SSD Strange Happenings

[pjgen]

Asus Zenbook UX31E, Win 7, 64 bit, 128 GB SSD:
Tried to run Glary Utilities Registry Cleaner: Totally destroyed Windows. No way to restart in any configuration.
Re-loaded Windows from the SSD drive: Successful.
Tried to restore from a current Acronis True Image 11 dump: Acronis crashed on start of restore.
Had to manually reload software and data files.

I have used both of these software in the past on systems w/DDR with no problems.

Question: Is there some difference in the configuration of an SSD drive that caused all of this mess, or was I just snake bitten? .... Phil

[curiousclive]

Seems like Glary utilities really messed up you comp in more ways than one.
I recommend doing a clean new install of windows and once all the updates and your fine tuning are done to make a new image. Win 7's image backup system is quite good even if it does not have all the unnecessary bells and whistles that Acronis has. You could also do an image using Acronis so that you have two methods of restoring computer if problems.

[dg1261]

What a coincidence! As I write this, I'm in the middle of prepping a friend's new UX31E for him. Same Win7x64, 128GB SSD.

I don't use Acronis, but don't you have to use a bootable rescue CD/DVD to restore? If so, my first thought is which USB port did you plug your external DVD drive into? The port on the left side is USB2, while the port on the right side is USB3. ISTR somebody in another thread here (perhaps a month ago?) ran into a problem trying to use a bootable DVD in a USB3 port. He was trying to do a clean install from a Win7 DVD, but he solved the problem by plugging into a USB2 port instead.


Dan

[dg1261]

FTR, I was able to image and restore the UX31E's OS partition with Ghost 2003. I inserted an external HDD into the USB2 port and a DOS-bootable flash drive in the USB3 port. I booted from the flash drive and ran Ghost 2003 in DOS, saving the image fileset on the external HDD. I was able to subsequently restore the image the same way.

Not that I'm recommending anyone use Ghost 2003, but I believe this illustrates your problem may be an Acronis issue, not a SSD or Asus problem.


Dan

[CLiNT]

Whatever works for you and what your most comfortable using. Ghost is still among the top Ten imaging softwares.

[catilley1092]

Yesterday (check out my new specs in my sig), I installed a new 128GB Crucial M4 SSD in my MSI FX603 notebook w/no bad issues to report. The really great thing was, I done it with Free software, Easeus Todo Backup 4.5.

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/download.htm

The really great thing about restoring with this backup program, is the option to "Optimize for SSD". The restore took longer due to this, but when all was done, I didn't even need my Windows 7 Pro x64 install disk to do a repair with, it fired right up. Had to reboot for new hardware install, then ran the WEI (as suggested) to make sure that the SSD's features were turned on.

It evidently did create the 1MB blank space in front, as my recovery partition was reported as being 9.99GB (10239MB), rather than 10GB (10240MB), as it always done when restoring. Anyway, even with the SATA 2 bottleneck, the new SSD still exceeded my expectations. Never have I had this type of performance with a mechanical HDD, even the 1TB WD Caviar Black, running at 7200rpm & a 64MB cache.

HDTune_Benchmark_M4-CT128M4SSD2.pngHDTune_Info_M4-CT128M4SSD2.png

This is also my 1st ever SSD, & I doubt that I'll be looking back in the mirror, except for storage. One other thing, I bought this SSD direct from Crucial, it was optimized for my make & model of notebook. No firmware update was required, it was done prior to shipment. I had done business with Crucial before, they recommended a RAM upgrade for the PC that I'm on now. Not only was the RAM increased to 4GB (it's max), but it was faster RAM than what HP provided. Normally, I buy most of my hardware/software from Newegg, but with 5 different 128GB M4's to choose from, neither of which was recommended for my notebook, I just felt more comfortable with Crucial's 100% compatibility guarantee (return shipping, if required, on their dime).

Needless to say, I'm very happy with my first SSD.

Cat