It’s a no-brainer, but if the thought of reinstalling Windows 10 (and all of your programs) and then tweaking all of their settings gives you the chills, don’t worry. In an hour or two, you can easily be up and running with a clone of your current system – except now your laptop will have blazing performance. Here’s how to do it.
Before you begin: check upgradability
Before you begin: check upgradability
The process of upgrading your laptop to SSD is fairly simple if you have easy access to your hard drive via a removable panel on the bottom of the laptop. If you have an Ultrabook or your laptop doesn’t have that kind of easy upgrade access (eg, the bottom panel is sealed), it’s a whole different ballgame, and you’ll need to consult your laptop manual for instructions on getting to that drive and finding the right replacement drive. Otherwise, this tutorial will help those of you with the removable panel through preparing your laptop, cloning your system, and making the big swap. The other thing you’ll want to check before you go out and buy a replacement SSD is your drive’s form factor; you need to make sure the drive will fit in the laptop. Most laptops have 2.5-inch drives, but ultraportable notebooks may use the 1.8-inch disk size. Also, even 2.5-inch drives can have different thicknesses – 7mm or 9.5mm –and different interfaces (SATA or IDE, usually in laptops from 2008 or before). Laptops most widely use 2.5-inch SATA drives , but you should check your laptop manual or specifications to make sure you buy the right size SSD with the proper interface. Alternatively, you may be able to find this information by visiting Crucial’s Advisor Tool (opens in new tab) or looking at your current drive’s label: Open the access panel and look on the drive itself to see if it says 2.5-inch and SATA and what thickness you need. Generally, 7mm, 2.5-inch SATA SSDs will fit even in the 9.5mm slots and some come with spacers for a tighter fit. Looking for more practical advice? Here are eight of the biggest tech rip-offs and how to avoid them
What you’ll need
What you’ll need
Small Phillips screwdriver — For dismantling the proper panels. Separate external hard drive (optional). You might need this if you have large folders, such as photos and videos, that might not fit on your SSD, and also to create a full system backup at the start. Avoid rookie mistakes: here are 12 of the dumbest PC default settings (and how to change them)
Prepare your current drive for cloning
Prepare your current drive for cloning
First we need to do a little prep work on your current drive.
Connect the SSD
Connect the SSD
Now we’ll get the SSD set up for the cloning process.
Clone your hard drive
Clone your hard drive
Finally, it’s time to clone your drive to the SSD.
Physically swap your current drive with the SSD
Physically swap your current drive with the SSD
Now let’s remove the old drive and install the SSD.
Windows 10 storage and backup
Windows 10 storage and backup
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