Question: I have a laptop with a 500gb 5400rpm drive. I got a new 500gb drive at 7200 rpm. I want to replace the slower one with the faster one. I have a PC to which I can connect both the hard drives and copy the data. Will copying the contents work in my laptop? Can I use it as a boot drive? (booting, games and all). Also, there’s no partitions, I kept only one partition to make it simple.
2.5″ 500 GB 5400 RPM Old Drive: HGST HTS545050A7E380
2.5″ 500 GB 7200 RPM New Drive: ST9500420AS
If it doesn’t, then can anyone tell me a free software to clone it?
Thanks for the help!
Answer:Adjusted for your particular situation…
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Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C, the old 5400RPM and the new 7200RPM
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing 5400RPM
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don’t want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on “Cloned Partition Properties”, and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
Click the ‘Clone’ button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Put the 7200RPM in the laptop
It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.
If it works, and it should, all is good.
Ask questions if anything is unclear.
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