install a SSD into a laptop?

[mischief1]

So I got a laptop replaced through insurance which seems pretty good, according to a friend.

http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-pc/ultra-book/NP550P5C-S02AU-spec

(http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-pc/ultra-book/NP550P5C-S02AU-spec)I was thinking of dabbling into some PC gaming, but the only let down was the 5400rpm 1TB hard drive.

So was thinking of replacing the current HDD with a SSD, I'm not worried about internal storage as I have an external drive.

So the question; is it a matter of replacing the drive with an SSD and re-installing the software, the laptop came with a system recovery DVD, and I want to keep the optical drive to play the odd dvd.

I'm assuming the collective knowledge here will come up with an answer as I couldn't find an answer online.

Thanks in advance.

[Madhav]

You could ditch the old fashion optical drive and use the space for a dummy drive and put the ssd into that and run both.

Edit... Fark...Just read you want the optical drive.

Are you sure? You can just reuse it and turn it into an external USB powered optical?

[mitchy]

did you read? he wants to keep the dvd drive.

yes it's as simple as that dan!

[Madhav]

Damn... My ninja edit skills are not up to par

[mischief1]

The other reason i need the optical is that my internet is slow as shit where I live so would rather install things with good ol' fashion dvds. I'll go on the hunt for an SSD and see how I go then!

[TurboHead]

Fitted an SSD into a 6 year old $498 (when new) Acer laptop and it gave it one hell of a new lease of life. Just stuck it in, installed Win 7 and away I went. Don't think I needed to load any specific drivers to get everything working.

[cplagz]

Ghost old drive to new drive, plug new drive in. No re-installation necessary. There was a few deals around on SSDs, how big you looking at? I'd do 120gb minimum.

[protecon]

Just be mindful of drive height as well - find out the thickness of what's in there already before you go dropping coin on an SSD.

[Socrates]

Posts above are on the money, just make sure it's a standard size aka 2.5in hard drive in it and easy to get to.
Boot into backup software
Back up an image of your whole existing HDD with a program like Trueimage to a NAS if available or an external HDD big enough.
swap over HDD's
And restore image to new SSD. There shouldn't be any other problems

[cplagz]

You can just make a backup using Windows Backup - it works perfectly fine to clone a drive... I just did the same to change out a 60gb SSD to 120gb SSD for my OS drive.

[protecon]

Actually going from SATA/IDE to SSD, it's usually best practice to do a fresh install.
Also make sure your SSD firmware is up-to-date before installing.

[mod]

I would agree with the above, I ghost my old and current ssd... wasnt as fast until I did new install/format

[cplagz]

I would agree with the above, I ghost my old and current ssd... wasnt as fast until I did new install/format

That's not to say your old setup wasnt fucked already. Dan's laptop is brand new.

[reNEGade]

You can buy kits which will backup your hard drive onto the SSD. Then slap in the SSD and away you go.
If its a new laptop, just throw in the SSD and install windows and ur away.
SSD's make a HUGE difference to the Laptop.
Buy a OCZ or Sandisk SSD. The intel and samsung ones are too thin for normal laptop.

[evo5aurus]

unless you ghost everyone seems to be missing a few steps - I would install fresh with a clean copy of windows most laptops come preinstalled with a bunch of crap you wont need

1. make sure AHCI is enabled in bios
2. install windows
3. install DRIVERS - your laptop will run with generic windows 7 drivers but it is far from ideal.

it is also a good idea to disable indexing, enable write caching and move all cache/temporary file directories to another drive - but probably not possible with laptop

[mod]

That's not to say your old setup wasnt fucked already. Dan's laptop is brand new.

That might be true lol but a fresh install never hurts

as said previously 120g min or invest in a NAS

[Joe]

I'm still not sure how useful a Nas can be to most PC users?

http://africanlimelight.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/nas.jpg

..especially a Nasty Nas.

[mischief1]

None of the above is English to me.
Ended up buying a 128gb Samsung SSD this morning, replaced the old one, used the recovery software to install windows. Installed fine, will checks drivers when I get home as I'm at work at the moment.

It runs at least, cheers all.

[mischief1]

So first issue is I can't connect to WiFi, probably need the driver =D
Would I have to connect physically to a network to be able download drivers?

[reNEGade]

Lan cable to router for driver download

[evo5aurus]

So first issue is I can't connect to WiFi, probably need the driver =D
Would I have to connect physically to a network to be able download drivers?

drivers are usually included on the recovery CD's so check that first.

[Socrates]

make sure the wifi hardware switch is on.

[confuzion]

Touch me penis in ways you used to

[mischief1]

So I'm downloading drivers, seems to be a big file. The laptop wouldn't connect to a lan, let you know how it goes, thanks for the help so far