Tired of waiting for your laptop for 2 to 3 minutes to boot up? Are you fed up with being the slowpoke while your friends are now booting up in the fast lane with 10 seconds boot-up times? Then we will show you how to have that same smooth experience with one step.

The best way to bring back your slow laptop to its former glory is to upgrade your HDD (Hard Disk Drive) to an SSD (Solid State Drive).

So What is an SSD?

An SSD (Solid State Drive) essentially works differently from the traditional Hard drive disk.because while an HDD uses spinning platters to access information, SSds use flash memory chips to store their data like some devices that use the same kind of storage are USB drives, Smartphones, and tablets. Since the SSD does not have to wait for the platters to spin to the right place to access information it means that it is easier for the users to access their information because all the memory chips can be accessed at the same time.

Where to begin

You might run into the problem of reinstalling windows, then your programs, and playing with the settings menu to get your laptop just the way you want it.

Some of you might be sweating bullets just thinking about doing such a thing especially if it is your first time. Well, don’t worry we at Smart Security Lebanon are here to help you with our easy how-to guide.

As we said earlier upgrading from an HDD to an SSD will mean a whole world of difference when you start your laptop. The boot sequence will be blazingly four times faster using an SSD rather than the grueling wait using an HDD.

Here is how you do it:

Before you start check if you can even upgrade your laptop:

Upgrading your laptop to an SSD is a fairly simple process if you have easy access to your hard drive using a removable panel at the bottom of your laptop. But some laptops and notebooks don’t allow you to access the hard drive and if that is the case then that is a different story altogether that will need its own steps to follow. On the other hand, if it is accessible then prepare yourself because here we dive in!!

First, you need to find the right SSD regarding the form and interface. Now you might be wondering about the form factor?! What is a form factor?! Well usually laptops have a 2.5-inch drive but some ultraportable laptops use a 1.8-inch model SSD and add to that even the usual 2.5-inch drive laptops have different thickness depending on the model that range between 7 mm and 9.5 mm and believe us that will mean the difference between the panel closing or not. Also, there are different interfaces to consider like does your drive use SATA or IDE, Usually, laptops that were built after 2008 use those interfaces. Most laptops use 2.5 inch SATA drives but you still should check your laptop manual (we hope that you did not throw it away). But if you did throw away your manual then don’t worry there is still hope, you can visit the manufacturer website to find the manual in pdf form or by viewing your current drive’s label. To view your drive Open the access panel and look at the drive itself to see if it says 2.5-inch, SATA, and what thickness you need. Usually, 7mm, 2.5-inch SATA SSDs will fit even in the 9.5mm slots and some come with spacers for a tighter fit, but the opposite is not the same.

What will you need?

Well, First you will need an SSD of course! Not only should your SSD be of the correct form factor and interface it should have enough storage to install the windows partition and system recovery partition you might want to set up. Usually, a 250 GB SSD will do the trick for them but a 500 GB will offer you more flexibility for only a little extra investment.

Next, you will need an external enclosure or adapter to connect the SSD to your laptop, and the purpose of this enclosure is not only to connect your SSD with your laptop for the cloning process of your data but also to turn this enclosure into a new housing of your hard disk once you are done with it and turn it into an external hard disk for your future storage and backups.

Then you will need a small Phillips screwdriver to remove the plate and the hard disk once you are done cloning your data as well as to secure your new SSD.

Finally, you will need a separate external hard disk (optional) in case your data proves to be too big for the SSD storage, and to create a full system backup at the start.

Cloning your hard disk drive to your SSD

Now then let the fun begin!!!

First, you will have to clone your hard disk drive onto your SSD.

• You need to make a full backup of your system. Creating a system image backup in windows 10 is done by heading over to the control panel, or you can use the shortcut keys and save yourself some time by hitting hit the Win+X keyboard shortcut and select Control Panel, then go to “Save backup copies of your files with File History” which is under System and Security. Then menu to your left, go to “System Image Backup” to create your system image on your external drive or network location.

1. You need to move large files and folders that are not necessary to another hard drive. There is a big chance that your files are big enough that they will not fit onto your SSD because imagine that you are transferring files from a 500 GB hard disk to a 120 or 125 SSD. That is why it is preferred that you transfer these big files such as games, pictures, videos… to a separate hard drive disk that can handle that data to make enough space on your drive to clone it on your SSD.

1. Now it is time to clean up your hard drive for extra space. So you might have figured out the next step you have to uninstall any programs that you are not using and delete any unneeded files that you don’t want to be transferred to your SSD. Do one last check to remove all unneeded files and folders by using freeware such as CCleaner, which deletes old temporary files or you can use windows disk cleanup using the following method: Windows search, look for “disk cleanup,” then choose “Free up disk space on this PC”.

SSD connection time!!

Now you will set up your SSD for the cloning process.

• Connect your SSD physically. Place the SSD in the enclosure that you got or you can just connect a USB to SATA adapter and then connect it to your laptop to start the cloning process.

• Initializing your SSD: In case your new SSD does not show on your laptop with a new letter, just go to Windows’ Disk Management tool. From there go to Windows search, and look for “disk management” then select “Create and format hard disk partitions.” In Disk Management, you should see the SSD as a new disk under your current one. If it says “Not initialized,” right-click on the SSD drive and select “Initialize disk.”

• Change the size of the hard disk partition drive to be the same size or Smaller than the SSD. since you are in Disk Management check to make sure that your current hard disk primary partition that is called C usually and has the windows operating system installed in it is not larger than the SSD. If it is then it is time to shrink that partition so that it and the other system recovery partitions are smaller than the SSD. So right-click on the hard disk main partition that has the OS installed and select “Shrink”.

In the window that will appear after that, leave the defaults and select  “Shrink”. This action will change the size of your primary partition so that it becomes smaller and you can leave the rest of the space unallocated. Now don’t get worried the cloning software will do all the resizing and allocation for you during the cloning process.

Now Restart your laptop or PC just to be sure that the partition works before cloning.

It is Time to Clone your Hard Drive

So this is the moment you have been waiting for!! It is time to clone your Hard disk drive content to your new SSD.

• Installing the disk cloning software. For this blog we are going to use a free software called EaseUS Todo Backup Free,  it is a free tool for personal use, and it also optimizes the migration process to an SSD.

• In the cloning Software choose the source and destination drives. In the EaseUS Todo Backup, choose the option to “Clone” from the main menu. Follow the wizard to choose your source disk(your HDD) and the destination(your new SSD)

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Make sure that you choose the “Optimize for SSD” when you choose the destination drive. This will ensure that the sectors are aligned on your SSD and it will improve your chances of booting from the new SSD after the cloning is done. Also note that on their official website EaseUS says that it is not necessary to choose the “Sector by Sector option, which is used to copy every sector over, even if they are empty or bad.

• We will now review the layout we have and start the cloning process. On the screen that follows, you will be able to see and compare the source hard disk drive with your new SSD. As you can see in the picture below, EaseUS will automatically adjust for the different sized drives by using the space that has been unallocated on your hard disk drive which we created in the last section in part 3.

Select “Proceed” on the lower side of the window and then choose “Shutdown computer when the operation is completed” This will take about 45 minutes to complete, but your timing may vary from person to person.

Finally, time to change your old laptop HDD with your brand new SSD

So after the shutdown what are you waiting for! It is time to remove the old faithful hard drive and replace it with your new SSD.

• So the laptop is off now, so turn it upside down and remove the back panel to get access to the hard drive. Disconnect any cable attached to the laptop and that includes the power cable as well as the USB cable from the SSD. Then unscrew the back panel and you should see your old faithful hard drive.

• Check for any screws securing the old hard drive to the laptop. You will need to unscrew those screws before you can remove the old hard drive.

• Lift the hard drive at a 45-degree angle and pull it out slowly.

• Now put in its place the spanking new SSD. Put the SSD in the now-empty HDD slot by doing the reverse of what you did to remove the HDD: Slide the SSD at an angle of 45 degrees and push it into place so it is securely connected to the slot. Then screw it in the slot and put the back panel on top of it and screw it well into the laptop.

Boot Up the laptop with the new SSD

It is show time: turn on your laptop. If the laptop boots up normally and you see all your programs and settings just as you know them but the process is a lot faster, then congratulations all went according to plan.

So where can you get your first SSD you might be wondering.

Well choosing your first SSD might be a hard thing to do especially with all the fake dealers and products out there. That is why you need a trusted dealer that is known to provide good quality as well as good customer service with the reputation to back up such a claim. We at Smart Security have been in business for more than a decade and we have received the trust of thousands of customers nationwide, and when you call us we have professional operators that will always guide you to the best choice for the performance that you need.

Now if you are a tech-savvy person and you already know what you need then we have a variety of great models that will help you get the performance that you need.

First, we have the SSD SATA model. It includes the HIKvision SSD which is the cheapest type on the Lebanese market at the moment and we have the Kingston which is a better choice for a power user.

Then you have M2 SSD models. Now, these are considered the future of SSD because they are faster at a speed that can reach 4GB per second, but on the other hand, they offer a lower storage capacity.

At smart security, we offer the following M2 SSD. We have the HIKvision, Kingston, Sandisk, and the Samsung Evo pro which is now the number 1 sold SSD in the world, because of its reliability.

Finally, we have the mini PCIe NVME SSDs which are the latest generation in the SSD domain. These SSDs offer you the fastest speeds at 2500 Megabytes per second which gives your laptop astronomical boot load times saving you the trouble of waiting for your laptop to start up. At Smart Security, we provide you with 2 brands HIKvision and Kingston.

And there you have it we gave you the knowledge of how to change into a brand new SSD as well as the types available in the Lebanese market.  For the latest technology news follow us on our Social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube to always be up to date on great deals and prices plus visit our website for your orders then give us a call so that we can help you.