Upgrade or new

slinga

My Dell Inspiron desktop is 6 years old.
It doesn't have a SSD.


I'm considering adding an SSD and I've watched some stuff on youtube. I think I can do it.


But how to move my programmes etc from the HDD to the SSD looks a bit too complicated. Is there a quick and easy way I haven't yet seen?




Other alternative is to buy a new desktop with a SSD and HDD, which isn't a big deal for me.


But would I still have to transfer all my info etc and is there an easy way to do that?? I assume that programmes etc would have to be installed by me on the new desktop rather than transfer from the old desktop..

EveryWhere

Two choices; Clone the drive and then simply swap them over or install the SSD and use that as the main drive and the HDD as secondary internal storage.

EveryWhere

What is the Service Tag or Express Code on the DELL?

agrinnall

You can clone the content of your HDD onto the SSD (although I'm not sure if it's possible if the HDD is bigger than the SSD). But personally I wouldn't bother, I'd just download and install programs on the SSD - I've just done it myself with a new computer. The only real issue is if you use a single licence version of something like Office, in which case you may have to uninstall it from the old drive first.



And if, like me, you use Firefox and/or Thunderbird use MozBackup to copy your profile and emails to make it easy to set up on the new drive.

Frozen_up_north

slinga wrote: »

My Dell Inspiron desktop is 6 years old.
It doesn't have a SSD.

I'm considering adding an SSD and I've watched some stuff on youtube. I think I can do it.

But how to move my programmes etc from the HDD to the SSD looks a bit too complicated. Is there a quick and easy way I haven't yet seen

Crucial have the tools to help you, at least part of the way. In the first instance they have a guarantee that the SSD they supply will physically fit if you use their compatibility tool (software you download to check your PC) and secondly they supply (via a download link) a copy of Acronis cloning software to copy your existing HDD.

Cloning the drive will transfer everything “warts and all”, you should clear any junk first. The Dell Support Assistant program, which is probably installed on your PC, will do that for you. Cloning takes surprisingly little time, although it’s much faster using a USB 3 socket (or SATA), rather than USB 2.

You do not necessarily need an SSD the size of your HDD, but obviously if you have used 3/4 of a 500GB drive the contents won’t fit a 250GB SSD. Check how much is used on your HDD and err on the side of caution, leaving plenty for future use, Windows updates, etc.

You may need a spare SATA cable, or USB to SATA cable/caddy in order to use both drives at the same time when cloning.

Crucial have helpful guides online and a UK telephone support line:

https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/ssd

slinga

Thanks to all.


I checked what was needed through Crucial.


I only wanted to transfer the operating programmes to the SSD and use the HDD to store photos videos etc.


I currently use 300 Gb of storage on my HDD out of a possible 931 Gb of available space. so a 250Gb SSD would do the trick?


Is the 70Gb of used space on my HDD used for stuff like Firefox or is it stuff that is needed to operate things?
edit. I see that is inside the Apps and features storage space. So what is the 70Gb used for?



Will the SSD come with a programme to allow me to download Firefox etc??
What about Win 10

Frozen_up_north

Cloning copies an exact copy of the HDD to the SSD, it will work without appearing any different to your existing setup. The current Windows installation and passwords are not changed.

You cannot squeeze 300GB into a 250GB SSD... if you want to copy everything then you will need around a 500GB SSD. Although saved images, movies, etc. are perhaps more economically stored on an outboard backup drive (you should have a separate backup of anything important anyway).

BTW, 300GB is a lot of used space, my PC and laptop use less than 90GB.

googler

For the Operating System (presume Windows) - install it from CD/DVD, if you have one, or get a CD from Dell.

Likewise, get the drivers for the machine from the Dell website

For the programs - if you have an install disc for them, then install them fresh from the discs. If you downloaded them from the internet, then make a checklist and work through this to download them fresh from the makers' websites once the new SSD is in.

For your data - music, photos, word docs, spreadsheets, etc. - make a few copies on USB, external drive, flash cards etc. and copy them back once you're done.

Download WinDirStat now, and run it against the current drive to see what's using the space. This should tell you what you need to copy/save, and what can be disposed of.

slinga

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Cloning copies an exact copy of the HDD to the SSD, it will work without appearing any different to your existing setup. The current Windows installation and passwords are not changed.

You cannot squeeze 300GB into a 250GB SSD... if you want to copy everything then you will need around a 500GB SSD. Although saved images, movies, etc. are perhaps more economically stored on an outboard backup drive (you should have a separate backup of anything important anyway).

BTW, 300GB is a lot of used space, my PC and laptop use less than 90GB.

I meant to add that 200Gb of the 300Gb used space is in fact video and pictures. These would be left on the HDD.

So 100Gb of apps should fit onto a 250Gb SSD.

I see no one is commenting as to whether a new desktop might be a better option than upgrading a 6 year old computer.

stragglebod

slinga wrote: »

I meant to add that 200Gb of the 300Gb used space is in fact video and pictures. These would be left on the HDD.

So 100Gb of apps should fit onto a 250Gb SSD.

The drive cloning apps clone the whole partition, so you could copy the videos and pictures off to an external drive - preferably 2 external drives in case one fails - and delete from the hard drive. Then copy back to the mechanical drive after cloning and swapping. But 500Gb SSDs are so cheap these days you may as well just keep it simple and buy a big enough SSD.

slinga wrote: »

I see no one is commenting as to whether a new desktop might be a better option than upgrading a 6 year old computer.

That's because no one knows, since you haven't told us what you use if for or what's wrong with what you've got at the moment.

EveryWhere

stragglebod wrote: »

The drive cloning apps clone the whole partition, so you could copy the videos and pictures off to an external drive - preferably 2 external drives in case one fails - and delete from the hard drive. Then copy back to the mechanical drive after cloning and swapping. But 500Gb SSDs are so cheap these days you may as well just keep it simple and buy a big enough SSD.

That's because no one knows, since you haven't told us what you use if for or what's wrong with what you've got at the moment.

Nor has he bothered to post the Service Tag/Express code, as requested in post #3
So we have no idea of the spec.
I guess some people like to do everything on their terms, but still expect to get the answer that they want. I'm out.