Interesting trick for those with boot sector HD issues.

[Turtle]

So a trick I've been using in these past few days since my primary HD crashed is to use the windows 7 dvd as the first stage in the boot up process.

Right now, the boot sector on my C drive is dead, can't be read from, along with other parts of the drive. However, all the OS info is fine on the drive, same for most of my data. Since the windows 7 install disc is bootable, I put that in my dvd drive.

The key is that while most bootable discs automatically put you into whatever OS is on that disc, usually some form of DOS or Linux. The windows 7 install dvd pops up a prompt for you to "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD." If you don't press a key, it skips loading the windows install, and jumps to whatever OS is on the hard drive.

I ran into this way back when my system was a hybrid of IDE and SATA drives, where I was trying to make a SATA drive the primary, but it kept installing the boot sector onto the IDE, then putting the OS on the SATA drive. But, I didn't know this because I had my windows 7 disc still in the cd, so it would do the initial boot loader off the disc, then switch to my sata drive. I didn't realize there was a problem until I took the W7 dvd out and my system wouldn't boot. Then thinking my drive had wiped, popped back in the W7 dvd and forgot to press a button to go into setup, and my computer worked fine.

So, just a tip for anyone dealing with some of the more rare technical problems.

[TheAtomicKid]

Interesting workaround. We like.

So what's the plan for the drive?

* TheAtomicKid firmly recommends a modest sized SSD for the OS these days.

Atomic

[Turtle]

Well, I finally picked up a replacement SSD and I don't know how I could have lived without it.

Things just happen in a snap, faster than if I had simply reformatted a clean install. It's amazing.

Not sure what else I need to do to fine tune my new SSD. I've got the OS installed on it and some common games and programs that I want to start up instantly. Now I'm waiting for a sale on another large storage drive so I can my primary SSD, a storage drive, and a backup drive.

I'm sure there's some settings I should check on, like trim and something about disabling some indexing to lower the number of reads or something on the drive over its lifespan or something like that. But for now, I'm just enjoying it.

[MonkeyFinger]

I have an Intel SSD and it came with a little 'suite' of utilities for checking / tuning / etc. Might want to see if such a thing exists for yours.

[TheAtomicKid]

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f128/ssd-tweak-guide-236563/

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4926-ssd-tweaker.html  (also linked at bottom of article, repeated here for easy access)

Handy little bugger. Decide which, if any, of the tweaks you like from the article, etc.

Atomic

(Which drive did you get?)

[Turtle]

Got a Corsair Force Series 3 180gb. Costly, but it also had a decent rebate, even though I hate rebates.

I know it had a recall on the 120GB versions not too long ago, but from what I head it only affected the 120gb models.

I only have a SATA II controller on my motherboard, but I may be getting a SATA 3 controller soon, or replacing my motherboard.