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Laptop for £500?

Cloning works fine in my experience. I do it when a HD gives up the ghost on my network. I just have to update the clone with the machines' Windows key. But then the machines are all the same.
 
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mikemusic said:
Bought a complete Kingston SSD kit from Mr. Memory
Couldn't clone as the Acronis instructions. Tried many times.
Mr.Memory support tried to sort me and gave up
Passed me onto Kingston
Kingston support tried to sort me and gave up

I have to get into and change the BIOS. Not confident or happy doing that so I have a slow booting laptop until I get brave enough
Click to expand...
I am very surprised. I have many Thinkpads and have never had to play with the BIOS. I do just for fun however.

What did you do and what was the result? I have used Acronis for years and it works. There are also other free utilities that will also clone but lets stick with Acronis. I also have a load of Thinkpads from T.2x upwards. I had an older Thinkpad but there was no longer any support for it after Windows 3.1 so was junked.

If you want send me the disk and SSD and I'll clone it for you. You pay postage both ways and £5 to Tony once you are happy.

Cheers,

DV
 
Not to help the OP, but I bought a nice 2012 HP Elitebook with i5 and 8 gigarams last year for the equivalent of 110 GBP. It was one of the top business models of the HP range of the time. With an SSD it goes like a rocket. Although it came with Win 10 and is plenty fast with it, surprisingly and unfortunately some necessary drivers are unavailable. But for this exclusively Linux user it's been a fantastic Mint machine. It's built like a brick shithouse, is one of the last Elitebook models with a built in optical drive, has a great display, and has a very good onboard DAC. I hope to get a few more years out of it.
 
garyi said:
Hi Mike. What is so important on your current windows install that you cannot just do a fresh install and transfer over?

I dont think I have ever cloned a drive, just do a fresh install on windows add your email accounts etc and its soon back to normal.
Click to expand...

I was looking for the easiest way to get a faster PC
This seemed to be it
Would be happy to wipe and do a fresh install if I thought myself anywhere competent
Not so much technophobe as unlucky with tech
 
chartz said:
Cloning works fine in my experience. I do it when a HD gives up the ghost on my network. I just have to update the clone with the machines's Windows key. But then the machines are all the same.
Click to expand...

I followed what others did and it seemed easy, even for me.
My problems seem to be quite rare. Unfortunately no big surprise.
The guides from Acronis and others on YouTube look a doddle.
In Acronis my PC didn't see the USB connected SSD.
Tried other things that didn't work
Was advised to go into the BIOS, change to boot from USB and shutdown, then change the drives over but I could only get Restart
 
Does your PC have a spare HD bay? You could also use the DVD drive's SATA connector if there's one.
 
chartz said:
Does your PC have a spare HD bay? You could also use the DVD drive's SATA connector if there's one.
Click to expand...
These Thinkpads have an ultrabay that can hold an optical drive, a HD caddie or a spare battery. The OP needs to buy a HD caddie.

Cheers,

DV
 
Darth Vader said:
I am very surprised. I have many Thinkpads and have never had to play with the BIOS. I do just for fun however.

What did you do and what was the result? I have used Acronis for years and it works. There are also other free utilities that will also clone but lets stick with Acronis. I also have a load of Thinkpads from T.2x upwards. I had an older Thinkpad but there was no longer any support for it after Windows 3.1 so was junked.

If you want send me the disk and SSD and I'll clone it for you. You pay postage both ways and £5 to Tony once you are happy.

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...
Thanks
As above.
Either Acronis, Kingston or Lenovo are slightly different in not seeing the USB connected SSD when preparing to clone.
Forget exactly what I did and was directed to do, but none of it worked after multiple times and different approaches.
Hoped that Kingston would stay on the phone while I did it but they said off to your local PC shop. No thanks.

What I am left with is
Shut down
Start up and stop at the BIOS
Make a note of what is the current boot item
Switch it to USB for next reboot
Swap HD with SSD
Reboot with HD external on the USB lead and caddy
Clone - assuming the bloody thing is seen this time !
Shutdown
Start up
Into BIOS, change back to whatever I started with
Boot from SSD

Confident I am not, but if I prepare very carefully and refresh my memory, watch more YouTube videos again I can do it
 
chartz said:
Does your PC have a spare HD bay? You could also use the DVD drive's SATA connector if there's one.
Click to expand...
Pass. Above my pay grade and not a place I am confident to go.
I have a history of breaking tech by standing next to it, let alone doing stuff !
 
Stop at your first line "not seeing the USB connected SSD".

Connect the SSD to a USB port press the Windows key and type 'compu' Right click on Computer Management and select run as admin. When it comes up go to Disk Management and see it it finds the SSD. If not you have a hardware problem.

Cheers,

DV
 
mikemusic said:
Would like to stick with the USB caddy that came with the Kingston kit or is that the same item ?
Click to expand...
No. USB will be sloooow whilst the ultrabay directly connects to the internal SATA bus and runs at full speed. I have Linux Mint on the internal drive and Windows 10 in a caddie. No noticeable difference in speed.

USB O.K for backup and sneakernet.

Cheers,

DV
 
Darth Vader said:
Stop at your first line "not seeing the USB connected SSD".

Connect the SSD to a USB port press the Windows key and type 'compu' Right click on Computer Management and select run as admin. When it comes up go to Disk Management and see it it finds the SSD. If not you have a hardware problem.

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...
Thanks
C drive is seen as Disk 0
USB is seen as Disk 1, Unknown Not initialised.
From memory when I tried to initialise it didn't work.
 
Darth Vader said:
No. USB will be sloooow whilst the ultrabay directly connects to the internal SATA bus and runs at full speed. I have Linux Mint on the internal drive and Windows 10 in a caddie. No noticeable difference in speed.

USB O.K for backup and sneakernet.

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...

I meant just for the transfer, clone
Then out comes the HD and in goes the SSD
 
mikemusic said:
Thanks
C drive is seen as Disk 0
USB is seen as Disk 1, Unknown Not initialised.
From memory when I tried to initialise it didn't work.
Click to expand...
Next still in Disk Management right click on Disk 1 and select 'initialise' and GPT. Should change to Basic and online. If not you have a hardware problem.

Cheers,

DV
 
mikemusic said:
Yes. That works !
What next please ?
Click to expand...
Download 'MiniTool Partition Wizard Free' from here

https://www.minitool.com/download-center/

and select 'copy disk' from the left hand pane. Then double check everything that you have entered. Nothing will happen even though you will see things change on screen until..................

..........you select 'Apply' top left of pane. Then go and treat yourself to a drink as depending on disk size it may take a while over USB.

TTFN,

DV
 
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