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SSD MIGRATION
The migration of this drive is very simply. Open the external adapter and insert the ssd. Plug in the adapter to the computer for power and data with both cords. Insert the Acronis DVD and follow the instructions. Once it is complete, replace the hard disk with the SSD in the computer and reboot. Thats it!
But there is a bonus!!! Many people don’t migrate to the SSD because of capacity. Not only have we tackled that with the price point of this drive, but also, simply insert the hard drive into the adapter in place of the ssd and you now have an external hard drive. Once the OS starts you will find that there is a new drive for storage. There is even an instructional video from Imation here!!
PERFORMANCE TESTING
CRYSTAL DISK MARK 3.0 X64
We elected to put the Imation SSD up against the new Crucial SSD (left) as well as the Samsung Spinpoint F2 1.5TB hard drive(right). In performance results it is pretty clear that the Crucial stands above the Imation as well as how the hard drive looks against the Imation. A little secret that nobody talks about though has to do with the seek times of these drives. The seek time of the hard drive is typically 9.2ms while the two SSDs is 0.1-0.2ms.
These numbers equate to the lions share of visible performance as the typical user cannot tell the difference between the two SSDs regardless of the Crystal scores whereas the hard drive is some 90 x slower in seek times. This is where you will see your performance difference between the solid state drive and the hard drive. It is a significant difference and will probably change how you look at the hard drive from here on in.
HDTUNE 4.5 BENCHMARK
When we take a look at the HDTune scoring, we can identify with the seek times a bit more but, even more interesting is what we see in the seek time and the performance of the Samsung hard drive. There is a definite downward slope in the hard drive as well as a sharp increase in the seek time which is directly attributable to the stress which occurs in hard drives when they have to move large files or are pushed to their limit for a long period of time. Crucial (left) Imation (right) Samsung (center)
Its a great indication of the difference we will see in a SSD compared to the hard drive. Oh…by the way…we couldn;t resist throwing the Crucial SATA 3 score in for this test. Take a look at how SATA 3 pushes it that much higher.