HDD to SSD switch

[Victor100]

Hey! So I'm not very tech inclined and was seeking help on switching my laptops's HDD to a SSD. 

I have a HP ENVY - 14t laptop. And I wanted to know what would I need to make the switch as well as to move everything over to the SSD from the HDD. Also if there's any SSD you would recommend to use.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[mosin40]

Hi Victor, welcome to LTT

First off all, you need to clone if you wnat to pass your stuff from an HDD to an SSD. If it was me, i'll do a fresh windows install.

Second, if you want to keep your HDD, get an HDD caddy, but you're going to lose your DVD slot.

For recommendation, i'll suggest a Crucial MX100, Samsung 850Evo or a SanDisk Extreme Pro 

PS: Don't forget to specify the amount of GB you want for your SSD

 

Edit: You will also need a screw driver 

Edit 2: @Victor100 don't forget to follow your own posts

[jkraghify]

Some SSD vendors include data migration software (Samsung SSDs come to mind) but the partion you are copying data from has to be the same size or smaller than the SSD you are migrating to. How big is your HDD and how much data is on it?

[Victor100]

Some SSD vendors include data migration software (Samsung SSDs come to mind) but the partion you are copying data from has to be the same size or smaller than the SSD you are migrating to. How big is your HDD and how much data is on it?

I currently have a 750GB but only about 110GB in use. I was looking to get one at 250GB at least. 

[jkraghify]

I currently have a 750GB but only about 110GB in use. I was looking to get one at 250GB at least.

That will work. 250 gb should cost around $90-100. Also if you want to keep the SSD consider what mosin40 suggested about installing it in place of the disc drive. Then you can have a total of 1TB of storage

Whenever I put in a new SSD, I 99% of the time do a clean install of windows, but cloning drives works fine. My roommate and I do it for selling old laptops and PS3s.

[Victor100]

That will work. 250 gb should cost around $90-100. Also if you want to keep the SSD consider what mosin40 suggested about installing it in place of the disc drive. Then you can have a total of 1TB of storage

Whenever I put in a new SSD, I 99% of the time do a clean install of windows, but cloning drives works fine. My roommate and I do it for selling old laptops and PS3s.

 

 

Hi Victor, welcome to LTT

First off all, you need to clone if you wnat to pass your stuff from an HDD to an SSD. If it was me, i'll do a fresh windows install.

Second, if you want to keep your HDD, get an HDD caddy, but you're going to lose your DVD slot.

For recommendation, i'll suggest a Crucial MX100, Samsung 850Evo or a SanDisk Extreme Pro 

PS: Don't forget to specify the amount of GB you want for your SSD

 

Edit: You will also need a screw driver 

Edit 2: @Victor100 don't forget to follow your own posts

 

Alright! Thanks so much guys! 

[mosin40]

If you're going to clone the HDD, i recommend to create another partition to store your documents and other stuff, so the SSD won't be that full, because of this, you will only clone the OS and the programs you've installed and save some space in your SSD

[Lord Sparklebottom]

My Samsung 840 came with software that was surprisingly good

[Victor100]

My Samsung 840 came with software that was surprisingly good

How exactly does the software work?

 

If you're going to clone the HDD, i recommend to create another partition to store your documents and other stuff, so the SSD won't be that full, because of this, you will only clone the OS and the programs you've installed and save some space in your SSD

Thanks for the tip!

[Lord Sparklebottom]

How exactly does the software work?

They have a YouTube video explaining how it works here:

[ROO3D3]

Hey! So I'm not very tech inclined and was seeking help on switching my laptops's HDD to a SSD. 

I have a HP ENVY - 14t laptop. And I wanted to know what would I need to make the switch as well as to move everything over to the SSD from the HDD. Also if there's any SSD you would recommend to use.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

I wouldn't recommend going full SSD for laptops (due to the limited amount of read-write actions possible throughout the lifetime of the drive), so i would recommend the WD Black^2 drive that has SSD-HDD combo that is the 2.5" drive format that laptops use.  It does come with a migration software but only a 120Gb SSD, so you'd have to compress your existing drive to clone.  But one downside to this drive is that due to the way Windows sees the drive, you can't defrag the HDD because it sees the HDD as a SSD and it limits you to only be able to trim.

[Victor100]

I wouldn't recommend going full SSD for laptops (due to the limited amount of read-write actions possible throughout the lifetime of the drive), so i would recommend the WD Black^2 drive that has SSD-HDD combo that is the 2.5" drive format that laptops use.  It does come with a migration software but only a 120Gb SSD, so you'd have to compress your existing drive to clone.  But one downside to this drive is that due to the way Windows sees the drive, you can't defrag the HDD because it sees the HDD as a SSD and it limits you to only be able to trim.

So what if I did end up keeping my current HDD in there like mosin said. Would the WD still be the better option? My HDD is 750GB and 5200rpm (or 5400rpm).

[jkraghify]

Going full SSD is absolutely fine if we are to believe these test results. The SSD (according to the test) would last at least for one whole petabyte of read/write cycles--which would last me a lifetime, honestly. A HDD fails mechanically, and after the 4th year of continued use their life spans are dwindling increasingly fast according to this study.

[Captain_WD]

Hey! So I'm not very tech inclined and was seeking help on switching my laptops's HDD to a SSD. 

I have a HP ENVY - 14t laptop. And I wanted to know what would I need to make the switch as well as to move everything over to the SSD from the HDD. Also if there's any SSD you would recommend to use.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

 

Hey Victor100,

 

A SSD would bring a huge boost to your system and make it much more responsive. As the guys mentioned, there is a limited amount of writing that you can do on a SSD, but in on regular consumer level that shouldn't matter much. SSDs still tend to be pretty expensive in terms of $/GB. I could also suggest checking out WD Black2 as it combines a 120GB SSD with a 1TB HDD and it is a great solution for 1-bay laptops to get both the speed of a SSD and the capacity of a HDD. Unlike SSHD, WD Black2 is a dual drive and your system would recognize it as two separate drives and you are free to place all data and files on whichever part you want. Here's more info if you want to check it out: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=hG8jFz

 

Regarding the cloning, It is not advised to clone a larger drive onto a smaller one as the procedure makes an exact copy sector by sector and if you have data written beyond the size of the SSD on the HDd, it will be left out during the process. If you still plan to do so, I would strongly suggest that you do a defrag of your HDD before that.

 

Captain_WD.

[Victor100]

 

Hey Victor100,

 

A SSD would bring a huge boost to your system and make it much more responsive. As the guys mentioned, there is a limited amount of writing that you can do on a SSD, but in on regular consumer level that shouldn't matter much. SSDs still tend to be pretty expensive in terms of $/GB. I could also suggest checking out WD Black2 as it combines a 120GB SSD with a 1TB HDD and it is a great solution for 1-bay laptops to get both the speed of a SSD and the capacity of a HDD. Unlike SSHD, WD Black2 is a dual drive and your system would recognize it as two separate drives and you are free to place all data and files on whichever part you want. Here's more info if you want to check it out: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=hG8jFz

 

Regarding the cloning, It is not advised to clone a larger drive onto a smaller one as the procedure makes an exact copy sector by sector and if you have data written beyond the size of the SSD on the HDd, it will be left out during the process. If you still plan to do so, I would strongly suggest that you do a defrag of your HDD before that.

 

Captain_WD.

 

Alright thanks for that!

And thanks to everyone else as well! I'll probably be looking into getting the Wd Black2.

[Captain_WD]

Alright thanks for that!

And thanks to everyone else as well! I'll probably be looking into getting the Wd Black2.

 

 

Do have in mind that a pure SSD would probably give you better speeds, but nevertheless WD Black2 is still a very big improvement compared to regular 2.5" HDDs and provides far more space. Let me now how's the performance and if you need help setting it up. 

 

Captain_WD.