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Looking for good Disk Cloning Software

Started by PaPa-J, August 11, 2018, 04:14:56 AM

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PaPa-J

I am looking into buying a SSD Drive and would like some suggestions on a good disk cloning software package.  I would prefer something free but relatively inexpensive would do as well.
Any Ideas?
Lighten up, just enjoy life,
smile more, laugh more,
and don't get so worked up
about things.

Andreas

Do you plan to clone the content of your hard drive on an SSD? Then cloning software might not be the best solution for that, since there are quite a few parameters in Windows that need to be changed for proper SSD usage. The best way is doing a clean install, which obviously is somewhat time-consuming, but you could use the chance to get rid of old junk that way, too.

There are programs that claim they do the transfer and switch on all necessary settings in Windows, but I don't know how well that works. Samsung sells SSD "Starter Kits" that include some transfer software, and a USB-to-SATA adapter, so that might be an option for you. There's also free software, like Clonezilla (Linux-based) and Macrium Reflect (Windows-based, commercial, but limited free version for home users), but then you have to find a tutorial what to change in your installation manually (at least when using Clonezilla).
Andreas

PaPa-J

Got me the new drive, the cloning didn't quite work out, so I am installing everything from scratch (this will take a little time). I do like the new drive though.
Lighten up, just enjoy life,
smile more, laugh more,
and don't get so worked up
about things.

huzman

Congrats on your new SSD disk!
I went that way myself a short time ago, but I hunted down someone with knowlege about it and I found him and did a perfect job for about € 30. Worth every cent.

Keep your progress posted... I'm curious.
« Essayez d'apprendre quelque chose sur tout et tout sur quelque chose. »
             « Try to learn something about everything and everything about something »
                          « Trata de aprender algo sobre todo y todo sobre algo »
                                                                                                    — Thomas Henry Huxley

PaPa-J

I finally got everything installed onto the new SSD Drive.  I'm a little disappointed with the speed.  Based on other posts that I have read, the game loads faster with an SSD Drive.  I must say, I have not noticed any difference.  :(
Lighten up, just enjoy life,
smile more, laugh more,
and don't get so worked up
about things.

mgb204

Perhaps it seems like a stupid question, but you do have the game / plugins installed on the actual SSD?

Otherwise, what sort of system do you have? Did you use a SATA2 or SATA3 connection for the SSD, perhaps even M2? Those are in order of speed, but even SATA2 should be faster with an SSD than a HDD, although it's less ideal. Also, what SSD did you buy?,modern ones are really fast, but models vary hugely. Lastly, what OS are you using, you might need to tweak the OS and even your BIOS for optimal performance.

For example, both the Samsung model and it's Intel replacement I've owned had software for handling the OS side of this. If you didn't get any with the drive check the manufacturer's website for a similar utility. If one exists it will make life easier.

Andreas

Actually, even when you put your plugins on the SSD, the game will not load that much faster. However, once the game has started and a city is loaded, you will notice a much smoother scrolling, zooming and rotating. :)
Andreas

mgb204

Good point Andreas, although it does depend again on what setup you have.

One of the reasons DAT Packing is recommended, is because spinning disks have to seek for each file to load the data. Seek-time is something that makes processing a lot of files much slower than processing less files. Hence DAT Packed files lead to much quicker loading of the game.

If you have DAT-packed files, an SSD might seem to be less of an improvement. Since on of the key speed benefits of SSDs is that they don't suffer from seek times. Similarly, if you had a really fast HDD, your SSD by comparison may not make a huge difference either.

Ultimately, it all comes down to a number of factors, though at it's core, SSDs are much quicker than HDDs.

Andreas

I think the main "problem" that the game doesn't load quicker is because during the time it was developed, CPU speed, RAM and HDD usage was much more of an issue than it is now, so I would assume that there simply aren't any features in the game that would boost load times that much. Instead, everything was geared towards less resource-intensive usage, so once the game was loaded, the user would have a somewhat pleasant game-play.

I remember that there are some command line switches (and later in-game preferences) that alter the behaviour of loading items during game-play, but I doubt there are any for modifying the startup speed of the game, since that's only a one-time improvement for every gaming session, while loading times during game-play are much more important.
Andreas

PaPa-J

This is what I bought (no I did not pay that much for it. It was half off.).




Here are my computer specs -

Processor:                  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20 GHzInstalled Memory:      32.0 GBSystem
Type:                          64-bit Windows 10 Version 1803 OS Build 17134.228
I looked on the manufacture's website and there was no software packages to download in order to tweak the settings.I will try combining some of my plugins into .dat files.
Lighten up, just enjoy life,
smile more, laugh more,
and don't get so worked up
about things.

mgb204

Quote from: PaPa-J on August 29, 2018, 03:48:30 PM
This is what I bought (no I did not pay that much for it. It was half off.).

Really? If you paid half the sticker price, that's a bargain. I couldn't buy anything of that size in Europe for less than the equivalent 99€ which was larger than 256GB.

QuoteProcessor:                  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20 GHz

So you probably have SATA3 (since you've a 2015 model CPU), meaning you should be able to fully take advantage of the drive speeds. Those are pretty impressive considering the cost of the drive too. Bear in mind your motherboard may have both SATA2 and SATA3 sockets, this really wants to be in a SATA3 one. Again, check the BIOS, there may be a configuration option to tell the BIOS it's an SSD, which conceivably improves performance. Certainly my ASRock board requires me to tell it I have an SSD installed.

QuoteI looked on the manufacture's website and there was no software packages to download in order to tweak the settings.I will try combining some of my plugins into .dat files.

Well, the big manufacturers offer all sorts of things, but many smaller ones don't. Windows 10 at least should be better than 7 at handling an SSD. But, there are still tweaks you may need to make to optimise the O/S for use with one. There is some useful information here.

As for DATPacking, with an SSD it's hardly worth bothering. Sans seek times, you may not even notice the difference. My point before was that if you had done that with the old disk, it might make the difference when using the SSD less.

Seaman

#11
Quote from: mgb204 on August 29, 2018, 05:41:26 PM
Really? If you paid half the sticker price, that's a bargain. I couldn't buy anything of that size in Europe for less than the equivalent 99€ which was larger than 256GB.

Thx, for stating that. I thought it was just me  ???

Andreas

That's a good price indeed (although I don't know if your price is with or without sales tax). Here in Germany, a 480 GB SSD starts at about 70 € (including VAT), which is roughly $80. I don't recognize the brand of your model, maybe it's some "no name" one that doesn't quite meet the specs it displays on the label, but you can run some benchmarks yourself, just to be sure.
Andreas