Upgrading laptop to use an SSD and HDD

[The Spartan]

Hi everyone

Just curious as to whether anyone has this setup already and if they've any good links or resources. I am planning to upgrade my exisiting laptop it's great for what I need it for but I'd like it to faster when booting up. I'm looking to buy a decent SSD (not sure what size) to put the OS on and then use the existing HDD for storage by taking out the DVD drive and using a caddy.

Has anyone done anything similar and if so is it worth doing?

[doodab]

Hi everyone

Just curious as to whether anyone has this setup already and if they've any good links or resources. I am planning to upgrade my exisiting laptop it's great for what I need it for but I'd like it to faster when booting up. I'm looking to buy a decent SSD (not sure what size) to put the OS on and then use the existing HDD for storage by taking out the DVD drive and using a caddy.

Has anyone done anything similar and if so is it worth doing?

I did it with my old Lenovo for a bit. In the end I put the optical drive back in and bought a USB caddy for the HDD.

TBH I would splash the extra cash and go for a giant SSD instead, you can get 1TB ones now.

[The Spartan]

I did it with my old Lenovo for a bit. In the end I put the optical drive back in and bought a USB caddy for the HDD.

TBH I would splash the extra cash and go for a giant SSD instead, you can get 1TB ones now.

I'm guessing SSD's are a lot more reliable these days than previously and seeing as I tend to backup everything up it's worth taking a punt, btw where did you get your USB caddy for the HDD from? and for SSD is there any particular brand you'd recommend?

[doodab]

I'm guessing SSD's are a lot more reliable these days than previously and seeing as I tend to backup everything up it's worth taking a punt, btw where did you get your USB caddy for the HDD from? and for SSD is there any particular brand you'd recommend?

For SSD I've tended to stick with people who actually make flash chips, so Intel, Crucial / Micron & Samsung. I've got all three (actually I've got 2 intels and 2 crucial/micron ones) and a Plextor one and I've had no problems with any of them.

The USB caddy I bought from a shop in Munich, but it's one of these:

Icy Box IB-290StUS-B 2.5" SATA HDD to USB + eSATA, Ext caddy - Scan.co.uk

the eSATA being a bit quicker but it still needs a USB port to power it.

[anonymouse]

I've got OCZ (64GB) in the media player and the laptop(128GB), with Kingston in the touch book (128GB). No problems with the OCZ, but the touch book has to be 7mm and won't boot with Crucial. It got swapped with Kingston and now works fine, got the RMA from Crucial and sent it back for a refund. I reused the 500gb hdd as I use 3tb on USB 3.0 for storage.

Price for SSD, about £65 for 128GB, upwards then whatever you want to pay.

Laptop has the optical drive replaced with this:- convert your optical notebook Bay into a HDD bay AKASA AK-OA2SSA-BK - SATA Version - Scan.co.uk

Optical drive got dumped into this :- Laptop USB To SATA CD DVD Combo RW Rom Drive External Case Cover Caddy Enclosure | eBay

There's an issue with True Image and others not liking GPT drives and Windoze 8.1, but this worked for me (20% off coupon) :- Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 4.0 (PC) 20% Discount Download Coupon Code

Otherwise, freebies :- Free Disk Copy, Disk Clone Software download to Clone Hard Drive - EaseUS Disk Copy Freeware

[Spacecadet]

Just to add my tuppence

I did this with my last laptop (Dell Precision M65)- 256GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in what was the optical bay.
I used these for the HDD enclosure guys:
NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Can't say I ever really missed the optical drive

New laptop (Dell XPS 15 L541) now has 2 SSDs but still has the optical drive
I've got one of these fitted:
Plextor PX-256M5M 256GB M5M Series mSATA
I had to do a bit of fiddling with the BIOS to change the boot order but it will now dual boot Windows and Linux from that drive

The main drive is one of these:
Samsung 840 Series Pro 512GB
But is a now a non-bootable data drive accessible to both OSs

I'd recommend checking to see if you can fit the small form factor SSD into your laptop. If you can then why not!

[doodab]

Just to add my tuppence

I did this with my last laptop (Dell Precision M65)- 256GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in what was the optical bay.
I used these for the HDD enclosure guys:
NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Can't say I ever really missed the optical drive

New laptop (Dell XPS 15 L541) now has 2 SSDs but still has the optical drive
I've got one of these fitted:
Plextor PX-256M5M 256GB M5M Series mSATA
I had to do a bit of fiddling with the BIOS to change the boot order but it will now dual boot Windows and Linux from that drive

The main drive is one of these:
Samsung 840 Series Pro 512GB
But is a now a non-bootable data drive accessible to both OSs

I'd recommend checking to see if you can fit the small form factor SSD into your laptop. If you can then why not!

One thing with the mSATA drives is that the interface is usually SATA 2 so if you want ultimate speed your better off booting from the main drive and using the mSATA one for data. Although you aren't really going to notice the difference IMO.

[The Spartan]

Just to add my tuppence

I did this with my last laptop (Dell Precision M65)- 256GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in what was the optical bay.
I used these for the HDD enclosure guys:
NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Can't say I ever really missed the optical drive

New laptop (Dell XPS 15 L541) now has 2 SSDs but still has the optical drive
I've got one of these fitted:
Plextor PX-256M5M 256GB M5M Series mSATA
I had to do a bit of fiddling with the BIOS to change the boot order but it will now dual boot Windows and Linux from that drive

The main drive is one of these:
Samsung 840 Series Pro 512GB
But is a now a non-bootable data drive accessible to both OSs

I'd recommend checking to see if you can fit the small form factor SSD into your laptop. If you can then why not!

Magic thanks for the links I'm thinking of getting the 240GB Crucial m500 as 100 quid it seems like it's exactly what I need and if I can get a decent caddy for my HP DV6 all the better. Whilst I did consider buying a new laptop initially I find that the laptop I have is more than capable for programming I do so it'd be a waste of money.

[kevpuk]

In general, any sort of SSD will be a marked improvement on a mechanical HDD.
My previous laptop had a small cache SSD (20GB) to support the HDD, which helped but was nowhere near as zippy as pure SSD. When MyCo bought latest laptop, I went to the opposite end of the spectrum - 2x SSD (mSata 128GB) in RAID 0, along with a 1TB mechanical HDD. The BluRay burner can also be removed to allow an additional 2.5" SSD or HDD, but I kinda like the drive in place
Of course, it is horses for courses - currently, I need to use the laptop at ClientCo, to run a Virtual Machine to access their network - speedy drives and a pile of RAM (16GB) make this a smooth experience.

[The Spartan]

I went with the Crucial M500 240GB and then ordered a HDD caddy from HDD Caddy – Add a 2nd HDD to your laptop and also a dvd drive caddy from ebay, so I'm just twiddling my thumbs waiting for it to arrive.