Windows 11 available on October 5

quandary · 29 Sep 2021

@MorganBilbo you are at the start of a journey of research. Just connecting an SSD will do nothing to speed up PC by itself. Moving your data to the SSD will provide some performance improvement, and having your OS on the SSD will maximize everything.

Replacing your internal HDD with the SSD would be better that just connected it via USB.

You will need to research what is needed to clone your HDD, how the SSD would be connected, and the type of SSD that would be appropriate for installation into the PC. There may be slots in your Desktop PC to allow an SSD to be added without removing the existing HDD. Lots to research, and I am sure you can get help here.

CountMike · 29 Sep 2021

MorganBilbo said:

Looks like a cheap way to increase speed. But I'm surprised. You also need a 2.5" HD/solid state device. So how much is that? Is that cheap too? When I searched on Amazon, it shows too many for an amateur like me. Prices from $50 to $300 or more. How am I supposed to know which to buy?

Do you mean fr inside the PC ? Well for system like yours it has to have SATA2 or SATA 3 port on PC side and most 2.5" SSDs are SATA3 so all of that format fit and work same.
Except for some cases where make makes price difference (Samsung drives are most expensive) and most difference is due to capacities.
Price wise, it still makes most sense to have a relatively small SSD 120/128 - 249/250 GB for OS and main programs and to use old HDD for storage. That way you get system responsiveness while not paying much money.
As for external, using USB adapter, it really doesn't matter which SSD, it's speed depends on USB speed which except in case of super fast USB3.1 is much slower than drive itself. Wit an adapter like that you use it same way as USB pendrive/dongle but with higher speed and durability.

MorganBilbo · 29 Sep 2021

Barman58 said:

choosing an external drive for use with a windows system has a number of questions to be answered

How much can I afford to pay ? As little as possible.
How much space do I need ? I currently have 1 TB HDD, no SDD. So how about 128 or 256?
How fast does the hard drive need to be? [ USB Pen Drive - Spinner HDD - SSD - NVMe] ?? I have no idea what you mean. I currently had 8GB HD.
Do I need a case or a cable connector? I would be buying the one CountMike recommends from Amazon.
what ports do I have available ? Not sure what you mean. My PC has 6 - 2 are 3.0 and 4 are 2.0. Assuming 3.0 to be faster, then that's one I'd use.

Answer these questions in order to arrive at the best you can get at this moment, as long as the first question gives an answer less than what the other questions suggest you have your device. if any do not meet your minimum requirements than you are best waiting as there is nothing worse than buying a drive that is filled up quickly.

Does this answer you? I have no idea what "[ USB Pen Drive - Spinner HDD - SSD - NVMe]" means?

Barman58 · 29 Sep 2021

They are simply the main types of drive available in the market

USB Pen Drive is a USB stick type drive
Spinner HDD is an old type hard drive
SSD is a Solid State Drive
NVME is a latest style Solid State drive

for your situation I would suggest a 2.5" SSD of 256GB mounted internally in you system for the Operating system and retain the 1TB for data

This would immediately speed up operations and generally give the system more usability

quandary · 29 Sep 2021

@MorganBilbo not the cheapest option but maybe the easiest solution. Two items required that should work with your Lenovo:
1. NVME 1TB drive
2. PCI Express Adapter

The NVME drive is connected to the Adapter and the Adapter is plugged into one of the available PCI Express X1 adapter slots on your motherboard. You will need to verify the specs and dimensions of these devices and the positioning of the adapter slot on your motherboard.

Once installed and verified that it is working you would then clone your existing 1TB HDD to the 1TB NMVE, and then change the BIOS boot order to boot to the NMVE. If this goes according to plan no other system changes, moving data around, or app installs would be needed.

I suggested the 1TB NVME over an SSD as the process of getting the OS on to the SSD requires a lot more work, e.g,
- clean install the OS to the SSD, and reinstall all you apps, or
- move all your data off the existing partition to get it small enough so that it can be cloned to the SSD, shrink the partition and create a new partition where you data would be stored.

ern88 · 29 Sep 2021

I want to get a 2TB NVme SSD. for just putting games on.

quandary · 29 Sep 2021

ern88 said:

I want to get a 2TB NVme SSD. for just putting games on.

What is stopping you?

Barman58 · 29 Sep 2021

I've just checked Amazon UK and there a nice WD Black SN750 2TB for around Cn $450 -it's on next day delivery too

ThrashZone · 29 Sep 2021

Hi,
Got to love it when a super mod goes off topic

HRPuffnstuff · 29 Sep 2021

Getting back on topic, after both of my AMD based machines failed to upgrade to 11 I uninstalled the pc health check utility, deleted all files in the software download folder and now I'm no longer annoyed with repeated failed attempts to install 11.