This may help someone thinking of upgrading to an SSD
The laptop I surf the web on is an old Lenovo Thinkpad T410, it only had a 160gb drive which was pretty full.
SSDs have come down quite a lot and I ordered a 500gb one and a cable to convert it to USB.
I went for Western Digital as they have been making disks for decades and there was also an option to download some of their software to do the migration.
Connected the cable and plugged the SSD in, got a message saying the device had been installed but it did not show up as a disk on the system. I downloaded the software but it wouldn't run because it said it couldn't see a WD drive.
I powered down and fitted the SSD into the machine think maybe that would make a difference but I couldn't boot the machine with the old disk connected to USB, it started to boot but crashed every time.
I put the it back how I started both disks showed in the BIOS so it was a bit strange. I then booted Windows and tried the software again still the same. I then noticed the message actually said "No WD or SANDISK drives installed" or words to that effect.
I have a few SANDISK USB sticks so I stuck one in and ran the software, amazingly it worked fine and the WD drive showed up in the list. I was then able to clone the original disk to the new SSD. This took about an hour. Once complete I removed the disk and installed the SSD. Machine booted fine and probably a minute or two quicker.
I have no idea why the SSD could be seen but the software wouldn't recognise it as installed but this also means if you have a SANDISK USB you could use this software to clone another brand of drive.
The SSD has made a real difference.
The laptop I surf the web on is an old Lenovo Thinkpad T410, it only had a 160gb drive which was pretty full.
SSDs have come down quite a lot and I ordered a 500gb one and a cable to convert it to USB.
I went for Western Digital as they have been making disks for decades and there was also an option to download some of their software to do the migration.
Connected the cable and plugged the SSD in, got a message saying the device had been installed but it did not show up as a disk on the system. I downloaded the software but it wouldn't run because it said it couldn't see a WD drive.
I powered down and fitted the SSD into the machine think maybe that would make a difference but I couldn't boot the machine with the old disk connected to USB, it started to boot but crashed every time.
I put the it back how I started both disks showed in the BIOS so it was a bit strange. I then booted Windows and tried the software again still the same. I then noticed the message actually said "No WD or SANDISK drives installed" or words to that effect.
I have a few SANDISK USB sticks so I stuck one in and ran the software, amazingly it worked fine and the WD drive showed up in the list. I was then able to clone the original disk to the new SSD. This took about an hour. Once complete I removed the disk and installed the SSD. Machine booted fine and probably a minute or two quicker.
I have no idea why the SSD could be seen but the software wouldn't recognise it as installed but this also means if you have a SANDISK USB you could use this software to clone another brand of drive.
The SSD has made a real difference.