Friday, March 29, 2024

Turbocharge your laptop by installing an SSD yourself

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Laptops are difficult to upgrade in a meaningful way. In many cases, the processor, motherboard, and video card are installed as a one-package setup. If one component fails, you can’t simply swap it out — you’ll need to replace the whole trio, which can be timely and expensive. Typically the only components you can manually upgrade are RAM and storage.

A good way to improve your laptop’s performance is to swap out its mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) for a solid-state drive (SSD). It doesn’t change how quickly software runs — that’s all on the CPU. Instead, it improves the speed in which software loads, and the speed in which software juggles data. That makes a PC feel much faster.

Better still, an SSD isn’t difficult to install. You can upgrade most laptops on a kitchen table using just a screwdriver. If you have both items ready to roll, you can get started.

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How to pick the right solid-state drive

Since this is not a buying guide, we won’t recommend specific SSDs here. Instead, you can find more information about purchasing an SSD in our buying guide and our comparison between SSDs and traditional hard disks. Just be sure you buy an SSD that actually fits in your laptop.

There are two standard formats for laptop SSDs: 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch.

Of the pair, the 2.5-inch drive is by far the most common. Smaller 1.8-inch drives are found in some new laptops that offer an SSD as standard equipment, but they can be modified to fit 2.5-inch bays if desired. Given that this is an upgrade guide, that’s presumably not what you have, so a 2.5-inch drive is what you’ll need in most cases.

Some Ultrabooks have extremely thin drive bays that won’t fit a standard 2.5-inch drive. In those cases, you’ll need an SSD that’s 7 millimeters thick or less. Be prepared to hunt for these slimmer drives because retailers do a poor job of advertising these products. You may need to call the retailer or look up the specifications on the manufacturer’s website.

How to prepare for installation

There are two ways to handle the data on your existing hard drive.

First, you can back up important files and start over with a new operating system install — just make sure you have an install disc or an external hard drive. These methods are simple solutions, but they can be time-consuming. That said, once you install the new drive, you’ll need to reinstall the operating system and then restore your backed-up files.

The second option is to clone your drive and copy all data from your existing drive to the new one — operating system included. It’s quick but requires more technical knowledge, and will only work if the new drive has equal or greater capacity than the old one. In this case, you just install the cloned drive in your laptop and boot as normal.

However, to clone your current drive, you’ll need a SATA to USB adapter. Connect your new solid-state drive to the SATA/USB adapter, then plug the adapter into a USB port on your laptop. Your laptop should detect your new SSD as an external hard drive.

Cloning is not as simple as dragging and dropping files. Everything must be copied, including portions of the drive that allow Windows to use it as a boot device. A growing number of SSD manufacturers bundle cloning software with their devices, but if you’re on your own, check out Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, and Paragon Drive Copy.

If you don’t want to pay, try MiniTool, Clonezilla, and Acronis. Just remember that free software may not offer customer support if you are confused about the software or how it works.

If you do clone your drive, make sure to back up essential data anyway as cloning is not 100% reliable.

How to perform the installation

Find a level surface with good lighting where you can work without distractions. Place your laptop upside-down with the power unplugged and battery out, if possible.

You should see a plastic cut-out panel in the bottom, which is covered by multiple screws. Some laptops will have two panels, in which case you should remove the one marked by the hard drive symbol, an engraving that looks like three stacked discs.

A few laptops have no cut-out, which means you’ll have to take the entire bottom off and involves far more screws. Make sure you keep track of them too — a Ziploc bag works best because it keeps the screws together so they don’t roll off the table.

Once you remove the screws, gently pry the cut-out panel off with a sharp object. You’re up a creek without a paddle if that panel breaks, so don’t be forceful — just lift it up gently. If one section seems stubborn, try loosening another side instead.

With the panel off, the hard drive is exposed. In a modern laptop, hard drives are typically covered by metal brackets or metallic wrap with a tab attached. Pull the tab gently out and up to remove the drive. Some laptops will have a loose connector, in which case the cable and SATA connector will begin to go with the drive. Detach it.

If your laptop uses a bracket, you’ll notice the drive is secured to the bracket by screws (usually four). Remove them to detach the drive, then place your new SSD into the bracket and use the same screws you removed to secure it. If your laptop doesn’t use a bracket, simply discard any wrap used by the previous drive.

Now slide the drive back into the bay and plug it in the SATA connector used by the old drive. Remember, SATA connectors have a straight or L-shaped plug, which makes it very difficult to install incorrectly. You shouldn’t need to use much force if you’re installing the new drive correctly.

Replace the panel, replace the screws, and you’re done.

How to use your new drive

If you opted for reinstalling your operating system, the next step is simple: Pop in your installation disk or recovery disk and reinstall. There’s nothing special to do. Just follow the steps suggested by the installation wizard.

What if you don’t have an optical drive? You can usually reinstall the operating system from a thumb drive, external hard drive, or other storage methods. For Windows, you’ll need another PC to download the operating system from Microsoft. Once you begin the installation, Windows will refer to the license key embedded in your laptop’s motherboard.

If you have a different version of Windows, you can use BurnAware Free to make a boot disc from your existing Windows disk. You can use the same software to turn a drive cloning software disc into a bootable thumb drive file.

Those who cloned their drive typically don’t need to do anything extra — just boot and go. However, you may see an interface to finalize the clone, making it bootable for your PC.

Finally, your new hard drive doesn’t need an additional driver installation to function. However, it may come with a disc of software tools for easy drive management. If no disc was shipped, as might be the case, if you purchased a bare drive, you can download the software from the manufacturer’s support page.

That’s it — your new SSD is installed to provide you with lightning-quick software load times. Enjoy!

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