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SATA interchangeable?


burninbush

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I want to replace the slow hard disk in my 4-y.o. Toshiba Satellite win7 laptop with a small SSD that I own.

 

Looked up the current drive and it's listed as type SATA/150 -- while the SSD is SATA 2.

 

I assume that the connectors would match and it would fit inside OK. But will the SSD work OK on the older standard interface?

 

My current understanding is that the faster drive will negotiate to the slower interface speed, so I'm thinking it would work. And I'm also assuming that the SSD will be much faster than the 5400rpm laptop hd that's in there now.

 

Assuming that all up to this point is 'go' then I'd probably reload win7 from usbstick. There is a hidden first part on the current drive that I'm pretty sure has folders with hardware drivers. What should I do to be able to use those? [e.g., copy driver folders to dvd?]

 

All advice appreciated.

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I want to replace the slow hard disk in my 4-y.o. Toshiba Satellite win7 laptop with a small SSD that I own.

 

Looked up the current drive and it's listed as type SATA/150 -- while the SSD is SATA 2.

 

I assume that the connectors would match and it would fit inside OK. But will the SSD work OK on the older standard interface?

 

My current understanding is that the faster drive will negotiate to the slower interface speed, so I'm thinking it would work. And I'm also assuming that the SSD will be much faster than the 5400rpm laptop hd that's in there now.

 

Assuming that all up to this point is 'go' then I'd probably reload win7 from usbstick. There is a hidden first part on the current drive that I'm pretty sure has folders with hardware drivers. What should I do to be able to use those? [e.g., copy driver folders to dvd?]

 

All advice appreciated.

Don't bother trying to put a SATA 2 drive in a SATA 1, which is what the SATA150 is, port. But you should check to see if the laptop doesn't also have a SATA2 port. A lot of Satalite laptops have two drive locations. One SATA 1 and the other SATA 2.
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Don't bother trying to put a SATA 2 drive in a SATA 1, which is what the SATA150 is, port. But you should check to see if the laptop doesn't also have a SATA2 port. A lot of Satalite laptops have two drive locations. One SATA 1 and the other SATA 2.

 

 

?? Don't bother because the hardware isn't compatible, or ??? Got some details for me? Don't understand 'two drive locations' -- that would have to mean a separate connector somewhere, wouldn't it?

 

I'm pretty sure that back when I got the Satellite I physically removed the drive and was able to attach it to SATA-2 ports in one of my desktops here for imaging -- and I think that must have worked, I'd remember it better if it had failed.

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My current understanding is that the faster drive will negotiate to the slower interface speed, so I'm thinking it would work. And I'm also assuming that the SSD will be much faster than the 5400rpm laptop hd that's in there now.

 

Yes and yes. I have a Mac mini where I put a SATA2 drive into a SATA1 port. It works great. The system is also a LOT faster with it, compared to the 5400 rpm drive. SATA 1 can do up to 150MB/sec, so keep that in mind when selecting a drive. I purchased a drive that was just a little bit faster than the max speed of the bus- ne sense in paying for a drive that is major overkill for the application.

 

SATA, like USB, is backward compatible.

 

Adam

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?? Don't bother because the hardware isn't compatible, or ??? Got some details for me? Don't understand 'two drive locations' -- that would have to mean a separate connector somewhere, wouldn't it?

 

I'm pretty sure that back when I got the Satellite I physically removed the drive and was able to attach it to SATA-2 ports in one of my desktops here for imaging -- and I think that must have worked, I'd remember it better if it had failed.

I didn't say it wouldn't work. I said not to bother, because it will only work at SATA I speed and, personally, I think that is a waste of an SSD drive.

 

As to the two drive situation, look to see if there isn't another drive "compartment" on the bottom of the laptop.

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Why would it be a waste? I have a drive as described in my previous post, and the system is MUCH faster than before. The SSD only cost me 30 bucks... a worthwhile upgrade, IMO.

 

An SSD drive gives new life to an older system. Now, I would not put a SATA III drive in there that had a 550MB/sec transfer rate, unless I was planning to move the drive in the future to a system that could support it.

 

Blanket statements such as you made do not cover all situations. Sometimes it is worth it to the user, even though you may not agree.

 

Adam

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Why would it be a waste? I have a drive as described in my previous post, and the system is MUCH faster than before. The SSD only cost me 30 bucks... a worthwhile upgrade, IMO.

 

An SSD drive gives new life to an older system. Now, I would not put a SATA III drive in there that had a 550MB/sec transfer rate, unless I was planning to move the drive in the future to a system that could support it.

 

Blanket statements such as you made do not cover all situations. Sometimes it is worth it to the user, even though you may not agree.

 

Adam

You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine. I give advice based on my experience. People can take it or leave it. But I certainly wouldn't base my opinion on one experience with an Mac and apply it to a PC.
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Hello,

 

Not only have I put SATA-III SSD's into computers equipped with only SATA-I ports, I've put them into computers with only PATA ports, and the difference in speed makes it definitely worth the upgrade.

 

A few things to do:

  1. Update the BIOS firmware for the Toshiba Satellite notebook computer to the latest version available from the manufacturer's support web site.
  2. Update the firmware for the SSD to the latest version available from the manufacturer's support web site.
  3. For best results, install Microsoft Windows 7 to the Toshiba Satellte notebook computer using its factory recovery media. This will ensure that you have all of the device drivers and Toshiba specific software installed when you load Windows 7 onto the new SSD.
  4. If you install a retail (non-Toshiba) version of Windows 7, instead, be sure to visit Toshiba's support website and download important drivers like wired (Ethernet) and wireless network drivers and video drivers, as well as any driver update software Toshiba provides for the model.

Of course, you will still need to run Windows Update as well as Toshiba's software update to download the four years of updates, patches and hotfixes that have been released since the computer was manufactured.

 

Remember not to do any Internet activities on the computer until it is fully-patched and your security software is up-to-date.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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Hello,

 

Not only have I put SATA-III SSD's into computers equipped with only SATA-I ports, I've put them into computers with only PATA ports, and the difference in speed makes it definitely worth the upgrade.

 

A few things to do:

  1. Update the BIOS firmware for the Toshiba Satellite notebook computer to the latest version available from the manufacturer's support web site.
  2. Update the firmware for the SSD to the latest version available from the manufacturer's support web site.
  3. For best results, install Microsoft Windows 7 to the Toshiba Satellte notebook computer using its factory recovery media. This will ensure that you have all of the device drivers and Toshiba specific software installed when you load Windows 7 onto the new SSD.
  4. If you install a retail (non-Toshiba) version of Windows 7, instead, be sure to visit Toshiba's support website and download important drivers like wired (Ethernet) and wireless network drivers and video drivers, as well as any driver update software Toshiba provides for the model.

Of course, you will still need to run Windows Update as well as Toshiba's software update to download the four years of updates, patches and hotfixes that have been released since the computer was manufactured.

 

Remember not to do any Internet activities on the computer until it is fully-patched and your security software is up-to-date.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

First class advice. :Laie_95:

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You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine. I give advice based on my experience. People can take it or leave it. But I certainly wouldn't base my opinion on one experience with an Mac and apply it to a PC.

 

Very true. I am curious as to why you think it would be a waste.

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Hello,

 

Not only have I put SATA-III SSD's into computers equipped with only SATA-I ports, I've put them into computers with only PATA ports, and the difference in speed makes it definitely worth the upgrade.

 

A few things to do:

  1. Update the BIOS firmware for the Toshiba Satellite notebook computer to the latest version available from the manufacturer's support web site.
  2. Update the firmware for the SSD to the latest version available from the manufacturer's support web site.
  3. For best results, install Microsoft Windows 7 to the Toshiba Satellte notebook computer using its factory recovery media. This will ensure that you have all of the device drivers and Toshiba specific software installed when you load Windows 7 onto the new SSD.
  4. If you install a retail (non-Toshiba) version of Windows 7, instead, be sure to visit Toshiba's support website and download important drivers like wired (Ethernet) and wireless network drivers and video drivers, as well as any driver update software Toshiba provides for the model.

Of course, you will still need to run Windows Update as well as Toshiba's software update to download the four years of updates, patches and hotfixes that have been released since the computer was manufactured.

 

Remember not to do any Internet activities on the computer until it is fully-patched and your security software is up-to-date.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Thanks for your reply (and others).

 

Can you elaborate a bit on your point 3) above? I did not get any media whatever with the laptop -- which was literally the cheapest I could find at the time I needed it for a trip. It has worked perfectly from day one.

 

It has three partitions; a hidden first boot part which also contains [i think] hardware drivers in some folders. Another part has win7 and free space, and a 3rd part has some image files which are doubtless how Toshiba expected me to restore the machine. All of which I respect and admire.

 

But if I make this swap the original disk won't be in the computer, and the new SSD is only 64gb, so I won't be carrying any image files on the internal drive. I have large doubts (maybe unfounded) that the original (or new) images would work when restoring to the SSD?? Any thoughts on that? If I restore manually I'll also make a small first part for booting, so the layout would not be wildly different than original. How are those driver files meant to be used?

 

I do have a win7-sp1 install media downloaded from Digital River, and have tested that it works on a desktop here. I assume that if I install the same version and use the number from the sticker on the Satellite that MS would be OK with the swap.

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Not entirely sure about the drivers, it would be wise to check with either Toshiba or the retailer about those. However Win7 may have all the drivers included. I would just format the new drive to ntfs and let the Win7 install disc do all the partitioning and such. Once installed and set up with a few programs I would then do a full system back up to some external media, your old hdd perhaps.

You could e-mail or telephone MS to see what the position is regarding the Win7 version needed for your laptop.If you have the right version then you should be able to use the key that came with the laptop.

 

:breakfast:

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abarbarian- he already stated that he does not have the install disc, on the "recovery" partition. A bare install will not be possible.

 

The only thing to worry about in this scenario is if the drive has its own garbage collection built in or not. If not, then TRIM support will need to be enabled for the drive in the OS, so the drive is not corrupted.

 

Adam

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Hello,

 

These days, computers tend to have a recovery partition on them, as well as a program to create recovery media that can be used to restore the operating system, along with the recovery partition, to a new disk drive. One is usually prompted to create the recovery media when the computer is booted up for the first time.

 

This is as a replacement for physical recovery media, which manufacturers transitioned out of providing for a variety of reasons, mostly related to cost. You may still be able to request recovery media from the manufacturer, who will either provide it for free or for a S&H charge.

 

What I would suggest doing is contacting Toshiba and asking them how to make recovery media for your computer, or, failing that, if you can order it from them.

 

Once you have transitioned to the new SSD, put the old hard disk drive from it aside for a few weeks, or even months. After that time, if you are certain you no longer need any files from it, you can install it in an external USB enclosure, erase it, and use it for backups, secondary file storage, and so forth.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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abarbarian- he already stated that he does not have the install disc, on the "recovery" partition. A bare install will not be possible.

 

Adam

 

Not quite clear on what you are saying above ???

 

From the initial post,

 

Assuming that all up to this point is 'go' then I'd probably reload win7 from usbstick.

 

and

 

I do have a win7-sp1 install media downloaded from Digital River, and have tested that it works on a desktop here.

 

So I assumed that there was going to be a full fresh install. :whistling:

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An idea on SSD's. You can buy (1) 1TB SSD, for the same cost of a high quality computer.

 

My point: yes, SSD's are fast. But current SSD's have a very high $$ cost for so little storage capability. Today's OS's need a lot of storage, and I don't believe that those SSD's can deliver that. I don't believe in using them as the primary source of storage, until their storage capability goes up to par with mechanical hard drives, and the cost drastically comes down.

 

What's your opinion on that?

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An idea on SSD's. You can buy (1) 1TB SSD, for the same cost of a high quality computer.

 

My point: yes, SSD's are fast. But current SSD's have a very high $$ cost for so little storage capability. Today's OS's need a lot of storage, and I don't believe that those SSD's can deliver that. I don't believe in using them as the primary source of storage, until their storage capability goes up to par with mechanical hard drives, and the cost drastically comes down.

 

What's your opinion on that?

I did a rebuild/upgrade on my PC this past February (new MB, CPU, RAM, GPU, and added a 240GB Intel SSD). I installed WIN7 Pro 64bit from scratch. I got the Intel 530 from Tiger Direct for $129 with the rebate. I have multiple utitilites, MS Office 2007 Professional (2.6GB Outlook .pst file), multiple games (primarily FPS's), and the 8GB page file all on this drive. Looking at the properties the drive has 74.4GB used and 149GB free, so I still have plenty of space left on the drive. The 10 - 15 second boot time from a cold start, faster overall performance, less heat, and less power usage made the investment well worthwhile IMHO.
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An idea on SSD's. You can buy (1) 1TB SSD, for the same cost of a high quality computer.

 

My point: yes, SSD's are fast. But current SSD's have a very high $$ cost for so little storage capability. Today's OS's need a lot of storage, and I don't believe that those SSD's can deliver that. I don't believe in using them as the primary source of storage, until their storage capability goes up to par with mechanical hard drives, and the cost drastically comes down.

 

What's your opinion on that?

 

Usually, the most cost effective strategy is to buy an SSD suitable for the OS and applications you want, then have a large spinning disk for file storage... docs, pics, movies, etc.

 

In the case of the SSD upgrade I did in my Mac Mini.... I put a 32GB SSD in the mac, since all the media is stored in the NAS we have.

 

In some cases, you have only space for one disk (laptops, typically), so the value of an SSD is not as great. It pays to do your math for the application and make sure it works for you. It is not a simple black and white generalized thing.

 

I will say this, though.... after having a fast SSD, it is REALLY hard to go back to a spinning disk for your computer's primary drive.

 

Adam

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