SSD backup or clone?

I bought a Kingston SSD 120 to speed things up. Big mistake. It’s barely any faster than my old setup. Here’s the deal: I had a Windows 10 backup on an external drive, so I just moved everything over to the SSD. I used AOMEI Data Backuper to do it, and they offered some specific option—can’t remember exactly what it was called—that's supposedly meant for SSD backups, so I just clicked through it. Sure, Windows runs, but there's zero noticeable difference.
I did a little digging afterward, and I noticed everyone talks about "cloning" a system when moving to an SSD, whereas I just did a standard backup. Is that why it feels so sluggish? I honestly don't get the distinction.

Honestly, you’ll probably have a much better experience if you just wipe the drive—whether it's your HDD or SSD—and do a clean install of Windows 10. But before you go down that rabbit hole, definitely double-check your BIOS settings to make sure the controller is set to AHCI mode. It might also be worth running a quick benchmark with CrystalDiskMark just to see what kind of speeds your SSD is actually pulling.

CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0

https://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

I just picked this up. Is this actually any good?

Actually, no 🙂 that’s just CrystalDiskInfo—it basically checks the health status of your HDD or SSD to see if everything is running smoothly. It isn't actually designed to measure read or write speeds through a benchmark
.
If you want to test speed, grab this instead: CrystalDiskMark.

https://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

[2017/11/05] CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 - History

What about this?
(image)[/IMG]

Man, I think you might be running into some weird issues here—I’m pulling nearly double your score with my RTX 4070. Honestly? Your best bet is probably just to wipe the C drive, do a fresh install of Windows 10, and then run the benchmark again from scratch. Based on what I saw in your last screenshot (CrystalDiskInfo), it looks like your SATA cable is clocked at 6Gbps, which is perfect... so there isn't a hardware bottleneck there. At this point, a clean format of your SSD is definitely the way to go.

I am honestly exhausted by the sheer mountain of software I have to reinstall every single time. That’s exactly why I was digging into the differences between a standard backup and a full clone. Can I pull this off: clone my Windows setup onto an external hard drive, wipe my SSD clean, and then just clone everything from that external drive back onto the SSD? Or should I just stick to restoring the backup I already have sitting on my external drive?

What on earth do you mean by "running the benchmark again with the software"?

silentdriver18 said:I am honestly exhausted by the sheer mountain of software I have to reinstall every single time. That’s exactly why I was digging into the differences between a standard backup and a full clone. Can I pull this off: clone my Windows setup onto an external hard drive, wipe my SSD clean, and then just clone everything from that external drive back onto the SSD? Or should I just stick to restoring the backup I already have sitting on my external drive?

Not quite, because cloning also copies over any underlying issues you might be having. That’s why most people recommend a clean format and a fresh installation instead...

Great. I guess I'll just go play some games to kill the time. Whatever. Thanks anyway.

Look, I’m with silentdriver18 on this one—cloning just means you're essentially duplicating every single headache, from viruses to all those other little glitches. No matter how many programs I have running, I could never bring myself to do it; it's just not my style. But hey, to each their own, right?

Look, I’ll be honest—it turns my stomach. But if I don't follow through, I'm not honoring what I promised $133 for that SSD. Thanks to both of you.

Just $133 for the SSD—I know it's a Kingston, but does anyone know which specific model we're talking about?

Samsung 870 EVO

After a completely clean install, I'm seeing this

Hmm, what kind of motherboard are you running? If you could drop the manufacturer and the specific model, that would be great—I'm wondering if you might have accidentally plugged a SATA cable into a 3Gb/s port by mistake.

There’s zero chance I messed up the installation because there isn't really a choice in the matter.

The only thing... The data cable has two connection points. The HDD sits at one end and the SSD is right before it. That’s the only way I could have botched this. It’s basically my life story—whenever the odds are 50/50, I somehow manage to pick the wrong side.

silentdriver18 said:
There’s zero chance I messed up the installation because there isn't really a choice in the matter.

The only thing... The data cable has two connection points. The HDD sits at one end and the SSD is right before it. That’s the only way I could have botched this. It’s basically my life story—whenever the odds are 50/50, I somehow manage to pick the wrong side.

If I recall correctly, that P35 chipset is stuck on SATA II speeds (around 300 MB/s).

The issue is actually with the SATA controller on your motherboard. You aren't going to see any speed improvements on that specific board, no matter what you do.

silentdriver18, I feel a bit bad that you went ahead and installed a fresh version of macOS because of my advice—but, honestly, it’s just like everyone else was saying here. Since your motherboard is limited to SATA II speeds—meaning you're capped at 3Gb/s—you're naturally going to see those "slab" results in CrystalDiskMark. It’s nothing to worry about, really; it's just that with an older setup like yours, the SSD simply can't hit the speeds it was actually designed for.

Once you eventually decide to upgrade to a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, you'll be looking at a board with SATA III connectors—giving you that 6Gb/s bandwidth. On the bright side, when you do make that jump to newer components, you'll be able to pop this SSD right into the new rig without any issues at all. 😁

Look, I’m an old man, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that this whole thing is 🙂completely pointless. Let's look at it this way—yay! I’ve got the new macOS!
One last thing—does it actually make sense to stick with this SSD, or should I save it for a rainy day and just go back to an HDD?