Ssd Question

Dumb question, to upgrade to a SSD drive do you just remove the existing HD and replace it with the SSD? I know the bios probably be reset for the replacement. Went on Google and am still not 100% clear, needed some expert advice. T.I.A.

 

Ordinarily, no BIOS reset is required. Simply clone the old drive to the new one, and make sure the SSD you are purchasing has enough space (*and free space) to accommodate the clone.

Or, you could just do a clean install and transfer what you want from the old drive. If the old drive is in good shape, you can use it for storage as plodr suggested, just make sure you wipe it clean when you're done with something like AOMEI. You don't want two of the same install booting side by side.

 

Thanks for the helpful advice.Another dumb question what is the procedure for a clean install, does the transfer occur during the install?

 

During the clean install to your SSD, it won't automatically transfer your files from your old SSD. After your installation, you would add the old HDD to your PC as an extra drive, then you would drag and drop whatever documents, pictures and music you wanted to keep onto your SSD and only after double checking to make sure you saved everything you wanted, would you wipe it clean.

 

Also, only data can be transferred from drive to drive manually. If you want to bring over applications from the old drive, you'll need migration software for that.

 

Thanks. Could you suggest a migration program?

 

I like AOMEI, but there are many others like Todo and Easeus.

Your easiest solution is to simply clone your old drive over to the new one. In effect, you make an exact copy of your current windows installation.

 

Thanks, is there a difference between migration and cloning?

 

Todo is an EaseUS product: (http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easeus_todo_backup_free_edition.html)

EaseUS offers other software, like Disk Copy. (http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easeus_disk_copy.html)

I do use EaseUS Todo backup to make regular full images of my drives. It does a good job.

To my knowledge, migration and cloning are pretty much the same thing when it comes to this scenario . . . but migrate might be a better term (Migrate is also used when copying a hard drive to another, larger capacity drive). Cloning your drive would indicate you intend to keep two identical OS drives (or a mirror drive, just to confuse you more), but of course that's not the intent here.

Many SSD's come with software that do the migration/clone for you. My Samsung EVO did, and the migration/clone/copy went without a hitch. It's a sound idea to create a backup of your main drive as a fail safe no matter what software you use to copy the drive to the new SSD. Always have a plan B . . . a way to restore your existing drive should a catastrophic failure occur (and they can).

 

Perhaps that should have been "Todo/EaseUS".

As Spad pointed out, and I agree; ALWAYS have a Plan B...

 

This is a great thread. I searched the forums to find a recommendation for data migration software (HDD to a much larger SDD), because the Samsung Data Migration tool isn't working for me (and apparently a lot of other people). In my research, I ran across EaseUS, Todo but not AOMEI. I wasn't sure if the EaseUS Todo freeware was legit, so I was nervous about trying it without recommendation from independent sources. Does anyone have any opinions about which is better, AOMEI or Todo? The feature I really liked in the Samsung software was the ability to very easily size the partitions in the target drive by just sliding a bar to the left or right. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm excited about using my new drive.

 

Here's a free professional program.
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/requirements.html

 

Thank you, have you used it yourself? If so, how was your experience with it?

 

I use Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 and Partition Manager 8.5. I got both in 2007.
Using Drive Backup, I made a bootable backup on a DVD which is slow compared to a HDD. And yet I could restore Windows, SP3, MS Office, .NET Framework 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, and a handfull of programs in 20 minutes.
Paragon's software is second to none.

 

Thank you so much for your time and recommendation!