Buying a gaming laptop and planning to add an SSD, any advice?

Penley54

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I am buying the Asus ROG G751 in the next day or two and was wondering how I should go about transfering the current OS over to an SSD. The laptop comes with a 5400rpm drive (waaay to slow) but has 2 seperate 2.5 in drive bays so I am planning on just sticking in the SSD in the 2nd drive bay, cloning the HDD to SSD, then just switching the drives and booting up. Will this work properly? I want to then wipe the HDD and just use it for games and storage. Thanks for any advice!
 

Penley54

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Whats the problem with a smaller SSD? The SSD will probably be a 500gb but the HDD is a 1tb. What will I have to do considering the SSD will be smaller?
 

R_1

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cloning the drive works by copying the drive block by block, not by what data is there. so to clone a 500GB hdd you would need a drive bigger than the hard drive.
 

Penley54

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What does using the SSD as a cache do? Simply make the HDD run faster? Sorry am a little confused
 

Penley54

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Ohhhh I understand.. is there any work around to this?
 

R_1

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ok the ssd will not be seen by windows except as part of the HDD. the software determines the most often used data ( the stuff you use the most, files needed for OS boot, favorite games/programs, favorite pictures/songs/vids. as your habits change so does the data bieng cached.) the data you use the most will be the fastest. you will not have to worry about the ssd's free space (which will slow it performance to a crawl if too low) you will have 1 TB as your total storage but at any given time up to 200GB of that will be available on the ssd for fast access. if you need to save an 8 gb file, it'll save to the fast ssd cache and will move it to the HDD in the background, so from your perspective you will be dealing with the ssd most of the time.
 

R_1

Estimable
Herald


make sure you make restore media with the new system
install ssd, remove the HDD, boot from restore media and restore to SSD. Verify system is working. install HDD and format if you please

 

Penley54

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That doesnt sound bad at all actually, pretty interesting you can do that. Part of the reason why I love computers lol seems like you can do anything and everything on them! But Id prefer to just have separate storage options (a 500gb SSD + 1tb HDD) as 500gb on the SSD is more than enough for everything I want to put on it. I did some research and found a program called paragon migrate, have you ever heard of it? It claims that it can clone a bigger HDD to a smaller SSD by only transferring over the OS which is exactly what Im looking for. You think its worth the $20?
Link: http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/
 

USAFRet

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I wouldn't.
I've heard about it, investigated it.
All the results I've seen are very mixed.

With the current cloning applications, drive sizes do not matter. Actual used space is what matters.
Given:
1TB HDD
500GB SSD

If the total used space on the 1TB is below 400GB, clone no problem.
If the total used space on the 1TB, minus stuff in your Libraries, is below 400GB, that will work. Several cloning applications allow excluding that from the clone operation.
If you have a large Steam library, simply move that elsewhere.

Moving 'just' the OS? Highly not recommended.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
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Most current clone applications only take the actual used space, not the entire drive.
Macrium Reflect Free, for instance.
Or the Samsung Data Migration.

Yes, I've done this. Yes, it works.
 

R_1

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I must have been remembering norton ghost. Thanks for the info

 

Penley54

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Ah I see, well I have already bought the laptop Im just waiting for it to get here. The HDD will have basically nothing on it except the OS + bloatware and a little bit of stuff I will put on it when I first get the laptop. So I can use any program to clone it as long as the space taken up on the HDD is less than the SSD's storage capacity right? And can you recommend any free programs to use for this? I have been thinking that it would probably be easier to just reinstall windows on the SSD but I dont have an extra license and Im sure Asus wont supply me with one.. but thanks for the reply!
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
Ah I see, well I have already bought the laptop Im just waiting for it to get here. The HDD will have basically nothing on it except the OS + bloatware and a little bit of stuff I will put on it when I first get the laptop. So I can use any program to clone it as long as the space taken up on the HDD is less than the SSD's storage capacity right? And can you recommend any free programs to use for this? I have been thinking that it would probably be easier to just reinstall windows on the SSD but I dont have an extra license and Im sure Asus wont supply me with one.. but thanks for the reply!

You do NOT need a whole new OS license.

What SSD are you getting? Size/make/model?
 

Penley54

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I am not sure on the exact model but I will be ordering it from Amazon most likely since I have a couple gift cards. Will most likely be a Samsung or Corsair or something but really just depends on what I can get the best deal on. Looking for a 480-512gb SSD for around $100-150 Any recommendations?
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


From Amazon:
Samsung 850 EVO:
250GB - $82
500GB - $155
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE