Installing Samsung 840 PRO SSD drive - simple plug and go?

Great - so it seems that I simply slip it into a free bay, plug in the power cable from the PSU, and SATA cable to the mobo and I'm in business?

I will be transferring the OS to the SDD. Do I need to worry about doing anything else before formatting the old HDD OS partition and reinstalling the OS on the new SDD? (apart from obviously backing up any data etc)

I'm not familiar with AHCI? What does this do? And would I do this by going into the BIOS before Windows boots?

I will still have a HDD connected - so there'll be one SDD and one HDD unit plugged in via SATA - should I still set the mobo to AHCI?

I don't seem to get that option in the pre-boot menus? Is it possible that my motherboard doesn't support AHCI?

Sorry - what I meant is that I can get into the pre-boot BIOS menu - but I cannot see an option for enabling AHCI in any of the sub-menus.

The menu seems to be focusing mainly on things like selecting boot drive priorities, setting up CPU functions etc.

Perhaps my motherboard/chipset does not support this AHCI thing?

Is this going to be a problem when I install the SSD or will the SSD run fine without 'AHCI' enabled?

What is the benefit of enabling 'AHCI'? I don't really know what that is?

Also, as I will have both a SDD and a normal HDD connected via two separate SATA cables - will enabling AHCI cause compatibility issues with the other SATA connected normal HDD device? I will be using the SDD as the OS drive.

I had trouble getting it to show up on My Computer - had not idea I had to run the Windows Disk Manager thing first to give it a partition.

Not exactly 'plug and play' is it?

I'm about to install my OS on it - but I'm in no position to be giving advice on this yet!

To help future users - here's my own 'solution' now that I have installed it and got it going:

1. Is it simply plug and play?

Not really. You plug in the SATA cable and power cable. Before doing this it is apparently important to disconnect the power supply and SATA cable from any other HDDs also connected to the mobo.

I am also assuming you are taking any other precautions that you would normally take when rummaging around inside the PC. (anti-static, anti-shock precautions etc)

Once everything is disconnected, you connect the SDD in, and then reconnect the other HDDs.

Then power up.

2. Is it that simple?

No - once you power up, your PC will most likely not recognise the SDD if it is a new purchase.

This is because you need to format it and allocate a Drive letter to it. Do do this, you need to go into your drive manager window (on Windows 7 you should be able to find it using the search bar in the start menu).

Once in there, find and format the SDD drive, and Windows will then add a drive letter to it and it will show up under your 'My Computer'.

3. What if I want to install my OS on it?

Well - you have two options here (as I found out the hard way) - 1. Do you want a dual boot system? or 2. Just a single boot option using the SSD?

1. Boot from your Windows 7 CD/installation drive - ask it to install Windows 7 on your SSD.

Once installed, at the boot screen it will give you two Windows 7 boot options - your previous boot option (which 'lives' in your old boot drive) and the new SSD boot option.

This is good if you want to preserve your old Windows 7 boot as a backup just in case the SSD doesn't work out etc.

2. Boot from your Windows 7 CD/drive. Format the old Windows 7 boot drive.

WARNING: I am assuming you know that you will lose everything on this drive, and that you have backed up the relevant files - if not - do some separate research on this first.

I prefer to 'delete' the drive, rather than 'format' it. This seems to be cleaner.

Also 'delete' the SSD drive. It will then show up as unallocated space. Make sure you choose the SSD unallocated space (and not the old HDD that you have just deleted as well) - you will need to keep an eye on the Drive #s to make sure you don't get confused.

Then install Windows 7 and you should only have one Windows 7 boot - from the SSD.

4. Advanced

Apparently there is something called AHCI mode for your SSD in the BIOS menu. It is supposed to make your SSD just a little bit better somehow.

I never found it - probably because my BIOS doesn't support it.

And my SSD works like a charm - so I'm assuming it is entirely optional.

I hope someone finds this useful.