Laptop SSD upgrade

[Ethan Daniel Smith]

I need a laptop for college. My plan was to get an hp x360 11t touchscreen convertible but i just dont feel comfortable with an HDD in there while i flip it into different modes so i was going to get an SSD and replace the HDD but i ran into a problem. I read online somewhere (i dont remember where) that when you turn on the x360 11t it has windows 10 pre installed and the activation key is stored in the bios and when you connect to internet for the first time it activates. My question is... After i turn it on if i buy an SSD and clone the HDD inside the convertible to the SSD and then replace the HDD with the SSD will the convertible work or would there be driver issues or any other problems? Would the windows key copy too or would i need to buy another key? Would the hp recovery partition clone too? I just dont have money to waste if i screw up. All together, the x360 11t with the n3700 cpu upgrade and color change costs 400, the bag costs 15, and the SSD costs 89 for the samsung 850 evo 250 gb mSATA SSD. Would you do the HDD to SSD swap or get a different convertible? I have done some gparted work and my last laptop i multi booted Windows XP windows 7 and Lubuntu if that helps and i know what all the parts are to a pc and what they look like. Ive just never cloned a hard drive and ive never even touched an SSD

 

[USAFRet]

If you can clone the entire drive, it should work exactly as is does now, just a lot faster.

 

[Ethan Daniel Smith]

Thank you for the reply. Yeah. I thought so too but ive been googling and I've read 2 cases where the dell inspiron 11 convertible had problems booting with an ssd and when the hdd was reinstalled didn't boot either. The reason this bothers me is because the hp x360 11t and the inspiron 11 are very similar.

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you for the reply. Yeah. I thought so too but ive been googling and I've read 2 cases where the dell inspiron 11 convertible had problems booting with an ssd and when the hdd was reinstalled didn't boot either. The reason this bothers me is because the hp x360 11t and the inspiron 11 are very similar.

Well, that may be a possibility with that particular device/laptop. But in general, the cloning operation is usually OK.

You also have the possible option of using the Factory reset function, and create you own DVD set.
Use that to install the original factory load on the new SSD. Maybe try that instead of cloning, especially with a brand new laptop.

Create the DVD thing
Remove the HDD
Insert the SSD
Boot from and run the factory reset, just with a different drive.
If it works, great.
If it doesn't, you still have the untouched original HDD

 

[Ethan Daniel Smith]

It doesn't have an optical drive. Would that method work with a usb drive and i boot from that? Also, im a little unsure what you mean when you say to create my own boot cd from the factory reset option. Could you explain some?

 

[USAFRet]

It doesn't have an optical drive. Would that method work with a usb drive and i boot from that? Also, im a little unsure what you mean when you say to create my own boot cd from the factory reset option. Could you explain some?

Yes, a USB would work.
There is (or should be) a function to do a Factory Reset. This is to be used if the original OS gets hosed up.

In there, there should also be a function to create your own bootable USB or DVD, for use in case the original drive actually dies.
This is what we are recreating here. But instead of a physically dead drive, you're just replacing it with an SSD.

There WILL be a function in there to create your own USB to install with.

 

[Ethan Daniel Smith]

Thank you for the help!!! I understand what to do now and it doesn't seem so hard now. I was kind of worried but not now. Again thank you!!!!

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you for the help!!! I understand what to do now and it doesn't seem so hard now. I was kind of worried but not now. Again thank you!!!!

Good luck!