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Installing new SATA III SSD
Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
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Hello, I'm thinking of purchasing a new Crucial MX300 275GB SSD from Amazon here :
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX300-275GB-Internal-Solid/dp/B01M4N93AC?th=1

My question is, what kind of connectors and cables do I need to connect it to my MB? I have an ASUS KV8PRO MB. Do I need theses cables ( https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Pack-Degree-Right-Angle/dp/B00KCS91GY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1480109798&sr=8-3&keywords=sata+iii+cable+ssd ) to connect the SSD to my MB? What about the power connections? It looks like there is a 7 and 15 pin connector cable I need (I might have this with my Desktop inside already, but I'm not sure).

How do I connect all these things up?

I want to clone my current Maxtor Y200 HDD onto the new SSD and then once it's stable wipe the HDD and use it for backup of important files. I need to resize some partitions, especially the C:\ drive for Windows, as it's almost completely out of room, and I need to update XP to SP3 at some point.

How do I clone and resize partitions so that I can run XP off of the SSD? What's the best (free and or cheap) software out there that can do this? The Crucial comes with Acronis True Image, but I don't know if that will do what I want. Eventually I want to be able to dual boot Linux off the SSD as well.

Halp!

GullRaDriel
Member #3,861
September 2003
avatar

Cable: I think you need only the sata cable, and that your motherboard should have a power cable if needed.

Connection: you can't go wrong, as it won't fit anywhere else then where it's allowed. I tend to look at the motherboard and start to add my disk to port sata0, 1,2,3,... instead of just using a random one.

Clone:use a bootable disk and gparted. it's FREE. https://www.google.fr/search?q=bootable+gparted&oq=bootable+gparted&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.4112j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Juste resize your ntfs partition, and copy it with dd:
https://www.google.fr/search?q=copy+windows+partition+using+dd&oq=copy+windows+partition+using+dd&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.7461j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The command dd should already be in the gparted boot disk. So, just make yourself a gparted usb boot disk, resize with gparted, copy with dd, profit.

You'll have to hack your way with copying the main partition AND the mbr for it to boot correctly.

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

I ordered some Linux CD's from OSDisc.com!!!

Items:
Fedora 25 KDE Plasma Desktop - Install/Live DVD (64-bit)
$5.95 - Quantity: 1
GParted Live 0.27.0-1 - Live CD (64-bit)
$2.95 - Quantity: 1
GhostBSD 10.3 XFCE - Live DVD (64-bit)
$5.95 - Quantity: 1
openSUSE Tumbleweed 20161115 Live KDE - Install/Live DVD (64-bit)
$5.95 - Quantity: 1

I wanted to try out BSD, I've used OpenSUSE before, and I wanted to try out Fedora because of the Red Hat support. I ordered a live GParted CD as well to try out your suggestions Gullradriel.

I can use these on my laptop or my desktop, as luckily they're both 64 bit.

Some further questions :

1. Do I need to format the SSD before I use it? Is NTFS okay? Will that work with both Windows and Linux?

2. How do I preserve the MBR when I clone my XP drive and repartition C:\?

3. Can I then install GRUB and keep everything working so I can dual boot Linux?

4. Just a general run down of the process to get everything up and running in a dual boot setup with XP and one of the Linux distros.

5. Is gcc supported on BSD? I assume yes, but I don't know.

GullRaDriel
Member #3,861
September 2003
avatar

1) A given directory on your windows drive will suffice as you can access the whole NTFS drive under linux.
2) you google "how to copy the mbr from a disk to another using dd"
3) Best way is to first install windows, and linux after it so grub will manage both systems and show them in the boot menu.
4) isn't that 3 ?
5) yes it is, but why BSD when you can debian or ubuntu ? ;-p

EDIT: having a gparted boot disk is a matter of burning an image to a disk ForFrrrrreeeee.
The same goes with bootable usb sticks.

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

... why BSD when you can debian or ubuntu ? ;-p

Because of ports! GhostBSD has it.

Kudos for supporting the community with installation media purchases. I would give up on trying to preserve the XP partition, though, instead backing up important data and re-installing the OS as necessary. You're going to want a backup regardless, so this kills two birds with one stone.

Erin Maus
Member #7,537
July 2006
avatar

5) yes it is, but why BSD when you can debian or ubuntu ? ;-p

Can't speak for Edgar, but personally, I use FreeBSD because 1) I don't like the move towards monolothic Linux software (e.g., systemd) 2) I don't like the GPL 3) I want something more traditionally Unix 4) I don't quite like the community for certain reasons.

And I use FreeBSD over OpenBSD and DragonFly because 1) It has better hardware and software support 2) It has some nice features like bhyve.

I went from Windows to FreeBSD and haven't looked back.

---
ItsyRealm, a quirky 2D/3D RPG where you fight, skill, and explore in a medieval world with horrors unimaginable.
they / she

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

I'd like to clone the XP partition and resize it without disturbing anything else on the drive. To that end I was going to clone all of the Maxtor onto the Crucial, resize the C:\ partition on the SSD, and then copy the MBR if cloning and restoring doesn't take care of it automatically.

I then want to install GRUB and Linux on the cloned SSD. After everything's working I will uninstall anything unnecessary and clean up the drive.

I can't just re-install XP because a lot of the software on it doesn't have installation discs lying around or they're so buried I'll never be able to find them, plus I would lose any data the applications have stored across 10 different logical drives. That's why I want to clone and restore XP, copy the MBR, and then install GRUB and Linux.

I chose (Ghost)BSD because I always wanted to be a hacker. Don't laugh. BSD is what all the real hackers use. J/K. I just really wanted to try something UNIXy that wasn't LINUXy.

I don't like Ubuntu. It's way too dumbed down and they've taken on the big brother mentality of doing everything for you even if it's not what you want to do or how you want to do it. Part of that may be Gnome at work, but that's also the reason I chose KDE Plasma for Fedora and OpenSUSE.

I realize I could have downloaded the .iso's and burnt them to DVD for the cost of the DVDs but that's a lot of work and a lot of bandwidth. I'd much rather support someone like OSDisc.com who will do it all for me. It's not like it cost that much anyway. $6 for an OS? Ridiculous. Awesome.

EDIT
Shux. I just noticed that GhostBSD is not an install disc. Live CD only. :./

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

I can't just re-install XP because a lot of the software on it doesn't have installation discs lying around...

In that case, consider dd'ing the XP drive to a backup spare from the GhostBSD live disc. Use the backup in all your copy operations and do not even touch the original. If used correctly, dd will cover all partitions ("logical drives") and the MBR.

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

If I do that, will I still be able to install GRUB and dual boot Linux? I was going to clone onto the SSD until I was totally sure that everything was working okay, and then wipe the old drive for backup storage.

Can I repartition an existing boot drive? Ie... can I repartition the SSD once I clone XP onto it?

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

Can I repartition an existing boot drive?

Of course. And you can do so without fear of losing your original data, if performed on the dd'ed "backup".

Frankly, the greatest obstacle to the task at hand is time. Today, nearing the end of 2016, the number of people who have recently done things related to what you are trying to do will be limited. The community's expertise has transferred to virtual machines and dual-booting more recent versions of Windows. I wish you luck.

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
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Erin Maus
Member #7,537
July 2006
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Yes. And try and enable support for TRIM. For example, it's on by default when using ZFS with FreeBSD, but if you use UFS, you need to explicitly enable TRIM when formatting the disk.

---
ItsyRealm, a quirky 2D/3D RPG where you fight, skill, and explore in a medieval world with horrors unimaginable.
they / she

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

Erin Maus
Member #7,537
July 2006
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TRIM is a mechanism to prevent damaging the individual blocks in a SSD. Basically, it distributes writes across the drive. For comparison, with a HDD, you can write to the same physical location on the drive repeatedly; with a SSD, you can't. The physical location changes.

ZFS and UFS are just file systems, like FAT or NTFS. ZFS is a modern journaling filesystem. I recommend it over UFS. It has features like snapshots and copy-on-write which are great.

---
ItsyRealm, a quirky 2D/3D RPG where you fight, skill, and explore in a medieval world with horrors unimaginable.
they / she

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
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Erin Maus
Member #7,537
July 2006
avatar

No, you can have different partitions with different filesystems. Windows won't be able to see the partitions with filesystems other than FAT or NTFS, though.

---
ItsyRealm, a quirky 2D/3D RPG where you fight, skill, and explore in a medieval world with horrors unimaginable.
they / she

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

Yes. And try and enable support for TRIM.

As a caveat, it should not be enabled as a mount option in fstab, as constant trimming can be detrimental to the drive. It's better to trim periodically with cron.

Official ZFS support is definitely one of the perks of BSD! You wouldn't reap full benefits with a single drive, though.

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

I've got everything except for the SATA-III cables. They're shipping from Japan. Expected delivery Dec28-Jan26. Sheesh. What are they shipping it by boat?

I got my OS discs too. Ready to fire up BSD and take a look, and want to install Fedora or OpenSUSE on my lappie. Should I use a VM first?

How does re-partitioning an OS drive work? Does GParted allow me to do this while preserving the MBR? I don't want to brick my laptop, it's my work machine.

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