Question Upgrading HDD to an SSD on my laptop ?

[Izquierdo1991]

Hello,

I have a Toshiba Satellite L645-SP4135L laptop and I want to change the storage from HDD to SSD.
Does anyone know if this is possible and what capacity is available?

 

[USAFRet]

Hello,

I have a Toshiba Satellite L645-SP4135L laptop and I want to change the storage from HDD to SSD.
Does anyone know if this is possible and what capacity is available?

You can change from the HDD to a 2.5" SATA III SSD no problem.

Samsung 860/870 EVO, or Crucial MX500 are 2 good choices.

How to?
-----------------------------------
1x port with an Image

Assuming you have another drive (any type of drive) with sufficient free space to hold the entirety of your current drive:

1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks". Create this on a small USB flash drive or DVD.
3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
4. When done, power OFF.
5. Swap the 2 drives
6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
7. Restore (on the toolbar), and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new SSD.
8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
9. That's all...this should work.

 

[Izquierdo1991]

Hello

Thanks for the information.

Do you know what SSD capacity the laptop supports?

 

[USAFRet]

Hello

Thanks for the information.

Do you know what SSD capacity the laptop supports?

There probably isn't a "max", but you probably don't want to go over 1TB.
Maybe 2TB.

 

[Izquierdo1991]

Thanks

 

[Izquierdo1991]

I bought a 512GB KingSpec SSD, installed it, but after a while it shut down completely.

I formatted it and reinstalled the OS, but the same thing kept happening.

Does anyone know why this happens?

 

[Moonstick2]

Where did you buy it from? How much did it cost? From what I know, Kingspec are pretty variable in quality.

One issue might be it's a drive that runs hot and it's overheating inside your laptop.

Return it as faulty and get a replacement. If that does the same thing return it and buy a different brand, one of the ones recommended. If that also shuts down then you can start thinking it's an issue with your laptop.

 

[Izquierdo1991]

Hello

Thanks for the comment. I'm going to change the disk and get one of the aforementioned references and try again.

 

[Izquierdo1991]

Hello

I bought the Crucial MX500 SSD, installed it in my laptop, and installed the OS. After finishing the installation, it shut down completely after 10 minutes.

I turned it back on a while later, and after logging in, it stayed on for 10 minutes, then shut down completely.

Can someone tell me why this is happening?

 

[USAFRet]

It had an HDD.
Then, you swapped in a Kingspec SSD, and it had problems.
Then you swapped in a Crucial MX500, and it had exactly the same problem.

The issue is not the drive, but rather something else in the laptop.

 

[stonecarver]

Okay a weird question what version of Windows did your old Hard Drive have on it and from manufacture or direct from Microsoft.

22 H2 , 23 H2 is this Windows 10 I assume

Reason I'm asking is your laptop is 14 years old.

Are you using the same version of the installer/ version of windows your old hard drive used.

Another forum member a few week back with a laptop had to get the Original OEM Windows Installer from the Laptop Manufacture to fix his install and stability of Windows.

That might or might not be helpful but worth throwing it out there just in case.

 

[USAFRet]

Hola

El sistema operativo que estoy usando es Windows 10 y lo descargué directamente del sitio web de Microsoft.

English, please.

 

[Izquierdo1991]

Okay a weird question what version of Windows did your old Hard Drive have on it and from manufacture or direct from Microsoft.

22 H2 , 23 H2 is this Windows 10 I assume

Reason I'm asking is your laptop is 14 years old.

Are you using the same version of the installer/ version of windows your old hard drive used.

Another forum member a few week back with a laptop had to get the Original OEM Windows Installer from the Laptop Manufacture to fix his install and stability of Windows.

That might or might not be helpful but worth throwing it out there just in case.

Hello

The OS I'm using is Windows 10, and I downloaded it directly from the Microsoft website.

 

[Moonstick2]

Do you still have the old HDD, with the original Windows on it? If so, put it in and see if it behaves the same.

With a laptop this old, there's always the possibility that some kind of hardware failure occurred while performing the swap. Not because of anything you did wrong, it's just a possibility.

If the old HDD performs without problem and two different SSDs keep crashing on you, that would then start pointing to an issue with either drivers or the BIOS.

 

[Izquierdo1991]

Do you still have the old HDD, with the original Windows on it? If so, put it in and see if it behaves the same.

With a laptop this old, there's always the possibility that some kind of hardware failure occurred while performing the swap. Not because of anything you did wrong, it's just a possibility.

If the old HDD performs without problem and two different SSDs keep crashing on you, that would then start pointing to an issue with either drivers or the BIOS.

Hello

The old drive doesn't have Windows installed from the factory. I installed it, and it's the same one I used to install it on the SSD.

But the old drive is working fine. Could it be a BIOS issue or a short circuit in the motherboard?

It's just that it sat unused for a while, and the mice urinated on it, so it had to be taken to a technician for general maintenance.

 

[Moonstick2]

If the HDD works with the same version of Windows without problems but different SSDs result in a shutdown after ten minutes I'd suspect something software related. The actual physical interface between the laptop and the HDD is the same and the SSD draws less power.

Try booting Windows 10 in Safe Mode and see how it behaves then. Make sure you have the latest motherboard chipset drivers installed, and the latest BIOS.

That said, this might just all be too old. The one support page I found doesn't list beyond Windows 8.1, or any driver updates after 2016. Geek Dais lists a 2018 BIOS. Just be aware that you might brick your laptop completely if you update the BIOS.

What are the rest of the specs? From what I can find, it was released as Win 7 32 bit, with 3 GB RAM and a dual-core HT i3 dating from 2010. Win 10 will be EOL later this year and it won't take Win 11. If you want a project you can get Linux working on it with the HDD, but trying to upgrade a 10+ year old ex mouse-toilet to SSD and Windows 10 probably isn't worth the time and effort.

 

[stonecarver]

It's just that it sat unused for a while, and the mice urinated on it, so it had to be taken to a technician for general maintenance.

In some cases that does matter as we can factor in maybe hardware thanks to mighty mouse.

Okay I will take another shot here.

So we know all is good with the original hard drive.

When you installed Windows 10 on the old hard drive was it a clean fresh install or did you upgrade in place from old OS Windows 7 to Windows 10.

If that is how the install of Windows 10 made it on your old hard drive it would have carried over what your fresh current install of Windows on your new SSD is needing to get stable.

I'm thinking the magic pixie dust that makes the original old hard drive work and the new SSD's have issues is something the other install has.

One of the things I have noticed running newer Windows on some older laptops that the GPU driver is installed by the newer Windows. But in some cases no matter what you do the laptop is unstable with the provided Microsoft GPU driver.

A solid workaround is to go get the original Manufactures latest and in your case last provided graphical card driver directly for your Toshiba model.

No it will not be for Windows 10 you will get a Windows 7 and maybe a choice for Windows 8.1 driver.

Don't worry we can get them to install on windows 10 in compatibility mode during install.

The issue is sometimes those original drivers are now removed from even the manufactures own web pages.

If this was a desktop the Microsoft GPU driver would be just fine it's two fold for you. A laptop that predates Windows 10 and the frustrating propriety laptop manufactures GPU drivers.

Oh and by the way your old hard drive has all that pixie dust I mentioned earlier in your Windows, system 32


In the folders:

Windows

System32

Drivers

DriverState

DriverStore

First thing I do when I get in a older laptop to bring back to life is go copy that Whole system32 folder on a thumb drive as there is the drivers and the .dll files and the magic that is the glue of a working old laptop.

On new install AKA your new SSD I would open my device manager and look for any yellow check marks and If there were any and with the System 32 folder I saved earlier I would point my device manager to that system 32 folder and have it get the drivers from there.

I would also uninstall whatever GPU driver Windows gave me When it installed.

If the GPU driver is just the Microsoft basic display adaptor even better leave it alone and in device manager open Display adaptor and choose update driver and choose you have disk.

Point it to IF you saved the system 32 folder and hit ok. You will get the driver that was and is working in the old hard drive.

It might sound all complicated and well it is keeping and old laptop working and stable all these years down the road.


And just an FYI that working old hard drive is your laptops life line as the age and the getting hard to find a legit place to go find original drivers from.

Put it this way If I had a laptop dropped of with an intact system 32 folder from a previous Windows install if dropped off in the morning you could bet you also could pick it up same day fixed and 100%

If no system 32 folder on such an old laptop . See you in a week or so.