~Toughbooktalk~

First off, I want to express my humble gratitude to the toughbooktalk brain trust for their recent advice.

I joined this forum as a result of Rob's suggestion after our chat concerning the migration from XP to Win7. It certainly has been eye opening.

Anyway, now that Win7 is out of the way, I'd like to upgrade to an SSD. Given that my Toshiba MK8032GSX hard drive is 5 years old, I thought it would be prudent to move to a new drive. I was going to get a Crucial M500, but their compatibility reference indicated their drive to be compatible to a CF-74GCDADBM and mine is a CF-74GCDEKBM. After an online chat with their tech support, I was informed my drive is PATA and not SATA and that I would need an IDE to SATA adapter. So, now I'm confused as I thought the MKIII is SATA.

They also recommended that I don't image the Toshiba HDD and copy it over to the SSD, but instead use cloning. I've never cloned but have used Paragon routinely in the past for backup images. So, that looks to be another challenge.

I did a quick search on the forum, but didn't come up with any useful "how-to" information to proceed with this. Any advice you guys can suggest would be welcomed.

I know.. I know.... go find a CF-52 or 53.

The CF-74 models all have SATA drives. Their tech was misinformed. I believe the interface operates at SATA1 speeds, so you don't get full speed of newer drives. No big deal.

A search of your drive # says SATA as do I. The GCD are the same the rest don't matter.
Do you have the old configurator saved in your tool bar yet?

public_downloads/Old_Configurator/index.htm
G 7300 2.0 abg
C Touch 460nit
D 80 HD 1GB ram
E is Combo drive and fingerprint
K Verizon and bluetooth
B XP COA
M North America

This is a fully loaded machine. A SSD drive will be nice.

Jeff

Thanks, mklym.

I suppose it's fine to proceed in getting the Crucial 500 SATA drive then.

Any thoughts on cloning vs. using disk imaging like Paragon Software? (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/ )

Thanks, Jeff the Saddlemaker, for the configurator info. I should have know that.

Say, advice on this cloning vs. using something like Paragon software disk imaging backup?

Yippiekaiyay,
John

I don't think it matters whether you clone or image, as long as you use a current version of the software. New versions will handle the switch from hdd to ssd automatically, or at the least, give you an option to enable the proper alignment. I use Acronis so can't speak about Paragon.

Thank you, mklym.

+1 for Acronis

Be sure your cloning software has the feature for 4K Partition Alignment. It may be automatic, maybe not. An SSD needs 4K alignment to run its fastest.

Thanks, Springfield. I'm thinking of using EaseUS Free as it offers a cloning feature in the free version. I'm not a techie, just someone attempting to get more life out of my trusty 74. I'll check to see if EaseUS offers the 4K Partition Alignment before proceeding.

I'm not trying to cheap out on disk management software. I just haven't discovered a product that will image with an external disk and perform the everyday routine file backups. Ideally, the external drive would be capable of booting the system in the event the internal drive failed.