18 replies to this topic

[eagle63]

Hey guys, I currently use just a single 500GB spinning drive on my HTPC which holds both the Windows 7 OS as well as my recordings. My goal is to pick up a 40 or 60GB SSD drive to run just the OS, and then use the 500GB for just recordings. (with the ultimate goal of speeding things up a bit) My HTPC gets backed up nightly to my windows home server, and I'd love to use the restore feature of WHS when I add the new SSD drive.

Here's a rough outline of how I think this could work, but I'm looking for any feedback to see if I'm missing something obvious here:

1. Move all my recordings onto my WHS using the TV "archive" feature. (this will probably take a day or 2) This should move (not copy) all the recordings to the WHS thereby freeing up lots of space on the HTPC drive.
2. Run a final backup of the HTPC from WHS.
3. Shut the HTPC down and install the SSD.
4. Use the restore feature of WHS to restore everything to the new SSD. Since all the recordings have been moved off of the 500GB drive, only the OS and it's programs should be left - and therefore it should all fit comfortably on my SSD?
5. Change the media center settings to now record to the 500GB drive.


Does that make sense? I'm guessing this all would have been easier if I had used a separate partition for the OS when I first setup my HTPC last year.... Thanks for any tips!

[ikon]

I'm not saying what you propose won't work, but why not just change the configuration of the backup of your HTPC to only backup the OS files, by using the Customize Backup for this Computer option in the Dashboard? That way you can leave out the data file director(y/ies). You would then make a manual backup that you could restore to the SSD. There would be no need to move anything.

[eagle63]

I'm not saying what you propose won't work, but why not just change the configuration of the backup of your HTPC to only backup the OS files, by using the Customize Backup for this Computer option in the Dashboard? That way you can leave out the data file director(y/ies). You would then make a manual backup that you could restore to the SSD. There would be no need to move anything.

Thanks, I feel like a dope for not seeing that! I didn't notice that you could exclude folders when I first when through the wizard. So yes, I think if I just exclude my Recorded TV folder then I should be good to go. Thanks,

[ikon]

Thanks, I feel like a dope for not seeing that! I didn't notice that you could exclude folders when I first when through the wizard. So yes, I think if I just exclude my Recorded TV folder then I should be good to go. Thanks,

Hey, no problem. We all have moments like that. That's why these forums are so great.

[nlitend1]

I may be mistaken.... But that's part of the point of this post (to find out)
I thought I read somewhere that restoring an image of a HDD to a SSD drive would result in reduced performance as compared to a fresh install or compared to restoring a SSD image to an SSD.

I hope I'm mistaken, for your sake, but i just wanted do to bring that up since you're hoping for improved performance.

nlitend1

[ikon]

eagle63, I think I steered you completely wrong. It suddenly hit me that there's a serious issue with my suggestion: I don't believe you can restore a WHS backup to a smaller partition. That means you will have to go back to your original idea, with an additional step.

First, move all the stuff you don't want on the SSD off to the data pool on your WHS. Then use Disk Manager to shrink the C: volume to a size less than the size of the SSD. Do a manual backup of C:, then install the SSD and restore the manual backup. After that you should be able to extend the C: volume to use the full SSD capacity.

You may also want to look at what nlitend1 posted and also take into account the recommendations for moving cache files, etc. off of SSD drives, to save wear and tear on your SSD.

Finally, you could consider another option like using Acronis, as pcdoc recommends, because it can restore backups to smaller partitions.

[pcdoc]

Assuming you are using 2011 not V1, do what ikon suggested and use a third party cloning solution that is SSD aware. Personally in this case because it is an HTPC, I would do a quick fresh install.

[eagle63]

Hey guys, reviving this old thread that I started. It turned out that I never was able to get this project accomplished due to other more pressing projects at the time. However, now this is back on the front-burner. I've got a 60gb ssd installed in my HTPC and was reviewing all your great suggestions. First, I should say that I REALLY don't want to do a fresh install on the new SSD. (even though that might be the *right* way to handle this) I've put way too much time into getting my WMC box working the way I want, and the thought of starting over makes me nauseous. So for now I'm viewing that as an absolute worst-case scenario.

So at this point I have 2 problems:

1. I've tried many times to change my backup in WHS to exclude the Recorded TV folder on my HTPC. From what I can see, the recorded tv files are stored in C:/Users/Public/Recorded TV. However, the WHS backup wizard doesn't even show that as a folder in C:/Users/Public. I tried excluding the entire Public folder but it still says my backup is about 465GB in size. As you can see in my attached screen shots, the Public folder is unchecked, yet after running a backup the "backup details" shows that nothing was excluded. WTF?

2. As Ikon mentioned, I've discovered that you WHS doesn't really want you to restore to a disk smaller than your original disk. Even if I get problem #1 resolved, I need to find a way to shrink my C volume down to something less than 60GB. Looks like there are some tools out there that will do that for me.

Thanks again for any additional help!

EDIT: uggh, I can't even figure out how post screen shots here. I have them in my google+ album, but this forum won't accept the share-link.

Edited by eagle63, 26 June 2012 - 09:24 AM.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

I also recommend you do a fresh install. I have heard a lot more bad about cloning an HDD to SSD than good. Not ot mention, by the time you get everything off the drive, find a way to shrink it, back it up, restore to the SSD, and then set the SSD up as needed it will probably take longer and definitely perform worse than if you did a fresh install.

[jmwills]

USB to SSD install is about 10 minutes. Fully patching adds about 30 more.

[ikon]

OK, a couple of things.

One way to get around the Recorded TV Folder issue is to simply delete all the contents from the current spinning drive. That will free up the space. Next, I would try to shrink the C: partition using Disk Manager. If that doesn't get you under 60GB, see if there are other things you could delete and try again.

Remember you won't actually lose your recorded shows because they are still part of previous WHS backups of your HTPC.

If you can get fairly close to the 60GB limit, but can't quite shrink the volume to that size, you could try Acronis True Image Home 2012 and use the Clone feature. I just did that with a Vertex III SSD I just installed in my Win7 desktop.

If you do duplicate to the SSD successfully, be sure to follow pcdocs article on SSD tuning. Additionally, I disabled Hibernation using powercfg -H OFF from a CMD window that I invoked using Run as Administrator. Then I used SpaceMonger to locate and delete the page file (pagefile.sys) and hibernation ile (hiberfil.sys). Doing this recovered around 30GB for me.

[eagle63]

Guys, it's not the time it takes to install windows that I'm concerned about - it's everything after that. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I've put into tweaking WMC to get it where I want it. Plus all the 3rd party software necessary to get it going again. (TMT5, MCM, Mediabrowser, Ceton stuff, drivers, etc, etc) The family counts on it working well and working consistently, so starting over is risky. (if this was any other situation I would completely agree that doing a fresh install would be the way to go)

I'm planning on using "EaseUS" which is free and will do a move from HD to SSD. Whatever "special stuff" needs to happen to migrate to an SSD is apparently handled by the tool. This site also gives a decent walkthrough: http://www.howtogeek...id-state-drive/

@Ikon, I ended up just archiving all my shows to my WHS 2011 box. My total disk usage is now about 35GB which feels right given what I've installed on it. Thanks for the hibernation tip - I've turned it off. If the EaseUS tool doesn't pan out I'll give Acronis True Image a try. Thnx!

Edited by eagle63, 28 June 2012 - 12:11 PM.

[eagle63]

Just to follow-up, I did the migration last night and I'm now rocking with a much faster HTPC thanks to the SSD. I ended up doing a bit of a course-correction midway through because the "EaseUS" Partition Master tool wasn't working well for me. I have no idea why, but after performing the migrate the SSD wasn't bootable. So I went back to the drawing board and starting googling for more ideas. I was about to try the Acronis tool but then I found a number of sites recommending that I just use Windows 7's own System Image feature.

So I made a System Image in windows 7 (to an external drive), then rebooted with a windows system recovery disk and restored my image to the SSD. 45 minutes later I was done! Everything worked great, TRIM was enabled, the drive was aligned properly, etc, etc. Based on my experience I would say this is absolutely the way to go if someone wants to do a migration rather than a clean install. No 3rd party software necessary. Here's the site I was following in case it's useful to anyone else: http://www.ssdfreaks...7s-own-software

Thanks again to all!

[ikon]

If you can get the partition size down small enough, that will work. I just put a new Vertex III into my main win7 desktop but couldn't get the partition small enough because of some non-movable files So, I used Acronis TIH 2012 and it took care of that issue.

Glad to hear yours is working well.

[JermLloyd]

Guys, it's not the time it takes to install windows that I'm concerned about - it's everything after that. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I've put into tweaking WMC to get it where I want it. Plus all the 3rd party software necessary to get it going again. (TMT5, MCM, Mediabrowser, Ceton stuff, drivers, etc, etc) The family counts on it working well and working consistently, so starting over is risky. (if this was any other situation I would completely agree that doing a fresh install would be the way to go)

This may not apply to you, but in addition to having our media centers tweaked and running smoothly there is the PlayReady issue. I'm about to do what you did but am hesitant because I have 2tb of HD television with PlayReady DRM attached. If the OS isn't exactly the same all of those files are useless. I vomited in my mouth a little the first time I fresh installed my OS and lost all of my recordings because I thought the DRM was tied to the hardware. I think I'm going to try the Windows 7 system image when can get all the most important shows watched.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

Just to follow-up, I did the migration last night and I'm now rocking with a much faster HTPC thanks to the SSD. I ended up doing a bit of a course-correction midway through because the "EaseUS" Partition Master tool wasn't working well for me. I have no idea why, but after performing the migrate the SSD wasn't bootable. So I went back to the drawing board and starting googling for more ideas. I was about to try the Acronis tool but then I found a number of sites recommending that I just use Windows 7's own System Image feature.

So I made a System Image in windows 7 (to an external drive), then rebooted with a windows system recovery disk and restored my image to the SSD. 45 minutes later I was done! Everything worked great, TRIM was enabled, the drive was aligned properly, etc, etc. Based on my experience I would say this is absolutely the way to go if someone wants to do a migration rather than a clean install. No 3rd party software necessary. Here's the site I was following in case it's useful to anyone else: http://www.ssdfreaks...7s-own-software

Thanks again to all!

thanks for providing the update. That is good to know.

[ikon]

This may not apply to you, but in addition to having our media centers tweaked and running smoothly there is the PlayReady issue. I'm about to do what you did but am hesitant because I have 2tb of HD television with PlayReady DRM attached. If the OS isn't exactly the same all of those files are useless. I vomited in my mouth a little the first time I fresh installed my OS and lost all of my recordings because I thought the DRM was tied to the hardware. I think I'm going to try the Windows 7 system image when can get all the most important shows watched.

So, would cloning your current drive to a new one be a viable option? I'm wondering, if the copy is a byte-for-byte copy, is it possible the DRM would be happy?

[JermLloyd]

That's what I'm hoping. I built my first WHS yesterday, so next week I plan to add 4tb of storage which will allow me to move the 2tb of TV off my HTPC. Then I'll partition down that 2tb drive to a size that I can clone the OS to the 320gb drive I have.

[ikon]

At least this way you always have the option of putting the original back in if the clone doesn't work.