Replacing HDD on Toshiba laptop with a smaller capacity drive.

[Martha11]

I want to replace the HDD in my Toshiba Satellite laptop with a smaller SSD drive. The old HDD is 500GB. The new one will be 240 GB. The current drive usage is 174 GB.

 

[ArtPog]

There should be no problem with what you want to do as long as total amount of data that you will be cloning from the HDD can be accommodated by the new disk. Obviously that is the case in your situation.

I don't know if you've had any experience with a disk-cloning program. If you have not, take a look at...
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3176882/transferring-hdd-contents-boot-ssd.html
for some detailed instructions.

Since you are dealing with a laptop and presumably would not be able to internally install both drives I assume you'll be connecting the SSD destination drive as a external USB device.

 

[Martha11]

Thank you so much for your help. I have never cloned a drive and I will need to learn it. Thanks for the link to the information. I guess in order to clone the existing drive, I will need to have them both connected at the same time. Once it is cloned, I will replace the existing HDD with SSD drive. I better investigate a USB to SATA cable. The reason I am replacing the HDD is that I am a bit worried about it malfunctioning so this is my way of ensuring that if that were to happen, I will be able to resume processing in a short period of time. Thank you once again for your help.

 

[ArtPog]

Yes, because your PC is a laptop it will be necessary to connect the "destination" drive - your SSD - as an external USB device. It is true that you can use one of those SATA-to-USB adapters that you speak of in order to connect the SSD to a USB port on your laptop. Frankly, we are not thrilled with those devices since we've found them to be erratic in their operation. But I have to add that many PC users find them perfectly acceptable and use them routinely without problems. Our choice, as a general proposition, is a USB external enclosure or a "docking" station that many users prefer. We find them much more reliable. For example, the one we're presently using (we have three of them) is this one...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1DS0FR8421&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=EXPRESS072316&cm_mmc=EMC-EXPRESS072316-_-EMC-072316-Index-_-HardDriveEnclosures-_-9SIA1DS0FR8421-S2A1D
Note it accommodates both 2.5" & 3.5" drives. We've found this device most reliable.

Since you've had no experience in undertaking a disk-cloning operation, let me recommend another d-c program (other than the Macrium I referred you to) that you may want to use together with some detailed instructions re using the program...

1. Download/install the Casper Trial Edition 10 (v10.0.5973) disk-cloning program from https://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/
(The Casper program is a commercial program costing $49.99, however, this Trial Edition is available for a 30-day period.)

2. Before undertaking the disk-cloning operation close all open programs. (Generally you need not disable your anti-virus program). Ensure your destination drive - the proposed recipient of the clone - is properly connected in the system. In your case the SSD will be connected as a USB external drive.

3. Double-click on the Casper 10 icon to open the program.

4. Click "Copy Drive".

5. On the next window click "Perform a different copy".

6. The next window will list the drives connected in your system. The source (C:\) drive (the drive you will be cloning) will be highlighted. Click Next.

7. The next window will list your proposed destination disk - the recipient of the clone, your 240 GB SSD. Ensure the destination disk is highlighted. Click Next.

8. If the destination disk contains data the next window will indicate a warning that this data will be lost as a result of the disk-cloning operation. Click Next.

9. A window may open giving you an option to assign a name to the destination disk for future Casper disk-cloning operations involving that disk. If no name is desired uncheck the box. Click Next.

10. The next window reflects how the cloned data will be distributed on the destination disk. Click Next.

11. A message will appear indicating that this Casper Trial Edition does not support "volume resizing" - basically user manipulation of partitions on the destination disk. This feature is available on the Casper commercial version. Click Continue.

12. On the final user screen click "Perform the copy now".

13. Exit from the program after receiving message that the disk-cloning operation was successful.

Naturally you will uninstall the HDD from the laptop following the d-c operation and connect the newly-cloned SSD.

Set aside the HDD and boot to the SSD to determine that disk boots & functions without any problems. Work with only the SSD connected for a few days until you're sure all is well with that disk. Only then can you make any changes to the HDD should you desire to do so (presumably while it's connected as a USB external HDD).

Consider using the HDD for comprehensive backup purposes in the weeks & months ahead. Using a d-c program to routinely clone the contents of the source disk (your new SSD) to a destination drive such as your HDD gives you peace of mind, knowing that should your boot drive become defective or dysfunctional for any reason whatsoever, you have at hand a good bit-for-bit copy of a functional system that you can restore quickly & easily.