Keith Browning Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 Well I broke my laptop. I was getting into a shuttle bus with my IDS and tripped on the step and I dropped it from about 2 feet and it hit the floor flat on its base. Took out the hard drive. So I replaced it with a SSHD. No moving parts to go bad or cause damage as SSHD's a re shock resistant or even shock proof honestly. Wow does this PC boot up QUICK and it seems to run much faster in general. I highly recommend going with a SSHD when specing a new laptop or repairing one and its a worthwhile upgrade "just because" you can get into a 250GB starting just under $100 now but the price quickly climbs with larger storage capacity. Additional benefits are that it uses a lot less power, creates less heat and the battery lasts longer not to mention that it is silent... not that hard disks make a lot of noise to begin with but that was the first thing I noticed when I turned on the laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelsona19 Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 Funny you should bring this up, I was thinking about upgrading a WDS I use at home to SSD. Mainly cause I'm sick of the slow start time since I have to take it to the vehicle to start it up because the battery is junk. Any advice on switching it over? I used to be into computer building, but it's been awhile. The only thing I'm kind of worried about is if the drivers will work being this is a windows 98 based machine. Oh, and the only reason I keep the WDS alive is because I work on a lot of older stuff at home and it's nice to have something that will do most everything on them and doesn't cost me a yearly subscription. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted November 17, 2017 Author Share Posted November 17, 2017 The problem with converting a WDS to a SSHD if that the WDS is OLD. I doubt it would be compatible but I don't know why. My laptop CAME with a hybrid HD. It was partial solid state and had a conventional storage disk AND I think an SSHD was an option at the time. If the WDS had a SATA drive you might be in luck but it's doubtful. ou would need to do your homework meaning you will need to know what you have first and then research. The processor and motherboard may simply not be capable of handling it. Just a WAG on my part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forddieseldoctor Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 Wds is old enough that it’s not a sata drive. And the last I looked no one makes an ssd drive for an ide interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted November 17, 2017 Author Share Posted November 17, 2017 As I suspected. There ya go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forddieseldoctor Posted November 19, 2017 Share Posted November 19, 2017 Figures every time I open my mouth without looking around first someone has to prove me wrong. I guess they do make a couple that run off of a IDE cable. However I know nothing about putting an ssd drive into something that old. However I do know that the 2.5" IDE drives use a different connector than the 3.5" and the 5.25" IDE drives do. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UB2H16155 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted November 19, 2017 Author Share Posted November 19, 2017 Don't sweat it. I am very familiar with the taste of my own foot but is just goes to show that given enough time you can find anything if it exists. AS for the cable requirements I find that with anything regarding computer repairs it is best to access the part you need to be able to positively identify what you have. Ran into that a few weeks ago to replace the display cable in the very same laptop. That ended up being a $9.33 repair but I could have ended up ordering the other cable by mistake which was about $40 and would not have worked. If I had "guessed" I would have chosen the more expensive cable. Replacing the drive is typically very simple and should not require changing any settings in the BIOS from the boot set up screen. All I needed to do was replace the drive, put a flash drive with my Windows 10 installation files in the USB slot and turn it on. Follow any screen prompts and away you go. Even if Windows finds and installs drivers for the hardware in the PC I do recommend going to your PC's manufacturers website and download the original drivers and installing them. Of course you could always use a saved disk image and copy it onto the new HD or use the OEM set up disk that came with the PC... but I don't think any manufacture includes them and have not for many years now. I know with dell the set up files are available on-line. All you need is the tag number from the back of the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8WA Sman Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 I just put a ScanDisk SSD in my wife's laptop. I starts in 32 sec. compared to 2 min & 20 sec. I could not for the life of me figure how to get the link from Dell for the OS install to work, luckily I had a OS disc on hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted November 21, 2017 Author Share Posted November 21, 2017 9 hours ago, 8WA Sman said: I just put a ScanDisk SSD in my wife's laptop. I starts in 32 sec. compared to 2 min & 20 sec. I could not for the life of me figure how to get the link from Dell for the OS install to work, luckily I had a OS disc on hand. With the more recent Dell purchases I have made, I went to the support page after logging into my account. You look for drivers and downloads and there SHOULD (somewhere) be a system restore file that you download. Could be a zip file I don't recall but you then unzip the file and put the extracted files on a dedicated thumb drive and put away for safe keeping. I put all of mine in my safe. You don't need a huge drive either as the extracted files are not even a gig. The recovery will contain the OS, all drivers and all of the add-ons including the Dell crap they put on the PC when new. But, it makes restoring easy when all you need to do is put the thumb drive in a USB slot and turn on the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forddieseldoctor Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 I put one in my Lenovo I use at work. Plus I maxed out the ram (16gb) at the same time and it flies now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselD Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 Finally the SSDs are becoming affordable in larger storage sizes! I upgraded on old 2009 Macbook Pro SSD recently to keep her alive for a couple more years. Also my Dell XPS I use for work got specd with a 500GB ssd and it was a wise choice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Amacker Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 Ditto on all of the above, I've been using SSDs for years now and won't consider anything else. I recently bought my secretary a tower with an SSD and she loves it, my new tower has a 1TB SSD and a 2TB rotary for backup. Always buy more power and ram than you need so you can grow into a PC rather than growing out of it..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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