#Clone hard drive to ssd after install install#

You get to set it the way you want, and only install what you want. No old program installations hanging around it's a fresh copy of your OS without the clutter. The big one is that you get to start fresh. There are also advantages to just performing a clean installation of your operating system on your new drive. You can go that way with a desktop, too, but it may be easier just to install the new drive, do the transfer, and then decide whether to leave the old drive in place for extra storage or uninstall it. If you use a laptop, you'll need to use a USB-based SATA adapter or enclosure so that you can have both drives hooked up at once. Getting more storage on an SSD will be more important to most people than getting more speed. So you might not want to splurge on the fastest SSD you can get. The default answer here is 'as fast as you can afford.' That said, if you're upgrading from a hard drive to an SSD, you're going to be blown away by the speed increase no matter what. More storage costs more money, no matter what type of drive you're looking at.

This one's easy: whatever fits your budget. Laptops don't use SATA cables, so just make sure that the drive you're upgrading to uses the same SATA revision or newer than the drive it's replacing. The same goes for the SATA cable you buy. On desktops, you'll want to make sure that the drive you're buying is as fast or faster than the connection that your motherboard accepts - most motherboard SATA connections from the last five years have at least 3.0 support. The latest revision to the SATA standard is SATA 3.3, and drives and cables are backwards compatible with older versions. You'll usually be able to plug the drive right into a slot that already has the power and data connections ready - no cables to connect. If you're installing into a laptop that allows user access, things are easier.