UKC

I have a laptop with numerous licensed software programmes on it that are not replaceable, e.g. the entire adobe suite, end note etc which I am still using, but which, having left uni employment I can't replace. Is it possible to replace the 256gb laptop in my e5410 with an SSD drive of the same size and copy the entire drive onto it, and then run the computer as before, but with a faster drive? If so how would I do that, and how secure in terms of things going wrong is it? Any advice appreciated!

In reply to contrariousjim:

I did just this with a Samsung SSD. I downloaded a program from the Samsung web site which created an image copy of the original C drive on the SSD. You can buy an attachment which allows you to power the SSD from a USB socket while you do this. Then just swap the drives. It all worked perfectly for me.

In reply to contrariousjim:

Yes, it's possible, but if your existing drive is the boot drive (i.e the C: drive) a straightforward copy won't work. You'll need some software which can make an image of your current drive then put that image on your SSD.

Macrium Reflect can do this, and it's free.

In reply to contrariousjim:

Yes it can be done but with limitations. You can 'clone' your old drive to your new drive however, the new drive has to be the same size or bigger for the clone process to work, so you need at least a 250 gig sshdd which is gonna cost at lot. Hell of a lot! Better prob to contact software people and explain what you need and they may give you new serial numbers to register programs with.

In reply to wilkie14c:

It's not true that the new disk needs to be the same size or larger... I did a swap a few weeks ago - a smaller SSD (256 GB) replacing a slow hard disk (£512) that came with a laptop. The replacement disk just needs to be big enough to contain your data (obviously). I used an external USB disk caddy and acronis true image to do the mirroring, the most difficult part was taking the laptop apart.

In reply to Rich_cakeboy:

Yes there will be differences with what software is used and its limitations. I use clonzilla and the new drive has to be same size or bigger otherwise the program can't duplicate the MBR properly and it won't boot. Check the software I guess