SSD hard drive for laptop in drive. Replacing the HDD in a laptop with an SSD - instructions
Drives for recording CD/DVD discs are increasingly losing their relevance over time, because now almost all modern devices are capable of reproducing information via USB drives, i.e., for example, flash drives, external hard drives. And it turns out that in those laptops that were purchased with a disk drive, this same disk drive sits idle and is almost never used. However, it can be replaced with an additional hard drive, thereby giving you one more place to connect the HDD.
In this article I will tell you how you can install a regular HDD in a laptop instead of a CD/DVD drive.
It is especially important to change the CD/DVD drive in those laptops that initially have only one standard bay for installing a hard drive or SSD. And if you want to install a high-speed SSD instead of a hard drive, then this turns out to be impossible for many. For the reason that the price is 1 GB. The space on the SSD is very large, i.e. Such a disk with a large capacity will be very expensive. And if you install a small-capacity SSD (approximately 100-200 GB is very popular), then this amount of space is unlikely to be enough for anyone. The system alone, for example, Windows 10 with all the necessary programs, will eat up to 150 GB. Therefore, a good solution in this case is to install a small SSD instead of a regular hard drive, and replace the drive with a hard drive, either an old one or a new one with an even larger capacity.
For desktop computers, all this is irrelevant. There is always room in the system unit to connect additional HDD or SSD drives.
There is no point in installing an SSD drive instead of a drive. Because drives operate on a slower SATA port and a high-speed SSD drive simply will not reveal its full potential. Therefore, instead of a disk drive, it makes sense to install only an HDD disk!
The principle of replacing a CD/DVD drive with an HDD hard drive
The replacement process itself is not at all complicated, but you will need to buy one part - an adapter, which I will discuss below.
So, point by point:
All! A hard drive is connected instead of an unnecessary CD/DVD drive. You can turn on the computer and work :)
Possible problem when installing an HDD instead of a disk drive and its solution
When connecting a hard drive instead of a laptop's CD/DVD drive through a special adapter, a problem may arise that I encountered on 2 laptops.
It lies in the fact that after installing the HDD through an adapter instead of a disk drive, the computer stops turning off normally and also goes into various sleep modes. When you try to perform one of these actions, the computer ends all programs, but does not completely turn off. At the same time, the fans continue to work, and at increased speeds, and the computer may turn off or go into the desired sleep mode after more than an hour, or it may continue to work endlessly and heat up.
When I first encountered this problem, I spent a very long time looking for the cause, went through all the drivers and looked for a problem in the system itself and installed programs, because the hardware itself was all working.
It turned out to be very simple. There is a switch on the adapter (sled) that connects the HDD instead of the disk drive. I was not able to find out what exactly it switches, but apparently some kind of operating mode. Here's what it looks like:
It is enough to move this switch from its original position to one of the two available ones, after which you install the HDD in the laptop again and check whether the situation has changed. If not, move the switch to the last 3rd position. In this case, everything should work 100% as it should.
Hello friends! We receive many letters on our website asking us to describe how to replace a DVD drive with additional HDD or SSD in a laptop, which is what we will do in today’s article. For readers who do not quite understand what we are talking about, I will briefly explain.
Now in computer stores and andOnline computer and digital equipment supermarkets sell special adapters. SlimDVD -> 2.5 at a price of 1200-1300 rubles.The laptop's hard drive is installed into the adapter itself, then the adapter is inserted into the laptop instead of the optical drive, and an SSD solid-state drive is installed in place of the laptop's HDD. As a result, you have two hard drives in your laptop. You install the operating system on the SSD(more advanced users can simply transfer Windows from HDD to SSD), and use the laptop hard drive to store files. In my opinion, it is a very good idea to remove the drive and install an HDD instead, since if you ask you when you last used the drive, you won’t even remember.
Toshiba laptop hard drive in a special Espada SS95 adapter
All your questions on this topic:
1. Is it possible to replace a DVD-ROM (disk drive) with an additional SSD on your own, without resorting to a service, using a special adapter? Isn’t this too difficult?
2. Will an SSD drive installed instead of a drive be visible in the BIOS and is it possible to install an operating system on it?
3. Is it better to install a regular laptop HDD in this adapter, and install an SSD solid-state drive instead of the HDD? If yes, then how in this case can you transfer the Windows 7, 8.1 operating system to an SSD from a regular laptop HDD?
To install an SSD drive in a laptop instead of a disk drive, you don’t need to be a computer wizard, because you don’t have to disassemble the entire laptop, you just need to remove the disk drive and hard drive, but still to the point needs to be taken into accountin all seriousness, workcarefully and slowly.
Friends, this article is provided for your information and if your laptop is still under warranty, then after such a replacement you will naturally lose this warranty. If you are not confident in yourself, make such a replacement in the service, but still read the article first to decide what exactly you will install in such an adapter - a regular laptop HDD or an SSD, I recommend HDD, and install the SSD in the standard location of the hard drive laptop.
Get ready for the fact that in most cases not everything will go smoothly (I deliberately chose a difficult example so that you know some of the pitfalls), since such DVD -> HDD adapters are not officially made by any laptop manufacturing company, but despite this, a large Some of these Chinese devices work great.
- Note: First of all, remove the battery from the laptop; if it is impossible to remove it, then be sure to disconnect it from the motherboard; this should always be done when disassembling the laptop. By doing this you will insure yourself and your laptop from possible troubles. When working, do not touch the components located on the laptop motherboard with your hands or a screwdriver.
Select and buy an adapter for installing an HDD instead of a disk drive on a laptop
One of my friends bought this Espada SS95 9.5 mm SATA adapter for 1200 rubles
and asked me to replace the DVD-ROM with an HDD, but did not take into account the fact that there are two types of drives in laptops: a regular drive 12.7 mm high and an ultra thin drive from 9.5 mm. My friend’s laptop is not new and has a 12.7 mm drive, but despite this, the 9.5 mm adapter was still installed and sits firmly in its place.
Still, I advise you to buy an adapter the size of your drive and there will be fewer problems with installation.
When choosing an adapter for installing an HDD instead of a disk drive on a laptop, keep in mind that some adapters come with special “ears” and such an adapter can be easily removed back.
Removing the laptop drive
Friends, articles have already been written and are almost ready on how to make such a replacement on HP, Toshiba, ASUS laptops, and we will start with SONY.
Turn off our laptop and turn it upside down.
Disconnecting the battery
If the battery is not removable, then be sure to disconnect the battery connector from the motherboard!
Disconnecting the DVD-ROM
Don't rush to disassemble your entire laptop! To disconnect the disk drive on a laptop, you usually do not need to remove the bottom cover of the laptop or, even worse, disassemble the entire laptop, but only need to unscrew two screws. If you have never done this, type in a search engine the request - How to remove a disk drive from (hereinafter referred to as your laptop model).
Disconnecting the laptop hard drive
In the case of a SONY laptop there are no problems at all, we unscrew two screws and remove the cover and here is our hard drive. Unscrew two more screws
And carefully pull the silicone tab, the HDD is removed from its place.
Installing a laptop hard drive into the Espada SS95 adapter
In my opinion, we need to install a laptop hard drive in this adapter, and in the rightful place of the HDD we will install an SSD solid-state drive, onto which we will install or transfer the operating system. This needs to be done because the SATA port of the drive (up to 1.5 Gb/s) is often slower than the SATA port (6 Gb/s) of the hard drive.
Windows on an SSD will run much faster than it would on a regular HDD. Almost all laptop HDDs have a 2.5 form factor, just like SSDs, so an SSD will fit perfectly in place of the HDD.
The laptop hard drive is located in special “slides” and is attached to them with four screws; unscrew them and release the HDD.
P adapter Espada SS95
Now, friends, the time has come for our adapter. We have it in this box,
In addition to the adapter itself, the plastic packaging contains a small screwdriver, a bag of screws, a plastic blanking panel and a spacer.
We take out the adapter
First, you need to remove the special fasteners from the drive and attach them to our adapter.
Note. The optical drive is located on top, and our adapter is located on the bottom. This mount on the drive must be removed and attached with the same two screws to the adapter. Using this mount, the adapter will be attached to the laptop body.
We install the laptop hard drive into the adapter and carefully insert it into the SATA connector.
Then we install the “spacer” into the adapter.
The hard drive in the adapter is secured not only with the help of a spacer. Turn the adapter over and tighten the screw securing the hard drive in the adapter.
On the other side of the adapter there is also a screw, only it is somewhat “recessed” in its place; we screw it in using a thin screwdriver.
Now remove another mount from the drive
and attach it to the adapter.
We put a plug on the adapter
We install the adapter in the laptop in place of the drive.
We attach the sleds remaining from the laptop hard drive to the solid-state drive
and install the SSD in place of the HDD and secure it to the laptop case with two screws.
Close the hard drive bay with a cover and secure it with screws. We also attach the adapter to the laptop body with two screws. We put the battery in place.
Side view of our laptop.
Installing Windows 8.1 on SSD
We enter the BIOS and see only one 120 GB SSD solid state drive; a regular laptop HDD connected via an adapter is not seen by the BIOS. This sometimes happens on various laptops, but nevertheless, if you install an operating system on the SSD, then the space of the HDD connected via an adapter will be available.
The Windows 8.1 installer still sees both drives: Disk 0 (SSD) and Disk 1 (HDD).
We install the Windows 8.1 operating system on the SSD.
We go to Disk Management and see our SSD (120 GB capacity) with Windows 8.1 installed and a regular HDD (320 GB capacity) with Windows 7 installed.
What happens if you leave one adapter in your laptop without an SSD?
You see for yourself, there are no defined hard drive models in the BIOS,
Conclusion:
Let’s say you are happy with everything in your laptop, then you definitely shouldn’t indulge in such experiments, it’s another matter if you are an enthusiast and want to get the most out of your laptop, then definitely, our article is for you!
SSD drive (solid state drive) is increasingly being considered by users as a replacement for a laptop hard drive or as an addition to it. However, the laptop's limited internal space makes installation a challenge. One way to overcome the lack of space is to install an SSD instead of a DVD drive.
Why is this needed and how does it work?
Many users view the DVD drive as an outdated and unnecessary part. Therefore, it is quite natural to want to remove it from the laptop and use the free space more rationally.
One possible option is to replace the DVD drive with a solid-state drive using special “sleds”. By installing it in a laptop computer, the owner receives significant productivity gain. Thanks to the higher speed of information exchange, the operating system, programs and games installed on the disk load 4-5 times faster. At the same time, the laptop becomes less sensitive to shocks and vibrations. Solid state drives have low power consumption, which increases battery life.
What you need for installation
Before installing an SSD into a laptop, it should be recalled that the manipulations performed are related to access to laptop internals. This may damage warranty stickers and seals, which will void the warranty. Therefore, if the warranty period has not expired, this upgrade is not recommended.
To install a hard drive instead of a disk drive in a laptop, you will need:
Which adapter should you choose?
First of all, you need to measure thicknessDVDdrive. Drives are available in thicknesses of 9.5 mm and 12.7 mm. 
It is necessary to establish what interface for connecting equipped with a disk drive: IDE or SATA. 
An adapter for a 2.5-inch drive of the required thickness and with the required connector for connection is purchased. Adapters with a SATA interface are much more common, so if a DVD drive has an IDE connector, it is sometimes easier to buy an IDE/SATA adapter than to look for the necessary adapter.
Installation in a laptop
Laptop designs are varied. For some models, to achieve the result, it is enough to unscrew a couple of screws on the cover of a small compartment; for others, you have to remove the entire back cover, and sometimes the keyboard. However, the installation and connection sequence described in the proposed instructions is common for all laptops.
SSD instead of HDD
We will describe replacing HDD with SDD with interfaceSATA. It is usually carried out when a hard drive malfunctions or as one of the measures to increase operating speed.
Replacing a hard drive with an IDE interface will not be considered, due to the fact that it requires an individual approach for each model.
The procedure for connecting an SSD drive to a laptop is as follows:
Installing M.2 SSD
Another way to increase the amount of internal memory and speed up the system is to install a solid-state SSD M.2 drive. It is a further development of SSD technology, M.2 drive differs in smaller sizes and lower power consumption.
However, you should take into account the lack of the necessary connector for its installation on motherboards released before 2013. M.2 drives are produced several sizes. Before purchasing, you need to find out the right size by studying the technical specifications of the laptop, or by first disassembling it.
The following algorithm should be followed:
Installing an SSD instead of a DVD drive using an adapter
If you need to replace a laptop drive with a hard drive using an adapter, you need to proceed according to the following scheme:
- screws are unscrewed back cover fastenings;
- back the cover is removable;
- Before removing the drive, unscrew it mounting screw;
- drive unit is extracted;
- the bar is unscrewed with hole for mounting screw;
- bar installed on adapter;
- SSD plugs into adapter;
- secured with screws from the adapter kit;
- adapter inserted into laptop instead of a disk drive;
- is fixed;
- is installed back cover.
Often, with such a replacement, a solid-state drive is installed in place of the HDD, which in turn is installed using an adapter instead of a DVD drive. This is done if, for example, the HDD interface is faster (SATA3) than the drive (SATA2), which provides the solid-state drive with even greater operating speed.
In the BIOS in the section disk device configurations you need to select the SATA port to which the solid-state drive is connected. You need to install in the menu AHCI mode, allowing you to fully realize its potential in terms of speed of information exchange. 
Unable to bear the constant lags of my laptop any longer, I finally decided to replace the hard drive in it with a brand new high-speed SSD. Hard drive “fatigue” is one of the main reasons for the decline in laptop performance, which I have already written about in more detail.
For 3,000 rubles, I bought the cheapest 60GB SSD available at Citylink (2,300 rubles) and an adapter for connecting a 2.5″ HDD instead of a DVD drive (700 rubles).
Despite the cheapness, the manufacturer provides a 3-year warranty on the drive.
It's easy to get to the laptop's original hard drive. Typically, access to it and the RAM dies is closed with a separate, easily removable cover, so you don’t have to completely disassemble the laptop to replace it. In my case this was the case.
Here it is, the original HDD, installed on a special slide. Let's get him.
We unscrew the hard drive from the slide and screw the new SSD onto the slide.
Installing an SSD in a laptop.
Actually, that's all. The SSD is installed and ready to go.
Installing a native laptop HDD instead of a DVD drive
Installing an SSD is half the battle. You need to connect your own hard drive to use it as file storage, because 60GB of solid-state drive capacity is just enough to install the operating system, a basic set of software and have 10-20GB of free space for updates.
To install an HDD in a laptop, you need to remove the DVD drive and connect a hard drive in its place using a special adapter. Getting to the DVD drive is already much more difficult; manufacturers usually do not provide the possibility of quick replacement, and therefore you will have to open the laptop case.
But first we attach the disk to the adapter, and..
Bummer. It turned out that I bought an IDE-SATA adapter, and in my case I need a SATA-SATA adapter. Those. The hard drive is inserted into the adapter, but the adapter itself cannot be connected instead of a DVD drive, the connectors do not match. In the next few days I will try to return the unsuitable adapter back to Citylink and buy the correct one instead, after which I will write a continuation.
UPD: I submitted the adapter to Citylink, but decided to refrain from purchasing the correct one and installing the HDD for now. Perhaps in the future I will return to this idea.
conclusions
I installed pirated Windows 7 on a clean SSD and immediately. There are no lags in work. With familiar tasks that were previously always accompanied by annoying slowdowns (Firefox with 15 open tabs, an open Word or PDF file, a running book reader, a video player with a movie on pause), the system now flies. Which confirms my conclusion that the hard drive is the weakest point in the laptop. Therefore, if you want to give a new life to an old slow laptop, feel free to replace the hard drive with an SSD. It's inexpensive compared to the cost of a new laptop, but the result is obvious. Naturally, after that upgrade, the laptop will not run the latest games (if it didn’t run them before), but it will be quite suitable for home and office use and will last a long time.
Hello. SSD drives are becoming more and more popular in the component market every day. Very soon, I think, they will become a necessity rather than a luxury (at least some users consider them a luxury).
Installing an SSD in a laptop provides a number of advantages: faster loading of the Windows OS (boot time is reduced by 4-5 times), longer operation of the laptop on battery power, the SSD drive is more resistant to shocks and shocks, the grinding noise disappears (which sometimes happens on some HDD models disks). In this article, I want to look at the step-by-step installation of an SSD drive in a laptop (especially since I get a lot of questions about SSD drives).
What is needed to get started
Despite the fact that installing an SSD drive is a fairly simple operation that almost any user can handle, I want to warn you that everything you do is done at your own risk. Also, in some cases, installing another disk may result in denial of warranty service!
1. Laptop and SSD drive (naturally).
Rice. 1. SPCC Solid State Disk (120 GB)
2. Phillips and straight screwdrivers (most likely the first, depending on how your laptop covers are secured).
Rice. 2. Phillips screwdriver
3. Plastic card (any card will do; it can be used to conveniently pry off the cover that protects the disk and RAM of the laptop).
4. Flash drive or external hard drive (if you simply replace the HDD drive with an SSD, then you probably have files and documents that need to be copied from the old hard drive. Later you will transfer them from the flash drive to the new SSD drive).
SSD drive installation options
A lot of questions come in regarding options for installing an SSD drive in a laptop. Well, for example:
- “How to install an SSD drive so that both the old hard drive and the new one work?”;
- “Is it possible to install an SSD disk instead of a CD-ROM?”;
- “If I just replace the old HDD with a new SSD drive, how will I transfer my files to it?” etc.
I would like to immediately highlight several ways to install an SSD in a laptop:
1) Simply remove the old HDD and put a new SSD in its place (the laptop has a special cover that covers the disk and RAM). To use your data from the old HDD, you need to copy all data to other media in advance, before replacing the disk.
2) Install an SSD drive instead of an optical drive. To do this you need a special adapter. The general idea is this: take out the CD-ROM and insert this adapter (into which you insert the SSD drive in advance). In the English version, it is called as follows: HDD Caddy for Laptop Notebook.
Important! If you buy such an adapter, pay attention to the thickness. The fact is that there are 2 types of such adapters: 12.7 mm and 9.5 mm. To know exactly which one you need, you can do the following: run the AIDA program (for example), find out the exact model of your optical drive and then find its characteristics on the Internet. In addition, you can simply remove the drive and measure it with a ruler or caliper.
3) This is the reverse option from the second one: install the SSD instead of the old HDD drive, and install the HDD instead of the drive using the same adapter as in Fig. 3. This option is preferable (in our opinion).
4) The last option: install an SSD instead of the old HDD, but buy a special box for the HDD to connect it to a USB port (see Fig. 4). This way you can also use both an SSD and an HDD drive. The only negative is the extra wire and the box on the table (for laptops that are often carried, this is a bad option).
How to install an SSD drive instead of an old HDD
I will consider the most standard and frequently encountered option.
1) First, turn off the laptop and disconnect all wires from it (power, headphones, mice, external hard drives, etc.). Next, turn it over - on the bottom wall of the laptop there should be a panel covering the laptop’s hard drive and battery (see Fig. 5). Remove the battery by moving the latches in different directions*.
* Mounting may vary slightly on different laptop models.
Rice. 5. Attaching the battery and the cover covering the laptop disk. Laptop Dell Inspiron 15 3000 series
2) After the battery is removed, unscrew the screws that secure the cover that covers the hard drive (see Fig. 6).
3) The hard drive in laptops is usually secured with several screws. To remove it, just unscrew them and then remove the hard drive from the SATA connector. After that, insert a new SSD drive in its place and secure it with screws. This is done quite simply (see Fig. 7 - the disk mount (green arrows) and the SATA connector (red arrow) are shown).
4) After replacing the disk, secure the cover with a screw and install the battery. Connect all the wires (previously disconnected) to the laptop and turn it on. When booting, go directly to the BIOS (article about login keys:
Rice. 8. Has the new SSD disk been detected (the disk is recognized in the photo, which means you can continue working with it).
If the disk is detected, check what mode it is operating in (it should work in AHCI). In the BIOS, this tab is most often Advanced (see Fig. 9). If you have a different operating mode in your settings, switch it to ACHI, then save the BIOS settings.
After the settings have been made, you can begin installing Windows and optimizing it for SSD. By the way, after installing the SSD, it is recommended to install Windows again. The fact is that when Windows is installed, it automatically configures services to work optimally with the SSD drive.
By the way, very often I get asked questions about what to update to speed up the PC (video card, processor, etc.). But rarely does anyone talk about the possible transition to an SSD to speed up work. Although on some systems, switching to an SSD will help speed up the work significantly!
That's all for me today. Fast Windows operation to everyone!