Maximum PC

I bought the Samsung 830 256 SSD. Well as it turns out, the version I bought from new egg does not come with Norton Ghost 15

So I have no backup software.
Im wondering what most of you guys are using, should I buy Ghost15 or is my money better spent buying a different possibly better clone software?

Thanks for you recommendations

Hitch

I just use Windows' back up feature to make a system image after I create something that I don't mind rolling back to.

If you are trying to clone your existing hard drive to the SSD, don't. You need to start from scratch so the alignment of the blocks doesn't get screwed up because hard drives and SSDs use different alignments. If you use clone software like ghost it copies the original exactly so you will see performance degradation and wasted space. Supposedly Acronis True image corrects this problem though so that might be worth looking into.

macrium reflect free will also keep SSD alignment during a restore (during backup/restore to same SSD that is).

Every tweak guide I have read for ssd's say to disable windows back/restore. There is a entire list of stuff that needs to be turned off according to the ssd tweak guide
http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/so ... 7/552.html

List of what they say to do:
Set to AHCI Mode:
Verify TRIM is Enabled
Disable System Restore
Disable Drive Indexing
Disable Drive Defragmentation Schedule
Disable PageFile
Disable Hibernation
Disable Prefetch and Superfetch
Disable Windows Write-Cache Buffer Flusing
Disable Windows Search and Superfetch
Disable ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache
Adjusting the Power Settings

a good backup software; try genie timeline solutions very powerful backup.
http://www.genie9.com

I use Macrium Reflect Free Edition to do my weekly scheduled image backup of my OS/programs partition. I had also used it to do an image transfer and partition alignment when I recently upgraded to a SSD. However, I did have to do a Win7 install repair, as the Win7 bootloader got confused by the new alignment. Macrium is a free and very useful program, and I highly recommend it.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

What's the problem with Windows Backup ?

Windows 7 is smart enough to realize you have an SSD and does a lot of the tweaking for you.

Also I only use the Backup and Restore option to create a system image that I use as a "oh crap, reset everything!", like how OEM computers come with Recovery Partitions. I manually do my backups because well... I don't tend to change what I hoard (and I don't have a lot of important stuff). And it's basically "delete that folder, copy what I have now" like once or twice a year.

Have you done a system image restore onto an SSD using Windows Backup ?

If so, what exactly did you do and how well did it work ?

I have made several manual system image backups (to the HDD) with Win7, after installing new stuff on the SSD,
but have not had to use any of them yet (knock on wood).

Yes, and it works beautifully. I'm not sure however if Windows' recovery process erases the entire SSD and writes the new image, or it just writes as necessary. I can't make a good judgment call since I'm on my laptop and I look at the desktop every 5 minutes or so when I do a system image restore.

To make one, there's an option when you go to Backup and Restore (just type in 'backup' in the Start search) and on the left is a link for creating a system image. I think Windows either copies just the necessary files or compresses it, because I normally don't end up with an image taking up the same space as the amount used.

Also, if you activated Windows or any other software and create a system image, your software will remain activated. At least, it did for Windows and Office. Not sure about games because they use more draconic DRM.