SSD drive for Dell Laptop

denwyn

I have a dell laptop about 18 months old, it came with win 8.1 which is awful, have just put Win 10 on, and after a few problems with WiFi it's running fine. How easy is it to swap the hard drive for SSD drive, I'm ok changing drives, but is there an easy way of moving everything from existing hard drive to new SSD. I have no disc with Windows at all. The Dell came from Dell themselves with no discs. I would like a mirror image if what's on it now if possible. It's just set up with Windows 10 and Sophos Anti virus. If it's difficult to do I may leave it as it is or take it to PC world to do. Any advice aporeciated

denwyn

Oops. Forgot to say the Win 10 is the free download version

AndyPix

Please please for the love of christ DO NOT take it to PC world .. Ever


Dell dont provide re-install media with their machines by default anymore , but if you ring them, and give them the service tag of your machine, they will post you a USB key with the OS on to re-install it ..


However, this will be the original OS which will be windows 8.1 ..


As you are changing the drive, its messy as to wether you can just install windows 10 fresh and activate it, read here : http://www.windowscentral.com/how-re-activate-windows-10-after-hardware-change


It may be worth just going through the upgrade process again.


Backup all your stuff to an external HDD or USB stick or whatever before you begin obviously.


Your not really going to be able to clone your current drive onto a new ssd without huge headaches.


Oh, and dont take it to pc world - they are a bunch of kids who charge the earth and know nothing

Chrishazle

I did this recently to my wife's 4-5 year old Dell Inspiron 1720 Win 7 pro machine. Bought a USB HDD dock from Novatech, cloned her existing C drive onto the SSD then removed the original HDD and installed the SSD. Took a little time, but quite easy to do.

AndyPix

What cloning software did you use to do that out of interest ?
Was the SSD the same size (capacity wise) as the HDD ??

Heedtheadvice

When I read the original post my first thought was
'oh no don't take it to that well known shop!!!!!!'

Problem is when you are not skilled and do not know.........

Fightsback

Two Options:

1) Clone method:

Clone the HDD to SSD using Macrium reflect via a caddy

2 ) New install

As your machine is now W10 activated you can just pop the SSD into the Dell in place of the HDD and install Win 10 afresh from a downloaded Win 10 iso directly from Microsoft. This will not trigger a telephone reactivation as a HDD change is permitted.

Come back when you have bought the SSD and someone here can walk you through either process. If you require advice on what SSD to buy and where people here will be happy to advise.

Do you have an 8gb (or greater) USB memory stick spare if you wish to go clean install ?

letsbehonest

I replaced the HDD on my Dell Latitude with a Samsung EVO 850 SSD which came with software to clone the orig HD, all I had to buy extra was a cheap lead from amazon which connects the laptop to the SSD to perform the clone then all you do is swap them over.

qsk

Chrishazle wrote: »

I did this recently to my wife's 4-5 year old Dell Inspiron 1720 Win 7 pro machine. Bought a USB HDD dock from Novatech, cloned her existing C drive onto the SSD then removed the original HDD and installed the SSD. Took a little time, but quite easy to do.

How do you find the performance improvement?
I have an old Inspiron 1520 (Windows 7 home) which is very slow by current standard. I am wondering whether if it is worthwhile to upgrade it to SSD?

Heedtheadvice

Your not really going to be able to clone your current drive onto a new ssd without huge headaches.

Andy, interested to know why you add that comment?

I have just added an SSD from SK Hynix to my PC, used their software (Macrium based it transpires) to clone the required partitions following their guide and it has been a doddle. On win 10 latest version. Bit of reading/downloading and then 40 minutes to clone.

OK needed to download a bit and install it first and open the pc box but easy for anyone to do provided they can follow instructions, with the proviso that the disk memory used is not exceeding the new ssd capacity (it auto copes with smaller partition sizes if the new ssd is smaller than the current partitions) and access the bios to change the boot drive if needs be..........

So it might be good if you would explain for forum readers where the problems might arise.

paddyrg

qsk wrote: »

How do you find the performance improvement?
I have an old Inspiron 1520 (Windows 7 home) which is very slow by current standard. I am wondering whether if it is worthwhile to upgrade it to SSD?

Personal experience - MASSIVE boost. It's like breathing pure oxygen after being up a mountain breathing smog through a straw. Now I did it on an i5 that was really irritating me with startup speeds on the 4200RPM drive (low-power demands but slow). I used to avoid reboots, now (and with W10) the machine will be rebooted before I can even switch the kettle on, compared with having time to make a cup of tea.