Velocity Solo Desktop SSD Upgrade Kit User’s Guide Attention: Download the new EZ Gig IV from Apricorn’s website at: http://www.apricorn.com/ezgig Review the most current Velocity Solo FAQ’s at: http://www.apricorn.com/support.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Getting to know your Velocity Solo 4 4 4 4 4 Connecting your SSD to the Velocity Solo Card 5 Installing the Velocity Solo in your desktop computer 5 Introduction Package Contents To prevent ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) damage System Requirements Optional - Connecting an additional drive to the Velocity Solo SATA III connector 6 Verifying Velocity Solo Installation 7 Cloning your Internal Drive to the Velocity Solo 7 Before Running the Software 8 8 9 9 Be
Advanced Options 21 21 21 21 21 More Advanced Options 22 22 22 22 22 22 23 23 Partitions 24 25 Start Clone 26 27 27 27 Congratulations your Clone is Complete 28 After the Clone - Changing your boot drive 29 Velocity Solo FAQs 30 EZ Gig FAQs 33 Contacting Technical Support 38 38 39 Verify Copy Copy Free Areas SmartCopy Media Direct (Dell) FastCopy SafeRescue CachedMemory SharedMemory Animation HotCopy / LiveImage Avoid exclusive read access Resizing
Getting to know your Velocity Solo Introduction Easy to install, the Velocity Solo is an industry standard PCIe 2.0 card designed to add a 2.5” Solid State Drive (SSD) via a super fast SATA III connection. At 6Gbs, SATA III is twice as fast as SATA II and takes full advantage of the latest SSD. The Solo also provides an additional SATA III data connection that can be used to connect to another SSD or HDD to provide unparalleled capacity and performance.
Connecting your SSD to the Velocity Solo Card 1. Slide your SSD onto the SATA connector on the Velocity Solo Card. 2. Use the included mounting screws to secure the drive in place. SATA connector Slide your SSD onto the SATA connector on the Velocity Solo Card. Use mounting screws to secure the drive in place. Installing the Velocity Solo in your desktop computer 1. Before installing your drive, take note of the drive’s part number, located on the sticker on the front of the drive.
Optional - Connecting an additional drive to the Velocity Solo SATA III connector 1. Using a SATA data cable connect an additional drive to the SATA III port on the Velocity Solo card, as shown in Figure 2. 2. Using a power cable connect the drive to your computer’s power supply, as shown below. Figure 2.
Verifying Velocity Solo Installation 1. After the Velocity Solo is installed, replace the chassis cover, reconnect the power cord(s) and boot the computer. 2. If the installation is successful, the system confirms detection of the Velocity Solo drive with on screen messages while the drivers are automatically installed. 3. If the Velocity Solo drive is not detected, check the drive and cable connections and ensure that the Velocity Solo is installed correctly in the PCIe slot.
Before Running the Software After many years of use, hard drives can become cluttered with unusable file fragments and other file-system errors. Most file system errors are not immediately obvious to the user, but can be identified and repaired with a few simple steps. Although the steps below are not absolutely necessary to run EZ Gig, it’s best to try and clean-up disk errors BEFORE they are copied over to the new drive.
EZ Gig instructions for Windows 7 & Vista Windows 7 and Vista User Account Control helps stop unauthorized changes to your computer. The User Account Control window pops up in Administrator Approval Mode whenever a program tries to run on your Windows system. When the User Account Control window pops up there will be a warning symbol and message that reads, “A program needs your permission to continue.” The instructions will read “If you started this program, Continue.
Upgrade Suite (CD-ROM boot) Upgrade Suite CD is a bootable disk with EZ Gig data transfer utility that can copy hard drives without booting to the Windows operating system. To use Upgrade Suite as a stand-alone utility, your Computer must be able to boot from a CD-ROM, and the CD-ROM must be set as the first boot device in your computer’s System BIOS. NOTE: The System BIOS controls basic hardware functions in computer, and is the first screen that appears when booting your computer (i.e.
Make sure your Velocity Solo is installed before using EZ Gig Before starting the EZ Gig software, please ensure that your new solid state drive is connected installed with your Velocity Solo card. EZ Gig automatically verifies which Apricorn upgrade product is being used. If used without one of Apricorn’s upgrade products, EZ Gig will not work. EZ Gig Start Up Options After downloading EZ Gig from Apricorn’s site, open the EZ Gig program or double click on the EZ Gig icon to get started.
Creating a Bootable EZ Gig CD If you downloaded EZ Gig from Apricorn’s website, you have the option of creating a bootable EZ Gig CD, floppy disk or thumb drive to use in the future. To create a bootable media disk follow the appropriate directions below: • If you want to create a bootable floppy disk, choose the desired drive at ‘Floppy drive’ and click “Create floppy”. • To create a bootable CD/DVD, choose the desired drive at ‘CD/ DVD writer’ and click “Create CD/DVD”.
Cloning your hard drive with EZ Gig 1. Click the “Let’s Get Started” button to proceed. 2. EZ Gig will then scan for connected drives. This may take a few moments. www.apricorn.
Selecting the Source Drive Once EZ Gig has scanned for connected drives, you will be asked to select your Source Drive. This is the drive you would like to copy from and in this case is the internal drive in your computer. NOTE: Both your computer’s internal drive and the drive on the Velocity Solo will be denoted by the prefix AHCI or IDE, so take note of your new drive’s part number before starting the clone. Select your computer’s internal drive from the menu and click “Next” to continue. 14 www.
Selecting the Destination Drive Once you have selected your Source Drive, EZ Gig will ask you to select your Destination Drive. This is the drive you would like to copy to. Select the drive that is connected to your Velocity Solo card. NOTE: Before installing your new drive on your Velocity Solo card, take note of the drive part number. This will be the Destination drive. Select the drive on your Velocity Solo card from the menu and click “Next” to continue.
Drive Verification You are almost ready to start your clone, but before you do, EZ Gig asks that you verify that the choosen drives are correct. If they are you have one of two options. Either click “Next” to continue (go to page 26) or to deselect files from the cloning process, press the “Data Select” button (go to page 17). If you need to change your drive selection, click the “Back” button At this point you can also modify the default options for your clone using the “Advanced Options” button.
Data Select EZ Gig’s Data Select feature provides a simple method to deselect data folders from the cloning process which is helpful when migrating from a large HDD to a smaller SSD and perfect for creating a Boot Disk. This gives you the option to run your OS and applications from a fast, smaller SSD boot drive, while keeping your documents and media files on your original hard drive. There are two ways to get to the Data Select feature: 1.
Using the Data Select feature The Data Select feature shows the capacity of the: • Destination Drive • Source Drive • Available Capacity If the Source drive is smaller than the Destination drive, the available capacity will be highlighted in orange and shown as a negative value. EZ Gig will only proceed with a clone if the available capacity is positive (i.e. the Destination capacity is larger than the Source capacity.) In order to decrease the size of the clone (i.e.
Analyzing files To analyze the amount of space used by each of the folders, select the checkbox to the left, under the “Select Folders to Analyze” column. EZ Gig will then analyze the space used in the ajoining “Space Used” column. To analyze the amount of space used by each folder, select the appropriate checkbox. EZ Gig will then display the space used in the ajoining column www.apricorn.
Selecting Folders to Omit To select folders to omit, select the checkboxes to the right, under the “Select Folders to Omit” column. Any selection from this column will automatically be reflected in an updated amount for the “Available Capacity” value. Once the “Available Capacity” value is positive, you will have the option to “Apply” the changes. Once you hit the “Apply” button, you will be directed to the “You are almost ready to Clone” screen.
Advanced Options Verify Copy Compares the data of source and target after copying. If verify copy is chosen, the free areas between partitions will also be copied. This option has no influence on the copying performance itself, but offers the possibility to synchronize the data of the source and target after the copying process. However, the whole process of copying and verifying then normally takes approximately the double amount of time.
More Advanced Options To access additional advanced options, click on the Apricorn logo in the bottom right corner of the “Advanced Options” window FastCopy Special copy algorithm. Can increase the regular copy speed up to double. SafeRescue Special algorithm for data recovery. Tries to recover as large areas on the drive as possible. Can also stay turned on for normal copies. CachedMemory Use fast intermediate memory. SharedMemory Use fast data transfers.
HotCopy / LiveImage Allows or denies EZ Gig access to the Windows shadow copy mechanism. If this option is deselected, EZ Gig is not able to create copies or file images of the system volume or of volumes, which are used by other programs at the same time. Avoid exclusive read access Usually, EZ Gig when running on Windows, at first tries to reserve the source drive for exclusive access.
Partitions When used in the Default mode, EZ Gig will automatically resize your partitions according to the new hard drive space. However, EZ Gig also gives the option of keeping your partition sizes the same or allows you to resize your partition sizes manually. 24 www.apricorn.
Resizing your partitions manually To resize your partition manually: 1. Choose the “Manually” radio button on the “Advanced Options” window. 2. Once this radio button is selected, click the “Apply Changes” button. The “Adjust Partitions” window (shown left) will pop up. Positions and sizes of the partitions to be copied to the Destination drive are displayed graphically in a bar. The original size of the partition is displayed in dark green, while the additionally assigned space is displayed in light green.
Start Clone Now you’re ready! Press the “Start Clone” button to start the cloning process. EZ Gig will keep you up-to-date with the status of the clone throughout the entire process with a progress bar and percentage completed. Depending on your system size a clone can take anywhere from several minutes to a couple of hours. 26 www.apricorn.
Interupting the Cloning Process The cloning process can be stopped at anytime using the “Stop” button. Continue cloning by clicking “Continue copying”. To stop the clone completely, select “Abort copying.” Aborting the Cloning Process If the cloning process aborted, a new clone must be commenced.
Congratulations your Clone is Complete Once your clone is complete, EZ Gig will let you know with a pop up window. To get a report of the cloning process, click the “Details” button. The final report will outline the number of sector copied, read errors, write errors and if verified, will also report verification errors. Once you have finished your clone, click “Quit EZ Gig”. You will then be prompted to turn your computer off and disconnect the attached hard drive. 28 www.apricorn.
After the Clone - Changing your boot drive Once you have cloned your system to your Velocity Solo drive, you have two options. 1. Remove your original drive, thereby forcing your system to boot from the Velocity Solo drive. 2. Go into your system’s BIOS and change your boot order to the Velocity Solo drive, keeping your original drive for storage. Entering your computer’s BIOS to change the boot order is dependent on your particular system.
Velocity Solo FAQs 1. What does a PCI-e slot look like? The velocity Solo can be used in any of the slots shown below. 2. What version of PCI Express does the Velocity Solo card use? The Velocity Solo uses PCI Express 2.0. It is backwards compatible with PCI Express 1.0 but it will work at the slower speed. 3. What kind of drives can be used with the Solo? Any 2.
5. Can the Solo card be used in a Mac? Yes. At this time, it cannot be used as the boot drive however – only as a storage drive. 6. How do I set the Velocity Solo to be my boot drive? Clone your original drive to the new disk on the Velocity Solo. Then enter the BIOS settings during the boot up and navigate to the section of the BIOS where the boot sequence is identified. Move the drive on the Velocity Solo ahead of the currently selected boot drive. 7.
9. Do I have to use the Apricorn EZ GIG software with my Velocity Solo? No. Apricorn provides EZ GIG as easy to use software intended to clone your existing operating system to a disk attached to the Velocity Solo. You are not restricted from using any other software. 10. Am I required to attach my original disk to the expansion port on the back of the Solo? No.
EZ Gig FAQs The below FAQs refer to cloning your hard drive with EZ Gig only. For information on issues using Shirt Pocket SuperDuper! software for Mac, please go the ShirtPocket’s website at www.ShirtPocket.com Load errors During the start of the program, before EZ Gig is loaded itself, a message and a progress bar will appear on the boot screen. In case of an error, one of the following error codes will be indicated here.
setup. Please consult your computer manual on how to change this setting since it may be named differently according to the respective BIOS. In most of the cases, you can find it under the name USB Legacy Support or USB Keyboard Support (often under Integrated Peripherals or Advanced Options). NOTE: In some of the cases, problems with the PS/2 keyboard and/or mouse occurred with an activated emulation for PS/2 devices.
a hard disk is configured as slave and if a CD/DVD drive or no drive at all is connected at the same IDE channel as master. Normally, EZ Gig can handle that, too. NOTE: If an SATA hard disk is not recognized, this can also be due to the used SATA controller. IDE controller not found There are the following three reasons why EZ Gig has not automatically recognized an IDE controller: • The IDE controller/channel is deactivated, e.g. on an onboard IDE controller.
Large to small If the source is bigger than the target, EZ Gig will direct you to the Data Select feature. EZ Gig’s Data Select provides a simple method to deselect data folders from the cloning process. EZ Gig will only allow to proceed with the clone, once the available capacity on the target drive is a positive value. Automatic troubleshooting In case of occurring errors, EZ Gig tries to troubleshoot them the best possible.
Verification errors When the option Verifying is activated, EZ Gig executes a verification run after the copying process. A verification error is counted if the data of two sectors on source and target do not correspond. Furthermore, read errors, which occur during the verification run in one or both of the areas to be compared, are also counted as verification errors.
Contacting Technical Support Apricorn provides the following helpful resources for you: 1. Velocity Solo User’s Guide and Quick Start Guide 2. Apricorn’s Website (http://www.apricorn.com) This gives you the ability to check for up-to-date information. 3. E-mail us at support@apricorn.com. 4. Or call the Technical Support Department at 1-800-458-5448. Apricorn’s Technical Support Specialists are available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Pacific Standard Time from Monday through Friday.
Warranty Conditions Warranty: Apricorn offers a 1 year warranty on Velocity Solo against defects in materials and workmanship under normal use. The warranty period is effective from the date of purchase (validated by your original receipt) either directly from Apricorn or an authorized reseller. Disclaimer and terms of the warranties: The warranty becomes effective on the date of purchase and must be verified with your sales receipt or invoice displaying the date of product purchase.
12191 Kirkham Road Poway, CA, U.S.A.
