Changing the hard drive on a laptop ssd. How to speed up a laptop: changing HDD to SSD
Hello admin. I read your article about replacing the hard drive on a laptop with an SSD and I want to ask you.
I have ASUS laptop The K50C is already so slow (Celeron 220 1200 MHz processor and 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz memory), it’s just brutal. What do you think a laptop will do in my case? faster replacement HDD to SSD? I increased the 2 GB RAM to 4 GB and nothing changed, the brakes did not disappear. I don’t play games, I work in office applications and use the Internet.
I would like from you not just words that yes, everything will work faster, but also the results of some tests. And another question, if after replacement I install the remaining HDD from the laptop instead of the drive (using the SlimDVD adapter) , then will it be detected in the BIOS and is it possible to install an operating system on it?
Hi all! I read this letter while at work and thought about where I could get a similar model, we haven’t had it on sale for a long time, and it’s not on disassembly, and then the idea crept into my head to disassemble my partner’s work laptop, just the ASUS K50C, because he I took my new laptop apart ten times and experimented with something, so today we’ll disassemble his device for the sake of a scientific experiment, I think he won’t mind
The ASUS K50C laptop we are reviewing today is budget model and was created not for games, but for everyday work in office applications and the Internet.
How will it behave on a regular budget laptop? Is there any point in such a replacement? Will our laptop become faster after installing an SSD in it? We will find out about this at the end of the article!
Before replacing the HDD with an SSD, let's test the hard drive everyone famous program CrystalDiskMark, this small utility will measure the speed of reading and writing data to your hard drive. After installing an SSD solid-state drive on the laptop, we will also conduct tests and compare them with those previously obtained from a simple HDD.
Official website of the CrystalDiskMark program
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
CrystalDiskMark is downloaded in an archive, unzip it into a folder and run executable
CrystalDiskMark writes and reads information on the hard drive in blocks (1024Kb, 512Kb, 4Kb);
Select drive C: click on the button All and it happens:
Seq: Sequential write/read test (block size= 1024Kb);
512K: Random write/read test (block size = 512Kb);
4K : Random write/read test (block size = 4Kb);
Friends, let’s remember the test results, but I especially advise you to remember what is hushed up by all hard drive manufacturers - the random write speed in 4 KB blocks (then we will compare it with SSD). IN real work A hard drive, for the most part, writes data in small blocks andIn our case, the write speed is terribly low 0.385 (this is typical for most conventional HDDs).
Disassembling the ASUS K50C laptop
Disassembling the ASUS K50C laptop is very simple.
Turn off the laptop and unplug it from the power supply, turn it over. Remove the battery compartment cover.
Carefully press the two latches and remove the battery (this must be done).
Unscrew the first screw securing the cover.
Unscrew the four screws located on the back of the laptop, two at a time; left and right
We do not remove the back cover of the laptop, but move it.
Unscrew the screw securing the drive and remove it. We also unscrew the four screws securing HDD and carefully pull the silicone tab to the right, remove the hard drive.
Unscrew the four screws and remove the “sled” from the HDD.
The laptop HDD and SSD have the same 2.5-inch form factor, which means the sleds can be installed on a solid-state drive without any problems.
Where to put the laptop hard drive?
There are two options.
For a laptop HDD, you can buy a nice one and use it as a portable USB hard drive.
In short, there are many options, choose any one.
In this article I propose install laptop HDD in adapter SlimDVD instead of a disk drive, the installation process itself is described in detail in the article, the link to which I gave just above, here I’ll just note that you need to secure the HDD in the adapter SlimDVD as expected
then transfer a special mount to it from the drive
We install a solid-state drive and an adapter with HDD into the laptop.
We secure everything with screws.
Reinstall and secure the laptop cover with five screws. We install the battery and close it with the lid.
Turn on the laptop and go to the BIOS in the Boot tab, here we need the option Hard disk drives (determining the primacy of hard drives).
searching results
We enter it and see that both of our drives are identified: a regular Seagate HDD connected via a SlimDVD adapter and a Kingston SSD solid-state drive, we can make any of them a priority for booting the laptop and we can install the operating system on either one. Typically, an operating system is installed on an SSD, and a regular HDD is used to store files.
Installing an operating system on a Kingston SSD Windows system 7 and run the drive test in the CrystalDiskMark program.
Result
Test of sequential writing/reading of information in blocks 1024- 512Kb on SSD is twice as fast as on HDD, and 4Kb blocks 20-30 times.
IN In real operating conditions of a hard drive, writing/reading small blocks will occur much more often than large ones, so the solid-state drive will work faster than a regular HDD.
Conclusion:
Friends, I do not urge anyone to urgently change their laptop hard drive to a solid-state drive, and the article is given to you primarily for your information.
If you are a computer enthusiast, I will advise you this; Install an SSD drive on your laptop and install Windows 7, 8.1 on it, work like this for several days, and then return the regular HDD to the laptop and you will immediately feel the difference in speed.
SSD drive– a non-volatile, secure solid-state device for permanent data storage, built on the basis of flash modules. Consists of a memory controller, DRAM volatile memory chips and NAND-flash non-volatile memory chips.
Positive and negative sides
The advantages of using solid-state storage media are undeniable: there are improved performance indicators, increased shock resistance, vibration resistance, and low power consumption. Such devices contain no moving mechanical parts, therefore they do not heat up, are not afraid of shocks and even falls. They are suitable for use in harsh operating conditions under which a HDD would simply not be able to operate.But today, mass use of SSDs is hindered high price and comparatively small capacity memory. The capacity of HDD drives has already reached more than a terabyte, and such volumes are still unimaginable for solid-state drives. An equally significant drawback is limited number of rewrites(no more than 10,000 times). Hard drives are successfully overwritten up to 1,000,000 times.
What to look for when choosing an SSD?
Capacity. Operating system with installed applications already takes up about 35 GB. On a tight budget, a 64 GB drive may be sufficient if available. external hard disk, resource-intensive programs are not installed, for example for video and photo editing.Interface. In modern laptops to connect an optical drive and hard drives As a rule, the SATA interface is used. The throughput of SATA is 150 MB/s, SATA II 300 MB/s, SATA III 600 MB/s. In a laptop, the read speed of an average HDD is about 70 MB/s, and an SSD is 500 MB/s. Consequently, a solid-state drive combined with SATA gives a speed increase of only two times, and with SATA III seven times. Thus, the maximum data exchange speed will be limited by the type of SATA interface. Does it make sense to install an expensive SSD and be limited to the old interface?
Form factor. As a rule, laptops have HDDs with a width of 2.5 inches, less often 1.8. There are specially designed thin drives for tablets and ultrabooks, such as the 3.6mm thick M5M from Plextor.
Installation
The drive can be installed in a laptop in three ways:1. In a separate compartment. There are laptops that have space for installing multiple hard drives. This is the simplest and best option: the SSD drive on which the operating system and programs are installed provides fast start and silent operation, and the HDD drive is used exclusively for data storage.
2. Instead of standard hard drive . High price does not allow installing large-capacity solid-state drives. Here the laptop owner needs to decide what is more important to him - maintaining a large amount of data storage or getting greater speed.
3. Instead of an optical drive. Many users, in order to save additional disk space, install an SSD drive instead of a standard hard drive, and a hard drive instead of a practically unused CD/DVD-RW optical drive. It is worth noting that this option is valid for installing a solid-state drive with a SATA interface. Otherwise, a low-speed port will negate all the advantages of an SSD. Also, the cooling situation in the optical drive bay is worse. This fact is unimportant for an SSD, but may be critical for an HDD.
To install a hard drive or SSD into the bay DVD drive you will need a special OptiBay adapter. The thickness of the OptiBay container for MacBook is 9.4 mm, for others – 12.5 mm. Today, metal and plastic containers are produced. Metal models have more weight, but are resistant to vibrations and are recommended for HDD drives. As for OptiBay, you can pay attention to Espada products, which represent universal products suitable for most laptops.
After installing the solid-state drive, you need to reconfigure the built-in settings in the BIOS SATA controller- choose AHCI mode. The fact is that the SSD controller will be able to receive the command TRIM only in this mode. TRIM is initially supported on Microsoft Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, MacOS and Linux. For the rest, you will have to use third-party utilities.
Where to put CD/DVD-RW?
The removed optical drive can be easily removed using a special container. turn into an external drive. While regular external containers are designed to accommodate only a DVD drive or hard drive, multifunctional external containers provide additional features. They allow you to simultaneously install an optical drive and another HDD drive, have several USB ports and a built-in card reader.Who to trust with installation
Unlike personal computers, upgrading laptops is a more complex process. This is explained by the fact that the components are placed in the housing more tightly and compactly, which complicates the modernization process. Certain laptop models require complete disassembly just to remove the hard drive. Easier and safer install the SSD drive in an authorized service center . The cost of work is 500 - 1000 rubles.If your new computer Since Windows 10 takes a long time to boot, then most likely this is because it is running on a regular hard drive. This also applies to most older computers. Did you know that replacing your hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD) will make your machine run much faster? It's true, a five-year-old computer with an SSD is much faster than even a brand new one running on a regular hard drive. The good news is that replacement drives are fairly easy to make, and not too expensive, thanks to the fact that SSD drives are now much more affordable than they were just a few years ago.
(A standard SSD looks like a traditional 2.5-inch laptop hard drive, but it's much faster.)
In this article, I'll tell you how to replace your Windows computer's internal hard drive with an SSD while keeping your software, data, and settings unchanged. The computer must run under Windows control 7, 8 or 10. In previous Windows versions SSD drives are not well supported. The steps in this article were performed on Windows 10, which you can install, by the way, as a free update until July 29, 2016, MacBook owners can familiarize themselves with.
General direction. The replacement process basically involves cloning the contents of the existing hard drive to SSD, and then directly replacing the hard drive from the computer to SSD. This is a similar process for desktop and laptop computers, although it is much easier to work with a desktop computer due to its larger size.
Depending on how much data you have on your computer's main hard drive, this project will take anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours. You won't need to be actively involved for most of this time.
A. Preparation.
There are a few things you need to consider for this job.First, you obviously need an SSD. While not all SSDs are created equal, all SSDs are much faster than any regular hard drive, so the differences between them are negligible to someone replacing a regular hard drive. However, with a drive, try to buy the most capacious drive for the least money.
One important thing to keep in mind is to make sure you buy an SSD with a higher capacity than the total amount of data you currently have on the hard drive you are replacing. This means, for example, that if your computer's main hard drive has a capacity of 1TB, but you've used about 200GB of it, then you just need an SSD with a capacity of about 240GB. You can buy more capacious SSD or the same as your existing hard drive if you can afford it.
The second thing you need is cloning software. There are quite a few of these out there, and most of them work well (some SSDs come bundled with this type software), but my favorite is free version Macrium Reflect. This software allows you to clone an existing drive to a new one without even restarting your computer. It also supports all types of hard drive formats.
The third thing you need is a USB-to-SATA adapter. These adapters can be found online for around $15 or so. If you have an external hard drive (whether portable or desktop), you can use the adapter part to get the job done. Note that for a desktop computer, as an option, you can skip the search for such an adapter and install the SSD as a secondary internal drive for the cloning process, which is much faster than via a USB connection.
Lastly, you will need a small screwdriver. Choose the one that fits the screws on your computer. Typically, a standard small Phillips will do.
Additional preparation.
This step is only necessary if you want to use an old used SSD (one that was formatted before) to replace the existing hard drive on your computer. If you bought a new SSD, you can skip this step and go directly to the cloning process.There are two types of disc formats. These are the Master Boot Record (MBR), which is used in Windows 7 and earlier, and the GUID Partition Table (GPT), which was adopted on Windows 8 and later. (Note that Windows 8 and Windows 10 work with MBR too.) If you want to use a used SSD for your computer, you will need to first convert it to the same disk format as your existing hard drive for the process cloning. If not, the system may not boot as a result.
It's pretty easy to figure out whether your computer's existing hard drive is using GPT or MBR. Here's how to do it.
1. Launch Command Prompt. (Right click on the "Start" button and select "Command Prompt" or search in the menu "All Programs>Windows System Tools").
diskpart then press Enter. (Answer yes to the control question accounts, if offered.)
3. At the diskpart command prompt, enter list disk, then press Enter.
You will see a list of disks installed on the system. If a drive is listed with an asterisk (*) in the GPT column, then it uses GPT. IN otherwise, this is an MBR drive.
And here's how to make sure the SSD has the same format type:
1. Launch Command Prompt.
2. In the window command line enter diskmgmt then press Enter. This will open the Disk Management window.
3. In the disk management window, find the SSD, which will be shown as disk 1 (or disk 2, etc. depending on the number of disks you have on the machine). Right-click on the SSD then select "Convert to GPT" (if the current drive is using MBR), or "Convert to MBR" (if the current one is using GPT.) Just make sure it's the same type of disk format as the existing hard drive .
B. Disk cloning.
Now that you have everything you need, let's begin the process. Insert the SSD into your computer's USB port using a USB-to-SATA cable.(Please note that the steps below are done on Macrium Reflect. With other versions or other cloning programs, the steps will be slightly different, so follow the software's instructions, but it should be fairly easy to understand. The idea is that you clone existing hard drive to SSD, preserving all settings.)
1. Download and install Macrium Refelct Free (link is above).
2. After installation is complete, double-click the Reflect icon on your computer desktop.
3. Under the existing computer icon, click on "Clone this disk..." This will open the cloning window.
4. In the cloning window, click "Select a disk to clone to..." then select the SSD that is connected to the computer via the USB port.
Additional note: Here you can check to make sure that both drives are the same type of disk format (GPT or MBR). Additionally, if your existing hard drive has many small partitions and you are using an SSD of the same or smaller capacity, you may encounter an error saying that not all partitions can fit on the SSD. In this case, you can disable sections on the right side of the main section, which always contains (C:) in its name. This is the partition that contains the operating system.
B. Replacing a hard drive with an SSD.
This last step involves removing the existing hard drive. On most laptops, this is designed simply by placing the hard drive in a bay at the edge of the computer. You can remove it after unscrewing a couple of screws on the bottom of the laptop. Sometimes hard disks are placed under the battery. With desktop computers everything is simpler, where hard drives (3.5-inch versions) are easy to detect as soon as the case cover is opened. You should refer to the user manual or search the Internet for information on how to remove the hard drive specifically for your computer. Please note that for desktop computers, some SSD drives come with a 3.5-inch bay adapter to make them suitable for desktop use. However, if your SSD does not have such an adapter, you can leave the SSD hanging inside the computer case. Since SSD drives have no moving parts and the desktop computer is typically not moving, there is virtually no harm in leaving the SSD hanging freely inside the case (just make sure it doesn't touch anything).Once the old hard drive is removed and the SSD is installed, make sure you tighten all the screws when installing the SSD. In my experience, if you're left with a screw or two, you've done something wrong.
Now that the SSD has been installed, keep the old hard drive in a safe place as a permanent backup copy. Or you can also use it with a USB-to-SATA adapter as a drive for your current backup. IN desktop computer, you can actually still use your old hard drive as a secondary hard drive if you have room for it inside your computer case.
Reboot your computer several times to allow the operating system to get used to the new SSD. Don't worry, your computer will now boot noticeably faster.
I'll show you how to change a HDD to a high-speed one SSD drive. I bought an SSD Samsung drive 850 Evo 250 GB. and installed it on my laptop. Then I installed Windows and all programs on the new SSD drive.
I bought my SSD drive Samsung 850 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III on AliExpress . At first I wanted to order this Samsung 750 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III (it is 120 GB and cheaper), but in the end I ordered 250 GB, although I could have done with 120 GB. The Samsung 850 EVO SSD arrived after about 12 days (the fastest product that came from AliExpress).
The parcel is well packed and sealed with polystyrene foam. Inside the box is plastic, and in it is an SSD drive.
Here are the specifications of this SSD drive. My reading speed tests, notes at the bottom of the page.
1. Copy all the information you need from your disk
If you, like me, have only one hard drive space in your laptop, then first copy all the information from your hard drive to your external drive or to another computer. Or buy . So that you can then connect your removed HDD drive via USB and download everything you need from it to your new SSD drive.
Here is a visual video of this adapter.
2. Remove the hard drive and install the SSD
Turn off the laptop, unplug the laptop from all wires, turn it over and remove the laptop battery. Now on back cover laptop, look for the inscription HDD - this is the place where your hard drive is installed. I have on Samsung laptop NP-R560 is on the bottom left. The hard drive is closed with a cover with two screws.
We unscrew these two screws securing the laptop hard drive.
Remove the cover covering the hard drive. There should be arrows on it showing in which direction you need to pull to move the cover.
Here is the hard drive of my laptop. It has an aluminum lid to help dissipate heat and has a pull tab to make it easier to remove. Simply grab this tab and pull it to the left to disconnect the hard drive from the connector.
Done, the hard drive is disconnected from the laptop and connectors. We lift it and put it aside.
This is what a laptop looks like without a disk.
Now insert the SSD drive into place HDD drive.
Carefully insert it in place of the old HDD drive. I also installed an aluminum plate from the old HDD on the new SSD.
Close the hard drive cover.
Tighten the screws of the lid.
Ready. Now we turn the laptop over, insert all the wires into it, put the battery back and turn on the laptop.
3. Install Windows on the new SSD
There is nothing on the new SSD drive and there is no OS (Windows) either, so now you need to install Windows on it. You will receive this error when you try to boot from a new SSD disk that does not yet have operating system Windows.
Partition table invalid or corrupted. Press any key to continue…
You need to insert your bootable USB flash drive and boot from it.
If you don’t have a bootable USB flash drive yet, it’s time to make one.
Here is a video on how to configure the BIOS for Windows installations from a bootable flash drive.
Now that there is bootable flash drive and loading occurs from it, then install Windows on the new SSD. We select our SSD, it will be marked as “Unallocated space on disk 0” and click “Next” and install Windows.
Copying will begin. Windows files, then prepare for installation, install components, install updates, complete. The computer will restart several times. After the first reboot, you can remove the bootable USB flash drive.
If you have never installed Windows via BIOS, then you will find a video on this topic.
After installing Windows on the new SSD drive, change the boot priority in the BIOS so that first Windows boot loader I searched on the SSD drive. Although if everything loads and works, then you don’t have to change anything. I'll go to BIOS, Boot - Boot Device priority.
And using the F5 or F6 key I will move the SSD disk to the very top so that it is searched first boot sector on the SSD disk, and then on other disks, if it was not detected on the SSD.
4. Comparison of SSD speed with HDD and USB drives
Using the CrystalDiskMark 3 program, I measured the writing and reading speed of my HDD drive even before removing it and replacing it with an SSD. The reading speed from it was approximately 100 MB/sec. when reading and writing sequentially.
SSD drives are solid-state devices designed for permanent data storage. They are resistant to harsh operating conditions, are many times faster and are designed to improve the quality of computer work compared to hard drives.
Choosing an SSD for an Asus laptop
When choosing a solid-state SSD drive, you need to pay attention to its capacity. Please note that the OS takes up about 35 GB of disk memory, so it is recommended to purchase devices with a capacity of 64 GB or more.
The SATA interface is used to connect the solid-state drive. Three types of interface are possible, which differ from each other in throughput (150 MB/s, 300 MB/s and 600 MB/s, respectively). Speed SSD operation disk directly depends on the type of interface.
Physical size installed in laptop HDD is usually 2.5"", therefore the SSD drive you purchase should be of a similar size.
Methods for installing an SSD drive in an Asus laptop
Some models have bays for installing multiple hard drives. In this case, installation solid state drive SSD will become the best option to install the operating system on it. If the laptop has one compartment, then solid state SSD You can replace the HDD installed by the manufacturer. Replacing the hard drive with a solid state drive significantly improves the stability and performance of the device.
Instructions for replacing HDD with SSD on an Asus laptop
Please note that the sequence of operations and the drive installation option may differ depending on the device model.
1. Purchase an SSD disk of the same physical size as the previously installed HDD.
2. Duplicate everything important information, stored on a laptop on an external drive.
3. Before replacing the HDD with an SSD, disconnect the laptop from the power supply and remove the battery.
4. Place the laptop on the table with the monitor facing down. Locate the HDD bay cover on the bottom of the case. As a rule, it is marked "HDD" or similar symbols.
5. Unscrew the screws, taking note of their locations, and remove the compartment cover.
7. Then unscrew the screws on the bay that secure the drive itself.
8. Carefully remove the hard drive.
9. Install the SSD into the bay in the same position as the old device.
10. Screw the drive to the bay and install the assembled unit in the laptop in its original place.
11. Check that all slots on the device are in their proper places. Gently press the SSD bay against the side slots and secure it with screws.
12. Replace the drive bay cover.
Finally, you need to check the functionality of the device. To do this you can connect mobile version OS on a flash drive. If the SSD drive is working correctly, the OS should start within 5-10 minutes. After successfully checking the functionality of the device, you can install or
