Good day.

For many users, one disk is often not enough for everyday work on a laptop. There are, of course, different options for solving the problem: buy external hard disk, flash drive, etc. media (we will not consider this option in the article).

Can you install second hard drive (or SSD (solid state)) instead of an optical drive. For example, I use it very rarely (I’ve used it a couple of times over the last year, and if I didn’t have it, I probably wouldn’t remember about it).

In this article I want to look at the main questions that may arise when connecting a second drive to a laptop. So...

1. Selecting the required “adapter” (which is installed instead of the drive)

This is the first question and the most important! The fact is that many people do not suspect that the thickness of disk drives is different laptops may be different! The most common thicknesses are 12.7 mm and 9.5 mm.

To find out the thickness of your drive, there are 2 ways:

1. Open some utility, such as AIDA ( free utilities: http://pcpro100.info/harakteristiki-kompyutera/#i), then find out the exact model of the drive, and then find its characteristics on the manufacturer’s website and look at the dimensions there.

2. Measure the thickness of the drive by removing it from the laptop (this is a 100% option, I recommend it so as not to make a mistake). This option is discussed further down in the article.

By the way, please note that this “adapter” is correctly called a little differently: “Caddy for Laptop Notebook” (see Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Adapter for a laptop for installing a second disk. 12.7mm SATA to SATA 2nd Aluminum Hard Disk Drive HDD Caddy for Laptop Notebook)

2. How to remove the disk drive from a laptop

This is done quite simply. Important! If your laptop is under warranty, such an operation may result in denial of warranty service. Whatever you do next, do it at your own peril and risk.

1) Turn off the laptop, disconnect all wires from it (power, mice, headphones, etc.).

2) Turn it over and remove the battery. Usually its fastening is a simple latch (sometimes there can be 2 of them).

3) To remove the drive, as a rule, it is enough to unscrew 1 screw that holds it. In a typical laptop design, this screw is located approximately in the center. When you unscrew it, it will be enough to lightly pull the drive housing (see Fig. 2) and it should easily “move out” of the laptop.

I emphasize that proceed carefully; as a rule, the drive comes out of the case very easily (without any effort).

Rice. 2. Laptop: drive mount.

4) It is advisable to measure the thickness using a caliper rod. If it is not there, you can use a ruler (as in Fig. 3). In principle, to distinguish 9.5 mm from 12.7, a ruler is more than enough.

Rice. 3. Measuring the thickness of the drive: it is clearly visible that the drive is about 9 mm thick.

Connecting a second drive to a laptop (step by step)

To begin with, I want to draw your attention to 2 nuances:

Many users complain that the laptop is somewhat lost appearance after installing such an adapter. But in most cases, the old drive socket can be carefully removed (sometimes small screws can hold it in place) and installed on the adapter (red arrow in Fig. 4);

Before installing the disk, remove the stop (green arrow in Fig. 4). Some people push the disk “from above” at an angle without removing the stop. This often leads to damage to the contacts of the disk or adapter.

Rice. 4. Type of adapter

As a rule, the disk fits into the adapter slot quite easily and there are no problems with installing the disk into the adapter itself (see Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. Installed SSD drive into the adapter

Problems often arise when users try to put the adapter in place optical drive into a laptop. Most often the problems are as follows:

The adapter was chosen incorrectly; for example, it turned out to be thicker than needed. Forcing the adapter into the laptop can cause damage! In general, the adapter itself should “ride” into the laptop as if on rails, without the slightest effort;

On such adapters you can often find compensator screws. In my opinion, there is no benefit from them, I recommend removing them immediately. By the way, it often happens that it is they that rest against the laptop body, preventing the adapter from being installed in the laptop (see Fig. 6).

Rice. 6. Adjustment screw, compensator

If everything is done carefully, the laptop will have its original appearance after installing the second disk. Everyone will “think” that the laptop has an optical drive, but in fact there is another HDD or SSD (see Fig. 7) ...

Rice. 7. The adapter along with the disk is installed in the laptop

I recommend that after installing the second disk, go to Laptop BIOS and check if the disk is detected there. In most cases (if installed disk It works and there were no problems with the drive before) BIOS correctly detects the drive.

How to enter BIOS (keys to to different manufacturers devices): http://pcpro100.info/kak-voyti-v-bios-klavishi-vhoda/

Rice. 8. BIOS recognized the installed disk

To summarize, I want to say that the installation itself is a simple matter, anyone can do it. The main thing is to take your time and act carefully. Often problems arise due to haste: first they didn’t measure the drive, then they bought the wrong adapter, then they started installing it by force - as a result, they took the laptop for repair...

That's all for me, I tried to sort out all the pitfalls that may exist when installing a second disk.

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pcpro100.info

2in1. Installing SSD and HDD in a laptop

With the advent of SSD drives, many users began to abandon HDD drive ov in favor of SSD drives. This is not surprising, because SSD has a number of advantages. The main advantage is the high read/write speed; also among the advantages it is worth noting the absence of noise and low power consumption. Among all the advantages, there is also one disadvantage - the small storage capacity. But what if it is necessary? fast work systems and at the same time a lot of space for information? On a PC, this can easily be solved by installing an SSD drive as system disk and HDD as a disk for storing information. But what should laptop users do if there is only one drive bay? For laptop users, there are two solutions to this problem.

First. Install SSD instead hard drive and use an external drive to store information. This method consists of installing an SSD disk instead of a system (hard disk), and hard drive in a USB pocket. Some manufacturers sell SSD drives in two configurations. The first and most common includes the solid state drive, instructions and in some cases an adapter for SSD installation in PC. The second package is a little more expensive and, accordingly, more advanced, it includes a drive, a USB pocket for 2.5″ drives, instructions, and an adapter for installing an SSD in a PC. SSDs that come with a USB pocket are ideal for this installation method.

This method is not always convenient for a number of reasons: - one or two people are busy USB port(depending on the removable drive) - when transporting a laptop, you also need to remember about the external drive - external drive more prone to mechanical damage

I would like to demonstrate and describe the second solution using the example of the ASUS K55Vm laptop.

Test configuration: Processor: Mobile QuadCore Intel Core i7-3610QM Memory: 2x4GB Hynix HMT351S6CFR8C-PB DDR3-1600 Video adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M (2048 MB) This method characterized by the fact that the SSD drive is installed in the main compartment intended for the hard drive. The second disk is installed instead of a CD-ROM.

For this we need: 1) A laptop (it won’t work without it)

2) SSD drive. We chose KINGSTON Sh203S390G for testing

3) Hard drive. WDC WD7500BPKT

4) Special adapter for HDD installations instead of CD-ROM

Step by step installation: 1) Remove the HDD from the bay

2) Install the SSD into the hard drive bay

3) Fix the hard drive in the adapter

4) Remove the CD ROM from the laptop

5) Install the adapter with hard drive into the CD ROM bay

The appearance of the laptop after replacing the optical drive with an adapter with HDD is also important. After such a replacement, the appearance will not change; visually it will look exactly the same as before installation.

If these manipulations with the laptop are done correctly, then when you boot you will see two drives in the system.

What to do with the drive left idle? You can find a lot of applications for it, but considering that the laptop has lost its drive, and optical disks sometimes you have to use it, it would be advisable to make the drive external and connect it to the laptop if necessary via USB. This decision can be done by installing the drive in a special “pocket”.

At the end of the article I would like to present the results of testing HDD and SSD. For testing, we used a program that tests drives for read and write speed - Crystal Disk Mark and AIDA64 for the linear read test.

Based on the results of linear reading, it is worth noting that SSD drives maintain a relatively stable speed throughout the entire test, which cannot be said about HDDs. At the beginning of testing, the drive showed a relatively high speed of 120MB/s, but at the end of the test the speed dropped to 54MB/s. Accordingly, SSDs exceed HDDs in reading speed by more than 5 times.

This test can be called biased, since the media worked in different modes. The SSD operates in SATA 3 data transfer mode, and the HDD drive in SATA mode 2.

But what will the test results be if we place these drives under the same SATA 2 conditions?

Was taken for testing ASUS laptop G1Sn with configuration:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T9500, 2600 MHz

Memory: 2x2GB Kingston 99U5295-011 DDR2 Video adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS (512 MB) The Crystal Disk Mark program was taken as test software.

As expected, the test results for SSDs changed downwards. The reading speed decreased almost by half, while the writing speed changed slightly, by a third. Despite the reduced read speed, an SSD is almost twice as fast as a hard drive.

Information on read speed and other characteristics of solid-state drives and hard drives can be easily found on the manufacturer’s website.

In order to clearly demonstrate the superiority of SSDs over HDDs, we checked how the speed of loading, shutting down and rebooting will change operating system on both types of drives. The ASUS K55Vm laptop mentioned above was taken for measurements. We installed an operating room Windows system 7 (64-bit version) and drivers provided by the laptop manufacturer for both types of drives. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the test results.

The difference in speed is noticeable. This replacement will not only speed up booting and shutting down the computer, but also loading programs, opening or playing files, and generally speed up the operation of the laptop.

Our specialists service center will select the optimal adapter and HDD/SSD based on your wishes, taking into account technical features laptop.

nfs.kiev.ua

How to install an SSD in a laptop and transfer Windows to it?

Translation of an article by Mike Clements from the Corsair blog.

When talking about computers, I like to use the term "simple". The best upgrade you can imagine is one that is so simple that even a chimpanzee can do it, that's when it can be called "chim-simple." The Corsair Force 3 solid-state drive with a special kit for transferring information from a laptop exactly corresponds to this ideology.

In the extended delivery package you will find an SSD, a software disk and a special SATA-USB cable for transferring information. The disk contains the necessary utility for cloning the image. IN in this case This is The Apricorn EZ GIG IV - a simple and straightforward utility, however, we will look at some of the steps that will be required to transfer the operating system from a laptop to new SSD.

For those users who have never upgraded their laptop, there are only three options: you can install the OS on your SSD from scratch, you can restore the partition from backup copy or follow the “simple” path using the software included with the solid-state drive. After you connect the SSD to the laptop, it may not appear in the system - this is normal, the main thing is that the cloning program will see it.

Insert the CD with the software, and if the autorun function does not work, you will have to launch the utility yourself.

After launching EZ GIG IV, you will see a utility welcome window and several options to choose from. We need the Start EZ GIG IV option.

Then you have to accept license agreement.

Finally, click the Let`s Get Started button.

After this, the program will prompt you to select the source drive from which the information will be transferred. In this case, this is drive “C”, located under No. 1.

Once you have selected both drives, you can continue with the default settings, or you can set a number of your own options. For example, for an SSD it is highly advisable to select the 4K equalization option. The program will first align the partition, which will be critical for the speed of the solid-state drive.

In the Data Select column you can exclude some folders from the cloning operation. For example, you can exclude the “My Music” folder (which in our case takes up 19.8 GB of information), since this will significantly reduce cloning time, and you can add it later.

Once you have selected all the options you want and agree, click Next, in which case a window will open that will once again ask you to make sure you have selected the correct options. If you are sure you haven't forgotten anything, just click Start Copying.

The completed copying section will be displayed below. Cloning time will depend on the speed of the drives, as well as the amount of data being copied.

Once the cloning is complete, you can repeat it with different settings and options, or simply exit the program.

After exiting the program, you can replace your old drive with a new SSD, while you will still have your operating system with which you are used to working. Of course, this will require disassembling the laptop. It is almost impossible to give more detailed instructions on how to do this, since all laptops and netbooks differ in their design and location of the hard drive. In some places this will be easier to do, and in others it will be more difficult; the video shows an example of replacement on one of the Lenovo Thinkpad laptops:

Note Allssd.ru:

Most often, replacing RAM and hard drive is quite simple in large laptops and this, as a rule, does not deprive the owner of the device of the warranty. In order to find a guide on “how to open your laptop/netbook,” it is best to use Youtube, where users post a huge number of videos on a variety of models on this topic.

allssd.ru

Changing the DVD drive to a solid state drive

If you have long stopped using the DVD drive in your laptop, then it’s time to replace it with a brand new SSD. You didn't know this was possible? Then today we will talk in detail about how to do this and what is required for this.

How to install an SSD instead of a DVD drive in a laptop

So, after weighing all the pros and cons, we came to the conclusion that an optical drive is already an extra device and it would be nice to install an SSD instead. To do this, we need the drive itself and a special adapter (or adapter), which is a perfect size instead of a DVD drive. This way, it will not only be easier for us to connect the drive, but the laptop body itself will look more aesthetically pleasing.

Preparatory stage

Before purchasing such an adapter, you should pay attention to the size of your drive. A regular drive has a height of 12.7 mm, and there are also ultra-thin drives that are 9.5 mm in height.

Now that we have the appropriate adapter and SSD, we can begin the installation.

Disconnecting the DVD drive

The first step is to disconnect the battery. In cases where the battery is not removable, you will have to remove the laptop cover and disconnect the battery connector from the motherboard.

In most cases, in order to remove the drive, you do not need to completely disassemble the laptop. Just unscrew a few screws and optical drive comes out easily. If you are not entirely confident in your abilities, then it is better to look for video instructions directly for your model or contact a specialist.

Installing SSD

That's all, our drive is ready for installation.

Now all that remains is to insert the adapter with the SSD into the laptop, tighten the bolts and connect the battery. Turn on the laptop, format it new disk, and then you can transfer the operating system from the magnetic drive to it, and use the latter to store data.

Connection various devices connecting to a computer is difficult for many users, especially if the device needs to be installed inside system unit. In such cases, the multitude of wires and various connectors is especially intimidating. Today we will talk about how to properly connect an SSD to a computer.

So you have purchased solid state drive and now the task is to connect it to a computer or laptop. First, we'll talk about how to connect the drive to a computer, since there are more different nuances here, and then we'll move on to the laptop.

Connecting the SSD to the computer

Before connecting the drive to the computer, you should make sure that there is still room for it and the necessary cables. IN otherwise, you will have to disconnect some of the installed devices - hard drives or disk drives (which work with the SATA interface).

Connecting the disk will take place in several stages:

• Opening the system unit;
• Consolidation;
• Connection.

At the first stage, no difficulties should arise. You just need to unscrew the bolts and remove the side cover. Depending on the housing design, it is sometimes necessary to remove both covers.

There is a special compartment for mounting hard drives in the system unit. In most cases, it is located closer to the front panel; it is almost impossible not to notice it. SSDs are usually smaller in size than magnetic disks. That is why they sometimes come with special slides that allow you to secure the SSD. If you don’t have such a sled, you can install it in the card reader compartment or come up with a more clever solution to fix the drive in the case.

Now comes the most difficult stage - directly connecting the disk to the computer. It takes some care to do it right. The fact is that modern motherboards have several SATA interfaces, which differ in data transfer speed. And if you connect your drive to the wrong SATA, it will not work at full capacity.

To use your full potential solid state drives, they must be connected to a SATA III interface, which is capable of providing a data transfer rate of 600 Mbit/s. As a rule, such connectors (interfaces) are highlighted in color. We find such a connector and connect our drive to it.

Next, all that remains is to connect the power and that’s it, the SSD will be ready for use. If you are connecting the device for the first time, then do not be afraid of connecting it incorrectly. All connectors have a special key that will not allow you to insert it incorrectly.

Connecting an SSD to a laptop

Installing a solid state drive in a laptop is somewhat easier than in a computer. The difficulty here is usually to open the laptop lid.

In most models, the hard drive bays have their own cover, so there is no need to completely disassemble the laptop.

We find the required compartment, unscrew the bolts and carefully disconnect the hard drive and insert the SSD in its place. As a rule, all the connectors here are rigidly fixed, so to disconnect the drive, you need to move it a little to the side. To connect, on the contrary, slightly move it towards the connectors. If you feel that the disc is not inserted, then you should not use excessive force; perhaps you are simply inserting it incorrectly.

Ultimately, having installed the drive, all that remains is to securely fix it, and then tighten the laptop case.

Conclusion

Now, guided by these short instructions, you can easily figure out how to connect drives not only to a computer, but also to a laptop. As you can see, this is done quite simply, which means that almost anyone can install a solid-state drive.

Today the requirements for wearable storage devices are: increasingly stringent requirements. In addition to the volume of built-in memory, as well as low weight and size, the requirement for data transfer speed has been added. Everything is logical: the higher the speed, the faster documents, photos, music, films will be copied.

Moreover, the volumes of those same documents and media content have increased significantly. If previously a film of good quality “weighed” up to a gigabyte, today it weighs several gigabytes. The same with photographs: with an increase in the resolution of camera matrices, the volume of photographs has increased, and if there are hundreds and thousands of them, the copying process becomes painfully long.

Today, wearable storage devices face more demands from users than before. In addition to the light weight and size, as well as the volume of built-in memory, the requirement for data transfer speed has been added. Everything is logical - the higher the speed, the less time it will take to copy documents, photos, music and films. In addition, the volumes of those same documents and media content have increased significantly. If previously a film of good quality “weighed” up to a gigabyte, today it weighs several gigabytes. The same thing with photographs - the resolution of camera matrices has increased, which means that the volume of photographs has also increased, and if there are hundreds or thousands of them, then transferring them from a flash drive and back will become a real pain.

New realities and opportunities

Available solid state drives (SSDs) connected via a USB 3.0 interface were expected to provide significantly higher read and write speeds. After all, unlike hard drives, the speeds of such drives are already limited by the throughput of the third generation SATA interface – 6 Gbit/s. That is, speeds of 500 – 550 MB/s in both directions. There are also plenty of external boxes with a USB 3.0 interface, so there is no problem external USB 3.0 drive from a fast SSD and USB 3.0 box. However, there are doubts specifically about the SATA to USB 3.0 interface converter - how much speed will be reduced during conversion is the main question.

At the same time, renowned manufacturers have created fast flash drives that are based on the same SSD controllers and fast NAND memory as traditional SSDs. For example, the latest generation promises us mind-blowing read and write speeds - up to 450 MB/s and up to 200 MB/s, respectively.

This is what Corsair promised us

We at the NICS Computer Supermarket are not used to taking anyone’s word for it, so we decided to conduct an experiment and understand what is better: buy a fast USB 3.0 flash drive or assemble an external drive from a real SSD and a USB 3.0 box.

Experiment

As an experiment, we used the same testing system that we use for hard drives and SSDs with the SATA interface. The stand configuration can be viewed.

The following components that were on hand were tested:

As you can see, it is significantly faster than its competitor in sequential read and write operations. And since the main operations for external storage is the banal transfer of large data, then these characteristics are the most important. We also note that Corsair did not deceive, which is the sin of many flash drive manufacturers - the read and write speeds are really high. Transferring a gigabyte of data in 3 seconds is possible.

The conclusion is obvious - much faster than SSDs connected via USB using existing USB 3.0 boxes. In addition, “SSD designs” are much smaller and lighter, which is also very important for portable drives.

Conclusion

No matter how hard we tried to get high speed SSDs through existing USB 3.0 boxes, it didn’t work out. But it turned out great. With a new 256 GB flash drive (just think about it!) you can transfer a lot of information at speeds that until recently seemed sky-high to us. In addition, it is much smaller in size and weight than an SSD installed in a box. Yes, it is more expensive, but it is made of metal, weighs little and reads and writes really quickly - today there is simply no alternative to this combination of advantages.

If a flash drive or portable external hard drive is equipped with a USB 3.0 interface, this does not mean that the read and write speed will increase radically or even increase at all. It all depends on the drive itself. At the dawn of USB 3.0, many manufacturers of flash drives did not change anything structurally at all, except for the interface. That is, “slow” was taken USB flash drive 2.0 with reading and writing speeds of up to 10 MB/s, the interface changed and a USB 3.0 flash drive went on sale. Of course, there was no increase in speed at all.

Now let's take a portable external hard drive as an example. Essentially it's 2.5" SATA drive+ interface converter SATA -> USB 3.0. If you remember at what speed any 2.5” HDD works for a laptop with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm, then numbers pop up around 85 MB/s for linear reading and writing. Simple mathematics will tell us that the USB 2.0 interface will not be enough to realize the capabilities of this drive, but in the case of USB 3.0, only a third of the bandwidth will be used, at best.

Often, when working with a PC, we encounter problems that we did not expect. For example, we don't know how to connect an SSD drive to a computer. It would seem that the matter is not at all difficult, but it requires care and correct actions. Therefore, if you decide to carry components or assemble a PC yourself, then you will need to know everything about such minor difficulties.

For what?

Upgrading your computer is always a responsible matter. Not all users are ready to do this. Firstly, you need to have a good understanding of components and understand compatibility different devices, understand new products. Secondly, in addition to this, significant financial investments are needed, since the better the product, the more expensive it is accordingly.

In this case, everyone will need to learn how to connect an SSD drive to a computer. This is also necessary for those who decided to assemble a PC themselves, or for those whose hard drive “passed away.” There are a lot of instructions on this issue on the Internet, so let’s get started.

Peculiarities

Before we begin to understand this issue, we need to tell those who do not know anything about SSDs.

It is a solid state drive, which is a non-mechanical storage device. It is based on a memory chip. The device replaced the HDD. Although it is impossible to say so unequivocally, since many experienced users prefer to install both an HDD and a solid-state drive in their PC.

As a result, sometimes this device becomes the main one, replacing the place of the hard drive, sometimes auxiliary. In the second case, the system is loaded onto it, and personal information is stored on the hard drive.

Advantages

Now, not everyone needs to learn how to connect an SSD drive to a SATA computer, since most users still use this device in compact devices: tablets, etc.

However, in desktop computers it can also be installed because it brings additional benefits. Most importantly, it improves system performance. Compared to traditional hard drives, it is smaller in size and weight and has increased performance. Moreover, the speed turned out to be 6-7 times greater. Hence the high price for SSDs.

In addition, solid-state drives have begun to be integrated in pairs with HDDs to form hybrid hard drives. In this case, the flash memory became occupied by a buffer. Although, as mentioned earlier, sometimes it is used as a separate free space.

In addition, noiselessness has been added to the main advantages, since the device is non-mechanical and has no moving elements. Hence the high mechanical resistance. Files are read stably, without interruptions or jumps. Reading speed is close to the throughput of the interfaces.

Connection

So, how to connect an SSD to a computer? Installed using approximately the same method. Therefore, if you have ever encountered the work of a hard drive, then there will be no problems with a solid-state drive. The only difference is the dimensions. You will need to fit the smaller device into the correct slot.

Start

To start the procedure, of course, you need to turn off your PC. To be on the safe side, it is better to do it completely unplugged. Don't forget to turn off the power supply as well. Usually the button to turn it off is located on the back, on the case.

Now you need to do the following operation: press and hold the PC power button for several seconds. This is necessary so that all the current that remains on the board and in general in the entire case disappears. This way you will de-energize all circuits and ensure your safety.

Depending on your goals, the next steps may vary. But in general, the connection principle is always the same.

Let's act

To understand where to connect the SSD drive to the computer, you need to get to the case. First you need to open it. Usually it all depends on its design. But there are always small screws to remove the left panel and get to the “insides” of the PC. There are cases that may have access to the ports from the other side, so here you need to act according to the situation.

If you are new to computer chassis design, you may have problems. But if you at least know what a hard drive looks like and can find it in a metal box, then half the battle is done.

Usually the hard drive is placed in a special compartment. There may be several of them in the case. Made specifically for 3.5 inch HDD size. This is where you need to place the SSD.

Because the dimensions are a little different, being 2.5 inches, you'll have to bolt it down pretty well. They usually come with the device. Lately Slots for SSDs are becoming increasingly common in cases. Therefore, perhaps the task will be simplified.

When the drive is secured and well fixed, you will need to figure out how to connect the SSD drive to the computer, to the motherboard. Here the matter is somewhat more complicated, since you will have to google it or figure out the interfaces.

Compound

Next you need to take the cable that came with the drive. You will find an L-shaped port on it. This is SATA. In addition to this, you must have a power cable. It usually looks like a bunch of wires.

First you need to connect the power cable to the connector from the power supply. Then we take the SATA cable and look for the right place on the motherboard. Usually there are few options. If the board has SATA III, then it is better to use this port. If this option is not available, connect to SATA II.

Now these two wires will need to be connected directly to the SSD. A power cable is placed in the wider connector, and a SATA cable is placed in the narrow connector.

Other options

Not everyone knows, but they have been releasing SSDs of the M.2 form factor for a couple of years now. Now these models are not uncommon. Many people prefer them. In addition, newfangled motherboard models began to be equipped with a special connector specifically for this form factor.

As a result, the situation led to the fact that we need to know how to connect an SSD M2 drive to a computer. It must be said right away that this model has many variations. Therefore, the connection may be slightly different. But the main point is that, unlike the previous option, we connect the solid-state drive to the motherboard not with wires, but with the device itself.

When you see the M.2 SSD in the photo, you will understand what the point is. It is not presented in a case, like the model described above. It is made of a small board containing memory chips. This board has special slots for installing them on the motherboard.

It is impossible to describe the connection for all cases, since there are really many options. But when you buy an M.2 SSD drive, you will have instructions that will tell you how to do it correctly.

Settings

Once you have assembled and connected everything, you can turn on the PC. While loading it, you need to call up the BIOS. Here you should look for the AHCI mode, which is responsible for the operation of the solid-state drive.

For example, you are going to load an operating system onto an SSD. But in addition to the new drive, you already have hard drives connected. Then you will need to prioritize the devices. To do this, we put the solid-state drive first in the list. We install the ability to boot the OS from a disk or flash drive.

If you need an SSD like additional tool, then it will be enough to check that the existing railway is first in line. Otherwise, the system may simply not boot. You might want to move your OS to an SSD. In this case, after you have learned how to connect an SSD drive to a computer, you will need to perform a very extensive operation. This is a topic for another article.

Laptops

When you try all the above operations using your own example, you will realize that you even know how to connect 2 SSD drives to a computer. The main thing is that there is enough space on your motherboard.

But speaking about PCs, we need to remember that initially solid-state drives began to be widely used in laptops because they are compact. Therefore, you can additionally learn how to connect an SSD to a laptop.

Of course, it is better to consider this issue with each device model, since the cases are different, and, accordingly, the placement of the disk slot is also different.

However, the main thing is to decide where the hard drive is located in your laptop. Usually, to do this you have to turn off the device and open the bottom cover. Sometimes it can be completely removed, sometimes you can unscrew the compartment panels. The railway station is usually located in one of them. If you can't find it, check your laptop's manual.

It must be said right away that HDDs in laptops are the same size as SSDs - 2.5 inches. In order to remove the hard drive, you need to not just pull it out, but first pull it to the side. It is thus attached to the power and SATA connector.

Then it's a small matter - just install the solid-state drive. Don't forget to secure it with screws. Since laptops usually have one place for a hard drive, you will have to think in advance about how you will transfer the operating system: by cloning or a new installation.

Conclusions

You need to find out how to connect an SSD drive to a computer in advance, and not when you have unscrewed, unscrewed and disconnected everything. Sometimes you have to do additional settings, think in advance about the location of the OS.

The easiest way to do this is when you need a solid-state drive only as an auxiliary tool. Then you just need to connect it to another compartment and connector. If you want to make it your main one, then you need to read the instructions for cloning HDDs and SSDs, configure and think through everything in advance.

If you are building a PC from scratch and decide to simply install a fast “colleague” instead of a hard drive, do not forget to configure the connection in the BIOS. It is important to set the special mode and priority of the drives.

SSD drives (also called “solid state”) are no longer a curiosity for computer user. So how to connect an SSD drive to your computer once you are the proud owner of it?

SSD (Solid-State Drive), which translates roughly as “solid-state storage device”, which replaces HDD (or “hard” disks, “hard drives”) is a non-mechanical memory unit based on microcircuits. Due to much more high speeds reading and writing data can significantly improve the speed of your personal computer or laptop.

I will say right away that the installation solid state drive not much different from installing an HDD (“hard drive” or “hard drive”, as they are also commonly called). And if it is different, it represents a less demanding installation option. Why? Because SSD drives:

• unlike HDDs, they do not have a moving rotating element;
• due to their design, they do not heat up and do not make noise;
• smaller in size (2.5 inches versus standard 3.5 inches HDD);
• more durable and less capricious to mechanical damage.

Some SSDs, along with the disk, include a special adapter panel from 2.5 to 3.5 inches (metal or plastic), which is intended for installing the disk into a standard HDD bay. There are adapters from 2.5 to 5.25 inches, in case we want to install a new disk in the slots for CD/DVD drives. In some modern computer cases, manufacturers have begun to provide special slots for SSDs. If such a slot is not provided, there is no adapter included, or all disk bays (slots) are occupied, you can place our SSD drive in any convenient place inside the system unit. You can secure the disc using, for example, simple vinyl clamps.

It is not recommended to use adhesive tapes or double-sided tapes - such fastening will not be reliable.

So,

1. turn off the computer's power;
2. remove the side panel of the system unit;
3. We take our new SSD drive out of the box. *Note that if the disc is brought in from the cold, you need to let it warm up to room temperature. We save the packaging (just in case);
4. We select a location for installing the SSD, secure it, and connect SATA cables to the motherboard. We try to use a SATA 3 6 GB/s cable, but if you have SATA 3 ports and cables are missing, then you can connect an ordinary SATA cable to SATA ports.

Maximum performance SSD drive will be provided when connected to a SATA 3.0 connector or higher at speeds of up to 6 GB/sec. On the board, it is usually distinguished from others by its black color and corresponding markings. If there are no symbols for SATA 3.0, you should read the documentation for the motherboard.

Then we connect power from the unit (PSU), close the system unit and start the computer.

SSD drives do not tolerate overheating well. Therefore, when installing a new SSD drive, it would be useful to take care of upgrading the cooling systems. For this, you can install, for example, a simple additional fan in the side parts of the system unit. This wind blower will perfectly cool not only our new SSD drive, but also a regular hard drive.

BIOS setup and OS installation

Before you start installing the operating system on the SSD (it is preferable to do clean install from scratch), enter the BIOS (basic input/output system) of your computer. The most common way to enter the BIOS is by pressing the Delete key; the F1 and F2 keys are used somewhat less frequently.

Let's look at an example BIOS settings to work with SSD on ASUS UEFI BIOS:

Go to the advanced system settings Advanced Mode;

We move to the Advanced/SATA Configuration settings and look at the connected devices. It is necessary that the SSD be connected to the first SATA 3, and the HDD to SATA 2;

Be sure to remember that it is necessary to translate SATA controller to AHCI mode;

Then go to the Boot/Hard Drive Priorities section and install first boot disk our new SSD. If this is not done, the system will continue to boot from the HDD;

We save all our settings and reboot by pressing the F10 key. We make sure that the solid-state drive is listed first among the boot HDDs. For Windows installations You can leave the CD/DVD drive first in loading. Or we use a one-time initial boot from CD/DVD via the F8 key on ASUS boards.

On many Internet resources, would-be specialists recommend copying, transferring, cloning or restoring from an image, etc., the C:\HDD drive with an already installed OS when installing an SSD. This is not recommended under any circumstances. Be prepared to install the OS from scratch after you have installed a new SSD drive on your computer. After all, when the OS is installed on the HDD, then all services are launched to work specifically on the HDD. If we transfer a system designed to work on an HDD to an SSD, then the overwhelming number of services will not only not help improve the performance of the OS and computer, but will only contribute to the rapid wear of the new SSD. In order for the SSD disk to work long-term and correctly under our operating system, we definitely need to install it “from scratch” and on a clean SSD disk.

We set the basic time and language settings and get to the selection of partitions and disks for installing the OS;

After we have seen our unallocated SSD (Disk 0), select it to install the system and click “Disk Setup”;

There is no need to format the disk. Click the “Create” button and create a partition for the entire available SSD size;

Then click “Apply”. The system requests 100 MB for its needs - we agree;

We indicate in which partition the system should be installed, in our case, on Disk 0 Partition 2, because Partition 1 is reserved by the system itself and it will not be possible to install the operating system on it;

Then we start the installation of the operating system itself.

After completing the installation of the operating system, do not forget to install everything necessary drivers, which come complete with our motherboard– from a disk or from the manufacturer’s website.

When a new SSD drive is installed in the computer, and the system is installed on it, and we see that everything works, it’s worth thinking about optimizing the operating system to work with the flash memory drive.

Conclusion

In order for our new SSD disk to serve us as long as possible and not fail prematurely, we should adhere to certain rules when using it - to increase the service life of the disk, it is necessary to leave at least 10-15% of free space on the disk.

During the entire process of using an SSD drive, you must constantly ensure that the latest drivers for the SSD drive are installed in the system. They can usually be found on the SSD drive manufacturer's website. As a rule, with each subsequent firmware the number of drive capabilities is updated and its service life increases. In order to check the resource of our SDD disk, it is best to periodically run programs to identify disk errors and the amount of used resource - for example, this software, like SSD Life.

Connecting an SSD as the main drive in many cases will significantly speed up the operation of the operating system installed on it, access to documents and main programs, and eliminate some previously necessary operations, for example, the need to regularly defragment the disk. If, of course, the machine is old enough, the processor is single-core, RAM less than 4 GB, and motherboard was released more than 6-8 years ago, then upgrading a regular computer only by installing an SSD will not give noticeable results, but it will 100% give a second life to a laptop or netbook.