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General discussion

Solid State Drives

Jun 11, 2012 10:56AM PDT

Hi, I have an older laptop, a HP Pavillion Ze2308WM. I'd like to get a Solid State Drive for it but I have no idea what sort of connection I would need. Can anyone help?

p.s. Yes, I know it's an old laptop but I just love it. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Sure. Tell us one thing.
Jun 11, 2012 12:08PM PDT

What drive is in there now? I can use that along with what OS you intend to install. Keep in mind that XP and Vista are a very bad idea for today's SSD drives.
Bob

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My specs
Jun 12, 2012 8:48AM PDT

I have Windows Home Edition and the hard drive is 40GB (4200RPM) Hard Drive.

Does this help?

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XP?
Jun 13, 2012 1:05PM PDT

Given it's only 40GB I'm going to write it's likely to be XP.

You do not want to use XP on SSD unless you access it won't last long.
Bob

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Not XP, it's 7
Jun 13, 2012 7:46PM PDT

I used to have XP, I upgraded to Windows 7 Home edition when 7 first came out so I definately know it is Windows 7 (Sorry, I forgot my '7' in the previous post). lol

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Re: connection
Jun 13, 2012 7:52PM PDT

The connection isn't determined by the OS. It's determined by the motherboard. So please have a look if it has SATA connectors or (only) IDE connectors.

I doubt you can find a SSD with IDE. And I doubt if an older laptop has SATA. So it may be a dead end.
But I'm sure you'll love your new laptop even more!

Kees

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Use a tool
Jun 14, 2012 1:07AM PDT

Like BELARC ADVISOR or EVEREST to list out what that 40GB HDD is. If you google that model you may find out it's IDE or SATA. These few details seem to be hard to find in your post.
Bob

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Here are the results from Belarc & Aida64
Jun 14, 2012 10:07AM PDT

Belarc Advisor results

39.90 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
6.54 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TSSTcorp CDW/DVD TS-L462A ATA Device [Optical drive]

ST9402113A [Hard drive] (40.01 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 3LE0QZ7R, rev 3.02, SMART Status: Healthy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aida64 Extreme Edition Reults

Device Properties:
Driver Description ST9402113A ATA Device
Driver Date 6/21/2006
Driver Version 6.1.7600.16385
Driver Provider Microsoft
INF File disk.inf

Disk Device Physical Info:
Manufacturer Seagate
Hard Disk Name Momentus 4200.2 402113
Form Factor 2.5"
Formatted Capacity 40 GB
Disks 1
Recording Surfaces 2
Physical Dimensions 100.2 x 69.85 x 9.5 mm
Max. Weight 102 g
Average Rotational Latency 5.6 ms
Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
Max. Internal Data Rate 386 Mbit/s
Average Seek 12.5 ms
Interface Ultra-ATA/100
Buffer-to-Host Data Rate 100 MB/s
Buffer Size 2 MB

Device Manufacturer:
Company Name Seagate Technology LLC
Product Information http://www.seagate.com/products

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Yes, that's an IDE PATA drive.
Jun 14, 2012 10:45AM PDT
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Thank you
Jun 15, 2012 10:06AM PDT

I will check into it. I appreciate the help. Also, I have Windows 7, not xp.

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SSD wear leveling doesn't have to be automatic...
Jun 15, 2012 6:01PM PDT

Intel has an SSD toolbox that allows you to run an "SSD Optimizer" that does not have any negative effect on the SSD, it just does the the wear-leveling, etc. that the TRIM command does (probably uses the TRIM command). So if you run this regularly, you could use an SSD with Windows XP (soon to be unsupported by MS) or Windows Vista, and the SSD would have a decent lifetime. I use this even with Windows 7, just to be sure that my SSD lasts as long as it can. I would use it more frequently with Windows XP, perhaps even if I deleted a very large file *smile*, which I sometimes do. I use VM's, and they generally have one humongous ".vmx" file that is several GB's.

You can even schedule the optimizer tool to run regularly, in case you don't remember to do it. So it can be done, but you have to take care to use the SSD Optimizer tool now and then.

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Imagine your average comsumer.
Jun 16, 2012 3:31AM PDT

And my thought is "not ready for prime time."

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Not correct
Jun 22, 2012 8:31AM PDT

Well, that was a waste of shipping and handling. I received the ssd in the mail today, wasn't the right one again. I guess I am just going to give up on the idea. I can't afford to keep buying them and returning, it's costing me shipping and handling every time.