Getting ready to install SSD

Frozen_up_north

Retired at 50, you seem to tackled the simple job of swapping to an SSD in the hardest way possible, not helped by the "re-build your system from scratch" advice.

While a clean install is no doubt a great benefit, may I suggest the easiest method by a country mile is to follow the instructions offered by Crucial (who are sellers of memory and SSD drives)... they suggest putting the old drive in a USB caddy and using Acronis backup software (they supply a copy for this purpose) to transfer the contents to the SSD drive. I recently installed an SSD from Crucial into my Asus laptop, the whole job took less than an hour.

I can, of course, do a complete fresh install over this older one on the new drive, back up everything to an external drive, etc.

The bottom line is that swapping to an SSD is very easy, not to be confused by a complete re-build from a generic version of Windows, including try to find drivers... the recommended method to re-build the O/S on a laptop is by using the disks originally supplied or the restore facility in the case of many laptops these days.

Retired_at_55

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Retired at 50, you seem to tackled the simple job of swapping to an SSD in the hardest way possible, not helped by the "re-build your system from scratch" advice.

While a clean install is no doubt a great benefit, may I suggest the easiest method by a country mile is to follow the instructions offered by Crucial (who are sellers of memory and SSD drives)... they suggest putting the old drive in a USB caddy and using Acronis backup software (they supply a copy for this purpose) to transfer the contents to the SSD drive. I recently installed an SSD from Crucial into my Asus laptop, the whole job took less than an hour.

I can, of course, do a complete fresh install over this older one on the new drive, back up everything to an external drive, etc.

The bottom line is that swapping to an SSD is very easy, not to be confused by a complete re-build from a generic version of Windows, including try to find drivers... the recommended method to re-build the O/S on a laptop is by using the disks originally supplied or the restore facility in the case of many laptops these days.

Thanks very much for replying, Frozen_up-north. As I mentioned earlier I really am quite out of my depth.

I thought this was all part of installing the SSD procedure. This afternoon I (hope) I am on the last lap of following the help and advice given by EveryWhere. I have just a few more Drivers to install (if they are successful)


I know it's not 'magic' (!) but I keep checking and hoped maybe by this time in the 'Devices and Printers that the icon for my W 8.1 laptop yellow triangle with black exclamation mark warning - troubleshoot. - 'Unknown device - no driver' would have disappeared - but it's still there.


If it all works in the end I'll be so pleased. I'll soldier on for now and, I hope, I'm nearly there - thank you very much, again. I'm really unskilled (technically) and it's a bit of a 'shock' to my system. I'll post back later, thanks.


Retired at 55

poppellerant

This is how I would install a new SSD drive in a laptop:

1. Buy a SATA to USB caddy
2. Backup all your essential data to a USB flash drive and/or to CD/DVD
3. Download Windows 10 from Microsoft and also copy this to a USB drive and/or DVD drive
4. Remove existing hard drive from laptop and install into the caddy, then set to one side
5. Install SSD drive into laptop
6. Use the Windows 10 installation media to install Windows 10
7. Use Snappy Driver Installer Origin to quickly and easily install the latest drivers for practically all your hardware
8. Install your programs, customising each one to avoid bloating the laptop
9. Restore your data
10. Enjoy!

Steps 2 and 3 can be performed while you wait for your caddy to arrive.

Retired_at_55

poppellerant wrote: »

This is how I would install a new SSD drive in a laptop:

1. Buy a SATA to USB caddy
2. Backup all your essential data to a USB flash drive and/or to CD/DVD
3. Download Windows 10 from Microsoft and also copy this to a USB drive and/or DVD drive
4. Remove existing hard drive from laptop and install into the caddy, then set to one side
5. Install SSD drive into laptop
6. Use the Windows 10 installation media to install Windows 10
7. Use Snappy Driver Installer Origin to quickly and easily install the latest drivers for practically all your hardware
8. Install your programs, customising each one to avoid bloating the laptop
9. Restore your data
10. Enjoy!

Steps 2 and 3 can be performed while you wait for your caddy to arrive.

Thank you for this information and for taking time to reply.

Right now the second last of Drivers is being downloaded - another 20 minutes or so to go) then I'm going out for a breath air and a bit of a break. The last download failed so I'm hoping it's a success this time.

Retired at 55

poppellerant

Retired_at_55 wrote: »

Thank you for this information and for taking time to reply.

Right now the second last of Drivers is being downloaded - another 20 minutes or so to go) then I'm going out for a breath air and a bit of a break. The last download failed so I'm hoping it's a success this time.

Retired at 55

No problem, just as long as you aware that there are easier methods available to you.

I see what you mean about downloading the drivers - I would say slow and unreliable, but you will get there if you persist.

Retired_at_55

poppellerant wrote: »

No problem, just as long as you aware that there are easier methods available to you.

I see what you mean about downloading the drivers - I would say slow and unreliable, but you will get there if you persist.

The last two downloads 'failed' - I really need to have a break now - my non technical brain is weary! Thank you for replying.


Retired at 55

poppellerant

Retired_at_55 wrote: »

The last two downloads 'failed' - I really need to have a break now - my non technical brain is weary! Thank you for replying.


Retired at 55

I only seem to having a problem downloading display-20131016101804.zip - I don't think the file size helps, especially when coming from such a slow server.

dipsomaniac

4 pages to switch a drive?

Frozen_up_north

The huge problem with laptops that came with Windows 8 (or Win 7), is there may not be compatible drivers for Windows 10. I don't know about Toshiba, but my OH has an Acer that I updated to Win 10, it produces an error on booting which is related to either the backlight or battery, basically the auto dimmer when on battery. I contacted Acer Support about a Windows 10 driver and was told they didn't support Win 10 on that model. I had a similar issue with my Asus. In both cases the workaround was to disable the driver, not ideal but it stopped the error messages.

A friend who was head of IT in a large organisation said to be very wary of updating laptops unless the manufacturer specifically states the particular model is compatible, as drivers for laptops can be a big problem.

I assume your old hard drive is still in it's original state, so you could return the laptop to its previous state by swapping drives? In which case you haven't reached a point of no return.

dipsomaniac

I have put win10 on 2 x laptops running xp with no problems