Can I upgrade this laptop hdd?

[Alciel]

My friend bought this laptop for school and some light gaming for the game Blade and Soul.

When he plays the game Blade and Soul he has lag at loading screens and overall just slowness in general, I noticed that this laptop comes with a 5400 rpm drive thats a non ssd, and the game Blade & Soul requires a 7200 rpm drive, could this be the limiting factor?

Can my friend upgrade his laptop with an ssd or can an external hdd be a solution to his problem?

Here is the laptop webpage.

http/www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-ideapad-500-15-6-laptop-amd-a10-series-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/4578000.p?acampID=0&ref=8575135&loc=0&id=1219775847283&skuId=4578000

 

[weberdarren97]

I noticed that the APU (in place of the CPU in this case) isn't the fastest. But you're right in that the sluggishness is probably the hard drive. Maybe try the Samsung SSD 850 EVO series? Pretty much any standard sized 2.5" HDD or SSD should fit in the bay and be seen by BIOS. Although be aware that simply cloning the HDD to the SSD may not be the best idea since the sectors may not be the same size which would cause problems with the Master File Table and lead to the system being inoperable. You'll need to reinstall Windows completely. Then go through Windows update and make sure that you have the November Upgrade to the new build of Windows 10 (just keep updating one batch at a time until it doesn't find any more updates).

Bottom line: any 2.5 inch SSD will fit in the bay and should work fine. I personally recommend the Samsung SSD 850 EVO series of SSDs.

 

[weberdarren97]

I only have one question... Why did he buy an IBM Ideapad if he intends to game?

Yes yes I know, they changed their name to Lenovo awhile ago.

 

[weberdarren97]

Any 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD will do and would be a great addition to that laptop. In fact , it should give significant speed to most operations of that laptop. Now it all depends on how much you are willing to spend as you will be replacing your current HDD with the SSD. Or what I recommend you do if you have a low budget is to get a small sized SSD like the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD and use it for your internal storage and operating system hostage while you get a case for the hdd currently in laptop and use it as an external storage.

Good idea, as 2.5" drives are very portable even when they're outside the system. Just make sure it's USB 3.0, as USB 2.0 will be rather slow for running a HDD.

 

[Alciel]

Can a suggestion be made for an external 3.0 hdd? Hes not really all that good at tech. A cheap SSD external or a external normal hdd would fine i think. cheap budget he just wants to see whats out there.

 

[weberdarren97]

Can a suggestion be made for an external 3.0 hdd? Hes not really all that good at tech. A cheap SSD external or a external normal hdd would fine i think. cheap budget he just wants to see whats out there.

Will you be taking the advice of replacing the current hdd that the laptop has with an SSD ?

Yes he will be replacing the current HDD with an SSD. However, he doesn't need a new HDD. He can just wipe the HDD he has now and put it in an enclosure like this http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182313&cm_re=usb_3.0_2.5_enclosure-_-17-182-313-_-Product and then use it for storage through the USB 3.0 interface.

THAT MEANS DON'T THROW YOUR HDD AWAY

 

[Alciel]

Sorry for the late reply.

Would it be hard to install a new hdd on his laptop? I wont be there to help him he lives quite far away like 7 states away, He asked that I post on a tech forum that would be able to help him. I dont believe he is all that good with tech.

If possible could a suggestion be made for a cheap HHD that could house the OS and a few games? Preferably amazon, Also would this mean he would have to purchase another windows 10 copy? His laptop already came with windows 10 when he bought it, so I don't if he would want to buy an SSD and rebuy windows 10, unless it makes sense to.

Or would a 7200 RPM USB 3.0 external be a good solution, or should he just bite the bullet and get the ssd if its not that hard to install?

 

[weberdarren97]

Use this for the replacement to put in the laptop http/www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1457809633&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+850+evo+250gb and then keep the old HDD from the laptop and put it in this enclosure http/www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Screwless-Enclosure-Attachment-RX-200-APU3-25B/dp/B00N1Q2KSU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457809713&sr=8-1&keywords=RX200-APU3-25B , wipe it and use it for storage.

He'll have to consult his user's manual to find out how to replace the HDD with a SSD, but it shouldn't be much harder than opening the casing, taking old one out, putting new one in, replacing casing.

 

[weberdarren97]

Use this for the replacement to put in the laptop http/www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1457809633&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+850+evo+250gb and then keep the old HDD from the laptop and put it in this enclosure http/www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Screwless-Enclosure-Attachment-RX-200-APU3-25B/dp/B00N1Q2KSU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457809713&sr=8-1&keywords=RX200-APU3-25B , wipe it and use it for storage.

He'll have to consult his user's manual to find out how to replace the HDD with a SSD, but it shouldn't be much harder than opening the casing, taking old one out, putting new one in, replacing casing.

 

[Alciel]

Will he have to purchase another copy of windows 10?

 

[weberdarren97]

No, as long as he has install media (a disk or flash drive), his copy of Windows 10 is registered to the hardware IDs of the laptop, changing only the hard drive will not void this process.

 

[Alciel]

Unfortunately his computer did not come with a disk or a flash drive of media for his windows 10, His computer was already installed with windows 10.

 

[weberdarren97]

Well then you can make one if you go to https/www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and download the Media Creation Tool, just make sure that you download the exact same version that he already has on his laptop. You can either create a bootable USB drive or create an ISO to later be burned to a DVD.

 

[Alciel]

My friend reported back to me saying that he checked his user manual and unfortunately there was nothing in the manual about replacing or upgrading his hdd with a ssd.

My friend doesn't really feel comfortable taking apart his only computer for college.

Can a suggestion be made for a good cheap and really fast external usb 3.0 hdd?

 

[weberdarren97]

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178744&cm_re=usb_3.0_hard_drive-_-22-178-744-_-Product

 

[Alciel]

This should fix the robot voice with skype and the loading times in his game hes playing or atleast be a bandaid right? Will a External HDD be enough or should he get an external ssd like this one http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820173097.

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to help out a friend whos not good with tech.

 

[weberdarren97]

He will not see an improvement in performance unless he upgrades the drive that's INSIDE THE LAPTOP since that's the one that has Windows on it. Adding an external drive without improving the internal drive will not yield a performance boost. And he doesn't need to look in the manual about an SSD, just look for how to remove the HDD and then do it in reverse to put the SSD in.

 

[Alciel]

I think its his only option if he wants to keep the warranty for his laptop, After some googling i've come across an amazon review that wanted to upgrade their same laptop but couldn't find a slot or cover, having to remove the keyboard revealed a void warranty if tampered with. https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMk3f0VEz4Q&feature=youtu.be

http/www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Ideapad-80K4001MUS-Laptop-A10-Series/dp/B01AVH9D86?tag=gdextf-20

http/www.amazon.com/review/RSL6E6VNJOC63/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01AVH9D86&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=541966&store=pc#wasThisHelpful

 

[weberdarren97]

Well anytime you physically change a product, it's going to void the warranty. That's supposed to be common knowledge. But most people don't take the time to read all of the documentation that comes with the product and then they end up not knowing because they never read the information.

 

[Alciel]

Well, aside the fact that its common knowledge my friend would rather not void the warranty when its only 8 months old, you know in case something happens.

So his options are a SSD external or a standard HDD, hes only going to put his games on it.

But he also thinks he might want to sell it via a friend and get money towards a new laptop or computer since he dislikes his battery limits on his current laptop.