SSD options - various sizes + prices

The Continental Op · 16-06-2021 09:49PM

You can also use a "cradle" like that to clone the old drive to the new one. So its gets double use.

vicwatson · 16-06-2021 11:25PM

The Continental Op wrote: »

You can also use a "cradle" like that to clone the old drive to the new one. So its gets double use.

Cool. I had ordered a Sata cable but have just cancelled it. Thanks

ablelocks · 17-06-2021 11:54AM

TallGlass2 wrote: »

If you'd an extra 10£ to throw at it and a spare M.2 drive slot on the MB I would go with this;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Blue-SN550-High-Performance-Pcie/dp/B07YFFX5MD/ref=psdc_430505031_t1_B073SB2MXT

Plus you could then use the old SATA drive for extra storage as slower capacity drive.

Right best get out of here before I talk myself into buying an M.2 drive

do you have to move the os to the m2 drive or can it work just as a storage device?

The Continental Op · 17-06-2021 12:05PM

Of course you can use the m2 drive as just storage but afaik the point is you want your fastest drive for your main OS so using it as a storage device is a little pointless. However if you did that I think you could gain some benefit by moving your page file to the faster drive.

weemcd · 17-06-2021 12:15PM

I've a laptop that should be a great machine from a few years ago. i7 with 8gb of RAM but I think the HDD is seriously holding it back or may even have a fault. Windows update in particular grinds it to a halt every two or three times I use it.

I'm considering doing this with either a SATA drive or M2 drive. Must check if my laptop has the M2 option.

CelticRambler · 17-06-2021 12:29PM

weemcd wrote: »

I've a laptop that should be a great machine from a few years ago. i7 with 8gb of RAM but I think the HDD is seriously holding it back or may even have a fault. Windows update in particular grinds it to a halt every two or three times I use it.

I think that's more of a Windows problem than a HD - I have the same trouble, and am currently in the process of trying to recover from the latest unwanted, un-needed "enhanced" experience. :mad:

Kinda annoyed this alert didn't come up till this week, as I've only just bought a new 1TB external HD for 45€. It would have been handier to have bought the SSD and use the old SATA disk as an external drive.

Might still do it, although I'm not sure an SSD alone will give me the improved performance I need for video editing unless I also add more RAM, and not even sure the laptop can support much more than it already has ... Decisions, decisions ...

ohnonotgmail · 17-06-2021 12:29PM

weemcd wrote: »

I've a laptop that should be a great machine from a few years ago. i7 with 8gb of RAM but I think the HDD is seriously holding it back or may even have a fault. Windows update in particular grinds it to a halt every two or three times I use it.

I'm considering doing this with either a SATA drive or M2 drive. Must check if my laptop has the M2 option.

what model is it? should be easy to figure out the best option for it.

weemcd · 17-06-2021 12:36PM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

what model is it? should be easy to figure out the best option for it.

ACER Aspire A515-51 by the looks of it. My work laptop is lightning compared to my own. In particular installing Windows updates which makes me think the hard drive is holding it back. Constantly has high usage on the HDD, and about a year ago I formatted it, but still experience the same problems.

ohnonotgmail · 17-06-2021 12:49PM

weemcd wrote: »

ACER Aspire A515-51 by the looks of it. My work laptop is lightning compared to my own. In particular installing Windows updates which makes me think the hard drive is holding it back. Constantly has high usage on the HDD, and about a year ago I formatted it, but still experience the same problems.

some good info here. https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/537125/install-m2-ssd-on-aspire-5-a515-51g/p1

Seems you can use either NVME or M2 SSD

TallGlass2 · 17-06-2021 02:58PM

For people upgrading drives. If there are issues on the drive your moving from, I would highly recommend that you just format and load a new install of Windows OS on the new SSD/M.2 drive, yes there is a bit more work but it's manageable, just write down what programs you use and download them again, open a one drive account or USB stick your documents.

It will negate or leave behind (hopefully) any old crap that's not needed or any bad registery entry and so on.

weemcd · 17-06-2021 03:29PM

TallGlass2 wrote: »

For people upgrading drives. If there are issues on the drive your moving from, I would highly recommend that you just format and load a new install of Windows OS on the new SSD/M.2 drive, yes there is a bit more work but it's manageable, just write down what programs you use and download them again, open a one drive account or USB stick your documents.

It will negate or leave behind (hopefully) any old crap that's not needed or any bad registery entry and so on.

Could you point out the direction for doing that? I take it I'd need a separate serial number to activate Windows?

The Continental Op · 17-06-2021 04:25PM

weemcd wrote: »

Could you point out the direction for doing that? I take it I'd need a separate serial number to activate Windows?

I've done quite a bit of Cloning using the Acronis software with Crucial drives and the last couple of times I did that was because it saved me a load of hassle with windows activation.

The thing is you have a spare drive if you are upgrading the drive so you can keep the old drive untouched as a backup.

Start by finding you key with the free https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ . You can then download media creation tool https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10 and put the windows 10 installation files on a USB stick (do that with the old drive and installation running).

Then replace the HDD with you shiney new SSD and boot from the USB stick.

TallGlass2 · 17-06-2021 05:42PM

I think and I could be wrong on this one, been a while, you can link your Windows edition to your Microsoft account so in that event once you install Windows you activate it by logging into your account and selecting your old unsused licence as the new machine.

There are two more options, one is like mentioned pull the key from the computer using software or CMD you can get it also.

And or if you have an old Windows 7 machine with a licence key printed on it, these will still activate Windows 10 so it's worth checking for example you might find looking that your old Windows 7 key is for the professional version which will equate to Windows 10 Pro, so you might get a free upgrade if your just running the home edition.

Now use this one with caution! But if for example your work place used to use Windows 7 Professional and the key is still on the computer, chances are that will allow registration as your company has most likely moved to a volume license key system if they are now on a Windows 10 system.

weemcd · 17-06-2021 06:15PM

Might have to give this a go lads. Cheers for the input.

onrail · 17-06-2021 06:47PM

Maybe a stupid question, but my laptop was shipped with a 256GB M.2 SSD. It runs fine with no issues whatsoever, but I'd like a bit more storage, so the 1TB offers seem ideal.

I think (but not sure) that the laptop has a spare m.2 slot. Should I just go and install a new SSD to the spare slot, or clone my OS to the newer, larger capacity drive?

The Continental Op · 17-06-2021 06:56PM

In your case then just put in a 1TB M.2 drive and use it for storage.

You could check what drive you already have and check its speed out to see if its particularly slow just in case its worth swapping out.

Run> MSINFO32 > Components > Storage > Disks and you should find the full model number of the installed drive so you can find out if its worth upgrading - probably not.

The Continental Op · 19-06-2021 08:17AM

Just a quick update that the Crucial BX500 480 GB CT480BX500SSD1-Up to 540 MB/s (Internal SSD, 3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch), Black at £34.83
is still available. Seems to be the best deal for an SSD on Amazon.co.uk atm.

Please post anymore you might see.

Maybe Prime day will see some more?

wingnut · 19-06-2021 08:36AM

TallGlass2 wrote: »

For people upgrading drives. If there are issues on the drive your moving from, I would highly recommend that you just format and load a new install of Windows OS on the new SSD/M.2 drive, yes there is a bit more work but it's manageable, just write down what programs you use and download them again, open a one drive account or USB stick your documents.

It will negate or leave behind (hopefully) any old crap that's not needed or any bad registery entry and so on.

I do a clean install of windows at least twice a year helps it running smooth as butter.

vicwatson · 29-06-2021 01:46PM

The Continental Op wrote: »

You can also use a "cradle" like that to clone the old drive to the new one. So its gets double use.

When you've taken out the old hard drive how do you use it as an external drive? Just format it or?

The Continental Op · 29-06-2021 02:23PM

Some people format others hang on to the disc at least for while as it's a full backup.

vicwatson · 29-06-2021 06:30PM

The Continental Op wrote: »

Some people format others hang on to the disc at least for while as it's a full backup.

Is it as simple as plugging in the usb and “format”?

loki7777 · 29-06-2021 06:41PM

vicwatson wrote: »

Is it as simple as plugging in the usb and “format”?

Yes.

The Continental Op · 29-06-2021 09:11PM

loki7777 wrote: »

Yes.

Normally. But worth looking at the disk in Windows Disk Manager first and checking if there are any system or repair partitions that can be deleted to give you more disk space.

vicwatson · 29-06-2021 09:43PM

Thanks great advice

The Continental Op · 02-07-2021 09:13AM

Another small bargain with added potential. This time a cable I can recommend for upgrading your HDD to SSD or upgrading to a larger/faster SSD.

The great thing here is that the cable allows you to use a free version of Acronis True Image so you can use the cable to clone your old drive to any new drive. Crucial drives also have a free version of Acronis True Image that only works with Crucial drives so this cable allows you freedom to use any combination of drives and the software.

Sabrent USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5-Inch SATA I/II/III Hard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD) £5.24

I paid £8.99 for the same cable 3 years ago.

Johnny Storm · 02-07-2021 09:56AM

The Continental Op wrote: »

The option in the software to use is to Clone the drive.

That way anything on one physical drive is copied to the other. If you have windows 10 you will have a hidden system partition needed to boot the computer and Cloning copies all that.

The drives don't need to be the same size you can clone from a larger drive to a smaller one provided the amount of data on the larger disk is less than the size of the smaller disk.

Even if it fails (very rare) you still have the original drive you can put back.

Thanks to The Continental Op for the very helpful info.
Just for other people who might be trying the same thing's info it is not always 100% smooth sailing.
I ran into a problem which seems to be that my original HDD is "dynamic" and that Acronis free software wont clone it.
I'll probably do a clean install of Windows (more thanks to The Continental Op for instructions!). I think the only downside to that might be missing some OEM drivers - I'm sure I can then those from the OEM website.

The Continental Op · 02-07-2021 10:23AM

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Thanks to The Continental Op for the very helpful info.
Just for other people who might be trying the same thing's info it is not always 100% smooth sailing.
I ran into a problem which seems to be that my original HDD is "dynamic" and that Acronis free software wont clone it.
I'll probably do a clean install of Windows (more thanks to The Continental Op for instructions!). I think the only downside to that might be missing some OEM drivers - I'm sure I can then those from the OEM website.

Unfortunetly you are correct about not being able to clone Dynminic disks. Worthwhile people checking in Disk Manager if the disk they want to clone is a Basic Disk or Dynamic Disk

From Acronis website https://kb.acronis.com/content/56634

Almost all the upgrades I have done have been from slower mechanical HDD's on old laptops to SSD's and I've not yet seen a Dynamic disk in that senario.

I did spend many hours on one machine I was giving away to someone which failed to boot after cloning (tried iirc about 6 times) turned out to be a driver issue. The problem was that the original HDD didn't need the SSD driver to boot as there was no SSD drive. When I eventually installed the latest motherboard software before cloning everything went smoothly.

Edit> Aomei backuppper claims to do dynamic disks. The free trail version has the Clone function disabled but I have seen fully functional offers occasinally. I've just tried the key at https://www.techno360.in/aomei-backupper-pro-free/#gsc.tab=0 which while out of date enables my trial version - seems legit and not a pirate site?

Mango Joe · 02-07-2021 01:39PM

Thanks for this OP.

Does anyone know why these are capped at 2 per Customer?

Seems to be a new think Amazon are doing... It's very annoying.....

Wouldn't you think a retailer of this size would be happier to sell 10 of these at roughly the same shipping cost?

It's confusing and irritating!

ozmo · 15-07-2021 10:55PM

There is a new type of bitcoin that uses ssd space rather than cpu power- that is hoovering up all the drives- so its good amazon limit to two drives.

For cloning - cloning from a harddrive to ssd is easiest- but may result in a not as fast pc. Last time i looked at it there were two issues…

One is the fact that ssd sectors are slightly off from old harddrives so you could end up requesting two sectors to get one sector of data.

second is that not all services are needed anymore(like disc defrag and various prefetching ) a fresh install of windows will detect this and not enable them.

The Continental Op · 15-07-2021 11:21PM

There are no issues I have come across from cloning except failures due to my own stupidity (needed motherboard driver installed to get SSD driver installed). Windows 10 recognises a SSD drive as soon as you connect it and the Defragment option switches to the Trim option. If that doesn't happen you can still change it manually https://www.systoolsgroup.com/how-to/disable-enable-ssd-trim-function-windows/

SSD options - various sizes + prices

Comments