PrimaryTech Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 Now that 240GB SSD's are retailing under £100 I'm looking to buy one to put in my Lenovo laptop. Is there any disadvantage / performance issues to cloning my existing drive instead of doing a fresh install? Ideally I'd do a fresh install but the Lenovo was upgraded to Win 8 via redemption and I don't have a install disk.
DEfrostphone Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 (edited) If it's the same hardware (same laptop) There should not be a problem I have clone many hard disk to SSD all without a problem Edited May 30, 2014 by DEfrostphone
caffrey Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 I prefer fresh installs but manufacturers like samsung have a few utilities to help migration for free Samsung SSD (Solid State Drive) 840 series | Samsung SSD Website if you run the magician software after cloning it'll help optimise. The samsung kit I got had a SATA to USB adapter for laptops to help the process Don't forget to check what size ssd will fit in your laptop, my lenovo only allows 7mm height.
abillybob Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 Should be perfectly fine to clone the data I wouldn't worry. It is always the ideal solution to do a fresh copy install though and I would recommend trying to do that first. Do you not have any Windows 8 discs and then just put in your OEM code to activate and if necessary call up Microsoft they are always very good. Failing that if you still would prefer to do a fresh copy I'd just buy a new disc of Windows 8, if you know a student you can get it for around £50 I got my Windows 8.1 copy from my girlfriends student card and it gave it me at just under £50 as a nice downloaded ISO file Hope this helps!
cpjitservices Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 You can download the ISO's too from MS directly on the site I believe. You'll need your license number, just pop it in and if it doesnt activate phone MS and I'm sure they will sort it for you. 1
ChrisH Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 I've always done a fresh install when upgrading to SSD because I read a few things about alignment and geometry issues, is this not really an issue?
3s-gtech Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 I've cloned fifty plus of them now, works fine. Just make sure that AHCI is enabled if possible to give a speed boost.
mac_shinobi Posted May 30, 2014 Posted May 30, 2014 Contact lenovo support and see if they will send you the install discs??
PrimaryTech Posted May 30, 2014 Author Posted May 30, 2014 I got the ISO from MS and I have the original Win7 Lenovo disks so I'm doing a fresh install, Win7 with Lenovo drivers then upgrade to 8 using the ISO then go to 8.1 using Windows Store. My existing drive is pushing 200GB so probably best to do a fresh install and only install what I need. My laptop is used mainly for onsite support so I need speed over storage and I have a Microserver at home for personal stuff.
PrimaryTech Posted June 12, 2014 Author Posted June 12, 2014 Turns out you can do a fresh install from a Windows 8 upgrade disk, you just need to rearm the activation clock one the install has completed. All up and running now, I'm never going back to a standard HDD for my OS
Michael Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 I've used both methods - neither makes any difference. It's still essentially a SATA drive, just different bits inside delivering the performance boost.
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