Do you have a slow computer? Would you like to increase the speed of your computer by upgrading its storage device? You may not know it is easy to copy your data onto an SSD and maintain its integrity. You only need a few simple steps and a little time.
SSDs Offer a Speed Advantage
Hard disks are traditionally based on motors and mechanical components. Data read-write processes are slow due to the spinning magnetic disks, and moving heads. SSDs, on the other hand are electronic devices that do not have any moving parts. They use flash memory chips, which are similar to non-volatile RAM. SSDs are faster than hard disks.
Compare the disk speeds of these two devices. Hard disks are typically capable of read/write speeds around 100 Mbps. The fastest hard drives can reach 300 Mbps.
Crystal Diskmark Speed Test result for a SATA HDD
SSDs connected to the same SATA interface are capable of read/write speeds up to 500 Mbps.
005-2 Crystal Diskmark speed test result for a SATA SSD Moreover there are newer devices such as M.2NVMe that utilize PCIe lanes, including PCIe3, PCIe4, and PCIe5. These devices are faster than even the fastest SATA options. The devices can reach read/write speeds up to 3000 Mbps.
Test result of the Crystal Diskmark speed test on an M.2 SSD
The processor and RAM run at much faster speeds than the hard drive. The slower storage devices, however, create a bottleneck and cause data starvation. Linux operating systems display this as IO Wait. Upgrade your hard drive to an SSD to speed up your system.
What are the benefits of faster storage for your operating system?
You’ll see that the 1M chunks are larger files and the 4K chunks are smaller files like OS files, browser information, or other files. The smaller files are accessed more often than the larger ones. SSDs are significantly faster at reading and writing these files than hard drives. The overall performance of your computer is improved significantly when you install the operating system on an SSD.
Comparing the read/write speed of SSD and Hard disk for small files
A spinning HDD has a seek time of around 20ms, while an SSD takes only 1ms. SSDs have a distinct advantage due to this significant difference. A lower data latency results in a more responsive computing experience.
It is therefore a good idea to use an SSD as the operating system. If you are considering an SSD, it’s often faster and easier to clone your HDD onto the SSD than migrate all of your data.、
How to Clone Disks without a Computer
A dual HDD/SSD Dock is the easiest way to clone disks. Most dual docks include a built-in function for cloning. Insert the HDD in the Source bay, and the SSD in the Target bay. The cloning will start when you press the button for a long time. The amount of time it takes to clone a drive is dependent on the size of the HDD that you are using as a source.
Wavlink dual disk cloner, with SSD as the target and hard drive in the source.
Clonezilla: How to Clone your Hard Disk into an SSD
Clonezilla, a free drive cloning program that is OS independent, is available for all operating systems.
You will need an adapter or cable to connect your new SSD as the hard drive is already attached.
The process is fairly simple if you’re using a desktop. Connect the SSD using a spare SATA connector (or a brand new one). Insert the M.2 NVMe into your device’s motherboard slot if you are using it.
When cloning an existing HDD on a laptop the process is more complicated, since laptops usually only have one SATA cable that’s already attached to it. You will need to use a USB-SATA adapter in such cases. Insert the M.2 NVMe into the slot.
It is best to choose the M.2 NVMe over a SATA drive due to the significantly faster speed. This is despite the minor price difference.
- Clonezilla ISO Image Download First, download the Clonezilla ISO. Use software such as Rufus to burn the ISO image onto a USB drive. Rufus can create bootable USB devices, including those that are compatible with UEFI BIOS.
- Connect your New SSD and Enter BIOS Connect your new SSD alongside the hard drive you wish to clone. The SSD should be larger than the hard drive. Depending on the configuration of your machine, you can use a SATA slot, USB to SATA Adapter or M.2NVMe slot. Connect the bootable Clonezilla USB Pen Drive and turn on the computer. Depending on your BIOS, you can access the BIOS settings by pressing F2 or DEL. Configure your BIOS so that it prioritizes booting the USB pendrive. Save your changes and exit BIOS.
- Clonezilla is a great tool to clone your SSD. Once you are inside Clonezilla you will see a variety of options.
- Select the device-device selection since you will be cloning a hard drive to an SSD.
- Choose the disk_to_local_disk choice if both disks are connected on the same computer.
- Choose the Source Disk (hard disk) and then, in the next screen, select the Target Disk (your SSD).
- In most cases, it is sufficient to skip the check step.
- You can choose to use the table of partitions from the original disk. The partition can be expanded later, instead of proportionally increasing the size. This will prevent you from wasting space on partitions that are fixed in size, like the Windows Recovery partition.
- Click on the “Confirm” button to begin cloning.
- Clonezilla copies the entire disk regardless of how many files are on it. The amount of time it takes to complete a cloning depends on three factors: the size of the disk, the speed at which the SSD can be written, and the speed with which the hard drive can read. Basic SSDs can write 500 Mbps while fast hard disks are capable of reading 300 Mbps. The read speed of the HDD is the technical limiter for the total transfer rate.
- Restart the computer after the cloning process is complete.
- You can access the BIOS and select the SSD as your first boot device. You’ll notice that the boot time has been reduced significantly and your computer is more responsive.
If you’re on a budget and only have the option of buying new RAM, or an SSD instead, choose SSD. It will give you a noticeable performance boost.
