Upgrade laptop hard drive to SSD

[Ultimate Assassin]

My computer is getting old and slow. In 2 years Im thinking of buying a new one, in the meantime, I want to upgrade its storage to an SSD to make its loading time quicker. I have built a PC before, so I know a good amount on computers. I have a few questions though about the process of upgrading to an SSD...

 

My questions:

- How do I transfer all the data from my hard drive to SSD?

- When I transfer my data over to the SSD, will Windows 10 transfer over as well?

- If the answer to the question above is no, how would I get Windows on my SSD? Would I just need to buy a new copy of Windows and install it from there?

- After getting Windows on it and transferring all my data and updating drivers, will I need to do anything to make the SSD compatible, or will it just work?

- Im not sure of the dimensions of my hard drive, but I will find out soon. But anyways, what SSD (around 700GB or higher) do you recommend?

 

***I dont really care about the price of it, but I prefer a mid-range priced SSD***

[Gung Pow Chicken]

You can buy a HDD Dock and transfer files that way, you can use Produ-Key to recover your windows key and re use it.

Depending on the OS you can download the iso from Microsoft and use a program like Rufus to install the ISO on a USB. From their you can boot it and install windows.

 

Drivers you can get form the Manufactures website, or if it's Windows 10 it will get most of them for you when it's online, it should have most network card drivers built in.

[TheGlenlivet]

Samsung SSDs like this -

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3kL7YJ/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam

Come with software to clone your current hard drive.  This keeps your settings the same.  If everything goes just right, you won't notice the difference when you boot up the pc with the SSD installed, other than the speed difference of course.

You do keep your WIndows 10 install.  It shouldn't effect anything, just make sure the SSD you buy is the same size or bigger than your current drive.

Also you need to have a SATA connection for the drive.  If you laptop is 5-7 years old or newer you should be good.

 

[m0k]

what i did:
take old hdd 
take new ssd
put them info a desktop pc

use a cloning software to clone old hdd to new ssd (i used acronis true image 2014 i think)
put new ssd back in laptop
worked for me.

[Gung Pow Chicken]

Just now, mok said:

what i did:
take old hdd 
take new ssd
put them info a desktop pc

use a cloning software to clone old hdd to new ssd (i used acronis true image 2014 i think)
put new ssd back in laptop
worked for me.

That's so much extra effort though.. Get a Drive Caddy and just transfer data directly to the new computer.

[m0k]

6 minutes ago, Icuw1pc said:

That's so much extra effort though.. Get a Drive Caddy and just transfer data directly to the new computer.

i agree, although im pretty sure my cloning process was much quicker since both drives were running off SATA instead of USB 2.0 (which was the only other caddy i had)

edit, i also already had the data and power cables available in my pc

[Gung Pow Chicken]

Just now, mok said:

i agree, although im pretty sure my cloning process was much quicker since both drives were running off SATA instead of USB 2.0 (which was the only other caddy i had)

That kinda depends on if he has USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, or E-Sata though.

I've never really like cloning applications, it can bring over old corrupt data, or even corrupt data.