How to Know if You Can Replace a Hdd With a Ssd

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At that place are many means to make a slow laptop faster, only few are equally like shooting fish in a barrel and cost-effective every bit replacing your existing difficult bulldoze with a solid state bulldoze (SSD). Making the swap will, in most cases, dramatically reduce the time it takes to boot Windows, load programs, and perform whatever activeness that involves significant amounts of deejay access (video editing, gaming, transferring files, etc.). When I swapped out my hard bulldoze for an SSD, my Windows kicking time dropped from a very-painful almost x minutes to well under a infinitesimal. And programs like Adobe Photoshop that could accept a minute or more to open up, now open in seconds. Your old computer won't just be every bit adept as new; it volition be better than it ever was.

With an SSD, you'll likewise get the added reward of greater ruggedness (SSDs are much less susceptible to impairment from drops than difficult drives because they have no moving parts), better battery life and quieter functioning.

Despite the advantages of SSDs, in the by, upgrading wasn't an bonny option for many people because of the loftier cost. Only with 1TB SSDs now available for around $100, it'due south nearly silly non to make the switch. And you don't demand advanced technical skills to practise it. Equally long as you're comfortable using a screwdriver and running a unproblematic cloning program (which literally makes a clone of your existing drive, and then your operating organisation, your programs and settings, and all your files will exist exactly the aforementioned and ready to go on your new bulldoze), this is a task anyone should be able to handle.

Here are the simple steps to swap out your hard drive for an SSD.

1. Buy an SSD drive

What size SSD to buy

When looking to buy an SSD, the first thing you should determine is what size drive you need. Y'all should choose i that is at least as big every bit your electric current hard drive. If your current drive is getting low on space, you should consider stepping up to something larger. I would suggest not going smaller than 500GB and, ideally, going with 1TB, which should provide ample storage for about people.

What type of SSD to purchase

Bold your laptop currently has a standard hard drive, information technology is about certainly a 2.5 Inch SATA drive. So, you will be replacing it with an SSD of the aforementioned size and interface (internal connections). You may see people refer to other things – NAND technology, SATA III, etc. – don't worry about that stuff, 2.5-inch SATA is all you need to know.

What brand/model to buy

There are hundreds of SSD models from dozens of brands on the market. But since the drive will agree all your estimator's disquisitional information, this is non the time to merely go with the cheapest model. Nor do yous need the ultimate performance models intended for big server applications. I read through numerous reviews and tests of SSDs from professional reviewers and consumers to narrow the choices downward to ii models that I would recommend.

My elevation recommendation – and the i I installed in my ain laptop – is the Samsung 860 EVO. Information technology is consistently rated at or most the top in performance tests versus competitive models and offers a leading 5-yr or 600 TBW (for 1TB model) warranty. TBW (terabytes written) is a good indication of the drive's robustness – the more the better. Under normal usage, you would never come close to hitting that TBW limit (600 TBW is equivalent to most 200 million photos). Samsung also comes with Samsung Data Migration software, an easy-to-use program for cloning your existing drive onto the SSD. As of the time of writing, y'all can go the 500GB version for $74.99 or 1TB for $129.99 on Samsung.com or Amazon. [NOTE: There take been reports of counterfeit Samsung drives being sold through Amazon. Make certain you only purchase direct from Amazon or other well-known sellers.]

If you want to save a piffling money, the Crucial MX500 is arguably every bit as practiced as the Samsung 860 EVO. Data transfer speeds will be the same and Crucial offers its own Acronis True Image software for like shooting fish in a barrel drive cloning. The Crucial MX500 too comes with a 5-twelvemonth warranty, though its 360 TBW limit for the 1TB model is lower than the limit for the Samsung 860 EVO, meaning it may exist slightly less robust (realistically, that'southward however far, far above what almost people would ever hit). As of the time of writing, you can go the 500GB version for $66.99 or 1TB for $109.99 on Crucial.com or for a few bucks less on Amazon.

2. Buy a SATA to USB data transfer cable

The data transfer cable is what yous will utilise to clone your existing hard drive onto your new SSD using your laptop'due south USB port. All the cables are pretty much the aforementioned, and y'all can pick one up for under $10 on Amazon. The Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA gets solid reviews on Amazon and volition practice what yous need it to do.

This is likewise a practiced time to cheque to make sure that you lot have a screwdriver that will fit the screws on your laptop (small phillips caput volition work on most computers, though some manufacturers employ not-standard screws). If not, choice upward a basic computer screwdriver set, likewise. This screwdriver ready has tons of heads (including the non-standard ones) and a tool to assist you open your laptop case, if needed.

3. Clone your hard bulldoze

If you're worried near the effort to transfer Windows to your new drive, reinstall all your programs and transfer all your files, don't exist. The cloning program that comes with your SSD – Samsung Data Migration, Acronis True Paradigm – volition make an verbal replica of your current hard drive on your new SSD, and so there's no demand to reinstall annihilation. If you purchase a drive that doesn't include the software, there are many complimentary disk cloning programs you lot can download yourself.

To go going:

1. Install the cloning software on your laptop
2. Plug your SATA to USB data transfer cable into your laptop (ideally into a USB iii.0 port, for the best transfer speeds. USB 3.0 ports volition have the bluish tab on the within)
3. Plug your brand-spanking new SSD into the SATA cablevision
4. Follow the instructions in your bulldoze cloning application to clone your existing hard disk

The cloning process will accept a while to transfer your data onto your new drive. Don't apply your computer will the cloning procedure is happening because any changes you lot make to settings or files may non be cloned to the new drive. This is an fantabulous time to go out for dinner, rampage-lookout man Netflix or get in a good night's sleep.

[Editor's note eleven/4/2020: The process Acronis uses to clone your drive is different than what Samsung Magician uses (which is what I described here). For Acronis, y'all will demand to swap the drives, boot using Acronis media (e.g., flash drive), then clone. Other cloning programs may have their own procedures, and then it's e'er best to follow the directions specific to your software.]

4. Install the SSD drive

Once your cloning is complete, you can now get that new drive swapped into your laptop.

1. Unplug the SATA to USB cable and SSD from your laptop
2. Unplug your laptop ability and remove the battery (if removable)
3. Open the laptop example by removing the screws. If y'all're lucky, your laptop will have a handy little door with a couple of screws that give you direct access to the hard drive bay. Just if you lot take a more than recent "unibody design" model, yous'll have anywhere from 10-20 screws to have out (have a piddling loving cup gear up to store them in). Then open up the bottom part of the instance to get access to your drive. You may need to utilize your fingernails, a flat-tip screwdriver or the handy tool that came with the screwdriver kit I recommended in a higher place to CAREFULLY pry it open up. If you are unsure how to do this with your laptop, googling your laptop model and "open case" or "replace hard drive" will usually turn up plenty of YouTube videos for guidance.
4. Once your instance is open up, unscrew the mounting subclass property your existing hard drive and remove your bulldoze. It should come up out pretty easily. Now put your new SSD into the mounting bracket, slide information technology into the connectors on your laptop and spiral the mounting bracket dorsum into your laptop.
5. Replace you lot case by snapping it dorsum into place (putting it dorsum on is usually easier than removing information technology).
6. Do NOT SCREW THE Instance TOGETHER Notwithstanding - we want to cheque and make sure everything is working first. Plough on your reckoner (it should boot actually fast now!) and verify that everything – programs, files – looks merely like information technology did earlier. Bold all is fine, plough the reckoner off and get those screws dorsum in.

five. Install your manufacturer's bulldoze management software

Most manufacturers have a bulldoze direction program, similar Samsung Magician, that will go along your drive firmware upwardly to engagement and let y'all to customize the performance and other settings. It'south worth installing for the firmware updates only leave the other settings alone unless you really know what you're doing. Your SSD volition be plenty fast out of the box and near performance tweaking will take limited benefit in normal use.

That's it! You can now enjoy the huge performance boost from your new SSD. And while your SSD should be more reliable than your sometime hard drive, if you occasionally clone your new SSD to your old hard bulldoze using the USB to SATA cable, you'll be able to use it equally a fully-functional replacement, should you ever demand information technology.

[Image credit: Samsung, Crucial, Sabrent, Bigstock Photo:laptop upgrade]

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