Upgrade laptop to SSD

wihannb

Prominent
Mar 9, 2017
2
0
510
Good day

I have an Acer Aspire V5-571 with an Hitachi HTS545050A7E380 500GB HDD, I would like to know if it is possible to replace it with an SSD, if so what is the best SSD to buy which will be compatible with my laptop?

I also have this RAM: ADATA AM1U16BC4P2-B19B 1x4GB and would like to upgrade to 8GB RAM, is it fine if I use another brand with the ADATA as my laptop has 2 slots for extra RAM. (i.e. I would like to run my standard ADATA RAM with another 4GB of a different brand RAM).

Thank you in advance
 
Solution
I have always cloned the drive if I want to keep it the same as it is currently. If I wanted to do a clean install and start fresh, I would just use the restore disks.
It's always good to create a set of restore disks before you get started just in case something happens that prevents cloning or if there is an issue with installing.

Heres a good video for cloning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2LySc8gZ3I
With my Crucial drives they came with free software to use for cloning.
you can use whichever brand you prefer for the RAM upgrade, just make sure that it is also 1600mhz speed ( 12800 DDR3 ) like the current ADATA chip that you have installed.
as for the SSD, you CAN upgrade to any brand SSD, Samsung and Crucial are excellent brands for SSD but it really comes down to personal preference as far as Brand. Just make sure you either clone your current drive to the SSD or have a set of restore disks to run a clean install once the SSD is installed. Compatibility shouldn't be an issue with the new SSD, as they are made to work in any make / model / brand of laptop.

 

wihannb

Prominent
Mar 9, 2017
2
0
510


Thank you for the reply.

What would you do when installing an SSD, clone the current drive to the SSD or have a set of restore disks to run a clean installtion once the SSD is installed?

And as I'm kind of a noob, do you have links/videos/articles on how to clone my drive to the SSD and/or how to create restore disks so I can run a clean installation? Like a kind of DIY tutorial?

Thank you again for your response.
 
I have always cloned the drive if I want to keep it the same as it is currently. If I wanted to do a clean install and start fresh, I would just use the restore disks.
It's always good to create a set of restore disks before you get started just in case something happens that prevents cloning or if there is an issue with installing.

Heres a good video for cloning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2LySc8gZ3I
With my Crucial drives they came with free software to use for cloning.
 
Solution