[SOLVED] Adding an SDD

Jxm1e

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Sep 27, 2020
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Ive had my pc for a couple of months now and ive only had a hard drive in it, im thinking about getting an ssd to make it faster. What do i need to do to the ssd to make it 'go faster', ive seen people say that you need to clone everything from your hard drive to the ssd?.
 
Solution
A ssd is considerably faster than any HDD.
But, simply installing one does not do it.
As a windows C drive replacement, look first at how large your current C drive is, and how much of that space is used.

My suggestion for simplicity is to buy a samsung ssd of sufficient size to hold at least the used portion of your current C drive.
ssd prices are down, so I would buy enough space to handle future needs.
Then use the samsung ssd migration app to move your C drive to the sse.
When done, remove the HDD and boot from the ssd.
You will be very pleased with the performance.
Later, you can repurpose the old HDD for whatever you want. I suggest using it as an usb connected external backup.
Here is a link to the samsung app and instructions...
Ive had my pc for a couple of months now and ive only had a hard drive in it, im thinking about getting an ssd to make it faster. What do i need to do to the ssd to make it 'go faster', ive seen people say that you need to clone everything from your hard drive to the ssd?.
You don't need to do anything to make it work faster, and what people mean by cloning is basically migrating your OS to the ssd from hard drive. However it is said having an ssd with dram cache is important especially if you have os in your ssd
 
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Jxm1e

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Sep 27, 2020
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510
You don't need to do anything to make it work faster, and what people mean by cloning is basically migrating your OS to the ssd from hard drive. However it is said having an ssd with dram cache is important especially if you have os in your ssd

So i just need to set up the ssd and it should already be faster?
 
A ssd is considerably faster than any HDD.
But, simply installing one does not do it.
As a windows C drive replacement, look first at how large your current C drive is, and how much of that space is used.

My suggestion for simplicity is to buy a samsung ssd of sufficient size to hold at least the used portion of your current C drive.
ssd prices are down, so I would buy enough space to handle future needs.
Then use the samsung ssd migration app to move your C drive to the sse.
When done, remove the HDD and boot from the ssd.
You will be very pleased with the performance.
Later, you can repurpose the old HDD for whatever you want. I suggest using it as an usb connected external backup.
Here is a link to the samsung app and instructions:

There are other clone utilities which can also work.
 
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Solution

Jxm1e

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Sep 27, 2020
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Yes just hook it up to your pc and it should be good, i do recommend watching out some reviews before getting one for yourselves since not all ssd's are same.
I'll say do check their 4k IOPS (input output per second)
In their benchmarks.
Well, sort of.

Only that data which lives on the SD will be "faster".

Give us some details, and we can suggest a good drive and a way forward with this.

System specs, what do you use it for, how much data is consumed on your current C drive, budget, etc, etc.
A ssd is considerably faster than any HDD.
But, simply installing one does not do it.
As a windows C drive replacement, look first at how large your current C drive is, and how much of that space is used.

My suggestion for simplicity is to buy a samsung ssd of sufficient size to hold at least the used portion of your current C drive.
ssd prices are down, so I would buy enough space to handle future needs.
Then use the samsung ssd migration app to move your C drive to the sse.
When done, remove the HDD and boot from the ssd.
You will be very pleased with the performance.
Later, you can repurpose the old HDD for whatever you want. I suggest using it as an usb connected external backup.
Here is a link to the samsung app and instructions:

There are other clone utilities which can also work.

Thank you everyone for your help! i think i will get a samsung ssd and use the migration tool like you said to transfer the data over, once its transfered over can i keep the hdd for extra storage because the videos show that you reboot the pc after transferring and you take the old storage out and dont use it.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Thank you everyone for your help! i think i will get a samsung ssd and use the migration tool like you said to transfer the data over, once its transfered over can i keep the hdd for extra storage because the videos show that you reboot the pc after transferring and you take the old storage out and dont use it.
As long as the current consumed space is significantly below the size of the new SSD, you're OK.
 

Jxm1e

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Sep 27, 2020
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To migrate into a 500GB SSD, the actual consumed space needs to be below 400GB.
Samsung Data Migration won't even start.

So, remove some stuff.
But at 400GB migrated into it...that would be pretty much already full.

I thought so, right ill look for a 1TB ssd instead, after migrating into the ssd when it says restart pc with new drive should i just reboot it and leave the hdd in?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I thought so, right ill look for a 1TB ssd instead, after migrating into the ssd when it says restart pc with new drive should i just reboot it and leave the hdd in?
After the migration process finishes:

Power OFF
Physically disconnect the old drive
Power up and verify it actually works.
Verify your boot order.
Later....then you reconnect the old drive and wipe it clean.
 

Jxm1e

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Sep 27, 2020
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After the migration process finishes:

Power OFF
Physically disconnect the old drive
Power up and verify it actually works.
Verify your boot order.
Later....then you reconnect the old drive and wipe it clean.

Right i understand it now, sorry for being an idiot on the topic im new to pc, thank you for all your help!
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I was looking at getting the crucial p1 m.2 ssd and using their software to migrate it.
my motherboard is the B450M PRO-M2 MAX
Install the NVMe driver for that drive BEFORE you do the clone operation.

Then...(never used the Crucial specific tool for this, but you can try it)
-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
 

Jxm1e

Prominent
Sep 27, 2020
20
0
510
Install the NVMe driver for that drive BEFORE you do the clone operation.

Then...(never used the Crucial specific tool for this, but you can try it)
-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

Thank you for the info, so i currrently have a 2TB hard drive and im going into a 1TB M.2 SSD.
Also do i use a new SATA cable for the hdd when the ssd is connected to the old one?
 
If you have 400gb used, a 500gb ssd is not a good idea.
1tb should be ok.
Samsung 970 evo or 970 evo plus should be ok for a m.2 device.
It needs no data nor power cables.
In the samsung documentation, it will list supported devices. Some oem samsung parts are not supported.
Also take the time to download and install the samsung nvme driver first.
The process is the same.as with a sata ssd.
The reason to disconnect the old hdd temporarily is to verify that the copy process worked properly and you have assigned the ssd as the primary boot device.

I have no experience with the Crucial app.
Samsung app has never failed me.
Their process is a windows C drive logical mover.
Some others are clones which is a bit for bit copy.
The difference should only be of academic interest.
 

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