Switching to an SSD

I switched over to an SSD to replace the HDDs on my Dell XPS laptop. What a speed improvement. And, this is way too easy.

I was a little nervous about going to an SSD for everything - I had read that there are limits to the number of write operations an SSD can support before failure. But a little online reading put my mind at ease - mostly the thinking that on a 3 year old laptop, the computer itself will be out of date before the SSD fails.  The laptop is an XPS 17. It has an I7 quad code CPU, 16GB of RAM, and dual 750GB HDD drives. So I went ahead.

I ordered a Samsung 850 1TB SSD from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LF10KTE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). When it arrived, I also realized it did not come with a USB cable, so I ordered that next (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJZJI84/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

Once I had both, I installed the Samsung migration tool that came with the SSD and ran the clone from my C: drive to the new SSD. It took about 3 hours to clone about 650GB. Word to the wise: make sure nothing else besides the migration tool is running or the clone might be incomplete.

After that was complete, I shut down the laptop, unscrewed that back panel and removed the #1 HDD. Then plugged in the SSD and screwed it in. It all fit perfectly. I booted the laptop, also no problems. And boot time was remarkably quick.

And that's it. I am thrilled with the speed.