Purchased Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB SSD and a Caddy for my laptop. What next?

[skeletor]

hi,

I have a HP Pavilion g4-1105tx (?) laptop. I've purchased a Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB SSD and a Caddy for my laptop. I'll be getting rid of my DVD writer and putting my SSD inside the caddy there.

What all things do I need to take care of? My laptop doesn't have [strike]BIOS[/strike] UEFI. So, I have to use MBR partitioning scheme. That means I need to take care of partition alignment. With UEFI/GPT it's automatic.

Windows 7 will enable TRIM by default. In Arch Linux, I'll have to do this to enable TRIM: *wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives#TRIM Similarly in Ubuntu.

Anything else?

 

[SaiyanGoku]

How can your laptop lack BIOS?

 

[skeletor]

How can your laptop lack BIOS?

meant UEFI there.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Give this a read:

How to replace your laptop DVD drive with an SSD | ExtremeTech

Optimizing Windows for your new drive

There are some very detailed guides to optimizing Windows for SSDs, but a few of the steps are pretty straightforward. Turn off any automatic defragmenting, and turn off ReadyBoost. You’ll also want to make sure your BIOS is set to use AHCI for its SATA drives and TRIM is enabled in Windows. In my case the included Samsung software had an option to activate TRIM, and AHCI was already enabled. All you have to do now is sit back and enjoy your new speed demon, and think how much you gained in performance and saved in cost by doing this DIY upgrade instead of trading in your whole computer. Make sure and re-run your Windows Experience assessment to enjoy the result and help Windows re-tune itself for your new drives better performance.

 

[$hadow]

Yeah that guide is helpful.

 

[skeletor]

Best money I've ever spent. SSDs are totally worth it.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Best money I've ever spent. SSDs are totally worth it.

What is your average bootup time and average time to desktop/login screen?

 

[skeletor]

What is your average bootup time and average time to desktop/login screen?

30 secs cuz I also have to enter my password.

And unfortunately, my laptop only has SATA II 3 gbps.

Boot time doesn't even matter to me. It's the general responsiveness which makes SSDs worth. Apps fire up instantly.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

30 secs cuz I also have to enter my password.

And unfortunately, my laptop only has SATA II 3 gbps.

Boot time doesn't even matter to me. It's the general responsiveness which makes SSDs worth. Apps fire up instantly.

That is really fast.

My laptop with a normal HDD takes ~50 seconds to desktop as I have to enter the password too.

 

[skeletor]

That is really fast.

My laptop with a normal HDD takes ~50 seconds to desktop as I have to enter the password too.

but I can fire up software the moment I see my desktop.

 

[$hadow]

SSD make the laptop go scary fast.