Can someone help me with some questions about installing an SSD and using it as a boot disk?

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Pie_ExMachina

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Oct 13, 2015
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I bought a 500gb samsung ssd about 2 months ago but I never got into installing it. I'll do it this week since I'm completely free however it's my first time doing it so I have a few questions.

Is there any good guide I should follow? Either video or text will do.

Do I need to backup my information before I reinstall windows into the ssd? I ask this because I'm not 100% sure if uninstalling windows is like formatting my computer. A few IT people told me I didn't need the backup but you can never be too sure. Someone also suggested installing windows 7 into the ssd, testing it and if it works then I move the information I want into the ssd and format my hdd and use it as mass storage. Will this work?

Do I need to mount it somewhere or can I just leave it sitting inside my case? I'm not sure if my local computer parts store sells mounts for ssd and I'm pretty sure all the mounts in my pc are for 3.5 hdds.

Besides the sata cable do I need anything else? The box only contained the ssd and a disc with some program to transfer files.

Thanks for your help.

 
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popatim
These things occasionally do go very wrong.

If you have important files that you dont want to lose, like family pictures, video's, documents (like taxes) that you don't want to lose then making a backup first is a smart thing to do. These important files should never be stored on just one device, it can fail at any time and without warning so you have to plan for this eventuality.

If you don't mind losing everything then a fresh install of windows, drivers, programs is the best way top proceed but I see nothing wrong with cloning as long as the important stuff is backed up first.

The Samsung magician software actually works pretty good for cloning. I've never had an issue with it and its pretty straight forward to use.
Power off...
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popatim

popatim

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Dec 2, 2009
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These things occasionally do go very wrong.

If you have important files that you dont want to lose, like family pictures, video's, documents (like taxes) that you don't want to lose then making a backup first is a smart thing to do. These important files should never be stored on just one device, it can fail at any time and without warning so you have to plan for this eventuality.

If you don't mind losing everything then a fresh install of windows, drivers, programs is the best way top proceed but I see nothing wrong with cloning as long as the important stuff is backed up first.

The Samsung magician software actually works pretty good for cloning. I've never had an issue with it and its pretty straight forward to use.
Power off, disconnect the power and install the ssd. (I would tape it down somewhere that wont get hot. Like the bottom of the case) using a data cable from the drive to the motherbd and a power cable from the power supply.
Boot up from the harddrive, install Magician and Clone away.
When done; power and and disconnect power. Remove the end of the data cable from the ssd and plug the one in from the hdd (leaving the motherbd end of the hdd data cable in the exact same spot it always has been). Unplug the power from the HDD as well. Make sure these cables dont dangle near things like graphics cards & fans...

If you wanted to make the HDD into an external backup drive (get yourself a USB enclosure) so just go ahead and remove the drive now otherwise reconnect the drive using the old power and that loose Data cable in a few days.

Now boot up, it should default to the SSD.

I would use it a few days with just the SSD. If these things fail its usually early on, rare as a Samsung failure is.... LoL


 
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