In a Pickle! Need help to set up OCX Agility 3 in Vista!

[to1337ca]

I got myself in quite a pickle.

I am trying to install an OCZ Agility 3 360GB SSD (AGT3-25SAT3-360G) to replace my C drive (a WD Caviar) running Windows Vista SP1.

For reasons too complicated to explain here, I want to do a bit-by-bit clone of the WD Caviar to the Agility 3.

Before I started, I had already used the OCZ Toolkit to update the SSD to the current 2.22 firmware. I then used Paragon to do a clone of the drives.

Here is the problem I have now:

Within an hour after I started using the SSD, and after I took a snapshot using Rollback Rx software (an image snaphot program that I am using), the drive crashed and would not boot anymore. I had to reformat the drive and start all over again.

After searching online to try to troubleshoot, I am now told that I need to immediately disable TRIM in my OCZ in order to prevent the snapshots taken by Rollback Rx software from being destroyed by TRIM. Apparently, this was the cause of the crash.

How do I do this? I know TRIM is natively supported by Windows 7, but how do I do this in Windows Vista? Do I need to disable the TRIM in both my OS and the SSD drive itself? If so, how?

What about this AHCI vs. EIDE setup? Which one should I choose? My current VISTA setup has AHCI disabled.

Do I need to do this "Secure Erase" step for a new drive?

Do I need to do anything else to the SSD to ensure that my SSD will function normally?

[Octavean]

Vista has no TRIM support that I am aware of so you likely have some bad information there as to the cause of the cited “crash” as you put it. Trying to turn off TRIM support in Vista is a snipe hunt.

AHCI mode is typically recommended.

A fresh OS install would IMO be advisable to help eliminate some of the possible issues. Although many people will likely tell you that OCZ SSD’s are of questionable overall quality and reliability and would probably attribute your problems to that.

For what its worth I have a number of different SSD models from different manufactures such as Corsair (Force Series 3), Crucial (M4), Kingston (SNV-S2) and OCZ (Agility I, Vertex II, Vertex Plus, Octane S2 and Agility III). So far not one of them has given me any problems.

To be fair my OCZ Agility III 360GB SSD is very new. It was about ~$200 after ~$20 rebate and was ordered from NCIX USA. I just received it a day or two ago and haven’t had an opportunity to install it yet.

[alex666]

No TRIM in vista. Tried it myself for all sorts of reasons, and pretty quickly decided to install Win 8. Did all this on a 4 year-old laptop a few mnths back. Could not be happier with win8 + an 120g Mushkin ssd. This laptop just flies now, incredibly fast. Dump vista, try win 8.

marty