My PC's Windows Experience index rating is currently at 5.9 due to my HDD. It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB. Which HDD should I look at to get more performance out of the rig? All the other fields are in the 7.0 to 7.6 range.
View 6 RepliesIs there a site, much like the video card comparisons, that lets you compare two specific hard drives, in terms of performance?
For example, if I wanted to find out which drive offered better performance, a Seagate 7200.12 1 TB drive, or a 500 GB Western Digital Green drive.
I have a pile of older hard drives like this and I'd love to be able to rank them in terms of performance, to figure out what to keep and what to sell.
I just re-replaced my Segate ST31000340AS with a new Segate ST32000641AS (64m / 600mb) double the old drive. Did a clean install the 5.9 number did not change. Anyone knows why?
View 13 Replies View RelatedI would like to know, if creating another partition, dedicated to media, would increase performance, and screen capture speed, like a separate hard disk would. I don't think it would because its still running on the same sata cable, meaning the transfer speed cant be dispersed, but I figured id ask to be sure. If I would get even a slight boost from this than I will defrag, and shrink my partition and add another for media.
View 6 Replies View RelatedSo let me explain my situation. I have a 15 month old laptop, with a dying hard drive. Quite frequently when it spins up, the hard drive makes a horrible buzzing/scraping noise. I decided I will invest the money and replace it for the $100 and get a faster one (7200 rpm).
Here's the catch. I have an upgrade disk on order, and only an OEM backup disk (Vista) to reformat.
Whats the best way to replace the hard disk and use an upgrade media to use 7 on my computer?
i have a retail upgrade version of windows 7 professional x86 am i able to format the hard drive using the disk...i dont want to use it to install windows 7
View 4 Replies View RelatedI would like to install Win 7 to a new Hard Drive. I have the Win7 Upgrade CD. I have XP running on an old HD that came with the original PC. how I can do this?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI did an image backup to move my programs from one hard drive to another, this worked fine. But when i re-sized the partition to give myself extra room in storage, programs stopped working from the ati graphics software to google chrome,etc. also i got the message that my system is low on RAM.
View 9 Replies View RelatedMy old hard drive sounds like it is about to die. So I am wondering, once I install my new HD (format and install windows) will it be possible to hook up my old HD and transfer the files from it to the new HD? I am using Windows 7 and both drives would be SATA.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI currently have Win 7 Home 32 bit installed. I will be upgrading my system and using a new Sata hard drive.I would like to install my Win 7 retail upgrade disk [ the 64 bit version ] on the new drive.Can I do this? If so what would be the easiest way to retain all information from my current 32 bit drive?
View 9 Replies View RelatedI have an HP s5-1200z computer with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit. I have been reading and trying different things for the last three days trying to upgrade my hard drive. The computer came with a 500GB and I want to use my 1TB instead. The first thing that I did was create a system image and a system repair disc. I then restarted my computer and booted from the system repair disc. I selected my keyboard setup and then received an error stating �This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of Windows�I can not figure out why I am getting this error message. Many post say that it is because 32 bit vs 64 bit. My computer is 64 bit and the repair disc that I made is 64 bit as well. With no luck on upgrading my hdd I decided to take a different approach. I then cloned my 500GB to my 1TB using Easeus Partition Master Home Edition. Everything seems to be on the 1TB HDD it stated it was successful. I then removed the source hdd and installed the 1TB destination hdd, I turned the computer on and received an error "bootmgr is missing press ctrl+alt+delete to reboot." I also spent many more hours researching this problem, I can not find a solution. Many articles say boot from system repair disc and click repair your computer" when I try to do that I still continue to receive the error "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of Windows"I have read that having more than one hdd connected at once can cause boot errors. But I do not believe this is the case because my computer can only hold one hdd.I also downloaded the Windows Home Premium x64 from mydigitallife to try and repair my pc from there only to receive the same error.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI have a bit of a strange question about installing the Windows 7 upgrade. I'll try to keep it as simple as I can. Firstly
1: I currently have Windows XP SP3 Home Edition installed (and activated) on my 160GB WD Caviar Blue hard drive, which has 8MB cache. It's getting a bit full now.
2. This hard drive is one of the few remnants of a Dell machine I bought a few years ago.
Surprisingly, the restore disk still works and activates, even though I've changed the motherboard and a number of other things over the years. My last reinstall was about a year ago, and I had no problems reactivating whatsoever - I didn't even need to phone Microsoft.
However I doubt it'll install and activate on a new hard drive - particularly as I've also changed the DVD drive since my last activation (as the old one broke), literally the only things remaining from the old system would be the RAM and the processor.
2: I have purchased a 500GB WD Caviar Blue with 16MB Cache
3: I intend to buy Windows 7 Pro Upgrade from TheUltimateSteal for £30. I'm a student, but will be graduating soon, so it seems sensible to take advantage of this offer while I can.
4. Clearly I can install Windows 7 in the normal way onto my current drive and use the 500GB drive for backing up my files, which I'll do if that's the only option.
5. However, if I did that I would not be taking full advantage of the extra cache of the new drive. It would be nice if I could use that for my primary installation to speed things up a bit.
So here's my question:
If I start the upgrade process having booted from the 160GB drive, but during installation select my 500GB drive as the target for the installation, will Windows 7 install and activate correctly? Will it recognise the pre-existing installation, even though it was on a different drive?
If not, then:
If I install my Dell restore disk on the new drive, and don't activate Windows (which presumably I won't be able to), and then run the Windows 7 upgrade on THAT drive, will Windows 7 install and activate correctly?
Basically, is there a legitimate way of installing a Windows 7 Upgrade onto the 500GB drive, on the basis of there currently being a valid XP installation on the 160GB drive?
I have no intention of continuing to use XP after the upgrade, if I am able to install and activate Windows 7 to the new drive, then this will serve only as a backup for my files.
Has anybody tried something similar and succeeded/failed?
I've already read the tutorials on here about doing a clean install of Windows 7. I'd like to avoid dodgy workarounds, as I'd rather not run into problems further down the line when it comes to updates and that sort of thing.
So I'm building a new computer completely from scratch, save for the hard drive, which I'm recycling from my old system. The hard drive currently has Windows XP installed.
My question is, can I upgrade the system with this? [URL]
Also, I plan to eventually buy a new hard drive. This presents a dilemma, because at the moment I can only afford the OEM or Upgrade versions of Windows 7. I read an article on PC World that claims there is a way to do a clean installation of Windows 7 using an Upgrade license. Here's the article: [URL]
Anyways, is that method still valid? Have any of you guys heard of it before?
I'm considering buying the Upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium, but I do not want to make the purchase only to realize later that I can not use it.
Really, I'm just looking for a solution. The only thing keeping me from buying Windows 7 OEM is the installation limits (can only install on one computer per license). When I get my new hard drive, I'd like to be able to use whatever version of Windows 7 that I own on it.
I have an HP desktop running windows vista that will soon be passed on to me. If I buy an "Upgrade" version of windows 7, is there a way to completely and totally wipe out the hard drive and upgrade, or would I have to buy the more expensive "full install" version of 7?
View 9 Replies View Related1. My sister has a Dell Dimension 5100 desktop computer with Windows XP from the factory. Can I put the Windows 7 UPGRADE version on a second hard drive in her machine? Is this OK or do I need the 'FULL' version?
2. Is this automatically going to create two options when booting the machine, giving her the options to boot either into XP or W7?
I have a dell inspirion 1505. I just upgraded my Ram and my hard drive. My computer came with a 80GB hard drive, but when i tried to replace it with a new 500GB hard drive my computer still only recognizes it as a 80GB. During the windows 7 upgrade where i would normally be able to clear my new hard drive and specify my new drives it still only showed 80 GB.
i have talked to dell twice now and i get conflicting answers each time. The first person said that my computer would only support 120GB and the second said it would only support 100GB. I have a hard time believing this because my computer came with a SATA harddrive, which shouldnt limit me.. At least i thought.
I want to format and 0 write and wipe the entire hard drive in an Asus EEEPC with no system disc and re-install windows 7 home premium. The windows registration number is on the back of the computer.
Did not come with a windows disc or recovery disc from the factory, IE windows 7 home pro was pre-installed.
I created a system recover boot disc/CD. This machine has no CD/DVD drive, but I do have a USB CD/DVD drive.
If I format and write the drive, but leave the partitions will I be able to re-install this version of windows that came with the machine ??
I wanted to hop on the SSD band wagon a few months ago so I grabbed a 64GB SSD down my local store.I'm pleased with the fast boot times and applications like Photoshop (which always used to take 10-15 seconds to open), which now open within a second.I have been having an annoying issue though since the purchase which has got me considering going back to my old drive. I have formatted and reinstalled windows and experienced the issue basically within the first few hours of the format, so i assume its the drive. Below are a few things I experience...
*I will be navigating directories and exploring files when all of a sudden the hour glass will appear and make me wait for 5-10 seconds before allowing me to resume doing what I was doing.
*This happens in all windows applications like firefox (while browsing webpages) or within photoshop while navigating in application menus.
*sometimes the application or windows menu will hang for a couple of seconds.. sometimes 30 seconds !
*I never experience any actual application crashes.. just 'hanging'
*If I ctrl+alt+del .. nothing happens UNTIL the computer decides it wants to 'wake up'.
*If I continue to do things while the computer is hanging, when it 'wakes up'.. it will 'fast forward' many of the actions I did while it was hanging (if that makes sense). It does this Intermittently.. sometimes I have a good hour.. sometimes it can be an issue for a few hours etc.
Windows 7 vs. Vista - Upgrade Performance
The latest Windows 7 client has its precursor beat in terms of upgrade speed
Windows 7 is âoutrunningâ Windows Vista in more ways than one. Microsoft has labored to ensure that the latest Windows client outpaces its precursor in a variety of scenarios, from startup time, to common usage tasks, and to shutdown, to name just a few. Another aspect in which Windows 7 has Vista beat is upgrade performance. According to Chris Hernandez, from the Windows Deployment team, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows 7 upgrades are at least 5% faster than Vista SP1 to Vista SP1 upgrades.
In fact, when it set out to do the operating system upgrade measuring contest, Microsoft was looking for at least a 5% threshold for upgrade scenarios involving Vista SP1 to Windows 7 was in comparison to jumps from Vista SP1 to Vista SP1. The Redmond-based company explained that the Windows Upgrade team monitored the Windows 7 upgrade performance during the development process, and that it compared it against its Vista baseline.
âThe reason we choose to use a Vista SP1 -> Vista SP1 upgrade instead of Windows XP -> Vista as our baseline was for the following: Windows XP is a vastly different operating system compared to Vista and an upgrade from Windows XP -> Vista would not be a good comparison with Vista -> Windows 7. Windows XP did not support 64-bit upgrades and we wanted to track 64-bit upgrade performance as well as 32-bit upgrades for Windows 7. Vista SP1 -> Vista SP1 is a valid upgrade path that ********s all upgrade code (this upgrade is commonly used by Product Support Services for a repair scenario),â Hernandez explained.
Now, 5% doesnât make a huge performance gap between the two operating systems. Still, users have to keep in mind that Microsoft used the Vista SP1 baseline comparison, and while I have heard countless complaints about Vista RTM, the barrage of criticism subsided with the advent of Service Pack 1, indicating a far superior user experience.
At the same time, the vast majority of end users donât actually perform benchmarks, or monitor performance metrics. For them increased performance in every aspect of the operating system, including upgrade scenarios, is a matter of perception. In this regard, 5% is more than enough to deliver a palpable impression of boosted upgrade performance for Windows 7 in comparison to Vista.
âThe upgrade performance tests used the metric of total upgrade time to gauge how Windows 7 upgrade performed against Vista upgrade. The tests were designed to measure total upgrade time simulating different user profiles (with different data set sizes, number of programs installed and settings) against different hardware profiles,â Hernandez added.
upgraded an hp desktop from vista to win 7.
it has onboard intel graphics, set up with 64meg on the card and using 192 meg of system memory.
on vista, the system had a graphics performance measurement of about 3.5. on win 7 it drops to 3.0 and sites like Internet are measurably choppier.
i upgraded the chipset bios, i have not upgraded the system bios (cause hp doesn't support it yet), the monitor driver is also hp and missing (generic monitor).
are there system level options i should look into or look into new hw?
If you think that switching to the high performance power plan is enough to set your computer to the best plan, well, it isnt.
Heres how to set your hard drives so they are included in the high performance:
1. open control panel
2. type power in the search bar and click "change power-saving settings"
3. to the right of the plan name click "change plan settings"
4. Click "change advanced power settings"
5. Go to the hard disk section and then "turn off hard disk after"
6. Enter 0 (zero) in the box (this will change to never)
Doing this prevents your disks from being "turned off".
I just rebuilt my desktop and installed Windows 7. I had thought to put My Pictures and My Music on separate Hard Drives from the Operating System and everything else; OR would performance be better with all on one hard drive and backing up the My Music and My Pictures to separate Hard Drives? I'm using i7 processor with 8G RAM and 500GB hard drives (3); with a 1 Tetrabit External MyBook.
View 3 Replies View RelatedWhen I play 1080p video and there is lot of disk activity at the same time (virus database updates, someone copy something trough local network, DVD is burning...anyway - lot of hard disk activity) then the video shows very poor performance - stops and starts for sec, then stops, slideshows and so on (also with sound). When this happens the CPU is about 50-60% so CPU is not an issue. I also set the media player priority to high in task manager - still bad performance when hard drive activity is high.
I have AMD CPU 3GHz, 3,5MB RAM, 1GB ATI Radeion HD4850
I DID NOT HAVE ANY SUCH ISSUE ON XP...whats the problem?
I have a hard drive I want to backup to a 64gb flash drive and then restore it to another different hard drive than where it came from. I have windows 7 and office on my laptop and I want it on my desktop pc. There isn't close to 64gb of info on my laptop so it should be fine even though the hard drive says I have 160gb. It is all free space except for those programs.
View 3 Replies View RelatedThe past few months, something strange is going on with my external USB 2.0 1TB hard drive which I use for weekly backup. Various activities cause the drive to wake up, which slows Windows 7 (Ultimate 64-bit) down for a few seconds until the drive is fully spun up. Actions include emptying the recycle bin, downloading files in Firefox, and occasionally clicking links in Chrome. I've even turned off recycle bin for that drive, but no difference. There are no references to that drive in the Windows environmental variables or browser configuration. With system/hidden files visible, I see no files on the drive which indicate a temp cache or virtual memory file. C: is the only drive being used for virtual memory. I've got 8GB of system memory and 1GB of video memory, plus plenty of hard drive space. I've been supporting/using Windows for many years, but this has me baffled.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI just had a strange experience I don't know how to interpret. I got a used laptop that was distressed and would not boot. I pulled the 500GB SATA II drive and ran some tests on it, and was dismayed to find transfer rates of under 20MB/s. I ran CHKDSK on it, which produced no errors and did not change the performance. The drive passed all SMART and self-tests.So I put the drive back in its machine and began to try to repair the boot. That led to trying to do a factory recovery, but that also failed. Finally I decided to install Windows 7 afresh from a DVD, and as part of that I deleted the two existing installation partitions and let Windows create new ones. That went very smoothly, and after all the dust settled I ran some performance tests on the drive again. Now the drive was clocking somewhere in the 70MB/s range!
View 2 Replies View RelatedSo, I have a i7 2600K system with a solid state disk as the boot drive, and an older (c2008) Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB drive as the data drive for programs (that I deem as not worthy of the quick load times). The hard drive has given me some errors over time, and I bought a hard disk to replace it (a Hitachi 1TB).The issue I'm having is that the fact that Windows 7 puts a small (100MB) partition on the F3, and for some reason, even though I'm running Acronis 2012, it doesn't seem to be able to clone the F3 over to the Hitachi. I've also tried Drive XML, and for my 2 hour wait, I only managed to acquire a boot error. Thankfully, I've not done anything rash to destroy the data on the F3, but given the fact that I've seen corrupted files in Steam from that drive, I'm not will to trust it long term with my data. I really need to get the data onto that Hitachi, though...Anyone have any advice for upgrading the HDD in a SSD/HDD system? I don't really feel like it should be so hard, especially if I've bought Acronis True Image, but maybe they haven't designed their product to handle this scenario quite yet?
View 9 Replies View RelatedDoes anyone know whether there is a difference in performance between doing a clean install of Windows 7 vs upgrading Vista? Any better stability? I'm just wondering whether it's worth the trouble of the clean install.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have an SSD drive mounted as a secondary master on my motherboard that has lost performance. I did have some things on the drive that I ended up deleting because load times were painfully long. I did not format the drive using the format options in Windows as I know this further degrades performance for SSDs, but there is nothing on the drive at all right now.
My question is, is there a way to secure erase the drive while still inside Windows? All the info I've found regarding secure erasing a drive has to to with having to boot the computer with some disc (insert title), unplugging the sata cable to the drive and plugging it back in, running said program, and erasing the drive. I understand this if the drive is the Primary Master and Windows is to be installed on the drive, but this is not the case for me.
Is there a way to do this inside Windows since its a secondary drive, meaning Windows is on a completely different drive, or is there a program or something for SSDs where you can restore performance inside Windows.
I have a HP Touchsmart IQ500. Turning my computer PC on today, all I got was a blue HP invent screen with setup, boot menu, system recovery, and system diagnosis, and I could not get past it. I entered the BIOS and figured out that the hard drive was listed as "not installed." Pretty sure that is the main problem.I tried a system restore (with the Windows 7 install disc), but I guess the computer couldn't read the hard drive enough to enter safe mode (I tried restarting and F8ing several times). I put in an external hard drive, and the BIOS read it; however, windows does not allow you to partition an OS on a hard drive.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have an internal hard disk not in use ,and I would like to make it as external disk !I looked on the net and I found I should have the " encelsure " butt I think I wont find it here in my city .So is there another way ? like usb -esata cable
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