Everything You Need To Know About Ssd Hdd And Laptop Storage
Laptops are amazing machines. Computers are capable of running the gamut from spreadsheets, to DJ software, and everything in between. While youre probably familiar with the differences between a 11 screen and a 15 screen laptop, or a laptop built for gaming vs. one thats meant for business, we bet you dont spend a lot of time thinking about your computers hard drive but you should.
Not all hard drives are the same and when you buy a new laptop, youll be asked to choose from the available options of storage. Knowing the difference between the various types of hard drives and amount of storage space can help you decide on the right one.
Between memory, processors, display options, and a laundry list of other tech specs to consider when shopping, it can get confusing fast. Hard drive storage doesnt have to be.
Heres everything you need to know about hard drives and laptop storage.
Install A Ram Cleaner Software/tool
Under most circumstances, it’s effortless to clean the memory and free up RAM with professional RAM cleaner software.If you search online, you’ll find a lot of recommended RAM cleaner software such as Cleanmen, Minimem, Super Memory Cleaner , etc. Available for you to download.
If you don’t want to spend time doing so, here we’d like to recommend you to try an excellent RAM cleaner alternative software – EaseUS Todo PCTrans Free which supports you to remove useless programs or large files from PC and optimize computer performance with its “Large File Cleanup” and “App Migration” feature for free in Windows 10/8/8.1/7.
Before You Begin Your Upgrade:
- Be sure that you are aware and understand any information regarding your warranty. Any unauthorized work on your system may void the system manufacturers warranty.
- Review the safety instructions inside of your systems product manual before working on your computer.
- For PC users, it is recommended that your system is running Windows 7 or later. Also, check your BIOS settings and update them as needed for SSD compatibility.
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Swap Your Hdd With An Ssd
Yes, I know SSDs are usually lower in storage than HDDs , but hear me out.
You will remove your laptops HDD and convert it to an external hard drive. All you have to do is get an HDD enclosure for it.
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I had done this before with one of my old laptops, which had been damaged, and now I have an external hard drive from that laptops internal HDD.
Although youll have to take special care of it, then you will replace your HDD with an SSD. An SSD will guarantee your laptop better performance.
In case youre already using an SSD, I would recommend you purchase an external hard drive in which you will store extra files.
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
If youre going to replace your hard drive by yourself, make sure youre completely competent. If not, get your laptop to a professional to do this for you.
Why Do Some Gaming Laptops Have Both Ssd And Hdd Storage
Gaming laptops have both SSD and HDD storage because SSDs are able to load heavy programs such as games a lot faster while HDDs offer more space to store lighter files without significantly increasing the price of the laptop.
It is usually recommended to install the OS and games on the SSD for fast booting and loading and use the HDD for general storage.
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The Basics: Laptop Ssd Upgrades
First, flip over your laptop and check for a hatch on the underside secured by a small screw or two. If the hatch happens to say “HDD” or something similar, so much the better. Some laptops, such as late-model Apple MacBooks and many super-thin ultraportables, are fully sealed and won’t give you access to the innards without the help of a service technician . But if it’s possible to do the upgrade yourself, here’s what you need to know.
Secondary Hard Drive/solid State Drive
Typical Storage Space: 1 4TB , 128 512GB
If you have the spare space on your motherboard, you can forgo having to transfer data and simply get a second drive to store things. A second HDD can act as a mule drive, storing huge files such as movies and recordings. Getting an SSD to work in tandem with an HDD works well, too: simply put all the software you want to load quickly onto the SSD and enjoy faster loading times.
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Delete Temporary And Downloaded Files
You can delete temporary files without running Disk Cleanup, along with files you downloaded that you may no longer need. Go to Settings > System and click on Storage on the left panel. Next, click Temporary files from the list that shows you how your storage is being used on the C: drive and check the boxes for the type of temp files you want to jettison before clicking the Remove files button to delete them.
Back Up Rarely Used Files To Other Places And Delete The Original One
The occurrence of removable devices such as USB flash drive, U disk, TF card and thumb drive, and external hard drive improve your storage size greatly. Besides, other services like Cloud also boost storage capacity.
These devices and services are very convenient and easy to operate. You can transfer files from your computer to flash drive and then delete the original data on your computer. By doing so, you can get more disk space on the laptop.
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Why Upgrade To An Ssd
The reason most people replace their HDD drive with an SSD is performance. Depending on the task at hand, SSDs can be up to 10 times faster than their HDD counterparts. Replacing your hard drive with an SSD is one of the best things you can do to dramatically improve the performance of your older computer.
Without any moving parts, SSDs operate more quietly, more efficiently, and with fewer breakable things than hard drives that have spinning platters. Read and write speeds for SSDs are much better than hard drives.
For you, that means less time waiting for stuff to happen. An SSD is worth looking into if youre frequently seeing a spinning wheel cursor on your computer screen. Modern operating systems increasingly depend on virtual memory management, which pages out temporary swap files to disk. The faster your drive, the less performance impact youll experience from this overhead.
If you have just one drive in your laptop or desktop, you could replace an HDD or small SSD with a 1TB SSD for less than $60. If youre a computer user with a great deal of data, replacing just the drive that holds your operating system and applications could provide a significant speed boost. Put your working data on additional internal or external hard drives, and youre ready to tackle a mountain of photos, videos, or supersized databases. Just be sure to implement a backup plan to make sure you keep a copy of that data safe on additional local drives, network-attached drives, or the cloud.
The Future Of Hard Drives
So, there it is the world of laptop hard drives as it stands today. Will it continue to evolve? You better believe it! Over the coming years, we can expect SSD technology to continue to improve, giving us ever faster speeds and larger capacities. At the same time, the cloud continues to evolve as does the quality of our internet connections. Who knows? In another 10 years, your next laptop may not need an internal storage drive at all!
Looking to upgrade? Check out the wide array of hard drives we have to offer.
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Recommended Storage For A Gaming Laptop
A gaming laptop should have at least 512 GB storage if you are planning to install only a few games. But if you are planning to install several AAA title games or doing some serious video editing, you need at least 1 TB of data storage space.
For some gamers, even 1TB of storage may still not be enough, while for some 512 GB will be more than enough. It all depends on how much space the games you plan on installing need and what else you want to store on your laptop.
Many popular AAA titles sometimes require more than 50 GB. Therefore, having at least 1 TB of data storage capacity allows you to install several of these games before you eventually run out of space.
Below are some popular games and how much free disk space they require:
| PC Game | |
|---|---|
| Doom Eternal | 50 GB |
As you can see from the table above, AAA title games take up quite a lot of space. Fortunately, you can easily upgrade the storage on most gaming laptops.
Generally, gaming laptops with more storage space will be pricier than those with less storage capacity. 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB are some of the most common storage capacities you will find in modern laptop storage devices.
How To Increase C Drive Space With Easeus Partition Master
Applies to: Increase C drive space, extend system partition in a few simple clicks, no data loss.
EaseUS partition manager software is designed for all levels of Windows users with a simple and intuitive interface. It supports to free manage partitions, including increasing C drive space, shrinking or extending partitions, merging non-adjacent partitions, etc.
Video Tutorial: Increase C Drive and Manage Hard Drive Partition in Windows
Step-by-step Guide: Enlarge C Drive Space in Windows 11/10/8/7
If there is unallocated space on your system disk, you may got to Step 2 and start by right-clicking C drive and select “Resize/Move”:
Step 1: Free up unallocated space for C drive.
If there is no unallocated space on the system disk, right-click on a partition next to the C: drive and select “Resize/Move”.Drag left panel of the partition to shrink and leave unallocated space behind the system C: drive and click “OK”.
Step 2: Increase C drive space.
1. Right-click on C: drive and select “Resize/Move”.
2. Drag the system partition end into unallocated space so to add space to C: drive.
Step 3: Keep all changes to extend C: drive
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When To Upgrade Storage
One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to increase a computers performance is to remove a hard disk drive and upgrade to a solid-state drive. You can also upgrade your HDD or SSD to a larger storage capacity Kingston Technologys consumer SSDs now come with up to 2TB of storage. Lets look at some instances of when to upgrade your storage.
Short battery life
One of the best ways to rejuvenate any laptop or PC is to install an SSD. For laptops, its a great upgrade option because they are more energy efficient than HDDs. SSDs do not have any moving parts so they require a lot less power to operate and this lengthens the battery life significantly.
Need to boost speed
Upgrading to an SSD can give your computer a significant speed boost, with boot times averaging at 10-13 seconds compared to 30-40 seconds for a hard drive. In addition, the time taken to open applications and files is typically significantly faster with SSDs than HDDs. The speed of your storage determines how fast your system can boot up, load, and access your data.
Running out of space for photos, music, etc.
Another problem that you might face is not having enough storage. If youre constantly running out of space for your files and applications, upgrading your HDD or SSD to a larger storage capacity is a great way to increase your PCs performance. More storage allows you to store more files and it will give you more free space for the latest applications or operating systems.
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How To Increase Storage On Laptop
Laptops are great for basically carrying around your work desk or a gaming platform. I couldnt survive without one and the tablets are simply not as effective as I would like them to be. It might just be me being a grumpy old man though I am sure many of you think the same. Laptops like all other devices have certain limits though. That includes their storage capacity and its not that far-fetched to hit that limit with HDDs being thrown out the window and being replaced by the smaller SSDs. The speed with an SSD is great but its also more expensive and usually smaller though the prices have certainly improved in the past years. Of course, there are multiple options of how to increase storage on laptop but were a firm believer of cloud storage here at Cloudstorageinfo.org so well focus on just that.
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Extend C Drive When There Is No Unallocated Space Behind
If there is no adjacent unallocated space behind your system C drive, you’ll encounter this error as shown below:
“Virtual Disk Service error: There is not enough usable space for this operation”.
In this case, you have two options: 1. Revert to Method 1 and extend C drive space using EaseUS Partition Master 2. Delete the adjacent drive behind C drive to get an unallocated space.
If you prefer the 2nd option, remember to back up all useful data to another location first. Now, follow the steps below to extend C drive for free:
Step 1. Open Diskpart prompt window
- Open the Run dialog, type cmd and hit Enter to open Command Prompt as Administrator.
- Type diskpart and hit Enter to open DiskPart.
Step 2. Type command lines below and hit Enter each time:
- list disk
- select volume x
- extend size =number
- exit
After this, you can restart PC to keep all the changes, later, you’ll see that your C drive is larger and the computer is running faster than before.
Compress Files And Folders
Compressing files and folders will decrease the used space on your computer. Then, you are able to obtain more disk space and store more data. Here are some commonly used file compression programs including WinZip, WinRAR, 7-Zip and PeaZip for you.
Select one file compressor based on your demand and compress your files and folders. Then you can save the free space for your laptop.
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Best Tools For Extending C Drive In Windows 11/10/8/7
In this part, we’d like to introduce 3 best disk management tools to you and you can pick up one of them to extend your system C drive in Windows 11/10/8/7 for free:
| All levels of Windows users, beginners’ best choice | Experienced Windows users | Administrators |
Note that if you prefer an easier solution, apply EaseUS EaseUS Partition Master Free – Partition Master to increase C drive space in Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista with success.
Windows 11/10/8/7100% Secure
Pick up one of the free methods and follow the respective tutorial as shown below to start extending your local disk C drive now. These methods also work to extend data volumes on your PC.
Move Paging File To Other Drives
Paging file also called as virtual memory. Windows used paging file from hard disk size as it were additional RAM. It can boost up the computer performance, I will not advice to turn this function off, Its recommend to move it to other more space hard disk drive. Its usually located at C drive, please move the paging file from low space hard disk drive to other more space hard disk drive.
How to Move paging file to other drives 1. Right My Computer icon, click properties to access System Properties dialog 2. Choose Advanced tab, under performance box, click Setting to access Performance Options dialog 3. Choose Advance tab, under Virtual Memory box, click change to access Virtual Memory dialog 4. Select the No paging and click set button 5. Select others drive and specify the paging size , click Set 6. Apply
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How To Migrate To An Ssd
Buying a replacement SSD is the first step. Moving your data onto the SSD is the next step. To that end, you need two things: cloning software and an external drive case or drive sled or enclosure, which lets you connect the SSD to your computer through its USB port or another data transfer interface.
Cloning software makes a bit-for-bit copy of your internal hard drives data. Once the data is transferred to the SSD, transplant the new drive into your computer and you should be good to go. I prefer to clone a hard drive onto an SSD whenever possible. If its done right, a cloned SSD is bootable, so its literally a plug-and-play experience. Just copying files between the two drives instead may not copy all the data you need to get the computer to boot with the new drive.
Swapping Out The Ssd On The Surface Pro X
If you’re now ready to swap out the SSD in the Surface Pro X, we have some good news for you. It’s a lot easier than swapping out the SSD on the Surface Laptop 3. The process is foolproof, and you can follow our step by step instructions. You also can see a quick guide from iFixit by clicking the video below.
There you go. In just six simple steps, you’re now ready to put the new SSD in! Screw it in, and follow the steps in reserve to close it back up! You’re now free to re-install Windows 10 with your installation media, and then store all the files, photos, videos, as you please, without worrying about storage space.
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