Today I received a 250GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD to replace a broken hard drive in an HP Laptop. I will be installing the new SSD into the laptop and re-installing Windows 8 to get this computer back up and running.
The Solid State Drive
This drive was purchased from Amazon for about $100. It includes a 5 year warranty, and for the price seemed to be the best fit for this laptop. The user of this laptop did not require much storage space, but she does have some pictures and videos that she stores here first, then uploads to online services for printing, or for safe keeping. Because of this, we decided that a 250GB drive would work just fine.
Installation
1. Remove the battery from the laptop and ensure that the power cable is disconnected.
2. Loosen the screw that holds the bottom cover plate.
3. Apply pressure and slide the plate towards the front of the laptop.
4. Locate the existing hard disk drive and remove the two screws holding it in place.
5. Remove the SATA and Power combination connector
6. Remove the hard drive caddy from the old hard drive and apply it to the new SSD.
7. Attach the SATA and Power connector to the SSD, and place it back in the laptop using the two screws that were removed previously.
8. Place the bottom cover plate and side it towards the back of the laptop, then tighten the screw.
That’s it! The SSD is now installed. Now we can boot up the computer and be sure that the drive is recognized in the BIOS, change the boot order (if necessary) and install our Operating System.
If you need help installing the Operating System, or if you need instructions on creating a bootable USB Drive to install Windows, check out the other guides.
Samsung 250GB SSD on Amazon: http://goo.gl/N20bY2
