Pro Tools 10/Win 7/swap to SSD

[Larry O]

I'm not sure where this question belongs, but since I'm using PT 10.3.9 on an HP laptop I thought there might be something specific to 10.

My HDD is giving me signals that it's getting tired in my HP ProBook 4540s laptop. I run Win 7 on it with a Glyph external and this has served my purposes for home recording. I'm going to try swapping the internal SATA 7200 rpm 500 gig drive to a Crucial SSD 500 drive. Never having done this with any other laptop I'm told the process is relatively simple and painless. I'm just curious if there will be registration issues with Pro Tools, iLok, all my plugs, etc. Anyone with experience doing this care to opine? Thanks.

And just to add, this will be a clone, not a clean install.

[EGS]

I did this recently:
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=396152
It was an easy hardware swap. I loaded my Acronis boot archive onto the new SSD, checked that trim was enabled (it was), and it works great.

[albee1952]

Indeed, it should be pretty simple without an OS change. I did a straight clone with the included software that came with my Samsung 840 EVO drive. Once the clone was done and the SSD was installed, I ran the Magician software to optimize the SSD, then uninstalled Magician(had to as it made all my USB drives disappear). Running Pro tools, I found a handful of plugins(3rd party stuff) that required re-authorization(all stuff that uses challenge/response). All my iLok stuff and Waves made the transition without a hiccup

If you're going to change OS, it gets a lot less clear Logic and history tell me, the best bet is to start fresh on the SSD. Install win 10 and optimize(save a drive image now). Install Pro Tools and test. If all is good, save another drive image. Then install/authorize all plugins. If all runs well for a month, save a 3rd drive image.

Of course, that's the tedious way and you may really be reluctant to do the extra work(and I don't blame you). If that's the case, Clone to the SSD and then update the OS on the SSD and cross your fingers. It may work fine(if it does, count yourself as lucky) or it may not(and you know what that'll mean)

[EGS]

Originally Posted by albee1952

... I did a straight clone with the included software that came with my Samsung 840 EVO drive. Once the clone was done and the SSD was installed, I ran the Magician software to optimize the SSD, then uninstalled Magician(had to as it made all my USB drives disappear)...

I didn't do mine that way.

First, I took a fresh Acronis boot drive image from the working HDD, and stored this image on an external drive. Next, I physically replaced the original internal HDD with a Samsung 850 SSD. Then, I booted from my Acronis Bootable Media CD-ROM, and restored the boot drive image to the new SSD. No issues.

[Larry O]

The swap went without issues, very easy. The overall performance with desktop operation seemed notably faster, then onward to the music. First, I had been running an old version of Sony Sound Forge (6.0) that technically shouldn't work with Win 7/64 bit but did previously. I like to use it for final 2 track mix editing (trimming, DC offset, spectrum analysis, statistics, etc.). With the new drive it no longer works. Tried reinstalling, no joy (Windows has stopped working). On to Pro Tools 10.3.9. Launches and plays, but a very thick mix I successfully worked with my old SATA coughs, sputters and tanks with insufficient memory error, consider removing some plugins/VI's yada yada. I tried a multitude of things (revisiting optimizations, disabling things in Startup, etc.) and no joy. What did work was moving the project to C from my external Glyph GPT50 (USB 3.0) and taking the Glyph entirely offline. Nary a click. Hmmmm.

I also ran into reactivation request with BX Solo and installed it so long ago I had to re-register and reactivate with a current email. I haven't dug into all my plugins, but suspect there'll be more. I was very surprised that Autotune launched, I really expected issues with it.

Not really looking for ideas since I'm still early in this process and offered up a number of vague "etc's and "yada yada's", but I'm wondering if maybe I'll just move to using the Glyph drive as storage and operate solely from the SSD.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by Larry O

... maybe I'll just move to using the Glyph drive as storage and operate solely from the SSD.