help Need help migrating to an SSD

[BaconLord222]

Hey guys,

I have an older laptop (5-6 years old) that is currently equipped with a Western Digital Blue 5400rpm HDD, which I would like to upgrade to a recently purchased MX500 SSD.

I’m not really sure how to tackle this properly.

I can either A) plug both drives into my desktop machine and copy the windows partitions over,

or

B) I can maybe try to buy some sort of SATA-to-USB adapter 

I would prefer to do option A, however I’m not sure whether it would work properly, what software I would need, or whether my current windows product key would continue to work after the drive swap.

 

any help is greatly appreciated.

[Dedayog]

Use a USB to SATA connector, then Clone the drive with Acronis (comes with Crucial's drives) or something free like Macrium Reflect.

 

That is the cable I use currently for exactly what you're doing:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJZJI84/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[BaconLord222]

3 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

Use a USB to SATA connector, then Clone the drive with Acronis (comes with Crucial's drives) or something free like Macrium Reflect.

 

That is the cable I use currently for exactly what you're doing:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJZJI84/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

So I wouldn’t be able to connect both drives to my desktop pc and do the same thing?

edit: by “the same thing” I mean using Acronis to transfer the contents, just connected to my desktop instead

[Dedayog]

I mean you CAN I guess, I wouldn't bother opening and disturbing my desktop PC and going thru the cabling and mounting, etc.

 

Cable is easy and hassle free and can be used later when you only have the laptop around.

[BaconLord222]

2 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

I mean you CAN I guess, I wouldn't bother opening and disturbing my desktop PC and going thru the cabling and mounting, etc.

 

Cable is easy and hassle free and can be used later when you only have the laptop around.

Would the windows product key carry over? Or would I have to purchase another one?

[Dedayog]

Just now, BaconLord222 said:

Would the windows product key carry over? Or would I have to purchase another one?

Key carries over since it's the same motherboard.  That's what triggers Windows sensing a change, not the drive.

[BaconLord222]

Just now, jstudrawa said:

Key carries over since it's the same motherboard.  That's what triggers Windows sensing a change, not the drive.

That’s good to know, thanks for that.

I’ll update this topic tomorrow on how the drive copy went.

[BaconLord222]

Update:

the drive cloning went fine, albeit a little slow. Laptop is a lot faster to boot and is generally quicker to respond to inputs, as should be expected from an SSD. Thanks for the help @jstudrawa. You’re a legend.

[Dedayog]

8 minutes ago, BaconLord222 said:

Update:

the drive cloning went fine, albeit a little slow. Laptop is a lot faster to boot and is generally quicker to respond to inputs, as should be expected from an SSD. Thanks for the help @jstudrawa. You’re a legend.

In my own mind, I am at least

 

Glad to help!