Resolved SWAPPING OUT SATA DRIVE FOR SSD

Dell Inspirion1440 has 300Gig Seagate HD still in good condition but I want to speed the old Laptop up a bit by replacing the 300Gig Hd with a Samsung 250Gig 850 EVO by cloning.
My question is, I have googled and found contradicting advice (surprise....surprise...) some folks recommend to reduce the size of the existing HD to the same size as the new SSD, I would agree with that if my 300Gig drive was full, but it is barely 50% full, so do I still need to reduce the SATA drive to 250Gig before cloning.
At the same time what is your preferred free cloning software .
All advice greatly appreciated
hawk22

 

Actually, i didnt have much luck with samsung software so i just restored a backup copy of the C partition to the new ssd
using macrium reflect program., worked great.

savagcl

 

Hi Bill, I changed my 320GB HDD in my HP 1000 Notebook with a 240GB SSD. The rule of thumb as advised by drive makers, is to ensure that your new drive has more space than the 'used' space on your existing drive. I think from memory that my old HDD had 119GB's used which meant my new SSD had plenty of room to accept the clone. Take the opportunity to get rid of any stuff you don't need first and clean Temp files etc. I also did sfc /scannow and defrag before cloning to obviate any possible problems.

 

OK thanks guys, did the cloning last night using the Samsung Data Migration Software and all was done in 2 hr with no problems, very simple easy software.
Had more problems lining up the SSD in the laptop with the old HD being slightly thicker than the SSD. Might buy a caddy one day just to make sure that it can't work it self loose.
All good.
hawk22

 

Bill, I used this type of adapter as the SSD fits without screws into the adapter which fits into a "Tool less" 3.5" HDD carrier. All no screws job.
2.5 To 3.5 Bracket

 

Hi Neil,
They are for desktops, mine was Laptop, with the original 2.5 " being 9mm thick and the new Samsung SSD is only 7mm, so there is a bit of play there without a caddy.
How's the ground under your feet feel now hopefully a bit more steady.

 

Bill, sorry I was talking desktops but I have bought SSD's which are supplied with a plastic shim plate to install to take up the difference in depth which can occur with laptops. I think we are lucky with the geographical position we are in. Radio talkback just reported an hour ago that they had felt a 5.2 aftershock in the city - we didn't feel a thing and we are 26 kms out of the city. A guy rang in to report he was in Hataitai suburb about 2.5 km from the CBD and he said his house was still shaking from that 5.2 shake!!!