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HDD to SSD (Read 6259 times)

bigironhorse

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HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 09:04:26 am
I am thinking of swapping the Hdd on my laptop to an ssd.

This is the drive currently in the laptop: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-inch-5400RPM-SATA-Drive/dp/B007NVGWV0/ref=asc_df_B007NVGWV0/

Will this one be compatible: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-SA400S37-120G-Solid/dp/B01N5IB20Q/ref=asc_df_B01N6JQS8C/

Seems to be the same size and i think sata iii drives are compatible with sata ii ports. Anything else i need to consider?


UnkArl

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#1 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 09:39:10 am
Have you tried the Crucial scanner? It should tell you exactly the drive you need, then you can either order it direct or look elsewhere.

https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/storage-info?cm_re=homepage-_-main-body-_-buy-ssd-button
« Last Edit: May 17, 2019, 10:05:31 am by UnkArl »

bigironhorse

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#2 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 09:53:21 am
That is great, thanks.

SamT

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#3 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 10:12:19 am
is the process for actually swapping them fairly straight forward.

Not in terms of nuts and bolts, I can do that, but more in terms of transfer of data. Is it easy to 'clone' the data on the HDD over to the SSD.

Or do you just look a complete fresh install of windows etc etc


tomtom

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#4 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 10:18:34 am
Clonings ok with right cables/external drive caddy for laptops - but if you don’t mind the faff a fresh install is often a good way to spruce yon pc performance anyway...

SamT

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#5 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 11:08:00 am
Agreed, but its the whole Windows/Microsoft Office licence thing that always goes tits up for me.

I cant think that I've got any 'discs' for any of that kind of thing, not that would work anyhow, let alone the license keys.  They've always come pre-installed or what ever.

bigironhorse

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#6 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 11:25:00 am
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/ssd-upgrade-tutorial

This article makes it sound quite straightforward. Only thing I don't have is a hard drive enclosure. I think you can achieve the same thing with a cheap USB-SATA cable though.

SamT

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#7 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 11:35:49 am
Nice one - might take a look at that as I have a couple of win 10 laptops that might benefit greatly from this.

kelvin

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#8 Re: HDD to SSD
May 17, 2019, 12:48:06 pm
If you head to the Microsoft site, they have links to let you know what your product codes are etc.
It's a pretty simple job if you follow correct instructions but if you're anything like me, I followed the wrong ones 😂

tomtom

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#9 Re: HDD to SSD
June 05, 2019, 08:18:21 am
Planning to do this on MrsTT's desktop (HDD to SSD) as you can get 240gb for £20 now (!!) on Amazon....

Having not done this on a desktop for 4-5 years - are there any things I need to look out for e.g. changes in cabling (- its all SATA afaik) or any likely glitches people have come across? (I know they're smaller than internal HDD's :) )

bigironhorse

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#10 Re: HDD to SSD
June 05, 2019, 10:54:30 am
I think there are three versions of SATA. SATA 1 cables may not be compatible with SATA 2/3 ports but SATA 3 cables are compatible with all three. This may be completely wrong but worth double checking!

peewee

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#11 Re: HDD to SSD
June 05, 2019, 01:28:25 pm
I found that the sata mode on the motherboard made a huge difference to the performance, to get the best from a SSD it needs to be in AHCI mode this gives the max transfer rates.

SamT

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#12 Re: HDD to SSD
June 05, 2019, 01:36:18 pm
I found that the sata mode on the motherboard made a huge difference to the performance, to get the best from a SSD it needs to be in AHCI mode this gives the max transfer rates.

So do you just alter that in BIOS - (F2 on boot up type thing).

tomtom

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#13 Re: HDD to SSD
June 05, 2019, 03:53:08 pm
I found that the sata mode on the motherboard made a huge difference to the performance, to get the best from a SSD it needs to be in AHCI mode this gives the max transfer rates.

So do you just alter that in BIOS - (F2 on boot up type thing).

Ooh... good tip. Gonna try that now...

peewee

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#14 Re: HDD to SSD
June 05, 2019, 04:50:57 pm
Yes, it'll be something you'll change in the bios.

Beware it may need a fresh install in Ahci mode or atleast that's what I did, if the computer fails to boot then just restart and change it back.

tomtom

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#15 Re: HDD to SSD
June 24, 2019, 10:49:56 am
Quick report - just did this to MrsTT's 6yo Dell desktop.

Used a Yucan (generic branded?) 240GB SSD that I got from Amazon for £21 (How much!)

Opened the lid - Dell were stingy with spare sata leads so plugged new SSD into the CD rom Sata and power leads.

Booted up on old HDD...

Downloaded EaseUS utility https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid-state-disk-without-reinstalling-windows.html

Followed instructions (2-3 clicks?) hit go. Computer restarted - went into some DOS/text file copying thing.

Waited about an hour while files copied - came back to machine booted in W10.. Swapped out HDD for SSD.

Powered up - and bingo. Super easy.

10s boot up compared to a minute or more (and so much faster when done). Made a barely useable machine as good as the one I have at work  for general shizz.. Thanks for help folks. Well worth doing for £21 if you have a chuntering hdd driven PC at home...

chris j

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#16 Re: HDD to SSD
June 24, 2019, 11:38:42 am
Hmmm, i need to do this for my laptop.  It has a 6 year old 240gb ssd which works well but in spite of my best efforts at clearing it out regularly is full to bursting. I just noticed a 1tb from crucial is only £110, bargain!

tomtom

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#17 Re: HDD to SSD
June 24, 2019, 11:43:04 am
Hmmm, i need to do this for my laptop.  It has a 6 year old 240gb ssd which works well but in spite of my best efforts at clearing it out regularly is full to bursting. I just noticed a 1tb from crucial is only £110, bargain!

I've found the need for >250gb not an issue nowadays... I keep all my stuff on onedrive (>500gb) and just set the 'keep on local storage' options for certain folders I regularly use and the rest just sits on the cloud and is (seemingly effortlessly) pulled down when needed...

chris j

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#18 Re: HDD to SSD
June 24, 2019, 03:38:32 pm
I've heard of this cloud thing. At the moment I'm on a boat off Angola with a data connection that sometimes takes several attempts to download a simple email attachment, the cloud doesn't work so well. 90% of my hd seems to be made up of Appdata, program files and windows,  there's only a tiny bit left for my actual stuff!

butters

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#19 Re: HDD to SSD
June 24, 2019, 07:45:55 pm
Hmmm, i need to do this for my laptop.  It has a 6 year old 240gb ssd which works well but in spite of my best efforts at clearing it out regularly is full to bursting. I just noticed a 1tb from crucial is only £110, bargain!

Do you have the option of a second HDD tray? I replaced the CD in my Lenovo with one for < £10 off Ebay and dropped a second SSD I had spare in that. Do that and move the user data (documents\photos etc) to the new drive. There are various guides about on how to do that but it may be Windows version specific but it is likely to be similar I suspect (don't actually know on this point in all honesty).

chris j

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#20 Re: HDD to SSD
June 24, 2019, 09:49:09 pm
Thanks for the idea but sadly no there's no cd tray.  I have the smallest lightest 12" i7 laptop i could get 5 years ago when i got fed up of lugging 3kg of laptop +  power supplies etc through airports.  Just now I've got 20gb free and I'm working with a 35gb terrain model with the software shuffling bits of it from an external usb, it's a bit painful! I'll open it up and perform open SSD surgery next week when I'm home...

bigironhorse

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#21 Re: HDD to SSD
July 21, 2019, 04:48:01 pm
Anyone tried cloning a hard drive with partitions? Wondering if this will complicate matters.

Thanks

tomtom

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#22 Re: HDD to SSD
July 21, 2019, 04:50:34 pm
Anyone tried cloning a hard drive with partitions? Wondering if this will complicate matters.

Thanks

Think mrsTT's had a second smaller 150mb partition for something or other... all worked fine..

chris j

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#23 Re: HDD to SSD
July 21, 2019, 08:12:35 pm
Anyone tried cloning a hard drive with partitions? Wondering if this will complicate matters.

Thanks

Yes,  I used Macrium Reflect (free download) to go from the 250gb to 1tb ssd last week.  After one false start it was easy enough.  You can choose which partitions to copy (drag and drop each in turn), choose whether to keep the original size or how big to make it (do this when you select the partition),  took a bit under two hours.

bigironhorse

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#24 Re: HDD to SSD
November 28, 2019, 04:32:58 pm
So after starting this thread in May I am finally going to tackle this soon (hopefully!). I don't have an extra tray in the laptop so planning to use a USB to SATA II cable. Will I also need to connect power somehow? Are there any additional considerations I need to think about before using this method? Like after cloning can I just whip out the old HDD, replace with the new SDD and bobs your uncle?

Cheers.

 

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