

I know 2010 definitely misaligns SSD's. (I still used it anyways. Bootup on my PC is around 25 secs fully loaded(after Posting, I have a fairly long post due to Raid setup and pcie card for extra HD capacity (can hold 12 HD). And M11x is around low 20's (23-25) Fully loaded (from power button to desktop) and both SSD's are misaligned. I really don't like it but, there is not way I'm doing reinstalls of all my software again (I've done quite a few fresh installs in the last few months, plus work on other peoples computers). The SSD is for my boot, and general software (office etc...) it's still blazing fast, so I'll take the misalignment for the sake of convenience (acronis). The only real difference I see is benching the HD.

 

So my XT came in today and I decided just to do a fresh install. I managed to find the disks for Win7 that came with the laptop.
After installing the OS however, I can't connect to the internet via wireless.
It won't detect any wireless connection. Furthermore, how do I get Command Center back on?

EDIT: I found Command Center and network card drivers to download so everything is up and running now. Thanks for all the help guys!
Got the XT in with no problem, just noticing that it runs hotter than the stock drive, but thats to be expected.

 

Hmm... CrystalDisk tests are actually slower now that I've nuked my system and installed 7 fresh. I'll post details later. Very disconcerting.