39 replies to this topic

[Crawlerz246]

so my dad has a bday in like 3 weeks. he said "son buy me an SSD and replace my lappy's HDD without losing a byte of data". I say "fine." and think "wtf did I say that for?!"

so he has an aging but working dell latitude D620 and he got it into his brain when he saw this video that he needs a crucial SSD. I say wtf for? is a SATAI controller anyway. (yes 1)

so i come to OCC for help. the question is two fold:

-1 - is there a better alternative to said SSD (a cheaper one preferably ofc.) he wants a 128GB to replace the tiny 78GB he has now. (yes he's set on an SSD but if you can provide me with a good HDD alternative that will be relatively fast)

- 2 - how should I go about making the new drive bootable and transfer everything (and I mean everything) from the HDD? I have a portable HDD, should I create a disk image? please walk me thru specifics, and/or apps I should use.

and finally, I am no stranger to PC innards. I built mine, fixed the one I had before a couple of times, and swapped out laptop HDDs before. but those were fresh OS installs.

thank you for your time and kudos to all!

Edited by Crawlerz246, 14 November 2012 - 12:35 PM.

[EuroFight]

I myself would use CloneZilla (it's free) to create a bootable DVD, then make a copy of the drive image onto an external HDD (or other decent sized storage device). You can then copy the image to the new SSD. Luckily in your case the SSD would be larger than the HDD you are copying from, so you're pretty much set.

Edit for more info, DELL have great manuals for disassembling their Latitude series (although the power button strip is really irritating), I myself have a D810 and I reckon it should last me into uni, the latitude D series are a very solid series of laptop

Edited by EuroFight, 14 November 2012 - 02:23 PM.

[Crawlerz246]

what's good SSD for such purposes? I think the crucial is way overkill.

[SpikeSoprano]

I would use the cheapest one you can find, any 120gb will do, speed will not really matter as you will be using sata1 which maxes out at 150. Any vertex or agility will do fine.

[IVIYTH0S]

I would use the cheapest one you can find, any 120gb will do, speed will not really matter as you will be using sata1 which maxes out at 150. Any vertex or agility will do fine.

I was gonna say, the Agility 3 or 4 should get you there for very cheap.

[Waco]

What everyone else said. Any modern SATA II or III drive will work with SATA I. Newer drives tend to have less problems as well so I second/third the OCZ Agility recommendation.

[dr_bowtie]

The only SSD drive i'd put in someone elses PC is an Intel unit.

They are way more refined than others and have better firmware and are way more reliable.... Either the 520 or 330 series....

[Waco]

The only SSD drive i'd put in someone elses PC is an Intel unit.

Have you had drives die from other manufacturers? Specifically, newer drives from other manufacturers?

[IVIYTH0S]

Have you had drives die from other manufacturers? Specifically, newer drives from other manufacturers?

Nah, it's just his home heating system works just fine so he needs a new way to burn money

[dr_bowtie]

Have you had drives die from other manufacturers? Specifically, newer drives from other manufacturers?

No...I personally havent but I am networked with some builders who build a lot of rigs.... like 2,000 plus a year and I listen to the feedback on parts....

Currently some vendors have a pretty high return rate on SSD drives... Intel has the lowest return rate

in my personaly rigs I will use/try everything... but if it is someones that i dont want to fiddle with all the time I will only use the best parts for less of a chance of service calls.... especially family

[CroBro]

15 secs boot beats 1.5 -2minutes. IMO you have two options.
One is to wait till Black Friday / cyber Monday, cause you've just missed a lot of sales on ssd's
Or, if you're an advantures type,
try to install mini-pic sataII controller and a wireless N USB card
Given that lappy has the option to boot from other devices
Ssd purchase should definitely wait for a few weeks, either way
Last week I saw 180gb intel 330, for a price of 120 atm.
Have fun with it.
Btw, you can find used lappies with sata2 and good graphics for 200$ on fleebay as well.

Happy hunting!

[Crawlerz246]

thanks for all the recommendations people! does this look about right to you? ofc I will wait till african american friday. his bday is dec 5th anyway. he'll have to wait.