My Dell XPS 8700 running Win 7 Pro is now 5 years old and although HDD health tests report no issues I am concerned about its age and thinking about installing an internal SSD 250GB drive to replace the conventional HDD. I have been looking a the Samsung 850 EVO but several questions arise: 1. my hard drive bays are 3.5 inches and the 850 EVO only comes in 2.5 inch mode. Are there frames to accommodate the bay size difference? 2. My understanding is that one must obtain a special USB 3.0 cable that will allow transfer (cloning) of the onboard HDD contents to the SSD drive. Anyone have recommendations on these cables? 3. I have read that there are problems with Win 7 and the SSD drive install and operation. Has any member experience with the install and use? 4. I have also read that some people keep the old HDD and use it strictly for data storage, photos, etc and use the SSD for the operating system, etc. Would that be workable or recommended? Any insights and guidance would be appreciated - my computer knowledge level is between beginner and intermediate at age 86. TIA, Frank
Installing a SSD in a Desktop PC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JOxKSkkdMM How to Upgrade Laptop Hard Drive to SSD without Reinstalling Windows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LB9TqfQrsA And a million more ways. Wait for the experts here at Wilders with easier ways.
I say it " as is ": Seven has a known and unresolved issue with Suspend Mode that often doesn't wake, so the only way to wake is reboot the pc. Someone says that Seven + SSD increases the issue; I don't know for the others, but I use Seven on a SSD and for my pc is true.
I've used Win 7 on multiple machines with an SSD, both fresh install on the SSD and cloning HDD to SSD. If you clone it, just run Windows Experience Index manually and it will detect the SSD and disable defragmentation and enable TRIM automatically. I've used a normal USB 2.0 cable to clone, works fine, though of course slower than 3.0. A special cable is needed if you want to connect the SSD directly to your USB port, because the SSD itself only has a SATA connection. Alternatively, you could place the SSD in an external drive enclosure with a USB port(or eSATA if your computer supports it) to connect it, or if you have multiple HDD bay's in your computer, just put it in an empty bay. As for the waking from suspend issue, I've only seen that a few times(and only on 1 machine) and I'm not sure it was related to the SSD, my thoughts at the time were that it was caused by installed security software.
Frank, It's not essential. One screw or a piece of string is adequate. There are no moving parts in the SSD. You don't need one. Use imaging software to clone the OS to the SSD. Not in my computers. Yes, that's what I do. Edit... What size is your hard drive? Can you list the partitions on your hard drive and the amount of Free Space in each partition? I suspect you have a large HD and we need to determine if the OS will fit on the SSD.
Thanks Brian for the response and advice - from DiskManagement it appears I have 3 partitions on my Dell desktop HDD: 3 MB OEM; 24.67 GB Active recovery and OS (C) 906.81 GB (Boot, page file, crash dump, primary partition) - 723.6 GB free. So it appears I am currently using 183.81 GB. I was thinking about a 250 GB SSD. I keep large photos files on MEGA cloud and also back them up on an external HDD and my text files use only a few GBs. I have been using the free EaseUS Todo for Disk partition backups to an ecternal HDD - wondering if it would work to clone to an SSD? Some computer "experts" consider disk imaging and cloning as separate and distinct processes - is this a correct interpretation? Your thoughts Brian
Frank, This is a typical Dell Win7 setup. The booting files are in the Recovery partition (Active partition) so that partition must be copied to the SSD. It will be easiest just to copy all three partitions. We need to convert all numbers to the same units. Windows units are binary and HD/SSD units are decimal... http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/binary_v_decimal_measurement.htm So your Win7 partition is really 906.81 GiB in size, not GB. Unfortunately, Windows uses the GB term but it is really GiB. The 250 GB SSD is 232.8 GiB. It will show in Disk Management as 232.8 GB but it is really 232.8 GiB. Note that this is around 7% less than 250 but don't think you have lost any disk space as it is just a different unit. Contrary to what you might read, it has nothing to do with formatting or over-provisioning. It is just a different unit. A 250 GB HD/SSD contains exactly the same space as a 232.8 GiB HD/SSD. Let's say your Recovery partition is 80% full. That means you have 203.5 GiB of data (24.67+183.81) to transfer to the SSD. 203.5/232.8 = 87% full. This is too much. You shouldn't fill a SSD more than 85% as you need space for over-provisioning. For the time being ignore Samsung Magician's over-provisioning recommendation. This doesn't mean you need a larger SSD. You just need to not have files on the SSD that don't need to be there. Such as video, music and pictures. For the time being transfer them to your external HD. They can be transferred to your internal 1 TB data HD later. Also, if you have Windows System Restore turned on, delete the Restore points and turn it off. You have EaseUS so you don't need System Restore. Also, if you don't use Hibernation, turn it off. This can save GB depending on your RAM size. Also, run Disk Cleanup including System Files. These procedures need to be done before the image/clone process. If you have Ccleaner, run it. More later about cloning or image/restore. Any questions?
It's been years since I've used a Dell Win7 computer so I forgot to mention how we dealt with the Dell Recovery partition. It contains a recovery image to return your drive to what it was when Dell shipped the computer. But that image will not work from a drive that isn't 1 TB so it is wasted on a 250 GB drive. If that partition is copied to the SSD it will represent 25 GB of wasted space. That's over 10% of your SSD space. I plan to get you to move the booting files from the Recovery partition into the OS partition and then the Recovery partition does not need to be copied to the SDD as the Win7 partition will be the Active partition. The booting files are only a few MB in size.
Much information for my aging mind to assimilate and digest - most appreciative for you advice and continuing guidance, Brian. Your comment...."I plan to get you to move the booting files from the Recovery partition into the OS partition" does mean the OS partition in the replacement SSD?
Frank, This is done on the HD. Then the Dell Recovery partition is no longer necessary for booting and it doesn't have to be copied to the SSD. https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409 Regard your Recovery partition as the System Reserved partition in this web page. Copy/paste the red text into a Command Window. The page isn't as complicated as it looks initially. Ignore the Win 8/10 sections.
