How to upgrade to SSD

dashcameraportal

Commendable
Jul 14, 2016
1
0
1,510
I have bought a SSD. How can I move all data (even OS) from current HDD to SSD ? My laptop has quite small, there is only 1 tray to store 1 hard disk, I can not plug both HDD and SSD at one time. Many thanks
 
Solution
As long as the SSD itself has higher capacity than the hard drive you can clone the hard drive to the SSD. That means the operating system gets cloned as well.

If the SSD has less capacity than the hard drive, then you may need to uninstall some programs or transfer some files off the hard drive. If the hard drive is split into a C: and D: drive then you can simply clone the C: drive and copy over some of the data to the SSD.

You need two things to clone the hard drive.

#1 - Cloning software. There are free programs on the web that will allow you to clone the hard drive / make backup of your hard drive. Macrium Reflect Free is one such program.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx


#2 - You will need a USB adapter cable to...

Proofy

Estimable
Aug 19, 2014
55
0
4,610
You can't copy OS to SSD, however you can copy data such as documents, pictures, videos. You can upload it on a cloud such as google drive/dropbox or get another external HDD and copy data on it.

You can have both HDD and SSD in your laptop if you replace your optical CD drive bay with HDD tray that you can buy off ebay and similar stores, put HDD there and SSD in the spot of your current HDD inside the laptop.

Once again, you have to do clean OS installation if you plan to have it on your SSD not HDD
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


That is absolutely incorrect. There are many applications that will clone the entire drive, OS included, directly to a new drive.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


1. How large is the new SSD?
2. How much total used space is on the current drive?
 
As long as the SSD itself has higher capacity than the hard drive you can clone the hard drive to the SSD. That means the operating system gets cloned as well.

If the SSD has less capacity than the hard drive, then you may need to uninstall some programs or transfer some files off the hard drive. If the hard drive is split into a C: and D: drive then you can simply clone the C: drive and copy over some of the data to the SSD.

You need two things to clone the hard drive.

#1 - Cloning software. There are free programs on the web that will allow you to clone the hard drive / make backup of your hard drive. Macrium Reflect Free is one such program.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx


#2 - You will need a USB adapter cable to connect the SSD to the laptop begin the cloning process. Below is a link to a USB to SATA III cable adapter.

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-EC-SSHD/dp/B011M8YACM/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468514996&sr=1-2&keywords=usb+to+sata+cable
 
Solution