Solved Samsung 840 Evo 500GB SSD for Toshiba MQ01ABD100 1TB HDD?

[visruth]

I swapped a 750 GB spinner drive in my ASUS laptop for a 128 GB SSD. Both were 9 mm (thickness) drives so it was an easy swap. I actually put a 128 GB SSD and a 256 GB SSD in as it has dual drive bays. I didn't have much luck trying to clone one drive to the other. In the end I did a clean install. I just recently did a drive swap on my wife's Acer laptop. It had a 7 mm drive so that's what I ordered for an SSD. The last 3 drives I ordered were 7 mm drives and they came with the spacer to let them fit in a 9 mm drive bay. The picture you posted shows the spacer. I put one 256 GB SSD in her laptop to replace the 500 GB spinner drive. Clean install on that one too. Length and width wise SSD drives are an exact match to laptop drives, they are both the same form factor. 2.5 inch. Putting an SSD in a desktop PC will often require a bay adapter as standard desktop drives are bigger.

EDIT: I put both of the removed drives in external enclosures and use them for external storage and backup.

Glad to hear you did a clean install in all of them

I don't think I've benefit of clean install , I don't have MSDN subscription and there is no OEM ISO available for Win 8.1 as of now it seems

I'll have to go for cloning only, if it fails - no idea what should I do next,

I didn't get the whole SSD laptop kit from any online stores, had to go with SSD alone -
I didn't buy a spacer too, is it needed?
7mm & 9.5mm is the thickness of SSD isn't it? Is there any video showing usage of spacers for 7mm - it'll be helpful.

What is your take on my previous post, any comments?

 

[alphanumeric]

Yes it's a thickness adjustment. In your first post, in the image you posted, you'll see a square black object that looks like a picture frame. That's the spacer. If your drive mounts with screws you can get away without it. The drives in my ASUS mounted in the brackets with screws. In my wife's Acer it was strictly friction fit. In her laptop only a 7 mm drive would fit so I didn't need the spacer anyway. I have an icydock in my desktop PC. The SSD's slide in the bays with no screws. They were 7 mm drives and I had to use the spacers to get a nice tight fit and stop them from moving around. All my SSD's are Crucial drives. The first two M4's I bought were 9 mm drives and came with the cloning kit. The last couple were 7 mm MX100 drives and came with the spacer.

When I redid my laptop I wasn't an MVP. I tried a bunch of stuff to clone my install but eventually just gave up. I resorted to bit torrent for my ISO. I just checked the MD5 against what Microsoft lists for the official ISO. Mine matched so I was OK. That ISO and my TechNet ISO will read and use the embedded OEM product code in my ASUS laptop. It came with 8.0 Core and if I use an 8.0 ISO 8 Core gets installed automatically and I don't get prompted to enter a product code. It activated online automatically with no issues. My TechNet keys are Retail keys but the ISO can accept OEM and Retail. I don't believe there is a separate OEM and Retail ISO like there was in the past. It's just Windows 8 multi edition. If you do get prompted to enter a code, the code you enter determines what version gets installed. Enter a Core key and you get Core, enter Pro and you get Pro.

When I tried to clone, I tried with a blank drive and with a pre partitioned drive. Trying to do a Reset from my recovery thumb drive usually got me a "a required partition is missing" error. Using the cloning kit, the PC just wouldn't boot up. I'd get a blinking cursor or a "something happened". I basically just got frustrated and gave up. I was leaning towards a clean install anyway. I like those better anyway. No factory bloat and I get the latest drivers etc.

 

[visruth]

Thanks alphanumeric for all the valuable info, really appreciate your kindness,

I'm in warranty & hard drive is not so accessible - have to take out top cover, usb board, battery, keyboard etc, So i can't know if hard drive brackets with screw's are there to hold the ssd,

From the manual, i could see this hard drive bracket listed - 732071 001 DD0U36HD000 Genuine HP Hard Drive Caddy Enclosure TouchSmart 15 N | eBay

If that turns out ok then there'll be no need of spacers ,

But if after disassembling everything from service centre, get to know that spacer is needed, then I think this one would work -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000NUVISA/ref=redir_mdp_mobile#

I would have to stick them on to the SSD before placing in bay,
I got one with me but that's 0.5 or 1mm it seems - i would have to make it thick, sticking 2 or 3 layers of foam tapes together before sticking it on to SSD & try my luck.

Samsung people say that spacer comes only with the kit & is not sold separate when i asked them.


I really don't know how cloning is going to be for me,

Mine is 8.1, and there are several complaining about not getting activated after clean install. HP guys say that only OEM installation media works with OEM keys, have to test it if cloning doesn't work, I'll keep in mind your suggestions,

If that also fail, then I'll have no other option it seems,

 

[strollin]

The spacer included with many drives nowadays is nothing more than some cardboard or plastic that is non-conductive. It's not anything critical and is more or less just a shim to keep the drive from rattling around if the drive is thinner than the available space.

I recently replaced the spinner in my Toshiba laptop with a Samsung 500GB EVO ssd. The laptop runs Win 8.1. I hooked up the new drive externally via a sata dock, cloned the internal drive to the ssd using Macrium Reflect, removed the bottom of my laptop (no accessible drive bay), pulled the internal drive, inserted the ssd, put the bottom back on, fired up the laptop and it booted right into Win 8.1. Took a couple of hours.

 

[alphanumeric]

Yeah, my ASUS was fairly easy, 4 screws and some gentle pulling to remove one cover to access both drive bays. 2 screws for the drive bracket and then 4 screws for each drive. My ACER was another story though. 20 plus screws to remove the whole bottom cover. Once it was off though removing the drive was easy, no screws on it.

This is what you want. EDIT: The black square bracket in the picture.

Although looking at the image you posted, I see 4 screws. If the drive is mounted with screws you can likely get away without the spacer. I don't have a spare or I'd mail you one. The one that was extra from my ACER install I used on the drive that came out of the laptop to make it fit in an external enclosure. The enclosure was for 9 mm drives and it would have rattled without it. If there is a computer shop handy pop in and see if they have any spares kicking around. They might even give it to you for free if you buy something else while your there. Something like a thumb drive.

 

[visruth]

The spacer included with many drives nowadays is nothing more than some cardboard or plastic that is non-conductive. It's not anything critical and is more or less just a shim to keep the drive from rattling around if the drive is thinner than the available space.

I recently replaced the spinner in my Toshiba laptop with a Samsung 500GB EVO ssd. The laptop runs Win 8.1. I hooked up the new drive externally via a sata dock, cloned the internal drive to the ssd using Macrium Reflect, removed the bottom of my laptop (no accessible drive bay), pulled the internal drive, inserted the ssd, put the bottom back on, fired up the laptop and it booted right into Win 8.1. Took a couple of hours.

Thanks strollin, yea I'm also going to do the same way you did, hope everything goes without any hiccups,

Spacer is not critical but certainly its something to be concerned as the pack I'm getting doesn't have it & SSD may go on rattle in the bay, hinging at the SATA connector- that I don't want to take a chance.

Anyway I'll see if I can get one from somewhere loose or make one from the foam tape or as you suggested from cardboard,

 

[visruth]

View attachment 49576View attachment 49577
Although looking at the image you posted, I see 4 screws. If the drive is mounted with screws you can likely get away without the spacer. I don't have a spare or I'd mail you one. The one that was extra from my ACER install I used on the drive that came out of the laptop to make it fit in an external enclosure. The enclosure was for 9 mm drives and it would have rattled without it. If there is a computer shop handy pop in and see if they have any spares kicking around. They might even give it to you for free if you buy something else while your there. Something like a thumb drive.

That's very kind of you , thanks

Ok I'll kick in to few shops here and try my luck though I don't expect any,
I just bought a pendrive recently but from online stores, its been years I bought anything related to computers from local stores

Would you think the foam tape would be good for instead of spacer if I don't get it; at least 2mm thick should be made right - 7mm+2 = 9mm?

 

[alphanumeric]

Foam tap would likely work. You just don't want anything that will degrade with heat. I don't think SSD's get very hot but you still don't want anything that is going to crumble or create dust as it ages. The spacers that come with my drives are plastic with a little bit of double sided tape on them. They are the ones shown in the picture I posted. Corrugated cardboard might work too. You might be able to make a spacer out of the box the drive comes in. As shown in the picture, the only exposed contacts are the ones the Power and SATA cables pug into so there is nothing on the bottom or top of the drive to short out if you use cardboard for a spacer. The circuit board isn't exposed like it is on a regular hard drive. If the mounting brackets are like shown in the picture you posted, I don't think you'll need a spacer anyway.

 

[visruth]

Okay

Hope mounting brackets be there when we get to the bay

I've few corrugated cardboards from amazon stocked at my home ,
Will update of what goes on ,

thanks alphanumeric for the good suggestions :thumb:

Back to work

 

[alphanumeric]

:thumb:

 

[visruth]

I'm not able to rep you , may be I've to spread more love everywhere before coming to you again

 

[visruth]

In my laptop manual its written - System supports - 6.35-cm (2.5-in) hard drives in 9.5-mm (.37-in) and 7.0-mm (.28-in) thicknesses (all hard drives use the same bracket)

Does it mean I'm okay without any spacers, just asking

 

[alphanumeric]

In my laptop manual its written - System supports - 6.35-cm (2.5-in) hard drives in 9.5-mm (.37-in) and 7.0-mm (.28-in) thicknesses (all hard drives use the same bracket)

Does it mean I'm okay without any spacers, just asking

I would say yes. :thumb: Your good to go.

 

[visruth]

Roger that, no worries then

Any suggestions about Post #19 ,

 

[alphanumeric]

I don't know that I can help you much with that. I didn't have room to clone all the partitions. I don't remember what was originally on my ASUS either. I would say you'll need the first three shown in disk management for sure. You'll also have to shrink the C partition. The rest are for the factory recovery option. The first three are what are listed on my laptop after the clean install.

 

[visruth]

Ok,
Macrium free would be alright?
I've to choose the clone disk option & choose the partitions you mentioned for cloning, isn't it?

 

[alphanumeric]

Ok,
Macrium free would be alright?
I've to choose the clone disk option & choose the partitions you mentioned for cloning, isn't it?

I've only ever used Macrium free a couple of times. That's sounds about right but I'm no expert on that program.

 

[visruth]

Ok, I'll give it a try tomorrow,

 

[David Bailey]

Ok,
Macrium free would be alright?
I've to choose the clone disk option & choose the partitions you mentioned for cloning, isn't it?

I choose this.
It works good + adding the boot time menu---

 

[visruth]

Ok David, I'll do that and see how everything spans out,

I will leave off OEM recovery partition & include all the rest of partitions(see post #19) while starting it, am i right?

Would keep you guys updated,