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MOHAWK
Jun-16-2012, 19:25
Has anyone upgraded from a standard hard drive to an -SSD- Hard Drive and noticed any proformance increase in --COD--? If So , Details Please....Thank you ..

Doc
Jun-16-2012, 20:06
I built mine with SSD from the start but I use a lot of different setups for a living and SSD for me is king for a drive to put an OS on.

ATAG_Snapper
Jun-16-2012, 21:29
I believe GRAthos is a strong proponent of SSD drives.

335th_GRAthos
Jun-17-2012, 04:52
LOL, sort of ;)

Standard HDDs with Win7-64 are today much much faster than what we used to have because they use many advanced technologies like NCQ (native command queing)= accept multiple data fetch commands and sort them out in the best possible way (unlike older HDDs).
Doing "housekeeping" is also important, I always keep the first partition (the one near the centre of the HDD=faster) for the OS and the last partition (the one at the edge), for the pagefile (which will no be used because I have 12Gb RAM) and TEMP files.
This way the OS partition stays as clean as possible and all updates etc are all kept near the speediest part of the HDD.
The second partition is the one where CoD is (nearest possible speed after the OS).
Good Defragmantation SW is also important in order to ensure everything is laid nicely.
The third partition is everything which I do not care about.

I have to say here that I have a PC with multiple boot disks:
1. Boot HDD with WinXP for IL2FB
2. Boot HDD with Win7-64 for CoD
3. Boot HDD with Win7-64 for Video Editing

This keeps my Win7-64 CoD clean and avoids unnecessary drivers.


Since you have 12Gb RAM like me, I would recommend RAMDRIVE :happy

With this amount of RAM I would recommend you to buy a big (2Tb-2,5Tb) Hard Disk SATA with 7200rpm
First Partition should be small 100-150Gb for Win7-64. As little as possible there in order to ensure the system runs well and there is a little fragmantation as possible.
Last Partition should be 50-80Gb for the TEMP directory and for the swapfiles (swapfile you will never need anyway).
In between you have space for all your data, games etc.

I use RAMDRIVE, it is magnificent and it will always be faster than a SSD.

As I said in the 1c forum:
With so much RAM you do not need to spend money on a SSD drive.

RAMDRIVE is a fantastic tool and in combination with the Link Shell Extension it is an excellent way to speed up loading times and avoid any delays due to HDD slow access (if no SSD).

What is the fastest way:
An SSD for Win7 + an SSD for your apps
But because SSDs are still small (capacity-wise) you are always better off with:
An SSD for Win7 + a 2Tb HDD for your apps + RAMDRIVE images
...if you have money to spare (for the SSD for Win7)
Otherwise, I would stick to a well partitioned 2Tb HDD + RAMDRIVE images

My opinion is that there is very little performance improvement between a nicely partitioned HDD and an SSD:
My Win7 load times from my "slow" 2Tb HDD (only 5.400rpm) is magnificent - it is faster than the WinXP load times from my "fast" 10.000rpm velociraptor drive!


Here is the link with all explanations about RAMDRIVE and Link Shell Extension: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=20228



At this point it would be wise to add a word of caution:
If you like computers and like to spend time optimizing your system, then RAMDRIVE and Link Shell Extension is a very interesting subject and will give you impressive performance.
If you do not like computers too much then, installing an SSD drive will give you a quick and effordless performance improvement ;)

my 2cents

~S~

ATAG_Knuckles
Jun-17-2012, 10:07
What did he just say :blush!:

MOHAWK
Jun-17-2012, 10:08
WoW ' Great Explanation GRAthos , Thank's. I will look deeper into this Ram drive Image thing and probably go with---- (well partitioned 2Tb HDD + RAMDRIVE images ) ----. Now I just need to figure out how to move everything from my current HD to the new one in proper order , without having to Load and install " Everything" over again ===Is it even possible ?---( Although by the time im done with this, I think my head will be Spinning )..

Catseye
Jun-17-2012, 12:39
LOL, sort of ;)

Snip tonnes of good stuff. . . . .

At this point it would be wise to add a word of caution:
If you like computers and like to spend time optimizing your system, then RAMDRIVE and Link Shell Extension is a very interesting subject and will give you impressive performance.
If you do not like computers too much then, installing an SSD drive will give you a quick and effordless performance improvement ;)

my 2cents

~S~

S! GRAthos,
I'm going to give the Ramdisk a try.
I have a couple of questions. My understanding is that I will still need a swapfile to work with other applications?

I want to partition my hard drive as you have explained it into three partitions - what do you recommend to do this without erasing current partitions and data??

Thanks for any help.
Catseye

335th_GRAthos
Jun-17-2012, 17:32
Sorry guys, I was away for a long time, decided to live dangerously :Grin:
(no it is not a motorcycle Snapper, I decided to look for the octopus ;););) )




Now I just need to figure out how to move everything from my current HD to the new one in proper order , without having to Load and install " Everything" over again ===Is it even possible ?
Ofcourse.

You have not mentionned what kind of HDD you already have (call it DISK A) and that maybe of importance...
Also worthwhile to know, did you do a clean install of Win7-64 or did you upgrade a WinXP system?

"Move everything to a new hard disk without installing everything" is called cloning a drive. There is a lot of SW available to do just that.
Best way, you connect both hard disks in your PC, boot from a CD with the clone SW, ask it to make a clone of Disk A to Disk B, switch off your PC. Remove DISK A, connect the (now free) SATA cable from DISK A into Disk B and you are done.
The beauty of this process is that you always have your DISK A untouched so, if nothing works out, you reconnect DISK A and life goes on.

However #1, depending on how much "$"$%&/#* you have loaded into your Win7, nothing beats the lightness of a freshly installed OS :0:

However #2, if you really load a lot of things into your PC, nothing is better than multi-boot configurations (if your case is big enough and has space for many HDDs).
The costly way:
http://www.cooldrives.com/4posaiisw3ba.html
828

The "less costly way" provided your motheboard has an external SATA port (eSATA)
http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/1261
829
But you have to plug/unplug HDDs everytime, it is possible but, nobody can say how well the SATA connectors on your HDDs will cope with continous plugging/unplugging

I have both systems mentionned above, they work like a charm (have four different boot configurations)






S! GRAthos,
I'm going to give the Ramdisk a try.
I have a couple of questions. My understanding is that I will still need a swapfile to work with other applications?

I want to partition my hard drive as you have explained it into three partitions - what do you recommend to do this without erasing current partitions and data??


Swapfile is needed by the OS. It is rarely needed if you have a lot of RAM. Still, nice to have in place. In the old WinXP times it was adviced not to delete it.
The only problem when it is not used is that by default it occupies a lot of HDD space near the centre of the hard disk where speed is best.
Easy solution is a) select the partition where the swapfile should be and set to zero the swapfile on your C: (main partition), b) set a defined size for the swapfile (so that it does expand/ shrink and becomes fragmented.

"without erasing current partitions and data" is like making omelette without breaking eggs however, it is not difficult: You need a Partition Manager SW which will resize your existing partitions thus creating space for new partitions.
It also depends on how many applications you have. Your big nuissance will probably be STEAM which saves the whole CoD under one of its directories on C:
My personal solution is:
- I leave STEAM where it is (and the original CoDs, I have am English and a Russian CoD version)
- I copy the whole CoD directory to my "CoD partition" (only CoD is there).
- I start CoD from the "CoD partition" and not through STEAM (as long a STEAM runs in the background I am allowed to do that).
(This way, I keep a copy of all CoD patched versions).
- I have a RAMDRIVE file created (I think it is 4Gb, I can not tell you right now because it is on the other HDD than the one I booted from...)
- I load/open the RAMDRIVE file as normal (not loaded into my RAM).
- I copy inside there most CoD files (it is explained in http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=20228 )
- In the "CoD Partition", I rename (or remove) the CoD files I copied in the RAMDRIVE.
- I create the Link Shell Extention Links (so that the RAMDRIVE files/directories are reflected as local directories inside the "CoD Partition".
- I close the RAMDRIVE.
Ready!
when I want to play, I load my CoD RAMDRIVE file, this time in RAM (takes some time to load 4Gb in RAM) and start the game.
When I finish I close the RAMDRIVE file, I tend to do so without saving any changes (when it asks me). This way my cashe is clean and I avoid problems ;)

The nice thing is that I can have different RAMDRIVE files for different games so it is a very efficient configuration.

~S~

335th_GRAthos
Jun-17-2012, 18:31
OK since somebody sent me a pm, I answer inside here, probably others may want to know the same thing too:

Explanations on how to partition a Hard Disk for a new installation of Win7

Disclaimer: I am not a Computer Expert so you can not take my advice seriously and hold me responsible for destroying your computer :runaway:

There are only two types of partitions: primary and logical.
In total, there can only be up to four primary partitions on any physical disk.
Windows 7, by itself, creates and uses at least two primary partitions.
The first one is a very small 100-200Mb partition for the emergency recovery system.
830
(There is a way to avoid creation of the small partition and you can google for the solution but it is rather unimportant).

With the help of disk management in Windows 7 you can only create primary partitions, when you create the 4th partition it would become extended partition automatic.
That is good enough because inside an extended partition you can create as many "sub-partitions" (logical partitions as you want.

So if you have a 1Tb HDD
Partition #1 (Primary) 200Mb automaticaly by the system
Partition #2 (Primary) 150-200Gb (depending on how many applications you will have) Win 7 system
Partition #3 (Primary) 100Gb for the "CoD Partition"
Partition #4 (Extended) all the remaining space 500Gb

Inside Partition #4 (Extended) you can create as many logical drives you want but for simplicity, you will create one 450Gb for your other applications, videos etc thus leaving 50Gb at the end of your HDD for a logical drive for the swapfile and TEMP directories.


This guy has written a nice explanation about Win7 and partition management:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/146694-partition-extended-logical-drives.html


Somebody asked me how to move the Temp files to that last logical drive (let's suppose X:\ ):
I go to Control Panel\System and Security\System, "Advanced System Settings",
"Environment Variables"
There, I edit
User Variables:
TEMP %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp to X:\temp
TMP %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp to X:\tmp
System Variables
TEMP %SystemRoot%\TEMP to X:\temp
TMP %SystemRoot%\TEMP to X:\temp

I also move the Internet Explorer Temporary files to X:\


I hope this helps


~S~

MOHAWK
Jun-17-2012, 19:34
Man--Oh--Man -- GRAthros you sure do know what you are doing on HD's , I am taking your advice , but am going to stop and dig into this and try understand it all --it sounds like a Monumental task for myself , with all the gotta do this and do that , to make it work correctly , I really do appreciate you taking the time and effort to explaine this = Thank You , I will get it done sooner or later , when i feel comfortable with it --- it's like that -RAID- set up stuff = never could understand the correct RAID set up ? Raid 0 /1/2/3/00 ?-WTF-- some SAVVY HD Guy could make some $$$ making a program that woud optimize somones -HD- for proformance . ( with simple easy 1-2-3 -? steps ?? ) = I know --easyer said then done , anyway's Thanks GRAthros-- your info helped me understand somewhat -- Now I need to find the -( BALL'S ) to attemp this , I will get it done , "Soon = Two Weeks For Sure ".............................................

jaydee
Jun-18-2012, 03:16
Hey Mo,when i bought my ssd,I cleaned my old hardrive of junk etc, then I used Acronis to clone my old onto the ssd..Had a couple of minor issues at first but over all went good and increase in loading times was great.... Anyway,I reasoned if it didnt work then Id do the re-install..Make backups of all youre important stuff first ! It worked fine for me Mo !!

335th_GRAthos
Jun-18-2012, 16:25
--- it's like that -RAID- set up stuff = never could understand the correct RAID set up ? Raid 0 /1/2/3/00 ?-WTF--

LOL, I know what you mean, I had the same problem myself once :angel:


Sorry Mohawk, I did not want to scare you :blush!:
The explanations regarding the partitions above were for somebody who wanted to install a new Win7 on a fresh hard disk...

Your problem is very easy, look here:
Freeware: http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/
And the explanations are really easy to understand (I hope...:Grin:)
1. Create a Bootable CD to start your PC from.
2. Connect both disks (old & new)
3. Boot from CD
4. Select "Disk old" to be copied to "Disk new"
http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/home-edition/#Title4

When finished, switch off the PC,
remove the SATA cable from "Disk old" and connect it to the "Disk new"
(This is my personal experience, I have experienced problems when the OS starts from a hard disk that is no longer on the same position as the original hard disk)

Done!

And even if it did not work out, just reconnect the SATA cable from the "Disk new" back to the "Disk old" and you are back to square one - nothing happened ;)


~S~

MajorBorris
Jun-18-2012, 16:55
Has anyone upgraded from a standard hard drive to an -SSD- Hard Drive and noticed any proformance increase in --COD--? If So , Details Please....Thank you ..

Yes,

No testing on CoD yet though....

I have been waiting for the patch to test it with a clean O.S./IL2 install.

I wish I could fit all my games on there!