You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I have a Huawei Matebook D15 that has been brilliant for the last 3 years, but I'm running out of storage. 1 Tb SSD seems to be fairly cheap and even branded ones like Samsung appear to be a decent price.
Question is, is putting windows 11 on to the new SSD simple? I'm by no means an expert with PC's, but not a novice either.
What's involved and what would I need to do?
Or just take it to a PC shop?
You should be able to use some cloning software that'll copy your current drive and expand to fill the new.
Acronis is one that jumps to mind, but there are several.
Relatively straightforward task for a home user.
Found this article online, is it the M2 SSD that has the storage, or the HDD? I'm confused already lol
https://www.toxicnerd.com/post/huawei-matebook-d15-ram-and-ssd-upgrade/59
If that article is you exact model then you only have an M.2 SSD storage slot, it looks like they re-used an old chassis so it has a space for an older style 2.5" SSD, but no means of connecting it to the mainboard...
That would have been ideal as you could have kept your existing M.2 drive and simply added a 2.5" drive as a second drive.
Looks like youll have to just replace your existing M.2 drive with something like this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-blue-sn570-1tb-ssd-nvme-m.2-2280-pcie-gen3-solid-state-drive-wds100t3b0c-hd-589-wd.html
ANother option would be to buy an external portable drive, it would be easier but how practical that is for you I dunno, but if you don't need SSD speeds, I.e. its just overflow for music/video etc, you can get more capacity for lesss money:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seagate-basic-2tb-portable-usb-3.0-external-hard-drive-hd-3cp-se.html
Do it it’s simple with lots of YouTube help available. Done a couple of laptops and it’s straightforward. I spent an extra £20 on an m.2 with fast read write speeds combined with a ram upgrade and fresh w11 install and it’s a rapid machine now even with a modest processor.
M.2 ssd is just a ssd but a alternate form factor / connector.
Crucial have a online app that should advise what components can be used to upgrade a system, if your unsure then using that should help you understand what your options are, obviously it will only provide crucial products.
The bigger question is how you planned on moving over your data?
I’ve used macrium reflect for cloning, works well. This is all relatively straightforward stuff, but if you’ve not done it before, could be daunting. Clone the wrong way round and lose your data. Anyway, Ive done a few SSD upgrades now and here’s how I’d do yours.
Check you can get into the bios at startup and have the ability to select boot order/device.
Buy your new M.2 drive and also a suitable external USB housing, like this maybe(usb c available?)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Enclosure-External-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B08DNR22Q7
Switch off and dismantle, put your old drive in the external housing, new one in the laptop.
Restart and interrupt the boot to go to bios and tell it to boot from usb.
You should now be back to a working system, booting from your original drive which is now external.
Use your cloning software to clone your external drive to the new internal.
Use your clone software or another partition tool to extend the small partition on the new drive to use all the available space, or to create another partition scheme which suits how you plan to use it.
Restart again and go to bios, tell it to boot from new internal drive. Job done.
If all working you now have your old SSD in a usb housing to use like an external hard drive.
Don't forget to check everything has come across to the new SSD and is working before you wipe the external drive for extra storage!
The voice of bitter experience! (Things may have improved since my nightmare but check).
SSD manufacturers often (maybe always) have scanning tools on their websites that will check your computer and list memory and SSDs that are compatible.
Reinstalling Windows 11 is very simple. You need to go to the Microsoft website and search for Windows downloads. It should take you to a page that lets you choose to download the same version you are currently running and create a bootable USB memory stick. You will need a memory stick with at least 8 GB space.
Cloning your existing drive onto the new one will save you having to reinstall all your apps, download drivers, etc. In particular, you need to make sure you download and save all the drivers and utilities from the laptop manufacturer for your specific model onto an external drive before you replace the drive.
Use your clone software or another partition tool to extend the small partition on the new drive to use all the available space, or to create another partition scheme which suits how you plan to use it.
I use macrium reflect free version, and if i recall correctly, for a simple clone it will resize the partition on the new drive to fill the drive automagically assuming the new drive is bigger than the old one.
If you then want to partition it off (unlikley for a home user) then you can just do that in windows disk management or whatever tool you want to use.
Another vote for Macrium Reflect and a cheap (£20ish) external exclosure for the new SSD, the one midlifecrashes posted is the one I used.
The Macrium Reflect website has a good guide on how to do it.
Put the new SSD into the external encloser and once cloned, install it into the laptop.
https://www.macrium.com/cloning-a-disk-with-macrium-reflect-v8
I'd usually want to rebuild from scratch rather than cloning, but that's just me.
What have you filled it with?
I fitted a new Samsung ssd to replace the hdd on an old laptop recently. The Samsung cloning software made it very easy
I’d usually want to rebuild from scratch rather than cloning, but that’s just me.
This would generally be my preference too. Nothing like a box fresh OS.
With laptops I can kinda understand cloning, as some weird components and drivers can be a pain to track down, touch pad drivers and random keyboard specific media 'F' button functions etc. for example.
@the OP, it might be better to just shunt your personal data to a back up drive and install a new fresh OS.
That said, youll then be stuck with a useless 512gb M.2 drive, so it also kinds makes sense to buy an external M.2 drive caddy, so then you've got quite a good portable drive to use for whatever.
I mainly say this as working on laptops is usualy a total pain in the arse, the way they are put together you generally end up doing a pretty much full strip down.
Make sure youve got a decent set of precision screwdrivers as a minimum, the cheap pound shop screwdrivers will just end up chewing the screws up, and then you'll be properly buggered!
I'm not clear from teh website, can you do a single clone/disc change with macrium's 30 day trial? Last time i tried to do a clone, I went through 3 or 4 different free options and found they all had a key function disabled. Which is reasonable enough but i am tight and my drive didn't come with any software.
With laptops I can kinda understand cloning, as some weird components and drivers can be a pain to track down, touch pad drivers and random keyboard specific media ‘F’ button functions etc. for example.
Sure. But it can't hurt to try. There's a simple rollback if it goes tits up, just stick the old drive back in.
I mainly say this as working on laptops is usualy a total pain in the arse, the way they are put together you generally end up doing a pretty much full strip down.
It varies IME. A drive swap in the Lenovo I have here is one screw, five if you count the ones holding the disk into its little tray. When I did my partner's HP it was somewhere between 30 and 40 and a load of those ****ty plastic clips that snap if you happen to fart in the wrong key.
I’m not clear from teh website, can you do a single clone/disc change with macrium’s 30 day trial? Last time i tried to do a clone, I went through 3 or 4 different free options and found they all had a key function disabled. Which is reasonable enough but i am tight and my drive didn’t come with any software.
Ive not used it for a year or three to be honest, but the free version does what you want as with most free versions of software you have to be carefull not to install the full fat trial version during install, or it will plague you to upgrade.
The free version is fine for basic cloning, you don't need the full version unless you want to do fancy stuff like incremental sheduled backups and stuff like that.
It varies IME. A drive swap in the Lenovo I have here is one screw, five if you count the ones holding the disk into its little tray. When I did my partner’s HP it was somewhere between 30 and 40 and a load of those ****ty plastic clips that snap if you happen to fart in the wrong key.
For sure, it depends on the particular laptop design, my old Dell i5 I almost destroyed trying to get to the CMOS battery.
Are you of sufficient vintage to remember Dallas chips? The CMOS and its battery in one handy package (along with the RTC I think?), great until the battery runs out and then you're screwed.
Are you of sufficient vintage to remember Dallas chips?
Was that a crossover TV show with Larry Hagman teaming up with Eric Estrada to battle rogue oil tanker drivers?
Dallas chips?
The American mortorcycle cop show?