Is your laptop running very slow? Are you facing freezing or hanging problems with your laptop? Is your laptop performance dragging? If all these issues you are facing in your laptop then you might need to consider a Solid-State-Drive (SSD) over Hard Disk Drive (HDD) to speed up your laptop.
Installing SSD in your laptop to speed up is a great thing but reinstalling windows is a hassle for laptop users. But is there any option to install SSD on a laptop without reinstalling windows?
Yes, there is a way to install SSD on your laptop without reinstalling windows. As you know that when you reinstall windows all your data will be deleted but nobody wants to lose their data at any cost.
In this article, we will discuss how you can install SSD into your laptop without reinstalling windows. But before going into installing SSD on your laptop process let’s first discuss what is SSD and why we should prefer SSD over HDD.
What Is SSD & Why We Should Prefer It Over HDD?
SSD is a solid-state drive that is the same as the hard disk drive (HDD). Its main purpose is to store the information on your laptop you want to store. But it is faster than the hard disk drive. Almost all new laptops that are now coming on the market have SSD installed in it.
So, let’s move on to the next part, why we should prefer SSD over HDD. A laptop that has SSD installed in it is 3 to 4 times faster than a laptop that has no SSD in it. Who doesn’t wants to speed up its laptop? Definitely nobody.
Everyone wants to speed up their laptop. Let’s say you are running some heavy programs like photoshop, SolidWorks, Android Studio, etc on your laptop, as these types of software are very heavy and need more power to run smoothly.
So, in this case, if you don’t have SSD installed on your laptop then you could see that your laptop starts creating problems for your like hanging, freezing, or slowing down. That’s why we recommend you to use SSD on your laptop instead of HDD.
If you are an engineering or designing student and you often need to run heavy software on your laptop then you should install SSD on your laptop in order to get performance from your laptop.
Now, come on to the main point of this article which is how you can install SSD on your laptop without reinstalling windows 7/8/10/11.
Things You Need To Know Before Installing SSD On Laptop:
Keep in mind installing SSD on your laptop without reinstalling windows is not a big task as long as you follow the right instructions. So, there are a few things that you need to know before you install SSD on your laptop. These things are mentioned below:
- The first thing you need is SSD.
- A laptop(on which you want to install SSD) with a room.
- A Philips head screwdriver to open the laptop.
- An external hard drive, USB, etc for backup of your data. It’s optional but highly recommended.
- And at the end need patience during the process of installing SSD into the laptop.
These are the few things that you need before installing SSD besides this you need our instructions. If you follow our instructions carefully you will easily install SSD on your laptop without reinstalling the windows.
So, let us tell you the process of installing SSD onto your laptop.
Steps To Install SSD On Laptop Without Reinstalling Windows:
There are a few steps that you have to perform in order to install SSD perfectly on your laptop.
1. Backing Up Your Data:
The first step that you have to perform in order to install SSD on a laptop is to take back up your data. Nobody wants to lose their data at any cost but during the process of installing SSD, you could lose your data if you did any mistake.
So, it’s recommended to take back up your data to avoid any hassle. The best way to take back up is by using an external hard drive or USB. Simply copy all of your data into an external hard drive and plug out the drive from your laptop.
You can also use software like Backblaze or Carbonite in order to take easy and reliable backup. Although we are telling you the process of installing SSD on your laptop without reinstalling windows or losing data it’s always better to be safe rather than say sorry to you. Taking backup just takes a few minutes so kindly first take back up then move on to the next step.
2. Installing SSD On Laptop Without Reinstalling Windows:
After saving your data on an external hard disk or USB, you have to move on to the next step which is to install the SSD onto your laptop.
Here are the steps to install SSD on your laptop:
1. First off completely turn off your laptop and unplug it from the power source.
2. Then you have to remove the bottom panel of your laptop in order to access the internal parts of your laptop, you can remove it by using the screwdriver.
3. Then you have to locate your hard drive (it will be in a metal bracket and connected with a motherboard with a data cable) you simply have to disconnect it from the cable for this (remove the screws to hold it in place disconnect the data cable from hard disk).
4. Remove the hard drive from the laptop.
5. Install the SSD onto your laptop, and locate the place from where you withdraw the hard drive (screw it in the place and connect the data cable with SSD).
6. Replace the bottom panel on your laptop and put the screws back in their position.
7. Then turn on your laptop and boot your laptop from the computer BIOS (you can do this usually by pressing the F2, F10, or Del button on your keyboard when your laptop is starting up).
8. Then find the “Boot Order” or “Boot Priority” section in the BIOS and then change the primary boot device to SSD.
9. Save the changes and then exit the computer BIOS.
10. Your laptop will boot now from SSD.
11. If your laptop does not boot with SSD then you have to change the boot order in BIOS again.
Watch a quick video to Install SSD on a laptop.
3. Formatting & Initialization Process:
Once you have installed the SSD physically on your laptop then you have to install windows on the SSD. But before we install windows on SSD we need to format the SSD first.
You can do this easily in Windows by going to “My Computer” and right-clicking on the drive. Then select “format” and choose the “quick format” option to format the SSD quickly.
By doing this everything will be erased from the drive, so make sure you have already the backup of everything.
Now let’s move on to the next step which is cloning the drives onto the SSD.
4. Clone Your Drives Onto The New SSD:
Once you format the SSD then you have to clone your old hard drives onto the new SSD. In order to clone the old hard drive onto the new SSD, you need to use a program called Macrium Reflect. You can download its free version and clone your hard drives.
Follow these steps to clone your old hard drive to a new SSD:
- When you installed the Macrium Reflect software on your laptop, open it and select the “Clone Disk”.
- When the next screen opens, select the source disk (it will be your old hard drive) and destination disk (it will be your SSD). Then select “Copy Selected Section” and click on the “Next” button to proceed.
- On the next screen, you will see the list of all the partitions on your old hard drive. Make sure that only the ‘Windows Partition’ option is checked and then click on the Next button.
- Once you click on the “Next” option Macrium Reflect will start cloning your old hard drive to the new SSD. This process might take a few seconds or minutes so be patient, once the cloning process finishes simply click on the “Finish” option.
- After that, we need to make sure that Windows boots from the SSD instead of the hard drive when we restart our laptop, for this we need to change the boot order again from the BIOS.
- Simply restart your laptop and open the BIOS by simply pressing the F2, F10, or Del key when the laptop is starting up.
- Then find the “Boot Priority” or “Boot Order” section in the BIOS and then change the primary boot device to SSD.
- Click on the Save changes button and then exit the BIOS.
Bottom Line Of How To Install SSD In Laptop Without Reinstalling Windows:
After reading this detailed article we hope that you have successfully installed SSD on your laptop and increased the speed of your laptop. There are a few steps that you have to follow in order to install SSD that we have mentioned above.
Installing SSD on your laptop is not a big task as long as you follow our instructions carefully and didn’t do any mistakes. We have also discussed why you should prefer SSD over HDD.
SSD speeds up your laptop if you are using heavy programs on your laptop then you definitely need to install SSD onto your laptop to get good performance from it.
After installing the SSD onto your laptop you will get rid of the laptop hanging or freezing problems. Although SSD is pre-installed on the laptops that are coming now on the market if you have an old laptop still you can install SSD on it.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Can you install SSD into your laptop without cloning?
Yes, you can install SSD into your laptop without cloning, but you must have to install the new copy of the windows into the SSD that you install on your laptop.
You can copy and paste the remaining data from the old HDD to the SSD, but you cannot copy your OS. Therefore, a new copy of the Windows installation is required.
What else will be transferred by cloning?
When you use the “System Clone” feature on Windows OS from HDD to SSD to run away from reinstalling the windows all your OS installation files, downloads, user profile, resided programs, personal data, and system configuration will be transferred.
Can every laptop be upgradable to SSD?
No, every laptop is not upgradeable to install SSD. You need to check the upgradeability to SSD first. You can take help from your laptop manufacturer by telling them the model and the serial number of your laptop. They will tell you whether your laptop is upgradeable to SSD or not.