Tech 911Do you have a technology question that keeps you up at night? We’d love to answer! Send an email to [email protected] with “Tech 911” in the subject line.Replacing an old mechanical drive with a super fast solid state drive is one of the best upgrades you can do on a desktop or laptop computer. While that won’t turn your 8-year old HP into a new Mac M1, you will definitely feel and appreciate the difference (especially if you combine it with a little extra RAM, but we won’t be too crazy).
However, Lifehacker reader Len has a dilemma. He wants to know how to transfer all of his data from the old, broken mechanical drive on his laptop to the new solid-state drive. He writes:
“I bought a Samsung SSD 500GB SATA 6Gbps to upgrade my old Toshiba laptop. What is the best way to do this and transfer data from the old drive? “
A storage upgrade is a great time to start from scratch
You may not like my answer, Len, but I think it’s the best: changing your hard drive is a great excuse to install a new, organized version of your operating system – which I assume is Windows 10, but otherwise, we talked about it, also.
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Sure, you can easily clone your entire mechanical drive into your new SSD, but that will require a little more hardware and you will probably end up using it once and forgetting about it.
Replacing your laptop’s hard drive usually means removing the main hard drive and putting in a new one (as I can’t think of many laptops with space for a second drive). This is slightly different from a typical desktop PC, where you can install the new SSD, connect it to the motherboard and run both disks at the same time. In that case, you would clone your original drive in the new drive, disconnect and remove the old one and connect the new one using the original SATA connection. Generally, your system should start up perfectly with your new drive, and you will not have missed anything.
With a laptop, it gets a little more complicated. You will need a cheap external case or USB-to-SATA adapter to connect to your SSD, allowing you to connect the SSD to your laptop’s USB port. Then, you will run a disk clone, as before. Depending on the amount of data to transfer and the USB speeds you are working with, this can take some time.
What I suggest you do instead is to take the time to audit the data on your laptop. What do you do really need? What can you delete or download again later, if and when you need to? If you’re storing multiple iTunes movies on your system for convenience or have a ton of music files that you rarely listen to, you probably don’t need them to take up space on your laptop.
Whenever possible, transfer your data to cloud storage so that it is backed up elsewhere and can be accessed only when necessary. Applications and programs? Make a list, save or make a mental note of any specific settings that interest you and don’t worry about them; you can always reinstall them later.
I try to use my laptop as a simple workstation. When I’m working on something, I try to edit in the cloud when possible. If he needs to stay on my desktop, he’ll go somewhere else when I’m done – usually back to the cloud, but also to the trash, if necessary.
I have a desktop PC that I treat the same way. Photos and documents go to the cloud; the PC itself is usually the intermediary between the raw materials and the finished product. (I have played a lot Dyson Sphere Program lately.) I play my media whenever possible, instead of storing it for years on my hard drive, or transfer it to a NAS box where it can copy it back to my desktop, or wherever I want access it.
Operating in this way, backups are easy. I never cloned my hard drive again. I just copied my entire Windows user folder to another hard drive (to preserve data like my wallpapers and my downloads folder overflowing). If I found any crippling problems with Windows, or even a complete hard drive collapse, I would simply reinstall Windows 10 from scratch. Setup takes less than an hour, and that includes reinstalling the apps I use every day and my absurdly large Steam library.
So this is my suggestion: Copy your essential data to the cloud, replace your drives and reinstall Windows on a new one. You will have a bloat-free operating system that you can fill in with data that need.
However, if you have a lot of data that you simply cannot separate, you will need to follow the path I mentioned earlier. Spring for a unit box– possibly even a docking station – that supports 2.5 “and 3.5” units. Connect your SSD, clone your laptop’s drive to your SSD, and then replace the drives. Now, hold your old mechanical hard drive. In addition to having a current backup of all your files, you can place it in the cabinet or docking station and use it as a secondary backup source going forward.
As for the process of replacing your laptop’s hard drive with an SSD, you didn’t mention your exact model, so I can’t give specific instructions. In general, you will have to remove a panel or the entire back of your laptop to access the hard drive. Here is a good introduction to what is involved:
I recommend investing in a set of precision screwdriver for that kind of thing, but you may not need it if your old screwdriver is good enough. Be sure to ground yourself before touching the inside of the laptop (to avoid frying anything with static electricity) and do your best to avoid dropping or losing any of the tiny screws you will be dealing with. Otherwise, it shouldn’t be a very difficult update.
Do you have any questions about technology that keeps you up at night? Tired of troubleshooting Windows or Mac? Looking for advice on applications, browser extensions or utilities to perform a specific task? Inform us! Tell us in the comments below or email [email protected].