I would need your help, or advice please. The hard drive of my Sony Vaio notebook has become very-very slow. I'm considering buying an external USB hard drive (for example, the Samsung SSD T5 500 GB) and replacing the internal hard drive. Would that be possible and feasible? Could I transfer the operating system and other programs to the external drive without reinstalling? If so, how should I proceed? Would you recommend the Samsung SSD T5? The hard drive is relatively expensive, is there an adequate replacement that you could recommend to me?
If you install the operating system on the external hard drive, then yes.
Maybe it should, but could not you install a new hard drive? Otherwise, you may accidentally pull them out during operation.
The notebook is used only stationary and always stays in place. Thus there's no danger that the external hard disk will be accidentally disconnected. In addition, a complete Windows 10 reinstallation would be problematic, because the notebook was originally shipped with Windows 7, due to the then free upgrade to Windows 10, parts of Windows 7 are still available, which are necessary for the function. A pure Windows 10 installation would not be feasible. Therefore, the entire system would have to somehow be cloned to the new disk first. An installation would certainly be advantageous, but technically I can't do that unfortunately.
Cloning will definitely work, but I can't give you step by step instructions. Search on the Internet afterwards, individual requests, I can answer you gladly.
Thank you, that would certainly be helpful. In the internet, I've already read something about this. So I know that cloning with a program should be possible and takes about 8 hours. Should I take a SSD hard drive or is a "normal" USB hard drive enough? When I have finished cloning the external hard drive, how can I make the settings so that the notebook uses the external rather than the internal hard drive?
SSD hard disks are much more expensive but also a much faster. For that she slowly loses capacity over the years. If your laptop is really only stationary, you can also use a HDD, otherwise you should be careful because HDDs are very sensitive to shocks.
You have to do this in the BIOS, you can do that during startup. How exactly depends on the device, because you have to send me the exact name.
Yes, the notebook is used only stationary, stands on a Zalman fan. An HDMI cable connects to an external Sony SDM-P234 monitor. In bed and on the road, I use a tablet and smartphone. The cause of the problem probably lies in the fact that I have over long years via an external digital USB TV stick constantly selected TV shows recorded to watch when I have time. This probably affected the internal hard drive. Since about one and a half years I use for an external 500 GB USB hard drive. I use this HDD only for the TV recordings, when the HDD is full, then everything is deleted and begin the recordings from scratch. Unfortunately that was too late for the internal hard drive. It is the Sony Vaio VGN-FW54M.
In this file https://www.sony.de/electronics/support/res/manuals/Z018/Z018965111.PDF the following information can be found:
How can I change the order of boot devices?
You can change the boot device order with a BIOS option. Proceed as follows:
Turn the computer on. If you have your new hard drive with operating system on it, you need to connect it to the laptop and then follow this guide. So you can set which, when connected, always their operating system is started.
Wait for the VAIO logo to display and press the F2 key. The BIOS setup screen will be displayed. If not, restart the computer. Once the VAIO logo is displayed, press the F2 key several times.
Use the
Use the M or m button to select the device to which you want to assign priority and press Enter.
Use the
Thank you for your research. The manual is really great. Surprisingly, this detailed manual was not included in the documentation, just a quick guide and a short summary for troubleshooting. I have now downloaded the manual, there I can read everything.
I have now come across the UGREEN hard drive enclosure 2.5 inch USB C 3.1 Gen 2 on SATA III housing for HDD. This case costs 15 euro and supposedly you can simply insert an internal hard drive and use it as a USB hard drive. Can you please recommend a good and cheap internal hard drive that would fit in both my notebook and in this case of UGREEN? Thus, I would have the opportunity to install this hard drive internally if I should have a technician later on hand. As long as I can use it as a normal USB hard drive. Do you know this case from UGREEN? Would that be a good alternative with an internal hard drive? Many many thanks! You have helped me a lot.
I would not like to give you an exact buy recommendation, because I do not know so well yet and would like to bear no responsibility.
Unfortunately, I have not found any information about which hard drives fit into your laptop. According to the description of the case on Ebay go 2.5 inch hard drives with SATA 3 port and a maximum of 9.5mm. Looks good, could you try it?
Something like that could fit: https://www.reichelt.de/2-5-hdd-500gb-wd-blue-wd5000lpcx-p162629.html?&trstct=pol_0
I found a datasheet: https://diskontcomputer.com/datenblatt/Sony_Notebook_VAIO_VGN-FW54M___Intel_C2D_P745_DC_0477230_001.pdf here is the following note: 500 GB hard drive capacity (SATA, 5400 rpm).
About the device manager, I could find out that the following drive is installed: Toshiba MK5055GSX
On this page are some details about it. The information may be helpful: https://www.pcwelt.de/...18976.html Is there a comparable drive?
As it already stands that this is not so fast, a new one seems to make sense.
It says here that the hard disk is 9.5mm high: https://www.heise.de/...92242.html. That is, plates that fit into the case fit into your laptop as well.
Exactly this altitude information was missing to me. Now everything seems to fit.
Many thanks for your time and help. Should there be a question, I'll come back to you.
Thank you for everything and wish you a nice rest evening!
Jo no problem. Did not do anything else the whole day than to answer questions with your girlfriend because we're hobby-less. I would like to get back to you.
I would need your help again, please. I have the SSD drive built into the USB enclosure and connected. Unfortunately, the drive does not appear under "this PC". In Device Manager, the SSD drive is listed under Device works fine, but with the remark "not migrated". What could be the reason? How could I make the SSD drive "migrated"?
It might be that you still need to install drivers for it, in the Device Manager there should even be the option "search for device drivers". Otherwise, you can sometimes look on the manufacturer side.
