Solved Changing HDD to SSD

If I remove the HDD from my Samsung NP350E7C-SO2UK,which has Windows 8 installed,and replace it with a blank SSD can I then install Windows 7 by booting from my Microsoft disk which has Windows 7 Home Premium on.Crucial have sent me a SSD with pin contact configuration as follows:-15.7.,yet the pin configuration on the Samsung HDD is:-15.7.4..There is four extra pins on the original yet Crucial insist this is the correct replacement.Apart from the above question can anyone tell me what those four extra contacts do and are they essential to the computer.It will be obvious that I am a rookie so explicit and detailed guidance would be much appreciated.

Leave the pins as there are.


1) Downgrade to Windows 7.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/13326-downgrade-windows-8-windows-7-a.html
Warning you must have the uEFI/BIOS firmware setting in Step Three set.

my Samsung NP350E7C-SO2UK

Click to expand...

Set CSM to UEFI & CSM OS.



2) If Using a USB Pendrive on a PC with a uEFI BIOS.
USB Pendrive need to be formated to FAT32 as in
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html
Take note of Step 11 for Windows 7.
Also you will need to use a USB 2.0 port, as there are no USB 3.0 drivers in Windows 7.

Please forgive me if I am wrong but the reply you have given me appears to be if I was downgrading the existing HDD in the computer to Windows 7,which is not so.I wish to keep Windows 8 on the original HDD in reserve and install Windows 7 on a blank SSD from the disk drive loaded with my Microsoft Windows 7 disk.When you say leave the pins where they are mystifies me as I could not remove them if I wished.The question I asked was about the difference in the number of contacts between the HDD in the computer and the SSD supplied by Crucial.

There could be difference in SATA connectors on some laptops as opposed to desktop ones. In this case you need an SSD with same configuration as HDD you are replacing. You can disregard the jumper pins, they are probably for compatibility with SATA 1.

Hi there
IMO the easiest way

1) Backup EXISTING OS to separate partition or HDD either on internal disk or External HDD, (USB device is fine).

2) Restore to your NEW SSD -- connect via a USB ==>SATA connector. Don't forget the system partition also if it exists. The SATA/USB connector is very cheap and if you have a SAMSUNG SSD there'll be one included with your SSD -- it's great for using like this -- use as an external USB device to restore the image on to then simply step 3 -- open computer and replace the HDD with the SSD.

3) Simply now replace the HDD in the computer with the SSD -- job done -- all applications should work fine and no problem having to find drivers ll over again.

Use a stand alone image program for the backup / recovery. The whole job shouldn't take more than about 30 - 40 mins.

Cheers
jimbo

Nice solution Jimbo !

Nice but I understood that there is a problem of inability to physically connect the new SSD instead of the old HDD on that laptop due to different connectors.

Grateful for all the offers of help but after having several mishaps while attempting to perform a downgrade have now taken the computer to my local branch of PC World for the downgrade as I was sick to the back teeth of that jumbo mumbo running under the guise of Windows 8 which was supposed to be an improvement on it's predecessor but to such as myself who is no computer bofffin it takes ages to find what you want,windows 7 in comparison is far more logical and enables the user to home in to the subject in question far more quickly.