Thinking of putting ssd in wife's laptop

[thestrangebrew1]

Not sure the model, it's an older gateway running Vista. I'm thinking of "upgrading" to windows 8 (anything's better than vista) and putting in an ssd. What's the best way to go about doing this? I don't have any of the discs that came with the laptop (it was a hand me down from the mother in law). Should I wait to buy the ssd and upgrade to windows 8 at the same time? I'm not sure how big of a drive I'll need, but I'm thinking 128gb at least for now. Maybe by the time 8 comes out prices on larger drives will have gone down.

 

[kmmatney]

I would just get a 128GB drive, and clone the existing OS for starters. You can use GParted to make a clone (or CloneZilla, or several other programs). You can also offset the first partition in GParted by 2MB to align the SSD. With the SSD, Vista should be a lot more tolerable, and it runs quite well with the latest service pack. If the laptop has a western digital or Seagate HD, you can download a free version of Acronis from their web sites, and clone to the new SSD in windows. I usually remove the laptop drive, and plug it into a desktop (along with the new drive) for cloning.

Edit: I'm pretty sure my wife would kill me if I tried to install Windows 8 on her computer...

 

[Denithor]

Actually, in October when 8 launches, I think there's an in-place upgrade option that only costs $40.

And one of the options is going to be - burn to disc and install clean. So, simple answer - do this from within Vista, burn disc, turn off, rip spinner, install SSD, then boot from 8 installation disc and perform clean install directly onto the SSD.

I'm actually planning exactly the same upgrade in my office pc when 8 launches.

Edit: And keep an eye out on drives, yesterday there was a sale on newegg for Intel 330 240GB drive for $140 with no rebates. I've heard of the Micron M4 256GB going as low as $150. As long as you're not in a rush, watch the hot deals section and snap up a deal like that. Then the wifey will have no complaints about storage space for all her facebook games, etc.

🙂

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Actually, in October when 8 launches, I think there's an in-place upgrade option that only costs $40.

And one of the options is going to be - burn to disc and install clean. So, simple answer - do this from within Vista, burn disc, turn off, rip spinner, install SSD, then boot from 8 installation disc and perform clean install directly onto the SSD.

I'm actually planning exactly the same upgrade in my office pc when 8 launches.

Edit: And keep an eye out on drives, yesterday there was a sale on newegg for Intel 330 240GB drive for $140 with no rebates. I've heard of the Micron M4 256GB going as low as $150. As long as you're not in a rush, watch the hot deals section and snap up a deal like that. Then the wifey will have no complaints about storage space for all her facebook games, etc.

🙂

This is what I meant by upgrading. I was just going to do the $40 upgrade and somehow put it on the ssd. Having the ability to burn the disc is great. As for deals, there's the Samsung 830 series 256GB ssd for $169.99 with a promo code on NE:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164&nm_mc=EMC-GD092612&cm_mmc=EMC-GD092612-_-index-_-middleBanner-_-SSD-EB0

Promo Code: EMCYTZT2258

Not sure if I should bite on this. It's only for 3 hrs.