SSDs

[stratman]

To migrate or not to migrate, that is the question. (H/t Shakespeare)

You have an older Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD in current use and a new Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB SSD sitting in a box ready to go. Some points that may help you to decide how to proceed.

1) What percentage of free space is left on the 250 GB drive? If you are less than ~20% free then either migrate to the new SSD or uninstall some apps and reinstall on the new drive, or, if it is storage of files cluttering up the 250 GB drive then move them over to the new SSD. Get non-essential, non-Operating System, non-application files off the Boot drive as much as possible. This means images, documents, videos, music, etc.

2) Keeping the old SSD as your boot drive is easier. If you want to migrate to the new drive, Samsung's Migration tool allows for mismatched volume sizes on a migration and setting Partition sizes according to this. I have not used the application, I instead formatted my new SSD from Windows and then did a clean install of the OS. I have HDD platter drives for storage, including high performance and Green drives. It's a Frankenstein that works so far, though all SSD would be sweet.

3) Use Samsung's Magician SSD application and look at the SMART info for your current SSD. If #5 Reallocated Sector Count has anything but "0" it means that one (or more cells) are bad and data has been moved to a reserve cell. This is an indication of a drive beginning to wear out and you need to stay up on your backups. Eventually you will get a #187 Uncorrectable Error Count which means then you are heading towards an SSD failure in your future, when no one can tell you for sure, most likely soon according to this. Migrate and be done with it. Use the old SSD for target practice or a beverage coaster.

4) The performance of the new drive may be better. Will it be noticeable to you? Maybe, maybe not. These SSD's are speedy. The longevity of the new drive should be longer because of different technology in the 850 vs the 840. Look to the SMART data for guidance.

Most likely your old EVO is still in great shape and no need to migrate the old to the new. Just format the new drive, partition it if you would like, move over your media and document files to the new drive, as well as any applications/games you want on the new drive as well to give plenty of breathing room on the old OS drive, and be done with it.

If want to do a clean install of the OS, then do that with the new EVO 850 drive.

 

[stratman]

Even stick it in the old desktop computer as the C drive.

This will be a great upgrade as long as the BIOS is able to recognize and use an SSD.

 

[Emulator]

Thanks for that. The Reallocated Sector Count is "0", little wear, only 1.14Tbytes written on the 840. I think I will migrate to the 850 and use the 840 elsewhere, I can't see much benefit in leaving the 840 in the same machine, you really only need one SSD for speed.

The bulk of the data is in the form of RAW image files and fast loading and saving of images means leaving them on the SSD.

 

[3dogs]

Tell u why
840 running your programmes only will probably be at good capacity to process its fast and has loads of life in it still
850 is a smidge faster and a lot more capacity. If you are using LR properly catalogue is here and backup on 840 or also on a remote masters are on 850 and processing is done here too. Also if you are using LR properly ALL and i mean 110% of your photo images are in one file called My Lr Catalogue. That way you save move whatever 1 folder. Backup in at least three places ALL IN ONE DAMN FOLDER.

My mess was created by NOT doing that. And by switching methods three times so
One version was to shoot all as raw + .jpg then have one dedicated .jpg and another raw separate!!! All went well until i started processing images then keeping track of what folders had been updated or not turned to a can of worms.
One folder ALL IMAGES Properly named subfolders and effective use of Collections

Overload the 850 and you may as well run four hhd's for the same price and speed but quadruple the capacity......

But then I dont know how many images you are managing
At last update I had 16,000 active Raw (large) and swags of BIG pano files.