For free software, take a look at AOMEI Partition Assistant. If you want a complete, bootable drive clone like we’re setting out to do, you’ll need software that has bootable tools. There are a ton of options for this so have a look around but expect to pay around $25.ĭisk imaging software ranges from excellent to utterly dangerous. It makes it easy to connect drives to any computer without using tools or opening cases. I use a cheap, exposed dock like this one from Plugable Technologies. You need a way to attach another drive to your laptop to perform the disk cloning. Just make sure the capacity of the drive will hold the amount of space used on your existing drive plus room to grow into plus 15GB or so for hidden partitions you will be transferring. I run these in our servers and they're fantastic. On the commercial side, I really like the Corsair Neutron GTX.

They offer the best price/performance out there (500MB+ read/write wat!?), I personally have several of them. My current favorite consumer drives are the Samsung 840 EVO-Series. You can then leverage cloud storage or external disks to hold your large files, photos, or backups. In my opinion, you can keep the capacity down (128 - 256 GB) on the SSD and buy a quality model rather than getting a large one (500GB+) and compromising on quality. A flash drive to boot from if your laptop is missing a CD drive There are 3 things you’ll need to accomplish this.Īn SSD of sufficient size (at least the size of the used space on your existing drive)ģa. Basically the best possible outcome for a drive transfer. It will be like it never happened aside from your new found blazing speed. All of your software and licenses will transfer as well. You’ll still be able to restore your machine back to its factory condition (if that option existed in the first place).

That means that your operating system will still be installed, activated, and genuine. Make a “factory” copy of the drive, including any and all partitions (recovery etc.)Ībility to drop down to a smaller drive size if necessaryĪchieving those goals means that the end result will be a factory drive image on a new disk. Retain the data and software from the original drive

What programs to put on ssd