SSD for old laptop

[Yami]

Yeah. I'm surprised how well Windows 7 handles on different systems; I put my desktop SSD into my laptop, it booted in fine and everything ran great (video was awful obviously; wrong drivers and all).

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Well, you could just use Clonezilla.

That's not a good idea for SSDs. Most imaging software will not properly align partitions on a SSD which can have a significant impact on performance.

 

[Mischa]

Intel and Samsung are statistically the most reliable SSD manufacturers followed closely by Crucial.

Sorry this is off topic but, where do corsair SSDs sit on reliability?

 

[Yami]

That's not a good idea for SSDs. Most imaging software will not properly align partitions on a SSD which can have a significant impact on performance.

Didn't know that, +rep

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Didn't know that, +rep

I should add the Acronis Trueimage 2011 is supposed to support SSDs properly so there is at least one option for imaging them. I haven't tested it myself though.

Sorry this is off topic but, where do corsair SSDs sit on reliability?

They should be average since they use the same Sandforce controllers as companies like OCZ.

 

[Mischa]

They should be average since they use the same Sandforce controllers as companies like OCZ.

Thanks.

 

[porgorg]

I should add the Acronis Trueimage 2011 is supposed to support SSDs properly so there is at least one option for imaging them. I haven't tested it myself though.

Ah, this was my next question.
I've been recommended Aconis True Image to clone the HDD onto the SSD, then I read a bit more about alignment problems with SSDs and started to worry.
If it does go **** up cloning the SSD and it ends up not working on the laptop, can I just format the SSD and start from scratch with a fresh install [in regard to the SSD handling the formatting]? Can I just format it as NTFS or is there something else I need to know?

Actually, are there any good sites that explain the whole SSD alignment thing?

 

[Yami]

Yup, fresh install is fine. In fact I'd recommend it (not out of any technical reason, it would just annoy me having an old install on a fancy new piece of kit ). Most OS installations choose the drive format for you (Win7 automatically does NTFS).