SSD+HDD in laptop or only SSD , which is better ?

shijilt

Honorable
Jul 6, 2013
15
0
10,560
I have ordered Acer ES1-521 laptop, to use as a backup PC
For the following purposes
1).To store movies/browse internet without using my main PC.
2).Download Torrents

The laptop comes with 1TB hard disk, I have ordered a Sasmung 250 GB 850EVO to use in the laptop.
Should I use the 1 TB hard disk inside the laptop (using a HDD Caddy), or use it as an external HDD ?
It has a DVD drive , but I dont need it.

My major concern is about battery backup, but using the HDD inside the lap give more storage too......
What should I do ?

 
Solution
In your case, this is the absolutely best way to do it:
Remove the DVD drive and get a caddy for the HDD.
Clone the OS and everything in the HD to SSD.
Swap the HD with SSD drive as the new OS/boot drive.
Install the HD in the new caddy in place of the DVD drive.

Boom! Now you have a perfect solution.

George Phillips

Estimable
Jun 17, 2015
27
0
4,610
In your case, this is the absolutely best way to do it:
Remove the DVD drive and get a caddy for the HDD.
Clone the OS and everything in the HD to SSD.
Swap the HD with SSD drive as the new OS/boot drive.
Install the HD in the new caddy in place of the DVD drive.

Boom! Now you have a perfect solution.
 
Solution
I don't know what you mean by "battery backup" however:

1) Battery life should not be affected much, especially if HDD set to idle at 20 minutes or less (power settings)

2) HDD is very useful for backing up the OS drive and/or individual folders. I use:
a) Acronis True Image. There's a free version for WD drives, and DiscWizard Free for Seagate. It's manual though. I use the full version and have an automated backup which also deletes older backups (full + incremental. weekly. deletes older)

b) Syncback SE is useful for specific folders

3) May need the space for all that legal content you download
 
CLONING using Machrium Reflect Free (set it to VERIFY the clone) should work well.

as per above..

1) create a clone boot disc if suggested (I forget now)
2) start clone from that or from within Windows
3) Go into the BIOS and change the boot order (swap the SSD to the HDD location if they don't allow changing that in the BIOS)

4) test for stability, then backup the OS as discussed (Acronis or similar) to the HDD
5) install Samsung Magician v4.9.7 and set the profile you want. Not sure if you need to overprovision or if Samsung already hides memory for that. You can likely google that.

Run benchmark. If you have a 6Gbps SATA controller you should see over 500MBps likely for both read/write though i wouldn't worry if it was in the 400's.

set an OS profile such as "maximum performance" (which allows Hibernation which I like for a laptop. I also set my POWER BUTTON to Hibernation which turns the power off but has copied the system memory onto the SSD. If you use normal Sleep then the power is still running and the computer can start up. bad especially if in a backpack, or it can just drain your battery)