Sony VAIO VPCEB290X Upgrade HDD to SSD

[clintalba]

I'd like to upgrade my VAIO laptop. The performance is awful with a 15 minute startup and a few blue screens. Additionally, window service fails to start is fairly common. I'm under the impression a SSD would dramatically increase boot time, but is that all I ought to be concerned with? General uses: learning to code/web programming, social networks, internet news, youtube, etc. No gaming.

System specifics:
64 Bit Windows 7
BIOS American Megatrends R0300Y8 20 July 2010
i3 M350 process
HDD Hitachi 320GB 5400 SATA
RAM 4.0 GB

Perhaps more RAM, but I can't get specifics from Sony regarding mobo specifics and I'm not sure what I'm looking for in System Information to share with you.

Thoughts? And no, I don't want to buy a new laptop...
I could make do with a 250 GB hard drive and move some media to an external.

 

[clutchc]

Have you tried running CCleaner to fix Registry errors and software conflicts that could be causing the BSODs? And see how many apps are running in the background; check your tray. Sometimes they don't play nice together. And they rob your system of resources and CPU clock cycles. If you can disable them and just run them when needed, it may speed things up.
https://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

I just recently swapped out the HDD in my Thinkpad with a SSD. Cloning went pretty smooth using: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm
And following this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-migrate-windows-7-to-a-solid-state-drive/

 

[clintalba]

clutchc, I ran the cleaner and it found a ton of crap. Also, the registry is a lot cleaner. Thanks for that. Still a 15 minute boot time though.

Can you confirm, or any forum-goers, if a SSD would increase this performance or do I have another bottleneck?

 

[clutchc]

15 minutes!
That isn't even close to being acceptable or normal. Check what all you have starting when Win boots. Go to System Configuration/Startup tab and let me know how many boxes are checked.

 

[clintalba]

-Adobe Reader and Acrobat Manager
-Alps Pointing-device Driver
-Apple Push
-Bluetooth Software
-Catalyst (r) Control Center
-CCleaner
-Data Protect (Intuit)
-DivX Media Server Launcher
-Google Drive
-Google Update
-Google Toolbar Notifier
-HP Digital Imaging
-HP Digital Imaging
-hpwuSchd Application
-IAStorIcon (Intel)
-iCloud
-iCloud
-IntuitSyncManager
-iTunes
-MyHeadset Updater
-Quickbooks
-Quickbooks Automatic Update
-QuickTime
-Realtek HD Audio Manager

I have many others, but they've been deselected in the past.

 

[clutchc]

Lol... it looks like you never turned down a free add-on. If you want to see if all those things running in the background are delaying your start up, take note of what is checked so you can re-check them later. Then uncheck everything except CCC and Realtech. Re-boot and see if Win loads a lot faster.
(you can always re-check them)
I'm sure HP Digital Imaging is a major boot up delay. I have that for my C7280 too. And you have it loading twice! Along with iCloud twice! And there are several items there that are unnecessary. Several that can be run manually with a click of the mouse when needed, that don't need to be in the tray..

 

[clintalba]

Well, I did that and boot time decreased done. Finally splurged and increased system ran to 8 GB and got a 480 GB SSD. I cloned it and boot time is under a minute. THANK YOU for your help! Not sure why that was all caps.

 

[clutchc]

Did you do a clean install of Win to the SSD, or did you clone it from the HDD?
Either way, you may want to go through this guide to see if you need to do some of these tweaks to improve access time, save space, and keep the drive from writing itself to an early death: http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html

 

[clintalba]

I have another system that uses a 240 GB SSD as a boot drive. I also use two 2 TB HDD for local storage on the same system. Should I run most of those steps just for the boot drive, allowing say indexing, page files, and disk defrag on the HDD? Thanks again!

 

[clutchc]

That guide is strictly for the SSD when used as the boot drive.