Acer Aspire E1 571 6837 upgrading?

[satyavema]

Hi guys,

My Laptop configuration:
Name: Acer Aspire E1 571 6837
Processor: Intel core i5 - 3230M, 2.6 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
HDD: 500GB SATA 5400 RPM

Using this laptop since 2 years, 3 months by now. Its going great. I never had any issues with it except for some small freezing(very less often). I use it every day for at least 12 hours of usage as I am a Computer student
Now I am thinking to upgrade HDD to a SSD(may be 250GB which is around 80$). Is it okay to upgrade it? or as it was already 2+ years old, do I need to prefer a newer laptop rather than upgrading this. If upgrade is your answer, can you please come up with a brand to buy one?

Please kindly get back with your feedback. Anything is welcome.

Thanks,
Satya

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Satya.

First, I'd suggest that you backup any important data which you might have on the current drive, just to be on the safe side. It does sound like the HDD might be having issues if your system hangs/freezes from time to time. You could download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics tool and check the drive for errors, so that you know if you can keep using it afterwards (even though you plan on upgrading your laptop with an SSD).
As for upgrading, yes, you should have no trouble upgrading the laptop with a 250GB SSD. Regarding getting a new laptop, that totally depends on you. My advice is, just go ahead with the SSD, it doesn't really matter how old the laptop is, if it's doing the job you bought it for. The SSD would greatly boost your system's performance.
Note that it might be wise to check the RAM as well, if it turns out that the HDD has no issues whatsoever. Faulty memory could also cause similar problems.

One last advice, if the HDD is OK, you should be able to get an HDD/SSD caddy for this laptop model and replace the Optical Drive with it. This way you'd have 2 HDD/SSD slots, which would allow you to have an SSD and an HDD as a secondary storage drive.

As for helping with a brand suggestion, I'm sorry but as a Western Digital representative, I can't really do that, but I'm sure that the guys from the community will be more then glad to help out with that.

Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD

 

[satyavema]

Hey there, Satya.

First, I'd suggest that you backup any important data which you might have on the current drive, just to be on the safe side. It does sound like the HDD might be having issues if your system hangs/freezes from time to time. You could download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics tool and check the drive for errors, so that you know if you can keep using it afterwards (even though you plan on upgrading your laptop with an SSD).
As for upgrading, yes, you should have no trouble upgrading the laptop with a 250GB SSD. Regarding getting a new laptop, that totally depends on you. My advice is, just go ahead with the SSD, it doesn't really matter how old the laptop is, if it's doing the job you bought it for. The SSD would greatly boost your system's performance.
Note that it might be wise to check the RAM as well, if it turns out that the HDD has no issues whatsoever. Faulty memory could also cause similar problems.

One last advice, if the HDD is OK, you should be able to get an HDD/SSD caddy for this laptop model and replace the Optical Drive with it. This way you'd have 2 HDD/SSD slots, which would allow you to have an SSD and an HDD as a secondary storage drive.

As for helping with a brand suggestion, I'm sorry but as a Western Digital representative, I can't really do that, but I'm sure that the guys from the community will be more then glad to help out with that.

Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD

Hi Boogieman_WD,

Thank you for your brief response. For the first time, I've heard about HDD/SSD Caddy. Actually that's a good idea to have both memories installed on the laptop. I have a question on having Caddy:
What if I have added a SSD in a caddy and installed it on my laptop, and how can I make this as a primary memory(having OS on the SSD and all applications and softwares to be on this drive) and HDD as a secondary(Just as a empty drive to store docs/music/movies/whatever)?

Thanks,
Satya!

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well it's basically the same as if you'd add another HDD/SSD to a desktop computer. Optical drives use SATA interface as well, so you connect the caddy with the SATA cables and put the SSD in it. Normally there shouldn't be any difference where you put the SSD (e.g. the internal drive bay or the caddy), although I'd usually prefer my OS drive to be in the laptop's HDD/SSD slot.

As for the rest of the setup, you have 2 options - migrate to the SSD or do a fresh install of Windows. For both I'd strongly recommend that you backup any important data which you might have on the HDD.

Fresh installation of Windows - connect the just the SSD to your laptop and install Windows. When the installation process is completed, connect the HDD, format and repartition it so that you have a fresh secondary storage drive and after that transfer all the data which you've backed up to a separate drive back to the HDD.

Migrating to an SSD (cloning the HDD to the SSD) this would require the OS partition to be no larger than the SSD's overall capacity (e.g. your C: drive to be less than 250GB, if you're getting a 250GB SSD). You can follow the tutorial from this article: http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid-state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows. It's pretty well described, but don't hesitate to ask, even for a second, if you have any questions whatsoever.
If for some reason the laptop tries to boot from the wrong drive, you just have to enter your BIOS/UEFI and set the SSD as the first booting device.

As for the drive caddy, I'd recommend that you contact the laptop manufacturer's customer and ask if they can give you an advice on which one to get, so that you don't encounter any compatibility issues (which are very rare, but it's better to be safe than sorry).

Please keep me posted.