buying SSD ? any advice?

I had strong faith for Samsung because my PC screen, which is Samsung, bought in 2006 for about $300 at that time. Still working perfectly now in 2019, and I believe there are some dead pixels, but I don't see any light leaks around the edges and corners.

Until I had my first Android phone by Samsung, it was awful, in less than a year of time, it was just running slow and lagged. It was a cheap phone I believe, only $200 around, but I am not happy.

I am stlll thinking if I should get a Samsung or Crucial SSD tomorrow

Tsw88 said:

I am stlll thinking if I should get a Samsung or Crucial SSD tomorrow

You cannot know which is less likely to fail in your own individual case. You roll the dice.

If you want a Crucial, I'd try to get an MX 500. That's the most recent model as far as I know. Samsungs are normally a bit more expensive.

Yes Samsung are more expensive to be honest, I paid a pretty price for my 2 x 1 TB drives but they are brilliant. I'm Happy with them and I am now on Windows 10 1809 and they run like a dream. Like everyone says Crutial and Samsung are the best. Worth the extra in my opinion. Good Luck.

storageman said:

Well dirt cheap is in the mind of the beholder (For me it would be $25 for 250gb). If I could find a Samsung EVO or PRO 250gb unit for under $50 I would go for it. They are close, but not today. Maybe some day.

Those 250 / 240 GB ones from Kingston are around 30 EUR now from places like amazon -- I've got 3 of these that I use a lot as external devices (connect to PC via SATA->USB3 connector.) Cheaper than thumb drives these days !!! and quite reliable -- I use them as a Windows to Go system, and bootable Linux systems and performance is almost as good as if they were on the internal MOBO itself !!! - better if internal HDD is an HDD and not an SSD.

If you backup your system regularly don't worry about reliability of SSD's these days -- your computer is likely to be sent for scrap before these SSD's wear out these days.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi all, I finally get a Crucial BX500 today because it's the cheapest and I don't intend to use my desktop heavily.

I have some questions I want to make sure again.

1. Do I need to mount the SSD to the computer chassis or is it OK to only plug into the power cord and data cord (SATA) and that's OK ? As far as I understand there is NO mechanical spinning in SSD so it's perfectly fine just putting it on the ground of the chassis without any screws or mounts, am I correct?

2. Do I need to format the new drive first? Do I need to configure anything in the BIOS?
I forgot to ask the salesperson a lot of questions because they were busy.

3. I am now going to install Windows 7 Home Premium to the SSD because I only have paid license / product key for this version. During the installation of Windows 7, will I have chance to format the drive as well? Or do I need a MS-DOS or recovery disk something like that to format the drive first before installing windows 7?

1. It's not a good idea to just leave the SSD flopping around, even in a desktop computer. You move the computer and tip it and the SSD can move around and contact other parts, such as fans, that it should not be contacting. You don't have to use screws though, double sided tape or velcro is just fine.

2. Not if you are going to use it as your Windows system drive. Windows set up will take care of formatting the drive. BIOS should automatically pick up the presence of the new drive.

3. If you only have Windows 7, then why does your computer specs say you have Windows 10 and you are on tenfourms instead of sevenforums? If you upgraded that computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10 in the past, it has a digital license for Windows 10 stored on Microsoft activation servers. You can install Windows 10 directly without going through Windows 7 first. When it asks for a product key, just click the link for "I don't have a product key". As long as you install the same edition of Windows 10 you had before (IE: Home or Pro), when the computer connects to the internet, Windows 10 will activate based on the digital license stored at Microsoft. All you need to start with is the installation DVD or USB flash drive for Windows 7 or Windows 10. Select the custom install option. The next screen should show the new SSD as a drive with nothing but unallocated space. Highlight the unallocated space and click next. Windows setup will take care of the partitions and formatting.

NavyLCDR said:

1. It's not a good idea to just leave the SSD flopping around, even in a desktop computer. You move the computer and tip it and the SSD can move around and contact other parts, such as fans, that it should not be contacting. You don't have to use screws though, double sided tape or velcro is just fine.

2. Not if you are going to use it as your Windows system drive. Windows set up will take care of formatting the drive. BIOS should automatically pick up the presence of the new drive.

3. If you only have Windows 7, then why does your computer specs say you have Windows 10 and you are on tenfourms instead of sevenforums? If you upgraded that computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10 in the past, it has a digital license for Windows 10 stored on Microsoft activation servers. You can install Windows 10 directly without going through Windows 7 first. When it asks for a product key, just click the link for "I don't have a product key". As long as you install the same edition of Windows 10 you had before (IE: Home or Pro), when the computer connects to the internet, Windows 10 will activate based on the digital license stored at Microsoft. All you need to start with is the installation DVD or USB flash drive for Windows 7 or Windows 10. Select the custom install option. The next screen should show the new SSD as a drive with nothing but unallocated space. Highlight the unallocated space and click next. Windows setup will take care of the partitions and formatting.

The Windows 10 I was having is a free upgrade earlier provided by Microsoft. I purchased the license of Windows 7 Home Premium, but I have never purchased any license for Windows 10. It was a free upgrade. Now, the system drive that contains the Windows 10 has failed totally, I can't boot to Windows 10

Tsw88 said:

The Windows 10 I was having is a free upgrade earlier provided by Microsoft. I purchased the license of Windows 7 Home Premium, but I have never purchased any license for Windows 10. It was a free upgrade. Now, the system drive that contains the Windows 10 has failed totally, I can't boot to Windows 10

Since the computer previously had Windows 10 activated on it, there is a digital license for Windows 10 activation stored on Microsoft Activation servers for it. You don't need to bother with Windows 7 if you want Windows 10. You can install the same edition of Windows 10 that was on it before. You just need a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive:
Download Windows 10

Post #17 "I have never purchased any license for Windows 10. It was a free upgrade."
--- The Windows 10 free upgrade includes the license key.

Even though Windows 10 system drive failed on your previous HDD, follow the steps in NavyLCDR's to download Windows 10.

You might want to visit in case it might apply in your case as you might have IDE set-up in your BIOS.
--- Someone else with more experience can chime in on that.
Enable AHCI in Windows 8 and Windows 10 after Installation | Tutorials
--- Usually today's motherboards will have AHCI enabled in UEFI or BIOS by default.
--- Some older motherboards may have IDE enabled by default instead.
--- If you wanted to install Windows using AHCI instead of IDE, then you would normally need to have AHCI enabled in BIOS/UEFI first.