copy and paste runs very slowly and never did before.

Deaf Dave said:

Megahertz,
Thank you for your reply. So, if I understand correctly, it's the drive's speed that impacts the transfer
speeds and not whether its USB 2.0 or 3.0. In that case, my installing a 3.0 USB 4 port card adapter to plug the external 3.0
HDD into would do nothing to increase the transfer speeds.Is that correct? Yes
Would the same be the case with a SSD drive? No. SSD is more than 5 times faster than a 5400 RPM external disk. In this case a USB 3.0 makes a big difference.

The reason I use an external bare HDD to clone my internal drive to is that in case
of internal drive failure, I can just swap out the failed drive with the new one
I just cloned and I'm back in business within about 15 minutes. The cloning of
my drive takes about 4 hours for 422 Gb.. I'm not happy about the time it takes
but I can live with it for the stated reason.
To use a SSD drive for both the cloning (422Gb) and email backup (122Gb)
I'd need at a minimum a 1Tb SSD.
What I'm thinking is to keep using the HDD drive for cloning and the SSD
for backup of the email program. I'd then be able to use the same Power and SATA
cable I've already been using. Your thoughts?

As I already suggested is to install a HDD or SSD internally and attach the power cable only when you're going to use it.
You don't need to clone the whole disk very often. You can clone the whole disk once every three months or when you install a new program or do a big upgrade.
For the data backup you should do at least once a week. Instead of cloning the whole disk you use a backup program that compares what you have on the main drive with the backup drive and only updates what has change on the main drive. This only takes 5 minutes.

Megahertz,
If I use the same SSD internal drive to both clone my internal HDD drive and backup my 3rd party emails, should I create a separate partition for each? Then after doing so, disconnect the power cable to the SSD.


The email program (Incredimail) uses proprietary software to retrieve, restore or transfer (export & import) to another computer ALL emails, files, folders and animations that I have in it. That was/is the reason after I exit the program, I copy and pasted it to an external HDD.

I'll do as you suggested and purchase an SSD internal drive and install it.
When finished doing my backups, I'll just disconnect it's power supply and leave the SATA cable connected.

I just thought it was safer storing things on a drive that wasn't continuously connected to my computer. Although disconnecting the power cord should serve the same purpose I suppose.

Any suggestion on which internal SSD I should purchase?

Deaf Dave said:

Megahertz,
If I use the same SSD internal drive to both clone my internal HDD drive and backup my 3rd party emails, should I create a separate partition for each? Then after doing so, disconnect the power cable to the SSD.
The cloned disk will have all files and folders as the original. I would just create another folder for Incredimail.

The email program (Incredimail) uses proprietary software to retrieve, restore or transfer (export & import) to another computer ALL emails, files, folders and animations that I have in it. That was/is the reason after I exit the program, I copy and pasted it to an external HDD.
I have used Incredimail on a friend's computer.
I'll do as you suggested and purchase an SSD internal drive and install it.
When finished doing my backups, I'll just disconnect it's power supply and leave the SATA cable connected.
I just thought it was safer storing things on a drive that wasn't continuously connected to my computer. Although disconnecting the power cord should serve the same purpose I suppose.
Any suggestion on which internal SSD I should purchase?

Make the new SSD the main drive and use the current internal disk for backup.
I have used 6 Crucial BX500 So far so good

Megahertz,
Thank you for your very knowledgeable help. I think you have given me enough information and should be able to tackle the job ahead. My only concern is attaching the new SSD drive in the cage where the HHD drive is since they are different sizes. I should be able to figure something out to secure it inside the Computer.

2.5 to 3.5 adapter dual - Newegg.com

Just ordered one.Also ordered a 2.5 to 3.5 Hard Drive Adapter. Will be here by the end of the month.So, I have some time to digest all this and figure out how to accomplish 'my mission'..Thanks again for all your help. When I finish setting everything up and all works ok, I'll mark this "as solved".

One last question, when I install the new SSD drive internally, and clone that drive to the external HDD, will I be able to use that HDD drive to boot my computer from if/when the SSD drive fails?

Deaf Dave said:

One last question, when I install the new SSD drive internally, and clone that drive to the external HDD, will I be able to use that HDD drive to boot my computer from if/when the SSD drive fails?

Yes of course.
Clone the current HDD into the SSD.
Shut then and under BIOS set the SSD as the priority boot disk.
Boot from the SSD to see if everything is working.
Shutdown and detach the HDD (power cable).

You haven't gave us all your hardware specs so I can't see what your MB is capable. Don't you have one or two SATA III ports?

It looks like I have four SATA ports. Three have been used and one is available. I don't know whether they are SATA II or III

OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit 18362 Multiprocessor Free. Total Memory: 12.00 GB
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor. BIOS Date: 05/04/11 10:20:28 Ver: 6.07.Motherboard:FOXCONN 2AB1
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1 System Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume2

If you need more specific specs, please let me know. Thank you


.

Your MB doesn't have SATA III only SATA II connectors. This means it won't use the maximum speed of the SSD but it will still be much faster than a HDD.

Well, knowing that helps. I'd be happy if the speed was double what it currently is.