Author Topic: Replacing a laptop HD with SSD. (Read 2344 times)

Ham · « **on:** 13 November, 2018, 10:09:03 am »

I'm contemplating replacing my "trainer" laptop with an SSD. It does run TR, but struggles, disk thrashing an inordinate amount sometimes. Spec-wise, it isn't anything much, i3 dual core, 8Gb RAM, 1 Gb Intel Graphics, but that should be sufficient. As I don't use it for much else I reckon £20-£30 in a 120/240Gb SSD might be a useful upgrade, against swapping which would be > £200 even secondhand.

Only, I can't quite get my head around the migration, whether and how to migrate the W10 from the existing h/d. I know one option is to go for a Linux distro, but I'm a little afraid of hitting fun and games with getting the apps to run, most seem to support Win/iOS/Android, so some kind of virtualisation, along with the USB drivers, and it is useful having a spare win machine around. There seem to be utilities around that will clone if you can hang a second disk off, and that might be possible using USB/SATA adapter, but of course a laptop only has a single sata port. Another possibility might be to burn a dvd using some utility - any ideas?

SoreTween · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 November, 2018, 11:01:13 am »

A usb adapter is what you need. I've just done Mrs Tween's w10 laptop with a Crucial ssd, it could not have been more straightforward.

Ham · « **Reply #2 on:** 13 November, 2018, 11:26:17 am »

What cloning software did you use?

SoreTween · « **Reply #3 on:** 13 November, 2018, 11:43:10 am »

Acronis. There is a crucial specific version, download, install & it does the biz. You don't even need an activation code, if it finds a crucial drive it just works. There's a small scrap of paper in the box with a link to the crucial ssd support page which has the download link and a step by step guide to follow.

fuaran · « **Reply #4 on:** 13 November, 2018, 12:44:21 pm »

Or just do a fresh install of Windows. Shouldn't take too long, if you only need to install the trainer software. And it would get rid of anything else you don't need.

Ham · « **Reply #5 on:** 13 November, 2018, 12:52:41 pm »

Quote from: fuaran on 13 November, 2018, 12:44:21 pm

Or just do a fresh install of Windows. Shouldn't take too long, if you only need to install the trainer software. And it would get rid of anything else you don't need.

... inviting Micr$oft licensing joy. It was bought with Win installed, there's no license key visible, is there a process I don't know about that works around that?

slowfen · « **Reply #6 on:** 13 November, 2018, 01:52:56 pm »

If its been updated to win 10, then no key will be required

Ham · « **Reply #7 on:** 13 November, 2018, 02:14:08 pm »

If you do a new W10 install, you need an activation key, shirley?

You can do a full install without a key, but then after a month it goes all needy.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #8 on:** 13 November, 2018, 02:23:54 pm »

I did my laptop last year and did a fresh Windows install onto the new SSD. It hasn't complained yet.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #9 on:** 13 November, 2018, 02:45:57 pm »

Will PM you later

Have all the gubbins to do it and it is very straight forward.

Feanor · « **Reply #10 on:** 13 November, 2018, 03:06:45 pm »

Quote from: Ham on 13 November, 2018, 02:14:08 pm

If you do a new W10 install, you need an activation key, shirley?

You can do a full install without a key, but then after a month it goes all needy.

No, with win10 it will attempt to activate automatically with the hardware hash of the machine.
If it finds a match from a previous Win10 activation on that hardware, it should Just Work.

So for example if you originally got Win10 as a free upgrade of a Win7 box, you will never have seen any Product Key.
Yet the machine will be activated, and subsequent re-installs will also activate ( within whatever HW tolerance they allow ).

Ham · « **Reply #11 on:** 13 November, 2018, 04:04:59 pm »

Then a clean install is deffo my favourite option, I can fit a bare Win install along with TR etc comfortably into 120Gb, whereas currently with all the OEM cruft etc it's knocking a the top of that. In point of fact, I might well replace the OCZ SSD in my main desktop machine (only 220Gb) with a larger one and re-use the 120 for that.

philip · « **Reply #12 on:** 13 November, 2018, 04:37:42 pm »

A laptop will often have the Windows product key stored in the BIOS or UEFI memory where it is accessible by the running OS, e.g. my laptop running Linux has the original Windows product key available at /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM.

Ham · « **Reply #13 on:** 16 November, 2018, 12:57:44 pm »

Shiny! 1Tb Cruicial SSD! Yay.

Install Acronis, no Crucial drive? I won't run, that's fine

Install Crucial drive

It runs.

Plz to be putting in serial number you don't have and support wont give you becoz its OEM.

piss.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #14 on:** 16 November, 2018, 01:00:14 pm »

Quote from: Ham on 16 November, 2018, 12:57:44 pm

Shiny! 1Tb Cruicial SSD! Yay.

Install Acronis, no Crucial drive? I won't run, that's fine

Install Crucial drive

It runs.

Plz to be putting in serial number you don't have and support wont give you becoz its OEM.

piss.

Does that mean it didn't work?

Ham · « **Reply #15 on:** 16 November, 2018, 02:07:34 pm »

.... hasn't worked yet......

But then I am trying to do it at the same time as (almost) working, work work, that is, not hard disk work

Ham · « **Reply #16 on:** 16 November, 2018, 02:48:32 pm »

...and having uninstalled and installed it seems to be running

Ham · « **Reply #17 on:** 16 November, 2018, 03:33:32 pm »

......aaaaaand clone completed A-OK. Now to try that clean install.

Ham · « **Reply #18 on:** 16 November, 2018, 05:21:29 pm »

All done. Yes, it identified the license and installed the right version.

hubner · « **Reply #19 on:** 16 November, 2018, 11:52:38 pm »

I used open source Clonezilla to clone my laptop hard disk to a new hard disk. I put the new hard disk in a USB enclosure, but I would think a USB to Sata cable connected to a bare drive would have worked as well.