Hi, I'm using an ASUS N56VZ, it's running on Ivy Bridge and is rather slow, and I'm aware that I can swap my Blu Ray drive for an SSD. I've got some questions that I hope you can help me with:

1) Will it affect my original Windows license?
2) To what extent can I copy everything I have on C: over to the SSD without the risk of losing my settings? (the reason why I'm asking this is because I will need to plan carefully as I don't really have time to reinstall and arrange all my files)
3) Does adding an SSD normally significantly increase power consumption? (I rarely use my BD rom)

Thank you

This post has been edited by Raymond Chong LK: Oct 20 2015, 02:23 PM


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1) No, because OEM license considers invalid if you change your motherboard.
2) You can use a cloning software (Macrium Reflect, etc) to copy all your files in C drive to your new SSD without losing any settings.
3) No, because SSD and your Blu Ray drive uses the same SATA port.

Are you planning to take out your blue ray drive, and have an SSD there instead with the original HDD inside where you boot your windows from?

Or are you replacing your Original HDD?

SSD is direct replacement for your HDD.

In essence you swap your HDD with a SSD for better disk I/O performance - hence a speedier overall system improvement.

With migration tools, you can migrate from current HDD to new SSD. However, caveats apply.
Big HDD capacity --> Smaller SSD size.

Thanks brother.

I am keeping my original HDD in an adding an SDD in place of my BD rom. I want to transfer everything in C: from my original HDD to the SSD which I want to boot and run software from for better speed.

I'm plan to have both my original HDD and a new SSD inside. Thanks, I will see if I can get the computer shop guy to do that for me.

you do not need to choose either to have the BR drive or the new SSD

Im sure if you check properly you will see that you dont have to touch your BR drive at all and you can just ADD in the new SSD

It is not either one or the other in fact without a BR drive (we assume that this is the only optical drive in your pc bcos dont forget a BR drive is also the DVD drive)
- with an optical drive how are you going to install hardware device drivers when you need to??? you are so techie that you can convert the files into a USB drive and use that?

Just add the SSD and read the F-ing manual becos if you want speed you will have to either install a new OS ON THE new SSD or do a clone migration of your current HDD with all the programs in it to the new SSD

Also, I want to ask if this also means that because I'm running all software from the SSD, does it mean that the HDD will be able to read and write data faster?

*Because I've found that my 1TB 5400rpm HDD is really slow when transferring large files (e.g. 15mb - 45mb per second) which I'm guessing is because its running windows and everything else on top of that.

Relax brother, I'm asking because this is what I was told by the folks at a laptop shop that I trust. They provided me with a few options which I can't remember, but one of which was to replace the BD rom. I very rarely use dvd and have an external dvd drive w in my car at all times just in case (for my wife's zenbook). In any case I'm getting the shop to do all this, but I just want some clarification before going ahead with it.

You can clone your current HDD first into the new SSD. This wont affect licenses or antivirus license. (the are registered to the motherboard).

You'll definitely feel an upgrade in speed. From startup to opening files. Ive done this to my zenbook and it felt awesome. haha

That's what I'm looking forward to. Cheers!

Your current HDD is 1Tb.

You want to clone what to the SSD wor?

Enough storage space meh? You need to plan what SSD to buy 1st.

And I don't recommend cloning. Clean install is much better.

If you are running the software from your SSD, then you can feel it's faster. However, it does not affect your HDD read speed....

usually older asus laptops have a recovery partition to restore a system (it's called f9 recovery). you can create a copy of the recovery files in usb stick, or dvd (multiple dvds), using the tool provided at asus support page for your laptop (it's called asus backtracker). you can use this to restore the system. alternatively, put in ssd, clone the current os and system partitions to it, put the hdd in hdd caddy and replace bd drive. i will suggest you keep the stock hdd intact, i.e. take it out of your computer, and don't do anything to it first. once your system running ssd is tested to run properly (the first thing to do is to check if your os is restored and is activated successfully), then you can do whatever you want to the original hdd. this is optional, but it's the best fail-safe way to do things, so that you can still use the laptop if something screwed up.

it's better to NOT use ssd with bd drive sata slot. for some reasons, in older asus laptops, the sata port connected to bd drive is much slower than the ones in hdd bay (in my old g55, the ODD uses sata1 (1.5Gb/s), while the hdd bay uses sata3 (6Gb/s)) so to get the best performance, use ssd in hdd bay, and hdd in hdd caddy (replacing bd drive).

edit: forgot to answer questions :/

1. with the processes (system recovery set, and cloning) your original windows activation state is usually preserved. this is always true if you do cloning, and the upgrade doesn't involve mobo.

2. ssd is much smaller, so yeah plan your migration. for cloning, usually it's enough to store os (without user data) and important system partitions. if you have the habit of keeping all files in c:, move them out and store them else where. imo it's better to always keep your data outside of your os partition.

all in all, it's good to make a full data backup just in case.

This post has been edited by horns: Oct 21 2015, 08:29 AM

You never heard of external dvd drive ?

you mean the thingy that looks like this???



Nope NEVER! I thohght that it was fantasy

I only intend to clone my C: over to a 256gb ssd. and my C: currently only takes up less than 100GB. I'm willing to do a clean install if I need to, but since it will take some time reinstalling and setting everything back, I need to plan properly as I use my laptop with clients almost 7 days a week.

You copy all the relevant data, and clean install.

Much better to prevent any form of error that might happen.

Won't take more than 10 min to install back windows on your new SSD.

Microsoft and drivers all can easily use windows update to find

Just leave your laptop overnight to update and it's ready.

Ah, thanks for this suggestion! 1.5GB/s should more than suffice for the HDD right? Or does it bottleneck the HDD to a certain extent? Not like I have much of a choice here, but I'm curious to find out.

Ok. I actually enjoy setting up installing stuff and updating my laptop. Gives me an odd sense of satisfaction haha.

Not exactly .
There is adaptor like external hard disk . All you need is plug in to dvd drive and it function like normal burner .

Is 1.5 Gbit
Which equal to 187.5MB per seconds .
Ssd adverticed as 475MB per second .
Theoricaly it should bottleneck your performance . However i never copy file faster than 180MB anyway so i would say its acceptable .

And i think your pc is not that old . Your odd slot should at lease have 3Gb speed . So it really not a problem .

This post has been edited by xerox8908: Oct 21 2015, 02:38 PM

Alternatively, you can use SSHD 1TB and replace your current 1TB.
It's hybrid drive that uses 8GB NAND flash as buffer.
And you can clone everything because it's the same storage space.

Speed is between HDD and SDD.
Best part of every file in that 1TB get that benefit unlike SSD which limited to 256GB (storage of your choice)

This post has been edited by shakku: Oct 21 2015, 02:40 PM

Ok boss, and since we are on the topic, is there an affordable and reliable 200GB+ SSD that you can recommend to me?

Thanks, I might go for that too on top of adding an SSD, but only if I still find it insufficient after adding the 256gb SSD. I feel the need for an SSD for now because my HDD is often running at 100% even when only 80% of my ram is being used (I check task manager whenever my laptop starts to lag).

Yea, we've got a few ultrabooks with no DVD roms for our sales people, and so far most of them have the drivers preinstalled. We only need to download some of them if we absolutely need them (eg if we reformat after installing Windows 10). We rarely have to use DVDs or CDs now, since we've got Google Drive and WeTransfer. In fact, we often copy drivers (eg for printers) from CDs or DVDs onto our public drive in case anyone needs them.

Move it to Win10. It should solve your ram problem.
Win10 is more resource efficient. It runs well on Intel Atom with mere 2GB ram (Surface 3)

Free upgrade if running win7/win8 genuine.

Yeap mine is on Win 10. My ram is fine, it's only my HDD that is often at 100% even after optimizing it by reducing startup programs.

why people are talking like TS is replacing his HDD with SSD? He is essentially adding another SSD. The old HDD still remain in the HDD slot.

What TS need to do is use cloning software clone the c: partition to the SSD. Once done, set in the BIOS your SSD as boot drive. Once confirm everything working fine, then can format old HDD and use as extra storage.

Re-install would be another option but the hassle of installing windows, update drivers, install software, customize settings and so on are a pain.

Oh really

So technical
So expert
Soooh klever

Reliable?

Samsung Evo.

Best bang for bucks?

OEM Lite On which you can get from forum here

yes, it's sufficient, like what xerox8908 explained.

on second thought, your bd drive might be running sata3 speed. the reason i said this because all ivy bridge machines has 2x sata3 ports only (haswell has 4x). my old g55 is an ivy bridge, but all (2x) of the sata3 ports are used for 1x hdd bay, and 1x msata slot. since your laptop only has 1x hdd bay, there is a chance that the odd drive is a sata3 also.

to be safe, use hdd bay for your ssd.

you can consider liteon s900 and transcend ssd370. if not just go to garage sales ssd section and take a look. there are good deals there from time to time.

for a typical basic setup, the more practical is to use a ssd as a boot/app/game drive (overall system performance), and a hdd as storage and for downloads (space is much more cheaper).

if your budget allows it, get mainstream ssds with higher capacity. ssds for common usage lasts for a long time so it's better to get more space for future use.