Should I replace hard disk in my laptop

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My Lenovo IdeaPad 320 laptop had problems mentioned here Reactivating apps after reinstall windows 10 I ran Seatool & crystal disk. Seatool has failed in short dst & long generic test. Crystal disk shows caution for 05, C5 and C6. Should I replace this HDD with another? Is it worth upgrading with SSD for more than 2 year old laptop with following specs? Does this model have provision to have both SSD & HDD?
Operating System
Windows 10 Home Single Language 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 7200U @ 2.50GHz 39 °C
Kaby Lake-U/Y 14nm Technology
RAM
12.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1064MHz (16-16-16-35)
Motherboard
LENOVO LNVNB161216 (U3E1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 620 (Lenovo)
4096MB ATI AMD Radeon 530 (Lenovo)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
931GB Seagate ST1000LM035-1RK172 (SATA ) 46 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

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If crystaldisk is showing warnings & status is yellow, then your HDD is indeed failing & there's no way of knowing when it will fail. It might work well for even a year or so as well, but with reduced performance & too much lags (observed in friend's laptops).

Upgrading to SSD is totally worth it. I added a 512GB SSD to a friend's laptop with i5 3rd gen & it was definitely seeing benefits. Your RAM size seems fine, so unless there's some other issue with your laptop, you can add a 2.5" 512GB SSD to your laptop, swapping with old HDD.

Checking this product page, your laptop seems to have a M.2 SATA SSD, so SSD + HDD seems possible. But confirm it by opening your laptop IMO. Some older laptops had provision for M.2 only in higher spec'd variant with empty space w/o slot in lower spec'd ones.

Top of the line 2.5" SATA SSD:
Amazon.in
Amazon.in

Top M.2 SATA SSD:
*www.amazon.in/Crucial-MX500-500GB-Type-2280/dp/B077SQ8J1V/

Budget M.2 SATA SSD:
*www.amazon.in/Western-Digital-480-Green-2280/dp/B07KYDYKQP/

250GB costs like 3k.

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@omega44-xt Thanks for advice, So far the issue is budget as I have older desktop which is planned to upgrade many components
You mean it may be possible to have M2 SSD with HDD in my laptop?

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My query is similar so not making another thread,

what is “1x M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x2” SSD? Is it SATA with m.2 slot or nvme with m.2 slot? My laptop spec only mentions this and nothing else like sata or nvme etc. it has caused lot of confusion.

in expansion slot they have written this, but in storage options they have written this “256GB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 3.0 SSD”

i have uploaded a screenshot for better clarification.

and the laptop model is Asus M509DA.

for some reason it seems asus did this so customer is forced to go to there service centre for upgrade

edit: i checked crucial’s site for finding compatible for my laptop, there it had “M.2 2280 nvme ssd” listed.

soorajdigit said:
@omega44-xt Thanks for advice, So far the issue is budget as I have older desktop which is planned to upgrade many components
You mean it may be possible to have M2 SSD with HDD in my laptop?

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Make sure you get M.2 SATA SSD, not NVMe, if your laptop mobo has free M.2 slot. If its present, maybe get a 256GB SSD.

RumbaMon19 said:
My query is similar so not making another thread,

what is “1x M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x2” SSD? Is it SATA with m.2 slot or nvme with m.2 slot? My laptop spec only mentions this and nothing else like sata or nvme etc. it has caused lot of confusion.

in expansion slot they have written this, but in storage options they have written this “256GB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 3.0 SSD”

i have uploaded a screenshot for better clarification.

View attachment 20359

and the laptop model is Asus M509DA.

for some reason it seems asus did this so customer is forced to go to there service centre for upgrade

edit: i checked crucial’s site for finding compatible for my laptop, there it had “M.2 2280 nvme ssd” listed.

Your laptop supports upto PCI 3.0 x2 SSD (NVMe). 2280 is the most common form factor for M.2. It may not support SATA M.2 though. I know its a mess, but as I said 2280 is the most common slot & you just need to look into SATA/NVMe, if NVMe then PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 (4 is expensive).

A PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe won't give its full speed on a PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD from what I know, unlike SATA or PCIe 4.0 SSDs which might not work at all. A PCIe 3,0 x2 SSDs can go upto 2000MBps (vs 3500MBps for 3.0 x4 & 5000MBps for PCIe 4.0), so no slouch for sure & enough for majority of users.

soorajdigit said:
My Lenovo IdeaPad 320 laptop had problems mentioned here Reactivating apps after reinstall windows 10 I ran Seatool & crystal disk. Seatool has failed in short dst & long generic test. Crystal disk shows caution for 05, C5 and C6. Should I replace this HDD with another? Is it worth upgrading with SSD for more than 2 year old laptop with following specs? Does this model have provision to have both SSD & HDD?
Operating System
Windows 10 Home Single Language 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 7200U @ 2.50GHz 39 °C
Kaby Lake-U/Y 14nm Technology
RAM
12.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1064MHz (16-16-16-35)
Motherboard
LENOVO LNVNB161216 (U3E1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 620 (Lenovo)
4096MB ATI AMD Radeon 530 (Lenovo)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
931GB Seagate ST1000LM035-1RK172 (SATA ) 46 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

Sent from my Redmi Note 9 Pro using Tapatalk

i have a 3 year old ideapad, pentium. its working fine, sister uses it a lot but now finds it slow so we have decided to get a ssd and additional 4gb ram to increase speed.
yours looks in a better condition. imho go for a ssd.

omega44-xt said:
you just need to look into SATA/NVMe, if NVMe then PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 (4 is expensive).

Is there any software for windows which detects all the ports and tell it?

The asus spec sheet is confusing, I went on crucial's site which says it is nvme, as nvme drives are compatible with my lappy.

What is your laptop model?

Watch few disassembling videos of that model. You will get a idea of what ports are available.

Is this the same model

khalil1210 said:
What is your laptop model?

Watch few disassembling videos of that model. You will get a idea of what ports are available.

It is Asus X509DA, In india it is sold as M509DA and has basically no difference.

I saw a few disassembly videos. But those confused me more.

Here Although it is not clear what is happening, it seems the guy is using M.2 SATA ssd(As it has 3 teeths) , but the title says it is nVME. I think you guys will be able to better tell it visually.

here is another video which is more clear

this a pic i took from above video. It seems it has 3 keys/teeths to it and looks like SATA ssd.

RumbaMon19 said:
Is there any software for windows which detects all the ports and tell it?

The asus spec sheet is confusing, I went on crucial's site which says it is nvme, as nvme drives are compatible with my lappy.

Open your laptop, will get the exact info. As I said, for some laptops higher spec variant has M.2 slot but lower ones don't, just free space there.

omega44-xt said:
Open your laptop, will get the exact info. As I said, for some laptops higher spec variant has M.2 slot but lower ones don't, just free space there.

I see. It does have a slot there, I can ensure that as I cleaned it 4 months before. This time I will also click pictures to confirm the type of port also.

RumbaMon19 said:
I see. It does have a slot there, I can ensure that as I cleaned it 4 months before. This time I will also click pictures to confirm the type of port also.

Yeah, that's the sure shot way.

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omega44-xt said:
Make sure you get M.2 SATA SSD, not NVMe, if your laptop mobo has free M.2 slot. If its present, maybe get a 256GB SSD.

Why SATA not NVMe? Is it due to compatibility or any other reason?

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soorajdigit said:
Why SATA not NVMe? Is it due to compatibility or any other reason?

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Compatibility, tech specs don't list NVMe at all:
Buy Lenovo Ideapad 320 | Denim Blue laptop | Lenovo India

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Is it possible to clone the disk system image to another SSD & install it (along with HDD or replace HDD if no slots) in the laptop so that I don't have to reinstall all programs again?

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soorajdigit said:
Is it possible to clone the disk system image to another SSD & install it (along with HDD or replace HDD if no slots) in the laptop so that I don't have to reinstall all programs again?

I recommend a fresh installation instead of cloning.

soorajdigit said:
Is it possible to clone the disk system image to another SSD & install it (along with HDD or replace HDD if no slots) in the laptop so that I don't have to reinstall all programs again?

Sent from my Redmi Note 9 Pro using Tapatalk

I liked Macrium Reflect for cloning, but a clean install would be better.

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omega44-xt said:
If crystaldisk is showing warnings & status is yellow, then your HDD is indeed failing & there's no way of knowing when it will fail. It might work well for even a year or so as well, but with reduced performance & too much lags (observed in friend's laptops).

Upgrading to SSD is totally worth it. I added a 512GB SSD to a friend's laptop with i5 3rd gen & it was definitely seeing benefits. Your RAM size seems fine, so unless there's some other issue with your laptop, you can add a 2.5" 512GB SSD to your laptop, swapping with old HDD.

Checking this product page, your laptop seems to have a M.2 SATA SSD, so SSD + HDD seems possible. But confirm it by opening your laptop IMO. Some older laptops had provision for M.2 only in higher spec'd variant with empty space w/o slot in lower spec'd ones.

Top of the line 2.5" SATA SSD:
Amazon.in
Amazon.in

Top M.2 SATA SSD:
*www.amazon.in/Crucial-MX500-500GB-Type-2280/dp/B077SQ8J1V/

Budget M.2 SATA SSD:
*www.amazon.in/Western-Digital-480-Green-2280/dp/B07KYDYKQP/

250GB costs like 3k.

can you suggest 512 GB models like (as they benefit from additional 12GB compared to 500GB)

soorajdigit said:
can you suggest 512 GB models like (as they benefit from additional 12GB compared to 500GB)

512=500, manufacturers use 1kb=1000bits instead of 1024. Also, they mention this at back of the packing.

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RumbaMon19 said:
512=500, manufacturers use 1kb=1000bits instead of 1024. Also, they mention this at back of the packing.

each size class of SSD seems go have 3 sub-sizes e.g. 240/250/256GB, 480/500/512GB, 960GB/1TB are they actually same sizes?

soorajdigit said:
each size class of SSD seems go have 3 sub-sizes e.g. 240/250/256GB, 480/500/512GB, 960GB/1TB are they actually same sizes?

No

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what about having SSD & HDD (either M2 SSD (if supported) + HDD or replacing current HDD with SSD & add HDD in a caddy as my laptop don't have DVD drive), so that OS, heavy programs can be installed in SSD & files & light programs can be installed in HDD, can it save money & give more space than using a 500/512 SSD alone?

soorajdigit said:
what about having SSD & HDD (either M2 SSD (if supported) + HDD or replacing current HDD with SSD & add HDD in a caddy as my laptop don't have DVD drive), so that OS, heavy programs can be installed in SSD & files & light programs can be installed in HDD, can it save money & give more space than using a 500/512 SSD alone?

Install everything on ssd, keep hdd for storage

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soorajdigit said:
what about having SSD & HDD (either M2 SSD (if supported) + HDD or replacing current HDD with SSD & add HDD in a caddy as my laptop don't have DVD drive), so that OS, heavy programs can be installed in SSD & files & light programs can be installed in HDD, can it save money & give more space than using a 500/512 SSD alone?

I am using a 240gb SSD in caddy with hdd, I have installed os on SSD and saving all my documents and pictures etc. On hdd.

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Is it possible to find how much space is occupied by OS & Programs alone so that I can decide if I need 256 GB or higher?

soorajdigit said:
Is it possible to find how much space is occupied by OS & Programs alone so that I can decide if I need 256 GB or higher?

just check documents, downloads etc. the user folders and subtract it from total space.

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Is the usage of heavy software like Android Studio & emulators etc the reason why the HDD caused the problems (mentioned when this thread is started) in just 3 years of usage?

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I think 240/250/256 GB is just minimum. If the SSD becomes almost full will there be problems in downloding and installing windows updates?

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Whatever ssd your buying make sure that you plan to keep 20% is free.

What is your current C drive size? Generally windows will take 60 GB. Android Studio and other emulators should take around 40GB. Of you are not planning to game, 240/250 GB should be fine in your case.

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khalil1210 said:
Whatever ssd your buying make sure that you plan to keep 20% is free.

What is your current C drive size? Generally windows will take 60 GB. Android Studio and other emulators should take around 40GB. Of you are not planning to game, 240/250 GB should be fine in your case.

Currently occupies under 320 GB including downloaded files. Android Studio takes more space than expected when we open projects in gradle folder, emulators also

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