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Operatingsystem, switching from HDD to SSD on a laptop?

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June 5, 2013 4:32:19 AM

Hi all,
I was rather confused on where to put this thread, but here we go :) 

I just recently bought a new laptop, Medion Erazer X7820 (great for games btw). And i am think about buying myself an SSD for bootup, because my boottime has gotten slower after I installed drivers.
But how do i change my bootup to the SSD instead of the HDD? I got a Recovery Disc, can I just use that and then automatically choose the SSD for bootup, or will i have to get out and buy myself a whole new operating system?

And while I am at it, what SSD would you reccomend for a laptop bootup and what size would be good to have on the SSD (60, 120, 256...?)

Hope you can answer my question :) 

More about : operatingsystem switching hdd ssd laptop

June 5, 2013 4:58:24 AM

Hard to find exact specs for your notebook. Do you have 2 HDD bays, or just the one?

Either way, since you have the recovery disks, you can install the SSD and install from the recovery disks to the SSD. If you have 2 HDD bays, you can move the HDD to the second bay and use for data.

The only thing you need to ensure is that the boot order in BIOS is correct so that it boots from the SSD, not the HDD.

As for a recommendation, a minimum SSD of 120/128 GB is what I recommend. Gives space for the OS install, plus any program files you may have. Usually the higher capacity drives have faster access speeds, like the 256 or 512 GB models, so if that is important, consider a larger SSD. They of course cost more.

My SSD is in my sig. Works great for my desktop. Really, any SSD is better than a HDD for running an OS from, so whatever SSD is within your budget will work.

Top of the line right now is the Samsung 840 Pro.
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June 5, 2013 5:06:20 AM

The Recovery Disk should be capable of clean installing Windows on your SSD. I take it you only have one drive bay?
I have upgraded a few laptops to W8 on a 60Gb SSD, W8 takes up so little space, but I also utilised a 32 Gb SD card to provide storage for Documents/Pictures/Music etc. SSD was reserved for OS and most used programs, so if you plan installing lots of storage hungry games best get a bigger SSD. To install, remove HDD and replace with SSD, change your boot order to put Optical Drive 1st and boot with your Recovery disk.
To optimise performance of SSD try this
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/...
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June 5, 2013 5:08:23 AM

I can link you the specs for it, but it's in danish :p  But I think it has 2 HHD bays.
Ahh cool, that's good news :)  But sadly I have windows 8 and I'm not so sure how to make the bootup go on the SSD on windows 8.

That's what I thought about buying as well, but wasn't completely sure about it, so thx for the reply on that :)  And yeah, I can see that it is the smartest thing to do, if you want a fast pc :) 
But will you have to install drivers on the SSD as well or can you just do that on the HDD?

I have a decent budget, so I think I might go for the Samsung.. Everyone seems to have it :p 

But again thx for the reply :) 
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June 5, 2013 5:11:25 AM

dodger46 said:
The Recovery Disk should be capable of clean installing Windows on your SSD. I take it you only have one drive bay?
I have upgraded a few laptops to W8 on a 60Gb SSD, W8 takes up so little space, but I also utilised a 32 Gb SD card to provide storage for Documents/Pictures/Music etc. SSD was reserved for OS and most used programs, so if you plan installing lots of storage hungry games best get a bigger SSD. To install, remove HDD and replace with SSD, change your boot order to put Optical Drive 1st and boot with your Recovery disk.
To optimise performance of SSD try this
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/...


Thx for the reply, and yeah i play games like crysis 3, BF3 and some other heavy games, so.. Best if i get something like 120 or more. But would I have to replace the SSD with the HDD? If it has 2 HDD bays, could i just put it into the second bay?
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June 5, 2013 5:32:46 AM

Lohse54 said:
dodger46 said:
The Recovery Disk should be capable of clean installing Windows on your SSD. I take it you only have one drive bay?
I have upgraded a few laptops to W8 on a 60Gb SSD, W8 takes up so little space, but I also utilised a 32 Gb SD card to provide storage for Documents/Pictures/Music etc. SSD was reserved for OS and most used programs, so if you plan installing lots of storage hungry games best get a bigger SSD. To install, remove HDD and replace with SSD, change your boot order to put Optical Drive 1st and boot with your Recovery disk.
To optimise performance of SSD try this
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/...


Thx for the reply, and yeah i play games like crysis 3, BF3 and some other heavy games, so.. Best if i get something like 120 or more. But would I have to replace the SSD with the HDD? If it has 2 HDD bays, could i just put it into the second bay?


You can just move it to second bay.

1. Install the SSD into whichever bay you want.
2. Just like Lohse54 dodger46 said, make sure the optical drive is set as the first boot device in BIOS. Make sure the SSD is listed as the second boot device. Put the HDD as the last boot device, or remove it from the bootable device list.
3. Install Windows using recovery disks onto SSD.
4. After Windows install, install drivers. These are always installed to same drive/partition that Windows is installed to.
5. After all that, I would recommend removing the Windows files on the first HDD, that way the computer will only boot to your SSD(and gives you more space for other data). I would back up what data files you want to keep onto the SSD temporarily, then reformat the HDD, then put files back onto HDD.
6. After all of this, boot back into BIOS, and change the the SSD to the first boot device. Makes it faster to boot if the system doesn't have to check the optical drive.
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June 6, 2013 5:02:03 AM

ryanrich83 said:
Lohse54 said:
dodger46 said:
The Recovery Disk should be capable of clean installing Windows on your SSD. I take it you only have one drive bay?
I have upgraded a few laptops to W8 on a 60Gb SSD, W8 takes up so little space, but I also utilised a 32 Gb SD card to provide storage for Documents/Pictures/Music etc. SSD was reserved for OS and most used programs, so if you plan installing lots of storage hungry games best get a bigger SSD. To install, remove HDD and replace with SSD, change your boot order to put Optical Drive 1st and boot with your Recovery disk.
To optimise performance of SSD try this
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/...


Thx for the reply, and yeah i play games like crysis 3, BF3 and some other heavy games, so.. Best if i get something like 120 or more. But would I have to replace the SSD with the HDD? If it has 2 HDD bays, could i just put it into the second bay?


You can just move it to second bay.

1. Install the SSD into whichever bay you want.
2. Just like Lohse54 dodger46 said, make sure the optical drive is set as the first boot device in BIOS. Make sure the SSD is listed as the second boot device. Put the HDD as the last boot device, or remove it from the bootable device list.
3. Install Windows using recovery disks onto SSD.
4. After Windows install, install drivers. These are always installed to same drive/partition that Windows is installed to.
5. After all that, I would recommend removing the Windows files on the first HDD, that way the computer will only boot to your SSD(and gives you more space for other data). I would back up what data files you want to keep onto the SSD temporarily, then reformat the HDD, then put files back onto HDD.
6. After all of this, boot back into BIOS, and change the the SSD to the first boot device. Makes it faster to boot if the system doesn't have to check the optical drive.


Thx for the list of how to do this, I had no clue what so ever.
But how do i boot into BIOS?
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June 6, 2013 5:09:23 AM

How to get into the BIOS will depend on your laptop, but usually either mashing the DEL or F2 key when you turn the machine on will get you into the BIOS.
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June 6, 2013 6:05:53 AM

manofchalk said:
How to get into the BIOS will depend on your laptop, but usually either mashing the DEL or F2 key when you turn the machine on will get you into the BIOS.


Is that also for Windows 8? I remember that worked on Windows 7, but I will try that :)  thx
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June 6, 2013 6:11:27 AM

The BIOS is independent of the Operating System, which is essentially the motherboards OS which operates the rig and allows a more complex OS like Windows to boot.
What your thinking of might be booting into recovery or safe mode with Win7.
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June 6, 2013 6:47:17 AM

You have a UEFI instead of BIOS and you hit F2 on power up to access it. There's scant information on the contents of your UEFI in yor Manual, you'll just have to look for a Boot Tab and hope you can choose your Optical drive...
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June 6, 2013 11:15:24 AM

Thank you so much for your help with the bootup, I think i got my answers solved and I am now ready to get myself a SSD :) 
Thank you all for your time and help!
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June 6, 2013 11:59:27 AM

Lohse54 said:
Thank you so much for your help with the bootup, I think i got my answers solved and I am now ready to get myself a SSD :) 
Thank you all for your time and help!


You're welcome, here's a useful link for when it's installed...
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/...
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June 7, 2013 4:41:26 PM

dodger46 said:
Lohse54 said:
Thank you so much for your help with the bootup, I think i got my answers solved and I am now ready to get myself a SSD :) 
Thank you all for your time and help!


You're welcome, here's a useful link for when it's installed...
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/...


And I can't say it enough, thx again for your help :)  Couldn't be much better right now :) 
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