The computer hard drive is the internal part that is damaged more quickly and also the slower hardware component. It is useful to have a super powerful 10-core processor with the latest generation graphics card and 16 GB of RAM if then there is an old and slow hard disk that acts as a bottleneck and ruins any performance. On the other hand, even having a normal PC, two or three years old, not particularly powerful, you can upgrade it to incredible levels only by replacing the hard disk with a new solid state drive SSD. What can discourage the desire to replace the hard disk, is not the price, but the hassle and effort of having to reinstall everything, operating system and programs, on the new disk. Fortunately, today we can act in no time, by replacing the disk and without losing anything, without having to reinstall Windows or other programs and devoting only an hour (sometimes even less) to it.
In this guide we will show you how to replace the hard disk to upgrade your PC in one hour on both desktop and notebook PCs.
How to replace the hard disk to upgrade your PC in one hour
This operation is within everyone's reach, you just need to get everything you need and use a single program to clone the old disk to the new one.Preliminary requirements
What is needed to replace the computer hard drive quickly and painlessly are:- An SSD disk, which is more capacious than the original hard disk. If the new disk is smaller than the old as available space, it is not a problem anyway, the important thing is that the space occupied on the existing disk does not exceed the capacity of the new SSD or hard disk. Otherwise it will be necessary to delete the unnecessary files and have another external disk or even a USB stick in which to move the important data;
- A USB stick to be used as a recovery disk;
- Connection cable for the second disk : to connect a new disk to the computer we can use the USB HDD Enclosure (of the disk cases) or a SATA-USB adapter to directly connect the contacts of the disk and use a common USB socket to read it.
The best SSDs we can use for driving are:
- Crucial MX500 Internal SSD, 500 GB (64 €)
- Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB Internal SSD (77 €)
- Silicon Power SSD 1TB 3D NAND A55 (€ 97)
- Samsung Memories 860 QVO Internal SSD 1 TB (110 €)
- SanDisk 1TB Ultra 3D SSD, SSD Unit (148 €)
If we intend to use USB disk cases, we have selected the best ones below:
- POSUGEAR External Hard Drive Case 2.5 ", USB 3.0 (€ 8)
- Sabrent 2.5 Inch SATA Hard Drive Case (€ 9)
- EasyULT External Hard Drive Case 2.5 ", USB 3.0 (€ 9)
- AUKEY External Hard Drive Case 2.5 "USB 3.0 (11 €)
- EasyULT USB 3.0 to SATA adapter (8 €)
- Sabrent USB 3.0 SATA Hard Drive Adapter (9 €)
- UGREEN USB 3.0 SATA Adapter for SSD HDD (18 €)
How to clone the disk
We first insert the SSD into the USB case or use the SATA-USB adapter, then connect it to the computer on a free USB port, so that it can be recognized by the operating system.Now we will have to install on our computer the free Macrium Reflect program, the best one for the cloning procedure and to restore the boot quickly in case of problems.
After installing Macrium Reflect on our PC, we immediately create the program recovery disk, very useful for restoring the boot sectors in case of problems after cloning. To do this, connect the empty USB stick to the computer, open the program and click on the icon Create bootable Rescue media at the top left.
From this menu we select Removable USB Flash Drive, make sure that our stick is selected then click Build to create the recovery disk.
Now let's move on to the actual disk cloning : in the main screen of the program, we identify the old disk (it is usually visible at the top and has a partition reserved for the operating system), then we press on the item Clone this disk .
In the window that opens we will have the old disk at the top and the new disk at the bottom, ready to be cloned. Make sure the right disk is selected in the Destination section, then click Next and Finish to start the cloning procedure.
At the end of the operation (this is the longest phase, which can take up to an hour) we will have made a faithful copy of our old disk on the SSD, so that we can replace it without any particular problems. Before moving on to the next step, we remove the USB HDD case or the SATA-USB adapter from the computer and disconnect the new disk from them, so that we can install it on the computer.
Install the new disk
Now that the cloning has been done, let's turn off our computer and proceed to remove the old disk.
If you are using a desktop PC, turn off the computer, open the case, disconnect the SATA cables from the old disk and use them to connect the new one.
If you are using a laptop, turn it off, turn it over and access the disk access door (we will have to unscrew the small screws to access it). Once we have gained access to the compartment, we remove any fixing screws, pull the old disk from the housing and insert the new one, paying attention to particular support houses or adapters present.
Now all that remains is to close the doors, restart the necessary screws and start the computer to see if the operating system starts : if we have followed everything carefully, the system will immediately start running smoothly, immediately recognizing the new disk as a system unit.
In another article we have seen how to clone a hard disk to another disk with exact copy using another program.
In case of problems
If the computer does not boot properly, you need to check, in the BIOS, if the boot options are correct as described in our guide on how to change the boot order of the computer .If there are still problems, connect the recovery key created at the beginning of the guide and, in the screen that appears, use the item Fix Windows boot problems to start the recovery procedure of the MBR (Master Boot Record) and the BCD (Boot Configuration Data ).
Alternatively we can restore the boot by reading our guides on Ways to repair Windows 10 and create recovery disk and Fix MBR on Windows to restore boot loader and computer startup .
If the cloning had not gone well and the computer still does not restart, just reassemble the old disk to restore the functioning of the PC; if we intend to retry the operation, this time we use a different program such as Easus Todo Backup or AOEMI Backupper.
Conclusions
As mentioned several times, replacing a hard disk with an SSD disk is the best way to empower your PC in a visible and almost incredible way, much more than you can by increasing memory or changing processor.We do not have to dispose of the old disk, since we can still use it as an external USB disk for backup, as a network disk or to save videos for viewing on a compatible TV. In this regard, we advise you to read our guides on How to format USB sticks and disks, how to transform internal disk into external portable drive and finally how to connect a disk to the router to share files on the network .
