>> Thanks again, T&E. I don't understand some of that, but I won't ask any more
>> until I've read the previous topics.
>>
Frankly, if you're going to risk the clone, and fall back on re-imaging if it doesn't work, then the extra £15 for a cheap 500GB SSD (rather than HDD) is probably well worthwhile (even if the laptop interface is SATA2 rather than SATA3).
If the clone fails, then the machine can usually be "recovered" by installing the new disk, formatting it, and (re-)installing the latest, vanilla, Windows image. This is what Bobby ended up doing once the clone failed. A Solid State Disk will be slightly more expensive than a replacement (spinning) Hard Disk Drive, so there is slightly more money at risk if you come out at the end with a completely borked laptop. SSD will, however, make the laptop more responsive, and probably be worth the extra if it all works. The laptop may be old enough to have a SATA2 (3Gbps/s) disk interface, rather than the current SATA3 (6Gbps/s) version (Though I suspect it might be the latter). An SSD will benefit you even more with SATA3, but SATA2 wouldn't negate advantages.
At all practical levels, there is little difference in the process between a standard HDD and an SSD (though the latter needs to be SATA, and the same physical footprint as the disk - 7mm or 9.5mm). They will look similar, present to you much the same, and fit in the laptop much the same (and the two SATA standards mentioned are backwards compatible).
Unless you have a "host" machine somewhere to which you can add two additional drives for the cloning process, then you'll have to budget for a USB disk caddy as well (though not expensive, see the links already posted).
To clone, you need to read from one disk and write to the other simultaneously. Unless the laptop has a second slot for a disk, that means either attaching the new disk temporarily via a USB adapter, or more neatly in a USB disk caddy, for the cloning process. (both options are cheap - eBay or Amazon) If you happen to have a desktop with two spare SATA (disk) ports internally, it is possible to use these for cloning, after removing the original disk from the laptop.
|
Cloning laptop hard disk new