With the New Year in full swing, most retailers are doing all sorts of sales to get your business during a normally slow month. With Christmas just passing by, many of us are cash
strapped after all the holiday spending. The good news is that now is the time to buy those upgrades you have been putting off. Online retailers like Amazon and Tiger Direct have some great buys this time of year.
One of the most popular upgrades right now is the conversion from a standard hardrive to a Solid State rive (SSD). This upgrade is especially useful if you own a laptop. As you know, laptops will often get bumped or jarred while they are being moved around. I have seen many a drive fail because of this. It does not take much to damage a regular drive. They are extremely delicate pieces.
Standard drives include an arsenal of moving parts. If you saw how it actually worked, you would be amazed that they last as long as they do. The heads are almost constantly moving as they locate pieces of information to display on your screen. Over time, these parts wear out and a failure is imminent.
Solid State drives are totally different animals. There are no moving parts and unless you drop your computer from a balcony, minor bumps and jars will not damage the drive. In addition, you have the added benefit of faster writes and almost instant boot ups. As that that was not enough, did I mention that your battery would last longer! They are extremely energy efficient and also generate less heat then a conventional drive. They generally come with a 3-year warranty, as that is the minimum expected lifespan. Flash memory does eventually wear out just like a conventional drive but with normal use, you should have them for a very long time.
Switching your system to a new drive is really not all that hard. Once you make your purchase, you will need two tools to move your data from one drive to the other. The first tool you will need is a USB hardrive adapter. This adapter allows you to connect your drive to your computer using a USB port. This will allow you to see the new drive as an external drive.
Next, you will need a good closing software. We use Casper and have had excellent luck with it. When you launch the program it will ask you for a drive to clone from (your C Drive) and a drive to clone to (your attached external drive). Follow the instructions to choose the drive and be sure to use the “Copy Entire Drive” option. Use all of the default settings. The copy might take an hour or two depending on how much information you have on the drive.
Once the clone is complete, simply end the program, disconnect the drive and remove the old hardrive from the laptop. This is usually done with a couple of screws under the laptop. Replace the old drive with the new one and you should be seeing performance like never before. Be sure to use care when handling the old drive as it can be used as a backup if the new one ever fails. Store it in a safe place in an anti-static bag for safety. If you are using a defrag utility, be sure to disable it as using it can decrease the life of the drive. Defragging is not necessary on a Solid State Drive.
I just purchased a new one from Tiger Direct and I have not yet received it. Once I do and have it installed, I will post a summary on the performance gains it generates.
by, Tech Joe
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