Need Guidance Installing an SSD in a Laptop

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C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
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Asus Laptop: ROG G751JT-WH71(WX)

Laptop comes with a 1 1TB HDD installed in Drive Bay 1 with a SATA 3 interface. Drive Bay 2 has an empty SATA 2 slot.

Goal is to Swap the HDD to the "slow" connection and add the new SSD to the fast connection and make it the primary drive. Furthermore, I'd like to install a "clean" version of Win10 via a flash drive (have only installed OS from a DVD in the past).

Please comment on the following plan:

1) Change the Bios to boot off the SATA II connection and power down the laptop.

2) Remove and replace the HDD from Drive Bay 1 SATA 3 to Drive Bay 2 SATA 2.

3) Install new 512 GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD into Drive Bay 1 SATA 3 connection.

4) Boot machine and hope the original HDD still works.

5) After functional checkout, change the boot order back to see Drive Bay 1 SSD.

6) After reboot into the unformatted SSD, follow prompts to format, partition, and install the Win 10 OS from a USB Drive. Anything I need to know about installing from a flash drive?

Thanks.

Additional (though non-essential) information contained in related thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=38029309
 
Dahak

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
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I would just do the following

1 - Create USB Windows 10 Installer (MediaCreatinTool

2 - Install the new SSD in Bay 1 (SATA 3 Connection)

3 - Install windows 10

4 - install old HDD in bay 2 (only to make sure all win10 boot stuff is on the SSD, Windows sometimes has a bad habit of putting boot files on other drives if it sees it)

Done
 
C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
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Sounds like a great, simple plan. Thanks for the advice.

What about all the telemetry crap? Is there a way to weed that out before installing?
 
R

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
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Dahak said:
4 - install old HDD in bay 2 (only to make sure all win10 boot stuff is on the SSD, Windows sometimes has a bad habit of putting boot files on other drives if it sees it)

Done
Click to expand...

Ditto this. My hard rule is that any secondary drives in a system get hooked up after a windows install anymore. I had fun with that over a year ago with a win7 install and a 840Pro and 840evo installed in a system. This was before the evo slowdown problem was discovered. Glad I caught it before moving on with system setup.

Also, to be safe I would clone/image that original 1Tb drive and store that on an external/spare drive somewhere for safe keeping. Don't forget to have any extra drivers on hand you need from Asus for that clean install.
 
Puffnstuff

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
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I learned back in the days of win 98 to only have the boot drive installed when installing the OS, otherwise stray system file WILL end up on the other drives.
 
C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
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A few questions based on responses:

1) Is an IMG just a single file that will contain all the WIN 10 files?? Can I store any other files on the USB install drive, or will it be dedicated to Win10?

2) Regarding the USB installation drive, what is GPT vs. MBR?

3) Is a clone/image just a single file? What program is recommended for cloning?

4) Do I need drivers for the 850 Pro SSD?

 
Dahak

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
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I was going to quote reply but it came back all messed up

1 - yes and img/iso is a single file, but you cannot boot from it. If creating a USB Boot drive from the ISO to USB using either the Microsoft Creation Tool or Rufus, you still can use the drive as a regular flash drive as well

2 - GPT vs MBR , its just the partition format of the hard drive, which will affect your boot options. If you want to boot legacy, you would use MBR, if you wanted to use UEFI boot, you would use GPT.
This partitioning format will get selected automatically depending on how you boot, so not much of a worry

3 - Clone is a direct drive to drive option. Image usually is a single file or broken up files based on size

4 - No you should not
 
C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
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So, all went "ok" but there's an issue:

New SSD is now in the SATA 3 Drive Bay 1 and functioning with a boot into Win 10.

The original 1TB HDD was put in SATA 2 Drive Bay 2 and is seen in the bios, but not by Windows Explorer or Disk Management... I want to access the data partition on this 1 TB from the new SSD, but can't see it.

What now?
 
corkyg

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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Sometimes after a move like that, the SSD may need to be re-initialized.
 
C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
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XavierMace said:
Did it have Bitlocker or other encryption setup on it?
Click to expand...

I don't know if BitBlocker or other encryption was set up on the HDD that ASUS provided in Bay 1 (SATA 3) with this laptop. I'd guess "no".

corkyg said:
Sometimes after a move like that, the SSD may need to be re-initialized.
Click to expand...

Per the series of events listed, the SSD was never "moved". It was simply installed in the same bay that the HDD that cam with the machine was installed. The HDD was moved from Bay 1 (SATA 3) to Bay 2 (SATA 2) and is now not recognized by Win 10.

AnonymouseUser said:
Are the drivers for the SATA2 controller installed?
Click to expand...

I thought of this last night, and suspect it is the most likely explanation... Since Drive Bay 2 (SATA 2) is empty by default, I can imagine ASUS not taking the time to load this driver at the factory prior to shipping. That said, I assumed SATA was not a driver sort of thing but rather a MoBo level sort of intrinsic capability. Also, if there is such a thing as a SATA 2 driver, I could not find it at the following link for this laptop's driver set:

http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/ROG-G751JT/HelpDesk_Download/

Not sure what to do next...
 
sm625

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
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If you're going to do a fresh install then I wouldnt have both drives connected when you do it. Maybe windows 10 is smarter than 7 but I doubt it.
 
C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
2,537
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91
sm625 said:
If you're going to do a fresh install then I wouldnt have both drives connected when you do it. Maybe windows 10 is smarter than 7 but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Both drives were not installed at the time of the install... The SSD in Drive Bay 1 (Sata 3) was the only drive installed.

Once the original HDD that was recognized in Drive Bay 1 (Sata 3) was put into Drive Bay 2 (Sata 2), after Win 10 was installed on the SSD, then that original HDD is no longer recognized in Win 10, only by the bios.

That leads me to believe it's a driver issue per previous post, but I don't know what to do now based on info in previous post.
 
QuietDad

QuietDad

Senior member
Dec 18, 2005
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You can always go into Device Manager and see it there is an Unknown Device listed and see if it is just a driver problem. If it's there as an Unknown device, then it's a simple problem of finding/installing a driver.
 
C

Caveman

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 1999
2,537
34
91
QuietDad said:
You can always go into Device Manager and see it there is an Unknown Device listed and see if it is just a driver problem. If it's there as an Unknown device, then it's a simple problem of finding/installing a driver.
Click to expand...

Near as I can tell, the disk shows up in the Device Manager and there is no indication of an unknown device... Hmmmm.....


monkeydelmagico said:
This might help: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html
Click to expand...

Subject OS is Win 10... Assuming the info is the same for the link to a Win 7 subject, what is the link supposed to offer relative to the issue as specified?
 
nerp

nerp

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2005
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Puffnstuff said:
I learned back in the days of win 98 to only have the boot drive installed when installing the OS, otherwise stray system file WILL end up on the other drives.
Click to expand...

I don't believe that's a concern with Windows 10 anymore. I have done multiple installs on my current system with different boot drives and a secondary drive attached and there is nothing to indicate anything on the secondary drive was mucked with.
 
Puffnstuff

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,187
4,871
136
Yes windows 10 is just as stupid when it comes to scattering files across multiple drives and I made the mistake with it once thinking that MS would revise the installer and I was wrong. Ended up having to clean install again after disconnecting the other drives forcing it to place all the files on the boot drive.
 
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