Swapped hard drive for solid state drive

[jdandy]

My new Samsung EVO 860 1TB solid state drive arrived. I have been planning on replacing my office desktop computer's C: drive, a 1TB Hitachi 7200 RPM hard drive. The computer has two 1TB hard drives installed. The second hard drive is for backup.

I was inspired to give this installation a try after watching a YouTube video channel called ExplainingComputers.



Christopher explains the hard drive cloning process and recommends a specific cloning software (Macrium Reflect) that can be downloaded free at http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree . The video is educational and worth watching if you are considering upgrading a hard drive to a solid state drive.

The cloning of my C: drive to the SSD was straight forward. I opened the desktop computer, disconnected the power and SATA cables from my backup hard drive, connected them to the Samsung SSD, then followed the instruction in the YouTube video on how to use Macrium Reflect cloning software. It was easy, and 2 hours and 1 minute later the complete clone of my C: drive was complete. I removed the SSD from the backup drive cables, reconnected that hard drive, removed the C: drive, then installed the SSD in a Corsair dual SSD mounting bracket that allows the 2 1/2" SSD to be installed in a full size hard drive cavity. Once slid in place and secured I connected the power and SATA cable, crossed my fingers and pressed the computer's power button. My desktop computer booted up immediately, fully configured as it was from the hard drive, all applications, files, wallpaper, app icons, even the task bar icons were intact, identically located and functioning properly. Microsoft Office and Norton 360 migrated properly, as well.

Did I mention this Samsung 860 EVO SSD is FAST? My boot time is now less than 30 seconds. My log-in screen appears in 12 seconds. Applications open so quick it is almost like they were already open and minimized. Web pages pop up faster, documents, files, pdf's, and photos appear immediately. This has produced a pleasant upgrade to my office desktop computer. Even the shut down is quick at about 8 seconds. Quite remarkable. Now my Hitachi 1TB hard drive is stored in the closet and will become my rescue drive if I ever need to recover from some catastrophic issue.

I got the Samsung SSD and mounting bracket from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch...8159&sr=8-2&keywords=samsung+1tb+ssd+internal . They just lowered the price to $127.98 a couple days ago. It had been $149.98 before that. The Corsair mounting bracket was $7.77 https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Dual...sr=8-4&keywords=internal+ssd+mounting+bracket , and 2-day Prime shipping was free. For less than $136.00 I am now enjoying the remarkable speed improvement of this new solid state drive.

I also purchased a USB to SATA adapter https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com...r=8-3&keywords=usb+to+sata+adapter+with+power in case I might need it in the future on a computer with only a single hard drive, or a laptop without an internal SATA cable and power connector. Since I was able to open my desktop computer and make use of the backup hard drive's SATA and power connectors I did not need to use the USB to SATA adapter, but still a good connector to own. Booting my computer this morning was so quick. Everything is moving along nicely and loading considerably faster. This hard drive upgrade is well worth the time and meager expense in my opinion.

 

[nc42acc]

Great job Dan doing that yourself! All my office PCs have a SSD boot drive for the reasons you outlined above. We are using regular drives as the storage portion.

 

[jdandy]

I am getting to be a pro at swapping hard drives for solid state drives. This afternoon a new 500GB Samsung SSD arrived. Using the Macrium Reflect cloning software and a SATA to USB 3.0 adapter I cloned the 500 GB Toshiba 7200 RPM hard drive in the Sony Vaio laptop to the new Samsung SSD. The process was perfect and with a few screws removed the hard drive was lifted from the Vaio and the SSD was installed. I crossed my fingers, pressed the laptop power button, and within moments Windows booted and everything was exactly as it had been when the Toshiba hard drive was installed.

I like having a solid state hard drive in the laptop. I always worried when I moved the laptop while it was running with a spinning hard drive inside. I don't think it would take much of a bump or jar to have the hard drive head hit the spinning platter, thus damaging the hard drive or the read/write head. With a solid state hard drive in place, handling the laptop while it is operating is no longer an issue. It makes good sense to me to have an SSD in place of a hard drive in any laptop. Now my Sony Vaio is booting faster, apps, files, and photos load in a snap, and my stress over damaging the hard drive while moving the laptop while running has vanished. I suspect my battery life will be extended, too. I also ordered a new battery for the Vaio laptop. Once it arrives and is installed the Sony Vaio will be better than new running the latest Windows 10 Creator edition OS on a new SSD with a new battery. Life is good.

 

[nicoff]

Really cool. Thanks for sharing.

I have an older (2011) iMac with a HD probably not worth it considering age and the new processors being much faster. I did get a new windows machine with SSD and it is amazingly fast but it also has a near top of the line fast processor.

 

[jdandy]

Really cool. Thanks for sharing.

I have an older (2011) iMac with a HD probably not worth it considering age and the new processors being much faster. I did get a new windows machine with SSD and it is amazingly fast but it also has a near top of the line fast processor.

nicoff.......My Sony Vaio laptop was purchased in 2011. It is seven years old and still benefited from the installation of the SSD today. It isn't necessarily the processor speed that hamstrings pages opening or files being accessed. It is the hard drive read/write speeds that are typically the performance bottleneck. Replacing the 500 GB hard drive in the Sony Vaio with the Samsung 500 GB SSD boosted the performance substantially. I suspect the same would be true with your iMac. Of course, if you are no longer using the iMac since getting a new Windows machine then there is no reason to spend the money on a computer you have no use for. Just sell it and move on. I usually try to find someone in need and give my older PC's and Mac's away.

 

[nicoff]

nicoff.......My Sony Vaio laptop was purchased in 2011. It is seven years old and still benefited from the installation of the SSD today. It isn't necessarily the processor speed that hamstrings pages opening or files being accessed. It is the hard drive read/write speeds that are typically the performance bottleneck. Replacing the 500 GB hard drive in the Sony Vaio with the Samsung 500 GB SSD boosted the performance substantially. I suspect the same would be true with you iMac. Of course, if you are no longer using the iMac since getting a new Windows machine then there is no reason to spend the money on a computer you have no use for. Just sell it and move on. I usually try to find someone in need and give my older PC's and Mac's away.

Thanks jdandy! That is very good to know. I am using both computers, so I will look into the SSD option. Thanks!!!

 

[Nikhil]

Dan,

Moving to SSD drives on all my computers has indeed been a huge improvement over HDDs
Not sure what the largest SSD drive sizes are but as and when I can I plan to move completely to SSD.

Regards.

 

[Kingrex]

I have contemplated trying this with my Asus laptop. Need to crack the case and take a look.

 

[jdandy]

Dan,

Moving to SSD drives on all my computers has indeed been a huge improvement over HDDs
Not sure what the largest SSD drive sizes are but as and when I can I plan to move completely to SSD.

Regards.

Nikhil.......It appears that more and more people are moving to solid state drives. It is not just speed improvements but also reliability and immunity from physical impact, particularly in laptop computers.

I checked Samungs SSD web page this morning. Their SSD storage capacity range runs from 240 GB to 4 TB drives.

https://www.samsung.com/us/business...nter_20181117_sustain_brand_datacenter_search

 

[jdandy]

I have contemplated trying this with my Asus laptop. Need to crack the case and take a look.

Rex.......You can do this. The performance boost is worth the expense and time. A speedier computer is always a good thing.

I checked Amazon this morning. The 500 GB Samsung EVO 860 SSD is $72.99. The 1 TB Samsung 860 EVO SSD is $127.98.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch...sr=8-2&keywords=samsung+1tb+ssd+internal&th=1

Here is some information on the Samsung 860 EVO SSD.

https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/computing/ssd/client/860-evo-1tb-mz-76e1t0e/

 

[astrotoy]

Dan, thanks for your postings. It was a decade ago in Berkeley that Computer Audiophile held a symposium. One demo was done comparing the sonics from a SSD vs a HD. It was done blind for the audience. Lots of skeptics in the audience (bits are bits) and it was clear to me and most of the people in the audience after we heard A and B that the SDD was superior. However, in those days we were looking at 128GB drives at not inconsiderable prices. I ended up having 3 128GB installed in my new computer that I used for my ripping project. We didn't talk as much about reliability as sonic quality, but the reliability was excellent and the drives are all working fine after more than 15,000 hours of ripping files. Today it looks like a 1TB SSD is in the sweet spot of pricing for SSD's at $125 or so. I don't remember what I paid for my 128GB SSD's in 2009, but I think a fair amount more per drive.

Larry

 

[jdandy]

Dan, thanks for your postings. It was a decade ago in Berkeley that Computer Audiophile held a symposium. One demo was done comparing the sonics from a SSD vs a HD. It was done blind for the audience. Lots of skeptics in the audience (bits are bits) and it was clear to me and most of the people in the audience after we heard A and B that the SDD was superior. However, in those days we were looking at 128GB drives at not inconsiderable prices. I ended up having 3 128GB installed in my new computer that I used for my ripping project. We didn't talk as much about reliability as sonic quality, but the reliability was excellent and the drives are all working fine after more than 15,000 hours of ripping files. Today it looks like a 1TB SSD is in the sweet spot of pricing for SSD's at $125 or so. I don't remember what I paid for my 128GB SSD's in 2009, but I think a fair amount more per drive.

Larry.......That is interesting to hear the results of an A/B comparison of audio via SSD versus spinning hard drives. That is one of the things I appreciate about my Aurender N10 and N100H music servers. Music files are cached from their hard drives to their SSD's for playback.

I recall the high prices on SSD's when they first became available to consumers. That was part of why I waited so long, but in the past year as Samsung and other manufacturers ramp up SSD production the prices have fallen dramatically. I am pleased with the performance boost I am achieving and happy I finally got on board with solid state drives. I have one more desktop computer in my recording studio that is still using a hard drive. It is soon to be upgraded to an SSD.