hard drive Archives - Page 6 of 9

Q&A: How do I reformat a hard drive that I replaced with an SSD?

Posted on August 30, 2021

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Question from Aaron L.: A while back I replaced the hard drive in my HP laptop with an SSD, then installed Windows 7 from the DVD.

After I got all the Windows Updates installed I upgraded the system to Windows 10.

I bought one of the external USB drive enclosures for the old hard drive, then I plugged it into a USB port and copied all of my files onto another external drive.

The SSD is working great and so is the old hard drive (which is now being used as an external drive). The problem is the old drive still contains the original partitions for the operating system and the system recovery files.

How can I reformat the old drive as one single large partition? [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I stop my downloads from filling up my PC’s small SSD?

Posted on December 4, 2020

Question from Micah H: I read your post about how replacing the hard drive with an SSD will make a computer run a lot faster.

That really sounded good so I installed a Micron 60GB SSD (I got it at a GREAT price!) in my HP desktop PC.

I installed Windows 10 on the SSD and put most of my programs on the hard drive (which I had left in there for extra storage).

The SSD did speed the computer up quite a bit but I’m having a problem with it running out of storage space.

[Read more…]

Review: Inateck 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch SSD Mounting Bracket Adapter kit

Posted on July 17, 2019

Regular readers of this blog know I’m always talking about how replacing a computer’s hard drive with an SSD provides more “bang for the buck” than just about any other hardware upgrade you can make.

The only other upgrade that even comes close is a RAM upgrade, and that’s only true if the machine is running low on RAM in the first place.

Luckily, swapping out the hard drive for an SSD in most laptops is a breeze. Since both drives are typically 2.5 inch drives it’s literally as easy as removing the hard drive and installing the SSD in its place. A fast and easy process.

However, that isn’t the case with most desktop PCs. [Read more…]

Review: Silverstone Tek 3.5″ to 2 X 2.5″ Hard Drive HDD/SSD Bay Converter

Posted on March 26, 2019

Most solid state drives sold today were designed to fit into a standard 2.5 inch drive bay.

This is perfect if you’re upgrading the hard drive in your laptop to an SSD. Simply remove the hard drive and slide the SSD into it place.

But a problem arises if you’re planning to add an SSD to a typical desktop computer. Most desktop PC cases don’t have an empty 2.5 inch drive bay, so an adapter bracket is required in order to make it fit properly into an empty 3.5 inch bay.

A few days ago I ordered a Silverstone 3.5″ to 2 X 2.5″ Hard Drive HDD/SSD Bay Converter (#ad) that I needed in order to install a Samsung 860 QVO 1TB SSD (#ad) that was shipped to me for review.

After working with the converter I came away very impressed. [Read more…]

Speed up your slow laptop with an inexpensive Solid State Hybrid Drive

Posted on September 28, 2018

I’ve written several posts in the past explaining how you can speed up your computer dramatically by replacing its hard drive with a Solid State Drive (SSD).

Installing an SSD is, quite literally, the best single upgrade you can make on virtually any computer. That being said, installing an SSD in a laptop does have a downside…

Byte for byte, large capacity SSDs are still relatively expensive when compared to hard drives with similar capacities, and since most laptops only have one drive bay, leaving your larger hard drive installed to hold your data isn’t usually an option. [Read more…]