I bought I laptop that's a real winner!

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I bought I laptop that's a real winner!

Postby JohnSwanson » Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:47 pm

I bring a Windows laptop with me on my scuba diving trips so that I can upload/log my dives and upload and correct
my underwater photos/videos. The software that I need runs only on Windows, so I have to deal with plenty of gotchas!
One of the lessons that I've learned is that I'm better-off running Windows 7 than the newer releases of Windows!

I recently purchased a Dell Latitude E5270, which has Windows 7.1 Professional installed on it. The Latitude series is
Dell's business line and I'm very impressed with the build quality of my laptop! It's a 12.5", which makes it easier for
me to type on the keyboard than it was on my previous netbooks! It has a Pentium Core i5 CPU, plus 8GB of RAM,
and Windows feels about as fast as it is on my Dell Windows 7.1 PC! In addition, this is the first laptop that connects
to the wi-fi in my DSL modem at 144Mbps! The only limitation is that it has a Dell proprietary 120GB solid state drive,
which isn't large enough for me! This SSD is a small circuit board that plugs into an edge connector on the motherboard.
Since all of this hardware appears not to be standards-based, I don't believe that I can swap this SSD for my 480GB
Intel SSD! So I'm doing my best to conserve space on this tiny SSD!

Time will tell if my Dell Latitude is worth the premium price!

John
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Re: I bought I laptop that's a real winner!

Postby mgw9706 » Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:59 pm

I agree. Windows 7 is a must have, although I want to throw up when I see anything that has Dell written on it. Too close to Silver Lake Partners. Gag me with a spoon. LOL!
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Re: I bought I laptop that's a real winner!

Postby buzzcat » Wed Jul 12, 2017 4:10 pm

Sounds like it's probably an M.2 SSD. Samsung makes some really nice high capacity and speedy M.2's you can replace it with.
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Re: How do I clone a M.2 SSD?

Postby JohnSwanson » Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:24 pm

Buzzcat,

You're correct, I used the Device Manager and learned that the drive is a SK hynix M.2 128GB SSD. I replaced the HD
in my Dell Windows 8.1 laptop with an Intel SSD and I used an Apricorn SATA to USB 3.0 adapter cable, along with
an Apricorn disk cloning application, to copy the C drive onto the Intel SSD, which worked perfectly! However, I
can't find a similar adapter cable and cloning software for a M.2 SSD!

I found that both Samsung and Crucial offer M.2 SSDs. I can install a new M.2 SSD that's up to 512GB and both
manufacturers have a SSD that will fit. However, without a M.2 SSD disk cloning capability, there's no point
trying to replace the SSD!

Today I've got 17.5GB of storage available, which is easily enough for my next diving trip. However, I'll need to
delete all of the photos/videos that I've taken after I copied them onto my desktop PC! I'm not sure that I can
limp-along like this for the long-term!

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,
John
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Re: I bought I laptop that's a real winner!

Postby buzzcat » Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:59 pm

Yeah, that's a dilemma since you (probably) don't have two M.2 slots on the motherboard. I googled "clone m.2 to m.2" and skimmed a few of the results. Seems like the best solution is if you have a hard drive you can connect to the PC (via USB3? Maybe that SATA to USB3 cable would work) you could first clone M.2 to hard drive, then clone hard drive to M.2. Any cloning software should work, even Linux (you would boot from a Linux USB thumb drive to do that). You just need some attached storage large enough to hold the clone.

Worst case would be to copy your data files to your other PC or another drive, then do a fresh install of Windows on the empty M.2 drive, reinstall all your software and copy your data back.
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Re: Maybe I found a solution to the cloning problem!

Postby JohnSwanson » Mon Aug 14, 2017 6:01 pm

I found a Sansung EVO 500GB M.2 SSD on Best Buy for $179.99. I prefer to order small, but destructible,
items from Best Buy because Amazon packages them very poorly! Best Buy lets me pick-up my purchase
at the Northglenn store, which works well for me!

I read that I can download a cloning application from Samsung. On Amazon, I found a Eluteng M.2 SSD
to USB 3.0 adapter enclosure, for only $14.99. My new laptop has a USB 3.0 jack, so this adapter should
be supported. I wrote should be because, when I upgraded my first Dell laptop to the Intel SSD, the
Intel cloning software wouldn't see the SSD because the app didn't work with the Apricorn adapter cable!
However, the Apricorn cloning utility worked, so my project was successful!

If all else fails, I'll use your suggestion of cloning the SK hynix SSD onto a hard drive and then cloning the
HD to the Samsung SSD.

Thanks,
John
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Re: I think I'll avoid the mistakes that other people made!

Postby JohnSwanson » Tue Aug 15, 2017 5:08 pm

Today I ordered a Samsung 500GB M.2 SSD from Best Buy, after I confirmed that it has the correct
form factor for my laptop. Since Best Buy doesn't have any M.2 SSD to USB 3.0 adapters, I spent
a couple of hours on Amazon studying these adapters. Nearly all of the adapters had a connector
with only 2 segments of connections, but the SSD I ordered has 3 sets of connections (a long set
with a small set on either end). Many of the reviews state that the SSD won't fit into the connector
in the adapter and I know why! There are several M.2 SSD flavors and mine is a B+M keyed SSD.
So I spent time finding an adapter that supports a B+M keyed SSD. In fact, my Samsung SSD is listed
as one of the devices supported by the adapter!

Now I have high confidence that I won't waste any money or, time, on this upgrade!

:D
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Re: I bought I laptop that's a real winner!

Postby gmregister » Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:18 pm

Apologies if I am too late with this suggestion. Since the hard drive on the laptop is an M.2, perhaps there is an empty space in the laptop to install a regular SATA Solid State Drive (SSD). If there is a space for a SATA SSD to be installed, then you could just leave the existing M.2 drive and add a SATA SSD in the space for a hard drive. In that case, no cloning would be needed. After installing the SATA SSD, you could copy your files from the M.2 to the SATA SSD to free up space on the M.2. Best of luck, Gerry
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Re: I installed the 500GB SSD!

Postby JohnSwanson » Fri Aug 25, 2017 6:03 pm

Although all of the hardware arrived late last week, my project went-into a holding pattern because it looked
like the M.2 SSD adapter that I bought wasn't going to work! Most of the problems were due to the really
lame instruction manual that the adapter manufacturer supplied. Once I understood how I needed to mount
my new Sansung SSD onto the adapter, I realized that the little plastic bag of hardware that was supplied
with the adapter was missing a 2mm machine screw and washer! Once I purchase these items at Ace
Hardware, I had no problem attaching the SSD to the adapter and cloning the 128GB SSD that serves as
the C drive.

Now I've got 377GB of space available and I'm going to start copying everything from my desktop PC!

:D
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