What to Upgrade on New Teens Laptop?

• 

  Purec on 09/12/2017 - 08:57

  +5

  • HDD in laptops are almost always 2.5" drives, so you'll be looking at 2.5" SSD to replace them. I would get at least 250gb(around $120), if SSD is your only storage on the laptop and you need storage, I'd consider 500gb (around $200)
  • Should note that replacing the drive means that there will be nothing on the SSD, including windows 10. So some SSD manufacturer have tools that migrate data from the HDD to the SSD. So that when you do replace the drives, the laptop will turn on and go into windows 10.
  • 8gb should be enough for daily general use of a laptop (watching videos, multiple tabs on your internet browser, document writing etc…)
  • 

    Blackfyre on 09/12/2017 - 10:13

    +2

    SSD is definitely the best speed improvement you can make on it, especially when most laptops ship with a slow 5400rpm HDD. 8gb ram is enough unless he/she is interested in video editing.

    Also just to expand on Point 2:
    Samsung has data migration software for their SSDs, or there's EaseUS Todo Backup available for free. Both pretty user-friendly for migrating your current HDD onto an SSD.

• 

  greatlamp on 09/12/2017 - 10:14

  +1

  Replace the HDD with an SSD.
  All SSDs should fit in general, some laptops that are ultra thin can only fit a very thin hard drive (7mm thick) but otherwise any SSD should fit (usually 9mm thick)

  Best way to tell is open up the laptop and measure the existing hard drive / look at how much space you have.

  You need a SATA SSD, it will use the same connection as the existing drive.

  I recommend the Samsung 850 evo, very good performance, you might be able to get 500gb on your budget.

  The existing drive can be put into a USB enclosure and used for backups.

  Windows 10 does not require a serial to install, you should be able to download the windows 10 and put it on usb with the microsoft media creation tool.

  Use the media creation tool and an 8gb USB stick to create an installer. ( you could also burn a DVD)

  Instruct the computer to load the operating system from the USB stick / DVD

  Install to the drive.

  If you remove the existing drive and keep it aside, you can always put it back if something goes wrong with the new SSD.

  Windows shoild activate automatically after install, if not, try phone activation and quote the details on the windows sticker. Belarc advisor is a free tool that can read this information from your windows installation also.(you need to run belarc advisor on the old harddrive)

  Even if you never activate windows you can still use it, so you have time to work it out.

  You could migrate your existing installation onto a SSD, however part of the benefits of installing fresh is you don't have all the non essential crap that comes bundled with the store bought OS. (Trial version software etc)

  8gb of ram is plenty, don't bother upgrading that, in fact even 4gb is plenty for most people

  A fresh install of windows will require you to install some drivers for things like the fingerprint reader or sd card reader, should be available from manufacturers website

• 

  clint-008 on 09/12/2017 - 10:36

  +1

  mumof2sydney

  how hard this is to do

  The actual process of migrating over the data and swapping out the HDD for an SSD is pretty easy in itself, It usually depends on how easily you can access the HDD.

  It seems this particular laptop though doesn't have a HDD access hatch and taking the whole back cover off isn't exactly easy since it requires prying off, Youtube

  Besides your choice of SSD you will most likely need an external 2.5" enclosure preferably USB 3.0 to if you choose to copy over The OS/Data to the new drive You can find these pretty cheap $15 on eBay however they have been listed cheap on Ozbargain before I personally use a simplecom one paid about $9 for it on eBay couple of years back.

  Blackfyre

  Both pretty user-friendly for migrating your current HDD onto an SSD.

  I have used both before I prefer EaseUs as I have previously had problems with Partition alignment on Samsungs tool, I have also used Mini tool Partion Wizard manager few times seems to work great, prefer it to EaseUS very straightforward process simply click the "Migrate Os to SSD button" it also does a lot more than EaseUs.

• 

  Cheap Charlie on 09/12/2017 - 12:23

  Teardown video here.
  The M.2 slot is already in use (and you may not be able to boot from there?).
  Swap out that 1TB HDD for a SATA3 SSD.

  Clone the original drive as mentioned above.

  Some tips
  - Some of the screws holding the base shell on will vary in length. Lay the screws out on a piece of A4 paper in a rough postion of where they came from on the laptop.
  - If your laptop has a metal base, be cautious of cutting your fingers on the edges when prying it.
  - Asus tend to place screws under rubber feet. If it has rubber feet they are usually held in with thin double sided tape.
  - Keep the original 1TB HDD for backing up your laptop or whatever.

• 

  mumof2sydney on 09/12/2017 - 13:16

  Hi all,

  Very grateful- thanks again-to clarify- PLEASE CORRECT ANYTHING!!!

  1. need external case for "old HDD"..looking at $4.76 on ebay:

  https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-USB-3-0-S-ZA-2-5-inch-HD-HDD…

  1. buy SATA3 SSD 250 Gb or higher

  http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/advanced_search_result.php?sear…

  You recommend the samsung 850 EVO?

  3, Change over as per youtube video posted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=renPptxr3Nw

  1. Reinstall windows 10 as per https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/15088/windows-creat…

  Q: the product key??? Will this be anywhere on/with the laptop??

  1. Reinstall other drivers ( not sure how but will sort that when up to this step) such as fingerprint etc

  Again- thank a lot

  • 

    clint-008 on 09/12/2017 - 13:30

    the product key??? Will this be anywhere on/with the laptop??

    It is usually on a sticker on the base of the laptop, this is only necessary if you actually want to re-install windows which isn't really necessary imo.

    If you just want to copy the OS and all the data over you won't need it, It is entirely up to you though and whether or not you want to buggerize around re-installing windows then looking for and re-installing drivers, or simply copy over all the data and OS directly.

    You recommend the samsung 850 EVO?

    Almost everyone will Its a highly rated drive and falls into your price range, I think the cheapest it was available is via Amazon France may have gone back by now, If you want local stock Umart you may pay a little more than $200 after postage for local stock.

  • 

    Purec on 09/12/2017 - 13:45

    1. external case to connect to the pc to either reuse it as extra storage or to migrate to SSD before you reuse the HDD.
    2. sata3 SSD definitely, i'd recommend samsung 850 evo, good performance, good warranty.

    the product key is programmed onto the laptop's hardware so windows will recognize it when you reinstall windows of the same edition of the product key. i.e windows standard installation or windows pro installation.

    if you don't want to deal with installing windows and drivers, you could use external case to connect the SSD and use a software to migrate from the HDD to the SSD. that way you don't have to reinstall windows and drivers, you could just replace the hdd with the SSD after data migration and you'd boot straight into windows 10 without any further drivers.

• 

  havebeerbelywillsumo on 09/12/2017 - 15:02

  Just in case…..you don't want to simply "copy" one drive to the other….for various arcane reasons a "copy" doesn't properly install all the data.

  • 

    clint-008 on 09/12/2017 - 23:40

    you don't want to simply "copy"

    Sorry, yes you're correct, just to clarify the correct terminology I should have used is clone as opposed to copy. Anyway, if the Op uses any of the tools myself or Blackfyre mentioned the process cloning/migrating the entire OS is basically streamlined for you and won't cause any of the issues that simply copying all the data from one to the other would.

• 

  srpeel on 10/12/2017 - 10:45

  If you want to know/record your Windows 10 Key, there's a simple little utility available at https://www.wintools.info/ called - surprise, surprise - Winkey.
  This site has a few basic FREE utilities for primping Windows, like change font etc.
  They're not bad, very basic and easy to use.

• 

  mumof2sydney on 10/12/2017 - 12:29

  +1

  Thank you again everyone.

• 

  Maddman on 10/12/2017 - 19:16

  To keep it really simple with the data transfer side of this:
  I’ve used the Samsung data transfer software that comes with their EVO SSD drives on a CD, or download for free off their website. This runs in Windows and you just need to click through the defaults.
  It “nearly” always does a perfect mirror of the existing drive and adjusts the size change. I’ve had it fail once in about 30 upgrades.
  Stick the new SSD into a USB enclosure, plug it into the laptop and run the Samsung software in Windows. Then shut down the laptop and swap the drive over as described in the other posts.
  Seriously, don’t bother with a Windows install and all that unless you really need to.
  I only sell Samsung SSD’s to my business customers because it’s so simple with their software.
  Just double check that Windows recognises that you now have an SSD installed so it doesn’t defrag it.