Well, Christopher, let's just say I am blown away with your thorough and simple instructions which have resulted in my 2014 HP 810-160 computer booting not in minutes but in seconds just now with zero glitches in the process! I am a 73 year old woman and my life has been consumed by computers since 1978, so I am tech savvy, but having said that, I have always been completely intimidated by the hardware end of this business. Your videos have really clarified so much for me, and in a fun way. I will be upgrading more of my old PCs using your videos and immense expertise. Thank you so much! You are absolutely the best resource for understanding and executing these upgrades. I don't feel intimidated anymore :)
I love this guys 90’s style and his outfit . Don’t ever change that! It’s nice to see someone have a unique and original style from others ! This gives nostalgia!
one of the best instructor's i've ever seen on youtube on anything! so thorough, non confusing, very simplistick, clean voice and speech, ...... he should be paid good money to do ANY instructional video's!! it just doesnt get any better than this guy! so well done!!!
I like it explained dumbly. I hate that other Techy-Fancy-type of video that assumes you know everything about PC and briefly explained everything in under 3 minutes. If I could understand what they are doing in 3 minutes I wouldn't need them.
It's one thing to explain it carefully, and at a slow pace. It's just plain meanness when the RTFM crowd treats you like a moron, just because you asked a question.
This video was most helpful for an upgrade to a 2009 PC. Although this was a highly specified PCSpecialist model, it had become very sluggish. I replaced the WD 300GB VelociRaptor hard drive with a Crucial MX500 500GB SSD, £50.19 from Amazon. The improvement in performance is remarkable and the PC is now usable and responsive. Thank you, Chris, for your helpful and instructive videos.
Crikey, that was GREAT! Someone recommended I do this to my current, quite aged PC, but my lack of confidence in all things technical has prevented me from even thinking of it. Not any more!! This is exactly the kind of clear, comprehensible instructions I've been looking for -- thank you so much!
After having watched your video I finally worked up the courage to try and fit a 240 Gb ssd to my old HP 3010 which is probably about 10 or 12 years old. I followed your instructions to the letter , constantly thinking that something would go wrong at any moment. Nothing did !. Your instructions were clear and concise and my old pc has a new lease of life. I may even try and build a pc from scratch, following your instructions of course. Many thanks !!.
TH-cam comment section cable management goals: short, straight runs. No kinks or twist. Minimal visual exposure. No cables intersecting or tangles. My cable management goals: I hope I can manage to stuff all these cables into this case without leaving any of the panels off.
Love seeing these incremental upgrades, reminds of when I was a student, having used laptops for ages I once again wanted a desktop, but with very little funds I put together a low end system using a mix of 2nd hand parts from ebay, new ones and a donated gpu from a friend. Over the next year or two I upgraded that system part by part until it was a decent mid-range system, it was fun seeing how much performance I'd gained from each new part in the system.
Mr. Christopher Barnatt , you are a true legend Sir ! - I was about to upgrade my old laptop with a SSD - it has a free slot for an extra drive and also the HDD is partitioned as shown in your video. With the lockdown here in Greece where i live, it is difficult to find a repair shop to do the job for me. So i decided i should do it myself - and learn something in the process - Thank You Very Much and best wishes from Greece !👍
Just a note: avoid using twist ties in a pc. They can wear out in time and expose the metal part on the inside. If they fall off they could possibly short something
Agreed been using wire ties for years never seen one cause any damage , but if your that scared use cable zip ties or pvc tape it doesn't really matter it's not that important
In IT I don't think I ever used plastic/paper coated metal center twist ties (different from nylon only flexible twist cable ties...the ones with the little balls at the ends) where bundling a lot of heavy wires together was better using UV protected nylon zip strips but even for small wire bundles. In some applications, potential issues of rust and loosening/degrading of covering material from heat/light, etc can leave exposed metal that could cause major problems. However, as long as you are not applying too much stress to the cables being held, the tie is not too tight, and the PC is going to be in a relatively stable environment plastic (never EVER paper imo) coated metal twist ties should last, and be okay, for the typical lifetime of a home PC, though care should be taken and checked each time the PC is cleaned. IF wires held together are not in a stable environment, have the potential to be exposed to UV (like some lighting kits of old or subjected to sunlight), need to be tight, and are heavy or considerable size then alternatives would be better suited.
I have to agree. I have been working in IT and doing PC repair for 30 some odd years. I actually have on one or two occasions seen the ties with a metal conductor in them cause shorts. Zip ties can be used, as seen in the video, if not done carefully can cause issues as well. And the thing that bothers me most about zip ties is that I always seem to have to remove them when I don't have any wire snips readily available. So I'll use zip ties in a pinch but like Chris, I prefer to use velcro straps. The nylon twists are handy as well but I never have them around when I need them.
Christopher, Mother Earth owes you a big one. With your videos, I also was able to bring back from the brink a computer almost everybody had written off as junk. Nobody had the skills and the courage to do anything with it. Watching your videos gave me the needed confidence and knowledge to try something. With an investment of only $70 (for new RAM and an ssd) that piece of junk is running like a charm. After reading the comments here, you have saved many computers from ending in landfill somwhere. Thank you
I like the "old style" presentation. It's clear, concise, and to the point. I do *not* like TH-cam presenters who ramble for 10 minutes before getting to the point of the video and who don't appear to have given much thought to what they're trying to say. It gives the impression they're not actually clear on what they're trying to achieve, or indeed, know what they're talking about.
That calm and methodical style is very reassuring to the less experienced (and older) tinkerer such as myself. A bit like armed forces basic training, teach the essential knowledge required for the task and give a path for more development for those with the interest / capacity to learn.
This was a very well-presented video. I did something like this to my vintage 2014 HP Core i3 desktop PC. It came with a 1 TB Western Digital Blue HDD. I used a Crucial 1 TB SDD. It came with a limited version of Acronis True Image, for the cloning step. I used a USB to SATA interface cable, and ran the cloning step via USB, with the SSD drive outside the cabinet, and then shut down and installed the SSD in place of the HDD. I kept the HDD as a disaster recovery item. If the SSD fails, I can reinstall the HDD and have very little down time. One thing I would recommend to anyone doing this - use a high-capacity SSD. I wish I had gone with a 2 TB drive. With the improved performance (SSD + a previous RAM upgrade), now the desktop is very capable of running VM's. I have both VMware Workstation 15 Player and Oracle VM VirtualBox. This lets me play around with various Linux distros, and things like Windows Servers (which expire because they are not licensed, but can be re-created).
After watching part one and two i agree with you. The upgrade to maxx ram and a ssd and better grafics card made the pc (same motherboard as in your case) very capable for home use. Fast enough to surf the internet, do office work and watch youtube. Saved me a lot of money. The upgrade was cheaper than buying a new machine.
4:40 when it comes to mounting an ssd to this kind of a bay I just screw it to one side and it sort of floats there but I had no issues so far. Taping is a good idea too.
Absolutely! Four screws to secure the drive in the bay will only be advantageous in the case of nearby explosions, earthquake or tornado. Of course, this is also an excellent way to dispose of extra screws, or a nifty way to store screws for use elsewhere in the future. Brilliant!
This video of yours was the one I followed to do my hard drive upgrade. After watching several instructional videos by others I chose to use your method with your clear and concise instruction. I didn't even know a CD-ROM drive has the same connectors as a hard drive! Very much appreciated.
I just wanted to say thanks for this video as it helped clear up a misconception I had about SATA compatibility, and allowed me to finally upgrade my own PC's storage. The clear step-by-step was what I needed, and now my rig boots in literally half the time. So nice.
I just have to say this is the best instructional video I’ve saw on TH-cam. On my way to browse through your channel after watching this video. Thank you for being very thorough and not skipping the small details!!!
Thank you for yet another great video. I got inspired by this video, and decided to replace a 120Gb SSD with a 500GB SSD due to lack of storage in my laptop. Downloaded Macrium Reflect and startet the task. Just wanted to share some highlights of my upgrade, so here it goes. Tried to clone reserved partition and system partition from old SSD, with no success. Got "Error 0" and "Error 6" repeatedly. Tried Clonecilla, with the same result. Tried to take out old SSD and clone in a second computer. Same result. Ticked off "VSS error ignore", and made an image of the old SSD. Wrote this image to new SSD - could not boot on device. Went sour and left everything. Next day, tried to make a new image of entire old SSD (reserved partition, C partition and D partition). No result. In desperation - tried running "chkdsk C: /r". That took 45 minutes of fingernail-biting and a rising convince that everything went down the drain. But blessed be.... chkdsk C: /r apparently made the trick. I unticked "VSS error ignore", successfully made an image of reserved and C partion, restored this to new SSD, put the disk back into the laptop - and it startet up like the first dawn of day.
Just a little note if I may: always patch Macrium if you get the notification on initial start-up of the program. This updates bug fixes and other stuff they’ve improved on the program for optimal performance. Thanks for the very straightforward and informative videos!
I was wanting to upgrade my small 120gb hard drive to a bigger SSD drive but having no extra cables to clone to the new drive I was stumped until I stumbled across your site showing the simple method of borrowing the DVD cabled brilliant BIG THANKS WORKED SUPER
Very well explained!! I wish I had found this video 1 week earlier... After cloning my PC did not boot from SSD, MBR was missing... Windows could not repair so I ended up installing a fresh windows on the SSD... Thanks for this!
BRILLIANT! The whole process is so well explained with spoken instructions and graphic representation. There are many who could learn from this presentation!
I've had to do this twice in the last month at my work due to Windows 10's recent updates being too heavy and intensive for old HDDs on old Dell office computers. I should have watched this first, I ended up going with a fresh windows install instead of using Reflect. But thank you nonetheless, this is an exceptionally helpful video to bring new life into old machines for very little $$ investment. No frills, no sponsors, just straight good information and wonderfully simple explanation.
OMG OMG OMG... it worked. Had a "Hard Drive Failure Imminent" warning on my 4-year old (but otherwise fantastic) HP Envy Phoenix 810-209. All diagnostics confirmed it was a hardware problem, so I followed Mr. Barnatt's crystal-clear instructions and replaced the failing 128 GB operating system drive with a Kingston 480 GB solid-state drive ($45 Canadian). Worked PERFECTLY! Thank you to Mr. Barnatt and Mr. Scissors! 😀
I just upgraded to an SSD Drive on my old Linux machine and it boots much more quickly. I got an old SSD from a work computer they were recycling and I'm glad I did!
I updated my Lenovo T430 to SSD quite some time back, but more recently I upgraded the CPU and Memory along with a better heatsink/fan combo ( yeah this is Linux also ). I did have a question also with the clone and that is could you not use a bootable / live linux image and just do a raw dd from sdx to sdx from the win32 drive to the SSD then when booted use the windows partition tools to resize if required?.
@@sethrd999 i think that would be hard because the windows bootloader is looking for the drive before. On laptop i removed the windows partition but saved the files, regretted it, made a new windows partition with the same data, wouldn't boot. Maybe some recovery mode with install media ?
It's amazing how fast an SSD makes an old computer. I have a 7 year old Laptop which was slow as F. This thing would take 10 minutes to start up and 5 minutes to load chrome. I have to mention I didn't know anything about computers so I didn't know where to even start. I came across a video on TH-cam which talked about data migration and SSDs. Decided to give it a try and you could see the difference that new SSD makes. Start up takes about 30 seconds and chrome opens up as soon as I finish clicking the left click a second time. Night and day difference.
I just had to comment thanking you for this wonderful tutorial. Even though this tutorial is 2 years old, the steps were very clear and Macrium Reflect has only changed just a bit 😂. I am completely blown away by the results. My computer is running at least twice as fast before. Thank you Chris!
All points made sense to me and I think while you are inside the PC case it's always a good idea to take best measures and fit things correctly as demonstrated as this can save unseen problems in the long run and are best avoided. The 'diskpart' facility was also a good measure and good to be aware of. Another very good video. Thanks for uploading - Liked.
Thank you for this excellent video. I'm not computer savvy at all but I got TH-cam certified with this video and successfully cloned my hard drive to a new SSD. I did away with the HDD all together and now my little desktop is lightning fast. Thank you so much!
I would not use twist ties for cable management as they are metallic and if they move or you don't notice one touching the motherboard the potential for shorting or even completely frying you mother board is high.
@@YounesLayachi Yes, but wire is exposed at the end points and if you touch something with each end, you have a connection. I've a few twist ties to remove myself, but they really aren't a good idea, IMO.
Thank you for this simple and clear video. I have now updated two desktops and one laptop and all three are running like new again. I was about to junk all three before I thought I would give TH-cam a chance to convince me otherwise. I had zero experience before this so your video has been awesome. Saved lots of money and now a happy household too!
A very big THANK to you, dear, sir, for this very good and excellent tutorial on how to upgrade to a new faster SSD cloned disk! Wishing you both safety and health during these perilous times we are in globally! Best Regards from Sweden!
This tutorial is basically straight forward and very easy to understand by the people like me with the basic knowledge about computer..Thank you so much, it really helps a lot.
Before seeing this, I had just fumbled through this process on my own. The fumbling took a day or two and was risky. This video is very good and useful. Your diskpart video was critical to my success.
You have just saved me so much stress. All other tech channels really over complicate it, perhaps to seem smarter. But your tutorial helped me instal a new SSD I've been struggling to figure out how to do for ages. Thanks a bunch!
I was given an old PC from 2009. As soon as I got it I did this: • Installed an SSD, they're quite cheap these days • Upgraded the RAM from 2GB of RAM to 4GB • Repasted the CPU Running well with Linux Mint MATE on it
Thank you, Sir! Among all the videos I've watched on this subject, yours is the most comprehensive. I didn't have to search other videos to find how to do this or that as it answers all my concerns. Padayon! From the Philippines!
Chris, just terrific, in depth, thorough and easy to follow. Very nice job as usual. I have done this same thing on *many* notebooks and desktop PC's, and ALWAYS got a good result, well worth the time and effort. But I have never used Macrium Reflect. A new find for me !!! Thanks so much for this. Well Done !!!
This is great. I'm about a year into I.T. as a career change(had been let go from a different industry two years ago and didn't know where to turn). Learning everything I can like a sponge. Ordered an SSD for my 2014 Dell Inspiron. Trying to salvage it before buying a new one.
Worked like a charm - upgraded a WD Black 500GB drive to a Samsung 870 EVO - took all of 45 minutes start to finish. It's Zippity-do-dah fast - Noticeable decrease in booting up time and loading windows. Many Thanks!
More Ben-Hur length videos! I have experience in simple upgrades like this, but I always appreciate your videos due to your software recommendations that I may not have been previously aware of. Thank you!
Fantastic, just upgraded my old Dell 560 with a new SSD 1Tb, followed your instructions to the letter and BINGO! It worked just like your video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks Chris for your helpful video. I plan to do this upgrade to my older computer that has 4 mechanical drives. I'll add the SSD for the OS. I'll put the SSD in the bay that used to house a thing called a 3.5" floppy drive! lol.
I'm an advanced user and even use diskpart from time to time but learned today about the "clean" option. That is a time saver! Thanks for sharing! Also one of the big benefits besides the transfer speeds with SSD over HHD is the seek time. That will also make the system feel much snappier than the much slower HDD.
2:45 Great video, Christopher. Straight to the point and no filler. I’m really triggered about how close that utility knife is to your hand as you are opening the box. I’ve seen some horrendous cuts when knives are not closed or resheathed.
Splendid video. I just cloned a 1TB hard drive in my 2009 HP desktop onto a new Crucial SSD drive, what an amazing difference in speed. Couldn't have done it without your help. Thank you.
Thank you! I have a 14 year old PC, not dissimilar to yours in this video. It was taking over 6 minutes to boot up. After finding your series of upgrade videos, I have successfully gone from 4GB of RAM to 16GB and installed an SSD. My PC just booted up in 1 minute. I was doubtful I'd be able to do any of this myself, but your calm and clear instructions gave me the confidence to give it a go. I'm so happy!
Thank you for this video. Today I upgraded the computer of my father with an m2 ssd. This video was very helpfull. The computer is very quick again and my father is very happy. All data was saved in the cloning process. Thank you!
Thanks for the clone utility, been looking for one. When I upgraded my PC to SSD, I created a Temp directory on the reformatted old hard disk and pointed TMP and TEMP environment variables to it. That reduces the writes to the SSD to a minimum. It also puts all the temp file in one place and makes cleaning out easy to find.
Excellent point about disconnecting the old hard drive. Something I've always done because I've heard of some PCs getting confused, causing all sorts of mayhem.
Christopher - Hi ! I JUST came across this one AGAIN , and its very timely for ME , as I plan to resurrect an older PC that has some older programs IDEAL for a particular application I have in mind . It was wonderful to experience your simple, no nonsense but light-hearted approach and I look forward to successfully completing this task soon . I hope this finds you doing well ! ALL the _BEST_ from Texas ! - - Chuck .
Doing a binge watch of this episode and the next.. Been a tough week but, chilling with some Explaining Computers - a Sunday evening entertainment staple!
Thank you so much for this video ! I did everything has you show and it work wonderfully !!! My dad’s pc wasn’t usable anymore, I upgraded it from 4 to 16gb of ram and put a 240gb ssd in place of the 1tb hdd (using like you the cd reader cables!) that thing is now a beast ! It cost me 50€ in total saving a few hundred euros for my dad, I couldn’t be happier! Now it just need a heavy dust cleaning and that i5 6400 will be running better than never 😊
After years of managing large numbers of PCs, I've developed the habit of only putting 2 screws into hard disk drives, the 2 on the side nearest to the top opening. It's always been enough and it saves having to take both sides of the case out. When most of the HDDs were 3.5", I always thought that a bit of flex would do no harm in protecting against shock. With 2.5" drives and SSDs, 2 screws are plenty. With good cases, 2 screws are very often adequate for CD-ROM drives as well. Thanks, by the way, for your stream of excellent videos.
Thanks so much -- using your video as a guide, I switched out my old hard drive for a Samsung SSD, and the difference --- wow! My PC no longer has to "warm up" but comes on instantly and reacts right away. it's like having a whole new PC. I'd have never had the confidence if I hadn't followed your instructions! (Although i have to say, the inside of my machine was a lot, lot more crowded than the one you use!) Thanks again.
I would like to thank you for your great Chanel. It is only because of you that I gave new life to my 13.5 years old pc . Now it’s perfect. Thank you. Love your TH-cam channel
@@ozmobozo actually old pcs that runs w95 only needs cf card since the computer limits the disk size. lexar 800x cf card is more than enough. Technically CF cards are SSDs but at the different form factor
I like to keep my old pentium and below computers equipped with hard drives. Yeah they're slower, but you don't get an authentic old computer experience without a clattering clunking hard drive!
*Zip ties work perfectly fine.* Just because you don't have the right tool for the job handy doesn't mean they are at fault. Use a pair of wire cutters (or strippers) and if you don't want to "risk" cutting a wire, cut at the head of the zip tie and not its length. This is particularly easy with adjustable V-groove strippers. Zero danger to the wire.
Mr Scissors! 😁 So it’s not just me who says stuff like that. This just came up in my recommendations with perfect timing. I’m busy upgrading a desktop right now.
Wonderful, Did the SSD upgrade for my very old spare (still useful) Acer Aspire 32 bit Laptop now just upgraded it to Zorin 15 lite, all done watching and following your easy to follow step by step fantastic tutorials, It now has a new lease of life, Next will be upgrading my older all-in-one desktop when the new RAM arrives. Thank you, Chris.
I purchased a SSD drive and cloned it and replaced my HHD drive in my Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop and followed your video and had no issues. Went to SupportAssist and used the tools in this program from Dell and ran the test on Laptop no issues found. I did find the laptop boots up faster and going to programs on the computer come up faster as well. Great video. I've been a subscriber for quite awhile now as you know. Also, I've been using computers and working on them since Windows For Workgroups with DOS 6.2, telling on myself now, lol
Well, Christopher, let's just say I am blown away with your thorough and simple instructions which have resulted in my 2014 HP 810-160 computer booting not in minutes but in seconds just now with zero glitches in the process! I am a 73 year old woman and my life has been consumed by computers since 1978, so I am tech savvy, but having said that, I have always been completely intimidated by the hardware end of this business. Your videos have really clarified so much for me, and in a fun way. I will be upgrading more of my old PCs using your videos and immense expertise. Thank you so much! You are absolutely the best resource for understanding and executing these upgrades. I don't feel intimidated anymore :)
This is great to hear. There is nothing like an HDD to SSD upgrade! :)
I love this guys 90’s style and his outfit . Don’t ever change that! It’s nice to see someone have a unique and original style from others ! This gives nostalgia!
one of the best instructor's i've ever seen on youtube on anything! so thorough, non confusing, very simplistick, clean voice and speech, ...... he should be paid good money to do ANY instructional video's!! it just doesnt get any better than this guy! so well done!!!
Thanks for your kind feedback. :)
You're by far the best bloke on the internet for actually explaining on how to do things with computers both new and old thanks so much Chips.
Thanks Chips. :)
Always explaining things slowly, carefully, like a friend who really cares about you understanding
I appreciate these so much
Too bad most people in tech explain things like you're an idiot, just because you're interested and _gasp_ asked a question.
I like it explained dumbly.
I hate that other Techy-Fancy-type of video that assumes you know everything about PC and briefly explained everything in under 3 minutes.
If I could understand what they are doing in 3 minutes I wouldn't need them.
It's one thing to explain it carefully, and at a slow pace. It's just plain meanness when the RTFM crowd treats you like a moron, just because you asked a question.
This video was most helpful for an upgrade to a 2009 PC. Although this was a highly specified PCSpecialist model, it had become very sluggish.
I replaced the WD 300GB VelociRaptor hard drive with a Crucial MX500 500GB SSD, £50.19 from Amazon. The improvement in performance is remarkable and the PC is now usable and responsive. Thank you, Chris, for your helpful and instructive videos.
Sounds like a great result! Thanks for sharing here.
Crikey, that was GREAT! Someone recommended I do this to my current, quite aged PC, but my lack of confidence in all things technical has prevented me from even thinking of it. Not any more!! This is exactly the kind of clear, comprehensible instructions I've been looking for -- thank you so much!
After having watched your video I finally worked up the courage to try and fit a 240 Gb ssd to my old HP 3010 which is probably about 10 or 12 years old. I followed your instructions to the letter , constantly thinking that something would go wrong at any moment. Nothing did !. Your instructions were clear and concise and my old pc has a new lease of life. I may even try and build a pc from scratch, following your instructions of course. Many thanks !!.
This is great to hear. Your PC has a new lease of life, and you have done something new that will change how you look at a computer. :)
"Cable management", says the guy who blu tacks a drive to the case. Just messing with you Chris, we love you really.
I said that you *could* Blu Tack the drive to the case . . . :)
My cable management is a black cover so you can't see the mess inside, I leave my ssd's flapping in the breeze.
TH-cam comment section cable management goals: short, straight runs. No kinks or twist. Minimal visual exposure. No cables intersecting or tangles.
My cable management goals: I hope I can manage to stuff all these cables into this case without leaving any of the panels off.
@@DenisKz - * SSDs.
If you use blue tack, you've no need for cables and therefore there's no cable management. Just saying.
Love seeing these incremental upgrades, reminds of when I was a student, having used laptops for ages I once again wanted a desktop, but with very little funds I put together a low end system using a mix of 2nd hand parts from ebay, new ones and a donated gpu from a friend. Over the next year or two I upgraded that system part by part until it was a decent mid-range system, it was fun seeing how much performance I'd gained from each new part in the system.
That's the beauty of a desktop, the modularity.
@@offspringfan89 That's why people also loved the older thinkpads, they were so upgradable. The new ones now have very little that is upgradable.
Mr. Christopher Barnatt , you are a true legend Sir ! - I was about to upgrade my old laptop with a SSD - it has a free slot for an extra drive and also the HDD is partitioned as shown in your video. With the lockdown here in Greece where i live, it is difficult to find a repair shop to do the job for me. So i decided i should do it myself - and learn something in the process - Thank You Very Much and best wishes from Greece !👍
Explaining computers and, as the the name suggests, Mr. Christopher Barnatt is the absolute expert for this job.
Just a note: avoid using twist ties in a pc. They can wear out in time and expose the metal part on the inside. If they fall off they could possibly short something
I cannot imagine how one will wear out in situ, but certainly a worn twist tie may present a potential hazzard.
Agreed been using wire ties for years never seen one cause any damage , but if your that scared use cable zip ties or pvc tape it doesn't really matter it's not that important
In IT I don't think I ever used plastic/paper coated metal center twist ties (different from nylon only flexible twist cable ties...the ones with the little balls at the ends) where bundling a lot of heavy wires together was better using UV protected nylon zip strips but even for small wire bundles. In some applications, potential issues of rust and loosening/degrading of covering material from heat/light, etc can leave exposed metal that could cause major problems. However, as long as you are not applying too much stress to the cables being held, the tie is not too tight, and the PC is going to be in a relatively stable environment plastic (never EVER paper imo) coated metal twist ties should last, and be okay, for the typical lifetime of a home PC, though care should be taken and checked each time the PC is cleaned. IF wires held together are not in a stable environment, have the potential to be exposed to UV (like some lighting kits of old or subjected to sunlight), need to be tight, and are heavy or considerable size then alternatives would be better suited.
I have to agree. I have been working in IT and doing PC repair for 30 some odd years. I actually have on one or two occasions seen the ties with a metal conductor in them cause shorts. Zip ties can be used, as seen in the video, if not done carefully can cause issues as well. And the thing that bothers me most about zip ties is that I always seem to have to remove them when I don't have any wire snips readily available. So I'll use zip ties in a pinch but like Chris, I prefer to use velcro straps. The nylon twists are handy as well but I never have them around when I need them.
I only use velcro cable ties. They are reusable and have no risk of shorts.
Christopher, Mother Earth owes you a big one. With your videos, I also was able to bring back from the brink a computer almost everybody had written off as junk. Nobody had the skills and the courage to do anything with it. Watching your videos gave me the needed confidence and knowledge to try something. With an investment of only $70 (for new RAM and an ssd) that piece of junk is running like a charm. After reading the comments here, you have saved many computers from ending in landfill somwhere.
Thank you
Even though I've built hundreds of PC's at work & for myself I'm still loving this series it's great to know older machines are still getting used 👍
You mean my pc?
@@TechDeviceFixerCZ No, Os 🤣🤣
Well I only saw this (2 years later) but I am blown away by your work - love your sense of humour. Keep it up!
Your videos style feels so old-fashioned and I'm not complaining
:)
I like the "old style" presentation. It's clear, concise, and to the point.
I do *not* like TH-cam presenters who ramble for 10 minutes before getting to the point of the video and who don't appear to have given much thought to what they're trying to say. It gives the impression they're not actually clear on what they're trying to achieve, or indeed, know what they're talking about.
That calm and methodical style is very reassuring to the less experienced (and older) tinkerer such as myself. A bit like armed forces basic training, teach the essential knowledge required for the task and give a path for more development for those with the interest / capacity to learn.
I like the style and the intro
everything is professional and the video is very useful
@@ExplainingComputers we love that, don't change your style.
I just finished upgrading my 6 year old PC by swapping the old HDD for a new SSD, and couldnt have done it without this video. Thank you!
Great to hear! :) It is always a good upgrade.
This was a very well-presented video. I did something like this to my vintage 2014 HP Core i3 desktop PC. It came with a 1 TB Western Digital Blue HDD. I used a Crucial 1 TB SDD. It came with a limited version of Acronis True Image, for the cloning step. I used a USB to SATA interface cable, and ran the cloning step via USB, with the SSD drive outside the cabinet, and then shut down and installed the SSD in place of the HDD. I kept the HDD as a disaster recovery item. If the SSD fails, I can reinstall the HDD and have very little down time. One thing I would recommend to anyone doing this - use a high-capacity SSD. I wish I had gone with a 2 TB drive. With the improved performance (SSD + a previous RAM upgrade), now the desktop is very capable of running VM's. I have both VMware Workstation 15 Player and Oracle VM VirtualBox. This lets me play around with various Linux distros, and things like Windows Servers (which expire because they are not licensed, but can be re-created).
You are a great teacher and I love the way you use old computers and get good performance without throwing out usable machine and making e-waste.
After watching part one and two i agree with you. The upgrade to maxx ram and a ssd and better grafics card made the pc (same motherboard as in your case) very capable for home use. Fast enough to surf the internet, do office work and watch youtube. Saved me a lot of money. The upgrade was cheaper than buying a new machine.
Thank you very much Chris, you really helped me finally upgrading my pc! Keep up the great work!
Thanks for your support -- and I'm glad things worked out with your upgrade.
4:40 when it comes to mounting an ssd to this kind of a bay I just screw it to one side and it sort of floats there but I had no issues so far. Taping is a good idea too.
Absolutely! Four screws to secure the drive in the bay will only be advantageous in the case of nearby explosions, earthquake or tornado. Of course, this is also an excellent way to dispose of extra screws, or a nifty way to store screws for use elsewhere in the future. Brilliant!
I had now a bunch of SSDs laying aroung with twisted cables - as I do not have a case
No issues
This video of yours was the one I followed to do my hard drive upgrade. After watching several instructional videos by others I chose to use your method with your clear and concise instruction. I didn't even know a CD-ROM drive has the same connectors as a hard drive! Very much appreciated.
I just wanted to say thanks for this video as it helped clear up a misconception I had about SATA compatibility, and allowed me to finally upgrade my own PC's storage. The clear step-by-step was what I needed, and now my rig boots in literally half the time. So nice.
A new drive is always a prime opportunity to do a fresh install. Nothing like the minty fresh feeling you get with a clean Windows install.
I just have to say this is the best instructional video I’ve saw on TH-cam. On my way to browse through your channel after watching this video. Thank you for being very thorough and not skipping the small details!!!
Wow, thanks!
Thank you for yet another great video. I got inspired by this video, and decided to replace a 120Gb SSD with a 500GB SSD due to lack of storage in my laptop. Downloaded Macrium Reflect and startet the task. Just wanted to share some highlights of my upgrade, so here it goes.
Tried to clone reserved partition and system partition from old SSD, with no success. Got "Error 0" and "Error 6" repeatedly. Tried Clonecilla, with the same result. Tried to take out old SSD and clone in a second computer. Same result. Ticked off "VSS error ignore", and made an image of the old SSD. Wrote this image to new SSD - could not boot on device. Went sour and left everything. Next day, tried to make a new image of entire old SSD (reserved partition, C partition and D partition). No result. In desperation - tried running "chkdsk C: /r". That took 45 minutes of fingernail-biting and a rising convince that everything went down the drain. But blessed be.... chkdsk C: /r apparently made the trick. I unticked "VSS error ignore", successfully made an image of reserved and C partion, restored this to new SSD, put the disk back into the laptop - and it startet up like the first dawn of day.
Sorry to hear that you had such a trauma -- but great to hear that it worked in the end! :)
Just a little note if I may: always patch Macrium if you get the notification on initial start-up of the program. This updates bug fixes and other stuff they’ve improved on the program for optimal performance. Thanks for the very straightforward and informative videos!
I was wanting to upgrade my small 120gb hard drive to a bigger SSD drive but having no extra cables to clone to the new drive I was stumped until I stumbled across your site showing the simple method of borrowing the DVD cabled brilliant BIG THANKS WORKED SUPER
SSD and more RAM are the best upgrades for an old PC. A couple of strips of velcro is my preferred SSD mounting method.🙂
Very well explained!! I wish I had found this video 1 week earlier... After cloning my PC did not boot from SSD, MBR was missing... Windows could not repair so I ended up installing a fresh windows on the SSD... Thanks for this!
The pacing and accent of Chris' speech during the intro and outro is hypnotic.
Part of an old (only in career terms!) lecturer's tool kit to keep the class focused.
BRILLIANT! The whole process is so well explained with spoken instructions and graphic representation. There are many who could learn from this presentation!
Did this today and it worked great! Doubled the ram too! My wife is happy with the upgrade! Thank you!
Great to hear -- congratulations on your successful upgrade! :)
I've had to do this twice in the last month at my work due to Windows 10's recent updates being too heavy and intensive for old HDDs on old Dell office computers. I should have watched this first, I ended up going with a fresh windows install instead of using Reflect. But thank you nonetheless, this is an exceptionally helpful video to bring new life into old machines for very little $$ investment. No frills, no sponsors, just straight good information and wonderfully simple explanation.
The Macrium tutorial addressed questions I've had.. practically all my life about replacing a hard drive : )
OMG OMG OMG... it worked. Had a "Hard Drive Failure Imminent" warning on my 4-year old (but otherwise fantastic) HP Envy Phoenix 810-209. All diagnostics confirmed it was a hardware problem, so I followed Mr. Barnatt's crystal-clear instructions and replaced the failing 128 GB operating system drive with a Kingston 480 GB solid-state drive ($45 Canadian). Worked PERFECTLY! Thank you to Mr. Barnatt and Mr. Scissors! 😀
Sounds like a great result! :)
I just upgraded to an SSD Drive on my old Linux machine and it boots much more quickly. I got an old SSD from a work computer they were recycling and I'm glad I did!
I updated my Lenovo T430 to SSD quite some time back, but more recently I upgraded the CPU and Memory along with a better heatsink/fan combo ( yeah this is Linux also ). I did have a question also with the clone and that is could you not use a bootable / live linux image and just do a raw dd from sdx to sdx from the win32 drive to the SSD then when booted use the windows partition tools to resize if required?.
@@sethrd999 i think that would be hard because the windows bootloader is looking for the drive before. On laptop i removed the windows partition but saved the files, regretted it, made a new windows partition with the same data, wouldn't boot.
Maybe some recovery mode with install media ?
It's amazing how fast an SSD makes an old computer.
I have a 7 year old Laptop which was slow as F. This thing would take 10 minutes to start up and 5 minutes to load chrome.
I have to mention I didn't know anything about computers so I didn't know where to even start.
I came across a video on TH-cam which talked about data migration and SSDs. Decided to give it a try and you could see the difference that new SSD makes.
Start up takes about 30 seconds and chrome opens up as soon as I finish clicking the left click a second time.
Night and day difference.
Confidence is everything for a non-techie like me - Thank you Christopher for a splendid video. Job done!
I like that you used an ESD wrist cable so many people think it is not necessary , thank you for that really helps .
This is a rather nice channel. No nonsense, just what was promised. It gets straight to the point, and the point is explained well. Thank you.
uskptrpuffr
I just had to comment thanking you for this wonderful tutorial. Even though this tutorial is 2 years old, the steps were very clear and Macrium Reflect has only changed just a bit 😂. I am completely blown away by the results. My computer is running at least twice as fast before. Thank you Chris!
Thanks, and great to hear that things worked for you. :)
All points made sense to me and I think while you are inside the PC case it's always a good idea to take best measures and fit things correctly as demonstrated as this can save unseen problems in the long run and are best avoided. The 'diskpart' facility was also a good measure and good to be aware of. Another very good video. Thanks for uploading - Liked.
Thank you for this excellent video. I'm not computer savvy at all but I got TH-cam certified with this video and successfully cloned my hard drive to a new SSD. I did away with the HDD all together and now my little desktop is lightning fast.
Thank you so much!
Great to hear of your success. :)
I would not use twist ties for cable management as they are metallic and if they move or you don't notice one touching the motherboard the potential for shorting or even completely frying you mother board is high.
Absolutely, I bought a bunch of velcro strips from ebay and have started using them for all sorts of cable management.
Same, i used some zipties
Aren't they covered in some rubbery material for insulation ?
In any case, a velcro sounds better
I was having heart palpitations all the way to the end thinking about this. Come on Christopher, get your head in the game, lol.
@@YounesLayachi Yes, but wire is exposed at the end points and if you touch something with each end, you have a connection. I've a few twist ties to remove myself, but they really aren't a good idea, IMO.
Thank you for this simple and clear video. I have now updated two desktops and one laptop and all three are running like new again. I was about to junk all three before I thought I would give TH-cam a chance to convince me otherwise.
I had zero experience before this so your video has been awesome. Saved lots of money and now a happy household too!
This sounds like an exccelent result -- or three! :) TH-cam is working.
A very big THANK to you, dear, sir, for this very good and excellent tutorial on how to upgrade to a new faster SSD cloned disk! Wishing you both safety and health during these perilous times we are in globally! Best Regards from Sweden!
Great video! I still have my old PC 1 GHz, 128 MB RAM, 30 GB hard Drive, running Windows XP. It was a good friend back in the days.
This tutorial is basically straight forward and very easy to understand by the people like me with the basic knowledge about computer..Thank you so much, it really helps a lot.
Before seeing this, I had just fumbled through this process on my own. The fumbling took a day or two and was risky. This video is very good and useful. Your diskpart video was critical to my success.
I love upgrading to SSDs in older PCs or Laptops for friends and relatives who are not as tech savy because its like magic for them :D
You have just saved me so much stress. All other tech channels really over complicate it, perhaps to seem smarter. But your tutorial helped me instal a new SSD I've been struggling to figure out how to do for ages. Thanks a bunch!
Great to hear!
Good to see Mr. Scissors making a guest appearance. Another great video thanks
I was given an old PC from 2009. As soon as I got it I did this:
• Installed an SSD, they're quite cheap these days
• Upgraded the RAM from 2GB of RAM to 4GB
• Repasted the CPU
Running well with Linux Mint MATE on it
A cup of tea, cat on the lap and ExplainingComputers. Sundays are great.
I literally paused the video, downloaded macrium reflect and ordered a SSD which will be here tomorrow. Fabulous
Wow! That is decisive action! :) Good luck with your SSD.
Thank you, Sir! Among all the videos I've watched on this subject, yours is the most comprehensive. I didn't have to search other videos to find how to do this or that as it answers all my concerns.
Padayon! From the Philippines!
Chris, just terrific, in depth, thorough and easy to follow. Very nice job as usual. I have done this same thing on *many* notebooks and desktop PC's, and ALWAYS got a good result, well worth the time and effort. But I have never used Macrium Reflect. A new find for me !!! Thanks so much for this. Well Done !!!
This is great. I'm about a year into I.T. as a career change(had been let go from a different industry two years ago and didn't know where to turn). Learning everything I can like a sponge. Ordered an SSD for my 2014 Dell Inspiron. Trying to salvage it before buying a new one.
Sounds right up my alley! Love upgrading old PCs and Macs with an SSD, and seeing it boot up like a new system.
Worked like a charm - upgraded a WD Black 500GB drive to a Samsung 870 EVO - took all of 45 minutes start to finish.
It's Zippity-do-dah fast - Noticeable decrease in booting up time and loading windows.
Many Thanks!
Great to hear. You can't go wrong with a Samsung EVO. :)
More Ben-Hur length videos!
I have experience in simple upgrades like this, but I always appreciate your videos due to your software recommendations that I may not have been previously aware of.
Thank you!
Fantastic, just upgraded my old Dell 560 with a new SSD 1Tb, followed your instructions to the letter and BINGO! It worked just like your video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Great to hear! :) This is what TH-cam is all about.
SSDs do bring boost to PCs. Great video for someone who wants to upgrade their old PC.
Thanks Chris for your helpful video. I plan to do this upgrade to my older computer that has 4 mechanical drives. I'll add the SSD for the OS. I'll put the SSD in the bay that used to house a thing called a 3.5" floppy drive! lol.
I'm an advanced user and even use diskpart from time to time but learned today about the "clean" option. That is a time saver! Thanks for sharing! Also one of the big benefits besides the transfer speeds with SSD over HHD is the seek time. That will also make the system feel much snappier than the much slower HDD.
2:45 Great video, Christopher. Straight to the point and no filler.
I’m really triggered about how close that utility knife is to your hand as you are opening the box. I’ve seen some horrendous cuts when knives are not closed or resheathed.
A wonderfully comprehensive guide on replacing the SSD. Quite nifty learning about the free software. Thanks!
Splendid video. I just cloned a 1TB hard drive in my 2009 HP desktop onto a new Crucial SSD drive, what an amazing difference in speed. Couldn't have done it without your help. Thank you.
Great to hear!
I’m off to drag my old desktop computer out of the closet and open it up! Looking forward to your next video.
Honestly installing a SSD in my old PC was a revelation. So much speed increase.
I just did this for my wife's laptop. So much faster than the old HD. This is a great way to boost an aging computer!
I think that we can all agree that the star of the show was Mr. Scissors
Thank you! I have a 14 year old PC, not dissimilar to yours in this video. It was taking over 6 minutes to boot up. After finding your series of upgrade videos, I have successfully gone from 4GB of RAM to 16GB and installed an SSD. My PC just booted up in 1 minute. I was doubtful I'd be able to do any of this myself, but your calm and clear instructions gave me the confidence to give it a go. I'm so happy!
Wow! This is great to hear. I'm sure that the extra RAM and SSD will give you a much better computing experience. :)
After watching this even the inexperienced like me feels confident cloning drives in the future :D
Thank you
Thank you for this video. Today I upgraded the computer of my father with an m2 ssd. This video was very helpfull. The computer is very quick again and my father is very happy. All data was saved in the cloning process. Thank you!
Great to hear!
Thanks for the clone utility, been looking for one.
When I upgraded my PC to SSD, I created a Temp directory on the reformatted old hard disk and pointed TMP and TEMP environment variables to it. That reduces the writes to the SSD to a minimum. It also puts all the temp file in one place and makes cleaning out easy to find.
Great idea! That would be a great topic for a video!
Excellent point about disconnecting the old hard drive. Something I've always done because I've heard of some PCs getting confused, causing all sorts of mayhem.
Ah, great! Part two in this series. Love these "upgrade your old PC"-videos.
Christopher - Hi ! I JUST came across this one AGAIN , and its very timely for ME , as I plan to resurrect an older PC that has some older programs IDEAL for a particular application I have in mind . It was wonderful to experience your simple, no nonsense but light-hearted approach and I look forward to successfully completing this task soon .
I hope this finds you doing well !
ALL the _BEST_ from Texas ! -
- Chuck .
Greetigs! :) Good luck.
Doing a binge watch of this episode and the next.. Been a tough week but, chilling with some Explaining Computers - a Sunday evening entertainment staple!
Very helpful. I’m in the process of upgrading an old PC. I haven’t done anything like this since around 1989.
Good luck! :)
First of all I wanna give you many many thanks, this video is very important to me. God bless you & your family with your all surrounding people.
Thank you so much for this video ! I did everything has you show and it work wonderfully !!! My dad’s pc wasn’t usable anymore, I upgraded it from 4 to 16gb of ram and put a 240gb ssd in place of the 1tb hdd (using like you the cd reader cables!) that thing is now a beast ! It cost me 50€ in total saving a few hundred euros for my dad, I couldn’t be happier! Now it just need a heavy dust cleaning and that i5 6400 will be running better than never 😊
This great to hear -- a fantastic result! :)
I think Stanley “The Knife” is my favourite guest star on this channel.
Stanley is NOT a guest. He is part of the Core Team!
After years of managing large numbers of PCs, I've developed the habit of only putting 2 screws into hard disk drives, the 2 on the side nearest to the top opening. It's always been enough and it saves having to take both sides of the case out. When most of the HDDs were 3.5", I always thought that a bit of flex would do no harm in protecting against shock. With 2.5" drives and SSDs, 2 screws are plenty. With good cases, 2 screws are very often adequate for CD-ROM drives as well.
Thanks, by the way, for your stream of excellent videos.
Sunday’s EC video ok. Now it is time to Get Up. Thank you Chris for such a good stuff.
Thanks so much -- using your video as a guide, I switched out my old hard drive for a Samsung SSD, and the difference --- wow! My PC no longer has to "warm up" but comes on instantly and reacts right away. it's like having a whole new PC. I'd have never had the confidence if I hadn't followed your instructions! (Although i have to say, the inside of my machine was a lot, lot more crowded than the one you use!) Thanks again.
Great to hear! Sounds like an excellent result.
That case brought back memories of my primary schools PCs. Thanks for bringing back some memories! :)
One of the best, if not the best tutorial of this type on YT. Excellent work sir
This video could not have come at a better time for me. THANK YOU.
I would like to thank you for your great Chanel. It is only because of you that I gave new life to my 13.5 years old pc . Now it’s perfect. Thank you. Love your TH-cam channel
Great to hear!
No matter how old is your pc, but SSD is a mandatory.
Tell that to my win95 pc!
latitude d630 wants ssd to stay alive in 2021 now he show about the cloning and partions.
@@ozmobozo That's nothing, I have a 80486 laptop with a SSD.
@@ozmobozo actually old pcs that runs w95 only needs cf card since the computer limits the disk size. lexar 800x cf card is more than enough.
Technically CF cards are SSDs but at the different form factor
I like to keep my old pentium and below computers equipped with hard drives. Yeah they're slower, but you don't get an authentic old computer experience without a clattering clunking hard drive!
*Zip ties work perfectly fine.* Just because you don't have the right tool for the job handy doesn't mean they are at fault. Use a pair of wire cutters (or strippers) and if you don't want to "risk" cutting a wire, cut at the head of the zip tie and not its length. This is particularly easy with adjustable V-groove strippers. Zero danger to the wire.
Mr Scissors! 😁 So it’s not just me who says stuff like that. This just came up in my recommendations with perfect timing. I’m busy upgrading a desktop right now.
Mr. Scissors and Stanley the Knife, the two other guys who make up that criminal gang (Chris is the brains behind the whole operation).
@@boink800 Not forgetting Philip the Screwdriver.
I got hydraulic Jack out the back. He’ll lift anything not bolted down.
Wonderful, Did the SSD upgrade for my very old spare (still useful) Acer Aspire 32 bit Laptop now just upgraded it to Zorin 15 lite, all done watching and following your easy to follow step by step fantastic tutorials, It now has a new lease of life, Next will be upgrading my older all-in-one desktop when the new RAM arrives. Thank you, Chris.
I like your old school style, to teach modern computer science.
I purchased a SSD drive and cloned it and replaced my HHD drive in my Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop and followed your video and had no issues. Went to SupportAssist and used the tools in this program from Dell and ran the test on Laptop no issues found. I did find the laptop boots up faster and going to programs on the computer come up faster as well. Great video. I've been a subscriber for quite awhile now as you know. Also, I've been using computers and working on them since Windows For Workgroups with DOS 6.2, telling on myself now, lol
Just discovered your channel. Very informative and effective for someone who wants to update a 10 yr old PC.