How do I know if an SSD is compatible with my laptop?

It will be a 9.5 mm thickness HDD in the Laptop hence space, and depending on the mounting arrangement in the Laptop you may or may not need the spacer, or you might need some small sticky back plastic/foam bits, whatever, to stop any rattling around. A look and see jobbie.

Crucial, Samsung, WD are well known manufacturers, any of them should be suitable.

Crucial come with a spacer, in UK Crucial components are cheaper via other suppliers.

I would get 500 GB, you have to think some years ahead when even your minimal applications will double in size, and of course those yearly Windows version updates need room to work in.

"Does a higher drive capacity need a bigger thickness?"
No, not with SSDs they are almost always 7 mm thick, wise to check just to make sure.

You have two options:
- Install the SSD into the USB caddy and clone the HDD to the SSD. Replace the HDD with the SSD. Don't clone if the HDD drive has bad clusters, bad sectors etc.
- Install the new SSD into the laptop. Boot from a USB rescue drive (Macrium Reflect?) and recover the backup image into the SSD.

Helmut said:

It will be a 9.5 mm thickness HDD in the Laptop hence space, and depending on the mounting arrangement in the Laptop you may or may not need the spacer, or you might need some small sticky back plastic/foam bits, whatever, to stop any rattling around. A look and see jobbie.

Crucial, Samsung, WD are well known manufacturers, any of them should be suitable.

Crucial come with a spacer, in UK Crucial components are cheaper via other suppliers.

I would get 500 GB, you have to think some years ahead when even your minimal applications will double in size, and of course those yearly Windows version updates need room to work in.

"Does a higher drive capacity need a bigger thickness?"
No, not with SSDs they are almost always 7 mm thick, wise to check just to make sure.

Many of them don't even specify what their thickness is. It's almost as if it's a small issue. If a person had a 7mm space, but got a 9.5mm drive, I would think that would be a problem if it would cause the cover of the laptop to not be able to be replaced, or maybe not even allow the drive to fit at all. But I'll try to find one that's 7mm, which you said they almost all are anyway, and it looks like I'll be fine. Probably even get a 500GB, as you suggested.
I just hope that with my laptop being 5.5 years old, the HDD is the only part of it that's about to die. On my previous laptop, I replaced a dead HDD with a new one, and then the display died 6 months afterwards. That's part of the reason I didn't want to spend too much on a new drive.

Normally the HDD or SSD is fixed on a frame that is fixed to the computer so it doesn't matter if it's 7or 9.5mm thick.

Megahertz said:

You have two options:
- Install the SSD into the USB caddy and clone the HDD to the SSD. Replace the HDD with the SSD. Don't clone if the HDD drive has bad clusters, bad sectors etc.
- Install the new SSD into the laptop. Boot from a USB rescue drive (Macrium Reflect?) and recover the backup image into the SSD.

Based on what you said, it looks like I have to go with option 2. You said not to do #1 if I have bad sectors. Someone here recently had me download and run a program called DiskGenius to check my disk status. I was told that if I have an reallocated sectors (even if just 1), my HDD could fail at any time. I have 16 reallocated sectors.

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cereberus said:

When you buy a 7mm ssd, they usually supply a 2mm gasket as well. I am pretty sure all laptops are designed to fit 9.5mm ssd anyway.

Well, mine is 5.5 years old. I don't know if they had SSD in mind when they created the space for a drive replacement since it was made with an HDD. In fact, I have the feeling the manufacturers are trying to make laptops more "disposable" now by making them harder to service. I have a newer Lenovo that has a battery that can't even be removed! I haven't checked, but I'll bet the SSD was installed in a way that takes a service technician to replace as well.

Delly10 said:

Based on what you said, it looks like I have to go with option 2. You said not to do #1 if I have bad sectors. Someone here recently had me download and run a program called DiskGenius to check my disk status. I was told that if I have an reallocated sectors (even if just 1), my HDD could fail at any time. I have 16 reallocated sectors.

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Well, mine is 5.5 years old. I don't know if they had SSD in mind when they created the space for a drive replacement since it was made with an HDD. In fact, I have the feeling the manufacturers are trying to make laptops more "disposable" now by making them harder to service. I have a newer Lenovo that has a battery that can't even be removed! I haven't checked, but I'll bet the SSD was installed in a way that takes a service technician to replace as well.

Service technician?

That depends. The battery and drives are probably replaceable, but you may have to pry apart the laptop's case to get to them. Sometimes the laptop makers also like to hide screws beneath rubber feet or strips.

Not ridiculously difficult for an amateur, but not what I'd call fun.

I don't have much experience upgrading laptops, but I haven't seen glue in them. That's the practice that makes working on smart phones akin to neurosurgery (without the risk of killing someone).

Delly10,
Search YouTube for drive upgrade for your model - you might get lucky and find a video.

Delly10 said:

Many of them don't even specify what their thickness is. It's almost as if it's a small issue. If a person had a 7mm space, but got a 9.5mm drive, I would think that would be a problem if it would cause the cover of the laptop to not be able to be replaced, or maybe not even allow the drive to fit at all. But I'll try to find one that's 7mm, which you said they almost all are anyway, and it looks like I'll be fine. Probably even get a 500GB, as you suggested.
I just hope that with my laptop being 5.5 years old, the HDD is the only part of it that's about to die. On my previous laptop, I replaced a dead HDD with a new one, and then the display died 6 months afterwards. That's part of the reason I didn't want to spend too much on a new drive.

The crucial are 7mm and come with a spacer to make it easy to fit 9.5mm. The others I have had are also all 7 mm but they dont come with a supplied spacer.

steve108 said:

Delly10,
Search YouTube for drive upgrade for your model - you might get lucky and find a video.

Already did, and was pleased to discover it's easy enough for me to do. Now that I'm ready to actually buy a new drive to do the replacement, I wanted to make sure not to get one that won't fit. But from the responses I've gotten, it looks like the thickness measurement of the new drive won't be an issue.

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SIW2 said:

There are also qlc based devices available, e.g. crucial bx500 and samsung qvo. I would always go for the tlc based devices because the qlc cost only slightly less on the street, not worth the sacrifice.

I'm not familiar with tlc and qlc based devices. What do those terms mean?