What do I need to change hard drives?

The two sizes of 2.5 inch SATA drives are 7 mm thick and 9 mm thick. I haven't seen a thick SSD in a long time. They are all 7 mm and the better ones ship with a 2 mm spacer in case the computer has a 9 mm space.
 
I may be able to? I only said that because Linux seems to be so easy to d/l and install. I really don't have anything of significance on my puters, so it's nothing for me to toss some stuff on flash drives and put a new distro on it - something that Linux makes very easy. My head has been out of the puter game long enough that I figured Microsoft would still be a pita to install an os without the key.

I guess it just shows my serious lack of puter knowledge.
I suggested Clonezilla because it is a Linux live disk that'll enable you to "clone" your dying HDD onto the SSD. It could well be that simple and might be worth a try.

 
Here is how I do it but it requires a couple of tools and extra ext drive:
- boot from ActiveDisk USB stick, start Disk-to-Image process saving image to another SSD connected via USB-to-SATA cable
- swap original disk with new disk in the laptop
- boot from ActiveDisk USB and apply image to the new disk
- resizing of partitions may be required or even deleting partitions, expanding, moving partitions from image to new disk
this process isn't for a newbie but that how I do it. It's easier on desktops when you can have new disk also connected at the same time so cloning can be done in one go - Disk-to-Disk.
 
OP says he has very little on the current drive, so cloning an old OS install from a failing drive onto a new one as opposed to a fresh install seems like a shortcut to me, like a job done halfway. But that's just me I guess.
 
If you must preserve the boot image, get a USB to SATA adapter (probably $5 on ebay) to work with the cloning software, or borrow a friend's PC and use it to clone your SATA HDD to a SATA SSD using the hard drive company's tool. If you don't need to preserve the image then do a clean install of Windows then copy the files over (still recommend a USB to SATA adapter).
 
I have bought many Samsung 860 EVO drives from NewEgg...

These have been replaced with the 870 EVO...

Make sure the seller is NewEgg...


Then go to the Samsung web page, and download the Data Migration software...


New drive in an external case, copy the old drive over, make sure it boots, then swap the drives...
 
Well thought I'd post an update: This was considerably less painless than the last windows install I did and on par with putting Ubuntu or similar on a machine. Finally windows got it right. I went with a fresh install to stay away from the bloatware that a HP bought from WalMart comes with. A cheap Kingston SSD makes this cheapy cruise right along..

Like I said earlier, I don't have many files on this thing (or my home puter eithe), so it's just a matter of reinstalling my lab scope software (really the only reason that I'm running windoze) and transfer back my couple dozen pics and get my bookmarks in order and I'll be good to go.

Thank you all again for your input
 
Hey guys - I have a cheap HP laptop that I use for work with Win10 and the HDD is dying.. I have a new SSD arriving soon, but am wondering where to start and how to proceed? If this were a Linux distro I'd dive in, but since I don't a physical copy and am unsure of the license key, how would I go about getting 10 on the SSD? I really don't have a pile of files that I need to transfer - nothing that cant be tossed onto a flash drive and drag/dropped back on the new drive, so it seems like it should be a simple solution.

Thanks in advance!
 
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