Notebook with factory SSD question..can I get some help?

[CarolinaChief]

Notebook with factory SSD question...

Hello all, I've tried finding the answer to the following question in various different threads but all I can find is how to upgrade a notebook without an SSD to one that has it. What I'm curious of is if I buy a notebook that comes with an SSD can I expect the regular HDD (assuming it has one) to be empty? To further clarify, I've been rocking my I-don't-know-how-old HP laptop to possibly a close to, if not top of the line, Dell Inspiron or something similar that has an SSD already installed. My current 1tb HDD is 90% full and all I can really find installed in most of the current notebooks are the same 1tb or less, so I guess the real question is if I were to purchase a 2tb HDD that works in the notebook that I buy can I just swap it for the 1tb before I ever boot the thing up and not have any problems? I'm assuming the OS comes installed on the SSD and it wouldn't even make a difference if the HDD was in the unit but that's why I'm asking you guys because sometimes I'm not an out of the box thinker, haha. Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[GatsbyGlen]

Re: Notebook with factory SSD question...

When I purchased my Lenovo last year, I had it shipped with the cheapest HDD possible, and replaced it and the optical drive with two Samsung SSD drives. Getting the SSDs via Lenovo was too expensive.

I did a clean install of Win 8 at the time and got the needed Lenovo drivers/software from their website. The HDD acts as an external backup drive that connect via USB. The optical drive sits in box somewhere

 

[Harrie-S]

Hello all, I've tried finding the answer to the following question in various different threads but all I can find is how to upgrade a notebook without an SSD to one that has it. What I'm curious of is if I buy a notebook that comes with an SSD can I expect the regular HDD (assuming it has one) to be empty? To further clarify, I've been rocking my I-don't-know-how-old HP laptop to possibly a close to, if not top of the line, Dell Inspiron or something similar that has an SSD already installed. My current 1tb HDD is 90% full and all I can really find installed in most of the current notebooks are the same 1tb or less, so I guess the real question is if I were to purchase a 2tb HDD that works in the notebook that I buy can I just swap it for the 1tb before I ever boot the thing up and not have any problems? I'm assuming the OS comes installed on the SSD and it wouldn't even make a difference if the HDD was in the unit but that's why I'm asking you guys because sometimes I'm not an out of the box thinker, haha. Thanks a lot in advance!

I am not totally sure if I understand you but what I did when I bought a new laptop was to start it up. After the installation I made a rescue USB. (basically copy the OS on a USB stick).
Furthermore I changed in the BIOS that the next time I booted the PC it should boot from a USB. After switching of the laptop I got the original harddisk out the laptop and replaced it with the new harddisk. I inserted the USB stick and switched the laptop on. During the startup it "found" the USB and it installed the OS on the new hard drive.
(I changed from a HDD to a SSD but the other way around is the same.)

Basically in 15 inch laptop has only a single 3.5 inch hard disk bay. In 17 inch laptop has most times 2.

If your laptop has a optical drive then you can get that out and place a harddisk in that bay (you need to buy a "holder".

Now you also have ssd's which are smaller and still can be place in a laptop if this has a "m2" .(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2)

If you however buy a laptop with 2 disks a SSD and a HDD then there should be no problem to swap the HDD before you start up the laptop. During the install W10 will see the new HDD and will install the proper drivers. Maybe the installed "Dell help software" may be a a little confused but that should not cause big problems.
Or if you buy a laptop with 2 bays but only 1 SSD adding a HDD should not be a problem. Same if you would place the HDD in the optical drive bay.

I hope above helps and good luck.

 

[CarolinaChief]

Re: Notebook with factory SSD question...

Thanks, that is helpful!