Saturday, July 23, 2016

My Laptop Upgrade is Complete

Well, I said in my previous post that I would let everyone know how my upgrade to my laptop went.  The upgrade was completed yesterday, but not without a little drama (it is no fun when it goes smoothly).

The first minor problem occurred when I was informed the Dell kit would be delivered on Thursday, not Wednesday as originally promised.  A minor setback, but it did try my patience a little bit.  

The kit was delivered Thursday afternoon by FedEx, so I immediately opened the packaging.  I saw that the SSD was built by Samsung, not Dell.  That is a good thing since Samsung is a leader in SSDs.  I had not heard of a SSD made by Dell, so I actually was relieved that the one I got was made by Samsung.

The first major task I had to do was copy the data in my hard drive in my laptop to the SSD.  I had to download and install the copying software by Acronis.  I attached the SSD to a USB port, my fastest one, and then executed the software.   It took a little less than 2 hours to complete the data transfer.

The second major task was to take out the hard drive and install the the new SSD.  Here is where a major problem occurred.  There were two or three screws that would not come out.  I was stuck.  On Friday morning between my GED classes, I went to Lowes and Home Depot to see if they had a smaller screwdriver than the one I had purchased earlier in the week, thinking that the reason the screws would not come out was that my screwdriver was not small enough to get all the way down into the grooves.  I struck out at both places.

I then went to Best Buy to see if they could give me any advice on the matter.  They said that if I brought in my laptop, they would look at what might be the problem for free, and then go from there.  Of course, I did not have my laptop with me, and I was at the store in Manassas ( I live in Dumfries).  After my classes were over, I went home to get my laptop and drove to the Best Buy in Woodbridge since it was closer to home.  The guy there said that they would look at it, and if they could overcome the screw problem, they would install the SSD in 20 minutes for $40.00.  I said okay.  It turned out the screws were stripped, but they were able to get the screws out anyway.  I would not have been able to do that, so it was good that I took my laptop to Best Buy.  The SSD is working great, and the increase in speed is quite noticeable.  Now that SSDs have reduced in price, I would recommend to anyone to make this kind of upgrade.           

Monday, July 18, 2016

I Took the Plunge and Bought a SSD Drive

Since my laptop is made by Dell, I went on Dell's web site to research what SSDs might be compatible with my laptop.  After chatting online with a Dell agent, I bought a Dell SSD kit, which includes a Dell SSD, a cable, software for copying my hard drive onto the SSD, and instructions on how to install the SSD into my laptop.  The kit should arrive at my home on Wednesday.  Hopefully, I will have the SSD installed on my laptop no later than Thursday, and the laptop will be running better, maybe much better.  Needless to say, I am excited about doing this.  I will let you know how it all pans out.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Upgrading My Laptop

Yesterday I was browsing through YouTube videos when I came across a video about updating a laptop by changing the HDD hard drive to a SSD (solid-state) hard drive.  A SSD has no moving parts and runs much faster than a HDD.  It also cost more, but that cost has been going down just like other kinds of hardware cost go down over time.  I have looked at YouTube videos on how to install one, so I am going to be brave, or maybe foolish, and install it myself after I do purchase one.  Once installed, I should see a decrease in how long my laptop takes to startup and run programs.  Hopefully my laptop will be a lot more pleasurable to use with the increase in speed.  I will let you know how it goes.