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[wierd]

Windows's IP stack can have malicious shit stuffed in it. It's not straightforward to diagnose either.

Consider running HijackThis! on the sick computer.
https://github.com/dragokas/hijackthis

You are likely dealing with a 'winsock LSP' item; that's a loadable software package. For reasons only knowable by microsoft, the IP stack (winsock) allows loadable software provider libraries to be chained in. Malware makes heavy use of this, naturally.

[delphonso]

I bought a SSD from an unknown brand in my area. The read/write speeds are around 350MB/s, pretty far below the standard 500+. Is that only because of a lack of DRAM cache or are there other reasons for a slow SSD?

For the price and the use, this is perfectly acceptable, but it just got me thinking.

[wierd]

Yes, especially if the filesystem is not really intended to be used with the larger block size of an SSD, (or if the SSD has a very large native block size.)

Busy/Wait state can take the theoretical max IOPS down real hard.

[Robot Parade Leader]

Just following up.

I installed malwarebytes, and some other things mentioned/including ISP materials, etc.

From what I can see, the issue may have resolved. I don't seem to have any issues presently and I appreciate the assistance. Thank you.

[hector13]

ehr mah gehrd.

I have a tiny SSD with my Windows install on it that is incessantly running out of space.

I did a teensy bit of reading and cloning the drive to my D drive, which is much bigger though is a hybrid SSD, seems to be my cheapest option currently, with a partition or something.

I imagine some of you may know better however, so... advice I guess on steps to take and what I may need to take them.

[Starver]

edit: Slightly misread your situation, just realised... Spoilered my original reply. Some of which still applies.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In general, I'd say cloning-up[1] is exactly the way I'd try it. There's various tools I've used to do this in the past, but basically a LiveCD (or bootable USB) of something with CloneZilla (or similar) should do exactly what you need in a simple GUI-controlled interface. Install the new/larger drive (physically), boot up on your chosen tool's 'Live' package, carefully[2][3] transfer across , physically uninstall the old/small drive and then boot up 'normally' to see if you've done the right job.

Under current SATA/similar drive attachment, you probably don't need to worry about PATA/IDE master/slave/cable-select issues. Drive 'names' should identify (say) your Western Digital ("WD...") from your Seagate ("ST..."?), along with size-cues to make sure you're going in the right direction, depending  upon what you're actually plugging in/out.

At various points, Windows can complain about excessive hardware changes[4], but I'm not sure if it still pulls that 'anti-piracy' precaution. Someone else may know for sure how Win10+ handles this (if it cares), but I suspect it'll be better handled than back in the day when it started to cause problems for otherwise legitimate modifications to the system.


My only big tip is to read all the software options properly, for whatever you use. Make sure that you can at least roll-back (rip out new drive, reinsert old one, continue as you were with only a bit of time wasted getting nowhere) before committing to whatever method(s) you like the look of in your situation.



[1]  i.e. direct logical copy. With expansion of the partition(s) to fill the new space either as part of that process or else immediately afterwards, with any partnered resizing tools.

[2] You don't want to copy new->old, assuming you can trip over any necessary options to shrink-copy.

[3] In past times, I've done it by writing the existing disc to an image-file on a DVD-R(W), at least assuming the ability to squish the HDD image enough. Swap the HDDs, reboot back to the tool to do image->drive. Very little room for making it go wrong, and you also have a 'handy' backup on media, on top of being on its new drive (once you know it's Ok) and still on your old drive until you find you have a hermit-crab-like need to make use of the smaller drive for some other purpose...

[4] Whole computer transplants' usually triggered this, changing mobo, CPU, RAM, etc, and taking it over an internal 'change count' threshold. But you also probably have driver issues to resolve here as well. Mostly, though, you probably won't get much fuss if the HDD is the only change you're ever doing.

...right, so now I realise you have mini-SSD (for want of better description) as C: and maxi-SSD (the hybrid, actually) as D:, and you want to use space on the maxi for C:..?

For that, I'd still dig up the same Live tool (personally, as the one I had in mind for the above) to rearrange with. Only I'd probably have to deal with Primary and Extended partitions (and perhaps do some juggling/in-situ-Cloning to ensure C: and D: on the maxi-SSD alone do the job of C: on the mini- plus D: on the whole of the maxi-).

I know how I'd do it, to be safest, but my attempt to describe the steps, whilst covering all the possible permutations, got... Convoluted. And if you're not using the same tools as I'm imaging then I'm in danger of confusing the issue horribly. So... What's youractual  intended sequence of transfer/adjustment? And with what? I'm sure we can sanity-test your plan easy enough...

[Starver]

Ok, I've slept and as nobody's responded I've got the inkling of how to reply properly. Still lengthy/convoluted, but not as lengthy/convoluted.
Let's use the following notation: [ Physical Drive ] ( Logical Partition = DriveLetter: ) and { Extended Partition }, with " > " showing nesting/containing and …Free Space… for (temporarily) unassigned areas of a drive.

A Physical drive should have a Primary logical partition on it, to boot from. Actually, up to four, but DOS doesn't recognise more than one, so I would avoid it on a matter of principle, even though this adds some complexity[1], here.

Additionally, an Extended partition can hold further multiple (non-booting) Logical partitions.

All logical partitions that Windows (or DOS) understands as standard will be given "DriveLetter:"s, which is normally automatic (you can do limited reassigning within Windows) in order of C:, D:, etc as needed. And it would be extremely useful not to have what is effectively on what logical drive change, between booting down in one configuration and booting up as the new one. (Windows can be a mix of awkward and 'helpful', when it boots up and finds things changed.). I'll use the drive letters how they theoretically would get 'picked up', at each point, not how you will use them.

Logical partitions can also be ones not given drive-letters (see below for the type I might not be surprised to see), formatted differently from what Windows can (or wants to) give you access to. If you have ext3 or ext4 or anything like that when you start looking at partition details, rather than some 'FAT'-based name, then you probably should already know about them - if not, think back to whenever you or someone else decided to mess with Linux or something. I assume that no partition will bust the 'logical size limit' for whatever FAT-type it is. Only your C: will expand, and if that's a problem then you might have other issues to look at before adding the (usually available) FAT-type conversion into the process.

Currently, I understand your situation as:
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( Data = D: ) ]
...although there may or may not be a "( Backup/System/Recovery = n/a: )" sort of thing where I put the "(??)"s, depending upon what installed the original partitions and systems. If you have one on the Small SSD then it should probably be transfered alongside the C: onto the Hybrid. If there's one alongside the D: then maybe you need to shift-copy alongside D: unless you're sure you don't need it (remnant of older system install?)

But I'm going to do the following with just the Small SSD's initial "(??) +", just to cover that possibility...
N.B., I'm assuming that current D: is less than half full. If it's larger then it's not so 'simple' and you probably need extra storage space to backup/restore with.

Spoiler: ...the steps I'd take... (click to show/hide)

Starting with my caveats/assumptions, boot with partion-handling tool to see...
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > ( Data = D: ) ]

1) Resize logical D: to smallest size it allows... (Or, ideally the size of C:, if that's larger than and still less than half the total of the Hybrid's total space. Otherwise there's extra shuffling steps needed that I won't go into here.)
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > ( smaller!Data = D: ) + …Free Space… ]

2) Create an Extended partition in the Free Space area, initially empty itself...
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > ( Data = D: ) + { Extended > …Free Space… } ]

3) Use available partion-cloning/copying (ideally) to duplicate 'primary' D: into the 'extended' area, flush to the top end...
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > ( Data = D: ) + { Extended > …Free Space… +  ( copy!Data = E: )} ]

...) If you rebooted to Windows now, everything should work as before, except with a new E:. If you had (optical?) drive letter(s) that are E:+ then it would have to change things for that range, but C: and D: should be the same. But I'm not suggesting this as a step to take, just an option you could take along the way if you insisted. Just continue, if you're happy you have managed to copy D: as shown.

4) The main intrinsically 'destructive' step! Beware and be sure before proceding! Delete the logical/primary D:  partition...
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > …Free Space… + { Extended > …Free Space… +  ( Data = D: )} ]

5) Clone-over C: as a new Primary in the inital Hybrid free space. (And the associated Recovery/whatever partition, first, if you have that.)
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > (copy!??) + ( copy!System = D: ) + …Free Space… + { Extended > …Free Space… +  ( Data = E: )} ]

6) You can do this later, but I'm going to suggest you power down, physically remove the Small SSD (keep safe) and we proceded. If you want to re-use Small SSD as non-system storage, it might be best not to have it around until you're sure the rest works, then re-install physically as a 'later' drive in sequence that doesn't confuse matters.
[ Small SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) ] + [ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( copy!System = C: ) + …Free Space… + { Extended > …Free Space… +  ( Data = D: )} ]
i.e. => [ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) + …Free Space… + { Extended > …Free Space… +  ( Data = D: )} ]

7) Resize your primary C: to the size you want it to be (double? extra few GB only? your choice...) into the non-Extended free space. I will presume you don't want to maximise it at this stage, but you'll know your own reshuffling plan best.
[ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( larger!System = C: ) + …smaller!Free Space… + { Extended > …Free Space… +  ( Data = D: )} ]

8) Resize your Extended area to butt up to your primary-C: logical. Give or take a bit of insignificant wasted boundary (which you might be able to resize C: into)
[ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( System = C: )  + { larger!Extended > …larger!Free Space… +  ( Data = D: )} ]

9) Resize the D: to take up the whole Extended...
[ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( System = C: )  + { Extended >  ( larger!Data = D: )} ]

...) N.B. Some of these stages might be queued up into single "do all these" combined steps, but obviously not all.

Anyway...

...the end result should be
[ Hybrid SSD > (??) + ( System = C: ) + { ( Data = D: ) } ]

And if that's not what you're expecting then I've still not grasped your intentions, so ignore me entirely!

(Plus I still recommend various backup images, right at the start, but at modern disc sizes that can be difficult to organise. And if you can actually make backup images then you have another possible path to reshuffle things with.)


[1] The alternate method is of resizing primary D: down, flush to the RHS of the physical drive and creating space to the left sucficient to copy C: into as a new 'first primary', but... Can't guarantee the results so much. Modern versions of Windows might be happy with that, but it might totally mess things up instead. Hence my lengthy 'traditional' reshuffle version.

[hector13]

That sounds like complicated computer magic.

In saying that my D: drive has in total ~1TB but I think there’s only 300-odd GB of space left, whereas the C: drive is 120GB and is basically full, so I’m not sure the steps you suggest would work if I’m reading them correctly.

I might just have to buy a new SSD, clone the C: drive to that, and then format the old one for extra storage, or otherwise keep it as a backup, and just copy the important non-system files onto the D: drive so my wife doesn’t kill me.

Ah well, thanks for the help and walking me through things Starver, with the very limited information I gave you to begin with.

[Starver]

...yeah, a simple "chain" of actions, but I was still trying to cover variations/explain what (and for why) I was doing at each stage. Badly, I'm sure.

If you can afford to, cloning Small-SSD to New-And-Larger-SSD as direct replacement is probably the 'simplest' upgrade/rearrangement. As per the first instructions I 'wrongly' suggested. The gods know that I'm often far more restricted to disc space (of any kind) than I'd prefer to be... Expanding things to fill most of that available[2]. BTDTGTT-s.

Given the D: being ⅔rds full, there's shuffling data[1]. Or possibly the repartioner, which can often do "resize+move" for you in one go, has "make Primary-logical into an Extended's-logical" option. Or perhaps you have a 200GB+ swapfile (or other actual junk) on your D: that you can free up and delete to make it <0.5TB used and... as per my second take on the problem.

Loads of potential options. Some of which won't work for you, but giving some pointers to them anyway. And maybe probably there's even some better ideas that I never even consideredm


[1] Reduce primary-D: to minimum allowable, create the Extended>logical-E: drive as big as possible, move as much as you can into E:, go back and reduce down D: further and expand the area that Extended-E: uses into that space, ready for another fille-move. Rinse and repeat until everything (that you care about) is moved from D: is in E:... But watch out for hidden stuff, possibly keeping file-flags, may involve frequent reboots, consider using some form ofbl file-splitter utility on anything that road-blocks things by being individually bigger than the combined free space you can muster between both logical partitions..?

[2] Just yesterday, I transfered GBs of stuff to a USB stick I happily discovered to be half empty, to prevent a "Low disc space" condition on a computer's main drive. That computer having a few TB of external-HDD semipermanently connected as well as its internal HDD, but that being also stuffed to the gunnels and yet I needed to keep a few hundred GB free on that for something else planned. But I'm a bit of a packrat...

[hector13]

T’be fair there’s a lot of stuff in the D: drive I don’t actually need so can delete.

I would personally hope there isn’t 200GB of stuff I don’t regularly use though…

Also I just noticed your edit to your original reply with questions, sorry heh.

[dragdeler]

Hey so I created a W7 install medium with NTlite IIRC, the advice can only be a few pages back.

I have been pretty satisfied, but whenever I needed usb3 drivers during install, I used to just hook up a sata drive containing the pertaining files. But I'm at this ultrabook and I can't / don't want to figure out how to get access to the HDD.

There was some issue that prevented me to create my boot medium under W7, so back then, I just grabbed the first w10 laptop at hand to create my install medium, that computer has since been given away.

So if I can, I would very much prefer not to create a new bootable stick, they'll make me register their software and give up an email adress for 30 days of service IIRC, any way to add files to a bootable stick?

Also, while we're at it: are there any ways to just clone the bootable drive onto a smaller stick? I have found one that's just the right size so I could free up the bigger one that serves me currently.




edit: In the end I just found a way inside the hardware, that was simpler.

[Schmaven]

So I've deleted my browser history on the computer, and as it turns out, do not remember my Bay12 forum password.  I have it saved on my phone, so I still have some account access.  The forgot password link claims to have sent something to my email, but there is nothing in the spam folder nor any of the other various buckets that collect stray emails.  I gave it 12 hours or so, and tried multiple reset requests, and still nothing.  It turns out saving password is really bad for memorizing passwords... 

I suppose I could create a new account, and just be sure to remember my password next time, but I sort of like this account.  I'm probably just being impatient.  I'll give the reset email a few more clicks and a couple more days to arrive.

[Starver]

Been there, done that (in your manner, elsewhere, and in a variation thereof actually in Bay12).

It helping a great deal that you can still access here, I would say send a simultaneous forum PM and a direct email to Toady, each clearly referencing the other, asking for direct help. Wait (he might be busy!), perhaps answer questions he might have, and get it manually reset.


(I know that on this phone (well, tablet) I can wrangle access to view saved passwords on both of the two 'major browsers' I use. Though on an older one the 'default system browser', less featureful, seemed not to have this. Perhaps we can get you recovered, otherwise?)

[Schmaven]

I wouldn't want to distract Toady from his main work.  I just have the forum itself remembering to keep me logged in;  I always decline browser attempts to save passwords for me, which is probably why deleting cookies logged me off at the computer.

[Starver]

I wouldn't want to distract Toady from his main work.  I just have the forum itself remembering to keep me logged in;  I always decline browser attempts to save passwords for me, which is probably why deleting cookies logged me off at the computer.

(Sent PM. (Including 'funny' anecdote about remembering/not-remembering passwords. ) Not to dissuade anybody else from chiming in, just not wanting to pollute open forum with my own rather long-winded response. (And anecdotes!))