Windows 10: What should I do with a second hand SSD?

I have bought a second hand 250 GB Samsung 840 Pro from ebay.

Is there anything specific I should do apart from format it?

I'm planning to put it in a Thinkpad X201 (which I also just got from ebay) but lots of people here talk about the Samsung Magicain software. I've tried looking but I'm not sure what it does.

Is this required or recommended or what? Will it help if I connect it via USB to my existing computer or do I have to wait until it is plugged into the SATA on the new laptop?

Sorry if I sound thick - it is my first SSD.

:)

 

what should I do with 701

Moved to Nseries and Symbian Smartphones

 

it says i need an email program? were do i get it from?

it tells me there is an email program needed that i dont have. were do i get it from

 

Hi there
An excellent use for these is to create VM's on them -- connect to computer via SATA-->USB2 or 3 connector -- very cheap.

Even on USB2 a VM --even a Windows VM is quite responsive. Whu not for example learn a bit of Linux --install either VMware player (free) or VBOX (Free) and then install a Linux VM --very good learning tool and you can't break anything.

You could even use HYPER-V - but you need at least W10 PRO to run that and it's a bit more fiddly --especially if you are new to VM's.

Cheers
jimbo

 

No it's required. It's a 2 part software....migration - to move your current OS from old HDD to new SSD; optimization tool - to check firmware and other tools.


Samsung Magician and Data Migration Overview | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

 

Few ideas:
You can get SATA to USB adapter. Something like this: Access Denied due to SSDs low power requirements it should work on any laptop and it doesn't require any other power supply.
Or you can connect it with normal SATA cables in any desktop.
That being a second hand one, I would (and always do) safely erase it first, you never know if some malware exists on it.

 

The drive will work as is just install it and then you can use the software to clone the OS to the SSD, ( not sure how many SATA connectors you'll have available in a Laptop so may need to use a USB connection or use this chance to do a complete fresh install).

A quick search in our Tutorials for SSD will show a few tips and tricks for new users *Wink

 

Sorry, to be clear, I'm planning to backup the GenuineLicense.xml and then take out the existing HDD and through it away.

I'm then going to clean install Windows 10 on my new (second hand) SSD as per the tutorials here.

My question was whether you had to do something with a previously used SSD or not rather than just format it. There are people who say you should format it in a certain way (block size and that sort of thing).

My backup question was "what is magician for" . @Plankton says "nothing really" which is as far as I can figure out correct.

 

Basic "rules" are don't try and use defrag tools (most are SSD aware these days and won't work anyway), set the system to use trim and consider moving any system temp locations to a spinner (more so as you may not know the usage history)

 

The Magician software has a tool to correctly wipe the drive for a clean install. It's called secure erase.....see link and then see the 7th attachment in link. Which is what I would do to the new used SSD you have. Do it from another PC.


Quote: "Magician also enables users to Secure Erase their drive (which wipes the SSD in under a minute) and to over-provision to a recommended or user-selected percentage."

Then the tool "Rapid Mode" tool which a lot of my buddies with Samsung SSD's use....You may want to give it a shot.

 

You can use the in built defrag tool as that does differentiate between HDs and SSDs and will perform the TRIM command for you on SSDs.

@lx07 one thing you could use the spare SSD for is as a cach drive. You could move the pagefile to it and many programs such as Spotify have an option to move their data.

 

Yeah that is what I want. I want to make sure it is cleanish before I use it. I also remember people saying you had to align sector boundaries (although I'm not sure about that, that may not have applied to SSD).

I'm not tin foil hat guy I just want to take reasonable precautions and format it correctly in the first place.

If I don't have to do anything in particular then I'm happy with that as an answer.

 

This is what I would do:

On the existing HDD/laptop, run showkey plus:
ShowKeyPlus

Record any product keys provided.

Install the SSD into the laptop. Boot the laptop from the Windows 10 installation USB flash drive or DVD. When you get the first windows to install Windows press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. In the command prompt run:

diskpart
select disk 0
clean
exit
exit

That will erase all the partitions on the SSD. Select the custom install option in Windows setup. Select the unallocated space to install to and click next and let Windows do it's thing. Enter the product key provided by Showkey plus to activate Windows.

Done.