2.5" SATA HD replacement options

On Fri, 19 Jun 2015 03:15:21 -0400, ". . .winston"
wrote:

qp
....
Q: What happens if I change the hardware configuration of my Windows 10
device?

A: If the hardware configuration of your Windows 10 device changes
significantly (e.g. motherboard change) Windows may require
re-activation on the device. This is the same experience as prior
versions of Windows (e.g. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1). The free upgrade
offer will not apply to activation of Windows 10 in such scenarios where
hardware changes reset Activation.

/qp

I predict some WTF moments when people make certain hardware changes,
whether because they have to effect repairs or because they proactively
upgraded one or more components, only to discover that they no longer have a
legitimate OS and their next step needs to be a full purchase of Win 10.

In the quoted example above, it's a motherboard change, but chances are good
that it's not limited to motherboards.

--

Char Jackson

On Wed, 17 Jun 2015 01:21:44 -0700, cameo
wrote:

On 6/16/2015 8:52 PM, . . .winston wrote:

Unless you're in a write intensive environment (video editing, auto-cad,
etc) it probably is useless to worry about TLC vs MLC...either will
probably outlive your system.

Even writing 50-100GB a day to an SSD should last based on most MTBF
specs more than a few dozen years...your o/s, other hardware and
software will be obsolete well before any benefits provided by
differences between MLC or TLC.

The drive you ordered is fine.

Thanks. That's reassuring. But now while at it, I might also want to
replace the notebook's battery as it no longer holds any charge.
However, the original OEM batteries aren't available anymore and though
many merchants offer compatible replacements, it's hard to tell which
ones could be trusted. There are a lot of complaints on the Net about
bad replacement batteries. No wonder, as most of the batteries are made
in mainland China where commercial ethics don't seem to exist. So I
wonder if any of you found a reliable source for Li-Ion notebook batteries.

In my experience it's a crap shoot. I buy thru Amazon prime "direct"
thru Amazon so it almost always free to return the stuff if it's no
good. I've even had two instances, not with batteries but with stuff
under $10, where they didn't even need me to return the junk to get
the refund.

On 6/17/2015 5:09 AM, Paul wrote:
cameo wrote:
On 6/16/2015 2:31 PM, Mike Easter wrote:
Ian Jackson wrote:
'Windows Product Key Finder'

Of course that will report the HP OEM image's install number. I would
choose HP's MS product ID sticker on the notebook's bottom.

I don't recall that I ever had to use any stickers when I registered
my copy of Windows which originally came with Vista preinstalled by HP.
Later I bought Win7 Pro and that's what I am running on it now.
In any case I made a picture of the notebook's bottom sticker which
you can see at this link: http://i57.tinypic.com/1vvvk.jpg
So which is the sticker number I would have to report to MS in case
they want proof of a legit OS copy?


The part beginning with "BBT" in your picture, is the
reinstallation key. 25 characters, hyphen separated,
as five groups of five characters. Note that the character
set used, is limited, and not all the letters of the
alphabet are used for constructing license keys. That's
to keep the thing legible.

But if you're hoping to upgrade to Win10 from Win7,
you'd be using the Win7 key in your correspondence with
Microsoft. The Vista key is "dead meat". Unless your
Win7 was an Upgrade version or something, and relies
on the previous OS for legitimacy. In any case,
when posting COA stickers to tinypic, you're supposed
to blot out some of the characters :-) Since it's a
Vista key, I doubt there will be a lineup to abuse it :-)

Paul
Thanks for the pointers as well as for the warning, Paul. That abuse
possibility crossed my mind, too, but dicarded it for the same reason
you mentioned.

BTW, I've just got my first reminder from MS that they detected a
different hardware and needed to contact them, But it was not from the
Win7 OS as such, but from the Office 2010 that I have installed.
Anyway, after selecting the online contact, I was validated instantly,
without providing any product key. Now I wonder if and when the OS asks
for such validation.

Char Jackson wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jun 2015 03:15:21 -0400, ". . .winston"
wrote:

qp
...
Q: What happens if I change the hardware configuration of my Windows 10
device?

A: If the hardware configuration of your Windows 10 device changes
significantly (e.g. motherboard change) Windows may require
re-activation on the device. This is the same experience as prior
versions of Windows (e.g. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1). The free upgrade
offer will not apply to activation of Windows 10 in such scenarios where
hardware changes reset Activation.

/qp

I predict some WTF moments when people make certain hardware changes,
whether because they have to effect repairs or because they proactively
upgraded one or more components, only to discover that they no longer have a
legitimate OS and their next step needs to be a full purchase of Win 10.

In the quoted example above, it's a motherboard change, but chances are good
that it's not limited to motherboards.


Char,
On this we agree. Some surprises are bound to happen and maybe even
more variation in the phone-home attempt to activate (if available) in
the MSFT auto-response system or human interactive support.

Plus there is a lot of gray area in that response It alludes to the same
user experience at the customer end (failed to activate/reactivate) but
not necessarily committing to anything at the MSFT end.

Imo, MSFT may initially play hard ball in this arena.
- free W10 o/s when upgrading from Win7/Win8.1
- prior license (retail or OEM) of 7/8.1 consumed by the upgrade
- Device footprint data stored on MSFT server deciding factor when
device no longer qualifies as a 'free for the life of device' support

i.e. Upgrade what you have (7/8.1 to 10) but don't change hardware
later. If hardware changes indicate a deviation from the footprint taken
at the time of upgrade causing a need to reactivate (after hardware
change or attempt to reinstall/clean install)then the device status
becomes unsupported thus a need for FPP with its included product key.



--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On 6/16/2015 5:54 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Tue, 16 Jun 2015 00:20:30 -0700, cameo
wrote:

On 6/15/2015 11:20 PM, . . .winston wrote:
cameo wrote:
On 6/15/2015 7:24 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 10:42:05 -0700, cameo
wrote:

I am sensing that my HP Pavillion tx1000 notebook's 250GB SATA drive's
days are numbered and I have been trying to find a new one to
replace it
with. However, this 5400 RPM Western Digital WD2500BEVS-60UST0 model
doesn't seem to be available at a reasonable price and most that pop up
in Google search are used. So I was wondering if perhaps I could look
for other 2.5" SATA models, maybe with higher capacity and higher
speed,
but I am worried what kind of compatibility problems I could face then.
Even if the electrical interface is the same, they might not fit into
the caddy the original drive is in. What about SATA II or SATA III
upgrades? Has any of you done this kind of laptop HD replacement and
could give me some pointers? Thanks.


Give serious thought to getting an SSD drive. I put one in to replace
a 5400 SATA drive in my old aspire one and it gave that old, formerly
very slow, net book a new lease on life. Like the proverbial night
and day.

I think you guys convinced me about going with an SSD drive. Googling
some more on the subject, I see that this is not as bad way to go as I
originally thought. Especially considering the speed improvement!
I use Acronis to make a full PC backup and that should make restore to
the SSD pretty easy. The only thing I'm not sure is how the Win7 OS
handles the difference in the drivers. After all, when I first time boot
up with the SSD, the previous SATA drivers will be useless.

Why would you need the earlier machine's SATA drivers if you are
building a new system with an SSD ?

If Win7 doesn't provide a SATA driver to operate in ACHI mode, you'll
need to provide one during the Windows setup and prior to installing
Windows....the drive needs to be ready for Windows to install.

Where did you read that I was building a new system? I'm just trying to
replace an existing SATA drive in a fairly old Win7 laptop. Of course, I
am sure MS will think I have a new system and will want me to pay up
before I can do much work, right?



I've swapped several HDs with new ones with the image of old ones on
them and windows has never objected. I think you need to be doing a
new motherboard to make it phone home.

I've just got a popup warning this morning informing me that this was
the last day I can use Windows without activating it. I chose the online
method and again, as with the Office 2010, it was successful without me
providing any code or key. So I am now all legit.

One thing though that annoys me is a warning msg from the Samsung
utility called Magician that pops up avery time I start up Windows.

This is the popup: http://i60.tinypic.com/mcx44l.gif

I have no idea what custom storage driver it is referring to as
everything is from Microsoft as far as I know. But after I press the OK
button everything seems to run fine. Anybody with any ideas?

On Sat, 20 Jun 2015 20:17:58 -0700, cameo wrote:

One thing though that annoys me is a warning msg from the Samsung
utility called Magician that pops up avery time I start up Windows.

This is the popup: http://i60.tinypic.com/mcx44l.gif

I have no idea what custom storage driver it is referring to as
everything is from Microsoft as far as I know. But after I press the OK
button everything seems to run fine. Anybody with any ideas?

Go into the BIOS and check that the SATA controller is running in AHCI
mode and not IDE mode. If it's in IDE mode you need to google 'changing
Windows 7 to AHCI' to find out how to reset windows before changing the
BIOS setting. If you do change it from IDE to AHCI and don't get the
Windows 7 setting right you can go back into the BIOS and change it
back to IDE mode and try again. You won't get into a no boot situation.

--
Faster, cheaper, quieter than HS2
and built in 5 years;
UKUltraspeed http://www.500kmh.com/

Rodney Pont wrote:
On Sat, 20 Jun 2015 20:17:58 -0700, cameo wrote:

One thing though that annoys me is a warning msg from the Samsung
utility called Magician that pops up avery time I start up Windows.

This is the popup: http://i60.tinypic.com/mcx44l.gif

I have no idea what custom storage driver it is referring to as
everything is from Microsoft as far as I know. But after I press the OK
button everything seems to run fine. Anybody with any ideas?

Go into the BIOS and check that the SATA controller is running in AHCI
mode and not IDE mode. If it's in IDE mode you need to google 'changing
Windows 7 to AHCI' to find out how to reset windows before changing the
BIOS setting. If you do change it from IDE to AHCI and don't get the
Windows 7 setting right you can go back into the BIOS and change it
back to IDE mode and try again. You won't get into a no boot situation.


I was thinking maybe the port was set to RAID
in the BIOS. As that might cause a pseudo SCSI,
two level driver installation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...evo-500gb.html

"If that doesn't work then it's probably because your
SSD is in RAID mode (even though it's not part of an
actual RAID array) that Samsung Magician doesn't
recognize it."

"Putting the controller in AHCI mode fixes it, but
of course you lose raid mode."

Paul

In article , lid says...

On 6/16/2015 5:54 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Tue, 16 Jun 2015 00:20:30 -0700, cameo
wrote:

On 6/15/2015 11:20 PM, . . .winston wrote:
cameo wrote:
On 6/15/2015 7:24 PM, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 10:42:05 -0700, cameo
wrote:

I am sensing that my HP Pavillion tx1000 notebook's 250GB SATA drive's
days are numbered and I have been trying to find a new one to
replace it
with. However, this 5400 RPM Western Digital WD2500BEVS-60UST0 model
doesn't seem to be available at a reasonable price and most that pop up
in Google search are used. So I was wondering if perhaps I could look
for other 2.5" SATA models, maybe with higher capacity and higher
speed,
but I am worried what kind of compatibility problems I could face then.
Even if the electrical interface is the same, they might not fit into
the caddy the original drive is in. What about SATA II or SATA III
upgrades? Has any of you done this kind of laptop HD replacement and
could give me some pointers? Thanks.


Give serious thought to getting an SSD drive. I put one in to replace
a 5400 SATA drive in my old aspire one and it gave that old, formerly
very slow, net book a new lease on life. Like the proverbial night
and day.

I think you guys convinced me about going with an SSD drive. Googling
some more on the subject, I see that this is not as bad way to go as I
originally thought. Especially considering the speed improvement!
I use Acronis to make a full PC backup and that should make restore to
the SSD pretty easy. The only thing I'm not sure is how the Win7 OS
handles the difference in the drivers. After all, when I first time boot
up with the SSD, the previous SATA drivers will be useless.

Why would you need the earlier machine's SATA drivers if you are
building a new system with an SSD ?

If Win7 doesn't provide a SATA driver to operate in ACHI mode, you'll
need to provide one during the Windows setup and prior to installing
Windows....the drive needs to be ready for Windows to install.

Where did you read that I was building a new system? I'm just trying to
replace an existing SATA drive in a fairly old Win7 laptop. Of course, I
am sure MS will think I have a new system and will want me to pay up
before I can do much work, right?

All I can tell you is that on my wife's Intel I5 with 16 Gb ram running
Win7 she never installed any of the Samsung software and drive works
fine. Insure you Google and read up on things to do with an SSD such as
turn off defragging service, insure TRIM is enabled and up to you the
others.

On 6/21/2015 1:33 AM, Paul wrote:
Rodney Pont wrote:
On Sat, 20 Jun 2015 20:17:58 -0700, cameo wrote:

One thing though that annoys me is a warning msg from the Samsung
utility called Magician that pops up avery time I start up Windows.

This is the popup: http://i60.tinypic.com/mcx44l.gif

I have no idea what custom storage driver it is referring to as
everything is from Microsoft as far as I know. But after I press the
OK button everything seems to run fine. Anybody with any ideas?

Go into the BIOS and check that the SATA controller is running in AHCI
mode and not IDE mode. If it's in IDE mode you need to google 'changing
Windows 7 to AHCI' to find out how to reset windows before changing the
BIOS setting. If you do change it from IDE to AHCI and don't get the
Windows 7 setting right you can go back into the BIOS and change it
back to IDE mode and try again. You won't get into a no boot situation.


I was thinking maybe the port was set to RAID
in the BIOS. As that might cause a pseudo SCSI,
two level driver installation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...evo-500gb.html


"If that doesn't work then it's probably because your
SSD is in RAID mode (even though it's not part of an
actual RAID array) that Samsung Magician doesn't
recognize it."

"Putting the controller in AHCI mode fixes it, but
of course you lose raid mode."

Paul

I think you are putting your finger in the right area because even the
Magician main screen is pointing it out, as seen he
http://i60.tinypic.com/2r2yvyh.jpg

However, I don't find anything in my PC BIOS that allows configuring the
drive, except setting the boot order or running a diagnostics on it.
And the MS driver Properties tab also doesn not have anything that I can
set to wffect the changes you suggest.

On Sun, 21 Jun 2015 14:22:58 -0700, cameo wrote:

I think you are putting your finger in the right area because even the
Magician main screen is pointing it out, as seen he
http://i60.tinypic.com/2r2yvyh.jpg

However, I don't find anything in my PC BIOS that allows configuring the
drive, except setting the boot order or running a diagnostics on it.
And the MS driver Properties tab also doesn not have anything that I can
set to wffect the changes you suggest.

It will likely be under SATA configuration, not under an individual
drive setting.

--
Faster, cheaper, quieter than HS2
and built in 5 years;
UKUltraspeed http://www.500kmh.com/

On Sun, 21 Jun 2015 14:22:58 -0700, cameo
wrote:

On 6/21/2015 1:33 AM, Paul wrote:
Rodney Pont wrote:
On Sat, 20 Jun 2015 20:17:58 -0700, cameo wrote:

One thing though that annoys me is a warning msg from the Samsung
utility called Magician that pops up avery time I start up Windows.

This is the popup: http://i60.tinypic.com/mcx44l.gif

I have no idea what custom storage driver it is referring to as
everything is from Microsoft as far as I know. But after I press the
OK button everything seems to run fine. Anybody with any ideas?

Go into the BIOS and check that the SATA controller is running in AHCI
mode and not IDE mode. If it's in IDE mode you need to google 'changing
Windows 7 to AHCI' to find out how to reset windows before changing the
BIOS setting. If you do change it from IDE to AHCI and don't get the
Windows 7 setting right you can go back into the BIOS and change it
back to IDE mode and try again. You won't get into a no boot situation.


I was thinking maybe the port was set to RAID
in the BIOS. As that might cause a pseudo SCSI,
two level driver installation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...evo-500gb.html


"If that doesn't work then it's probably because your
SSD is in RAID mode (even though it's not part of an
actual RAID array) that Samsung Magician doesn't
recognize it."

"Putting the controller in AHCI mode fixes it, but
of course you lose raid mode."

Paul

I think you are putting your finger in the right area because even the
Magician main screen is pointing it out, as seen he
http://i60.tinypic.com/2r2yvyh.jpg

However, I don't find anything in my PC BIOS that allows configuring the
drive, except setting the boot order or running a diagnostics on it.
And the MS driver Properties tab also doesn not have anything that I can
set to wffect the changes you suggest.



If you no longer need "Magician" to run you could just uninstall it.
Looking at your screen grab it doesn't look like it's doing anything
you need done as far as actually using the computer. Looks more like
a program to use to set things up and check things out.

cameo wrote:
On 6/21/2015 1:33 AM, Paul wrote:
Rodney Pont wrote:
On Sat, 20 Jun 2015 20:17:58 -0700, cameo wrote:

One thing though that annoys me is a warning msg from the Samsung
utility called Magician that pops up avery time I start up Windows.

This is the popup: http://i60.tinypic.com/mcx44l.gif

I have no idea what custom storage driver it is referring to as
everything is from Microsoft as far as I know. But after I press the
OK button everything seems to run fine. Anybody with any ideas?

Go into the BIOS and check that the SATA controller is running in AHCI
mode and not IDE mode. If it's in IDE mode you need to google 'changing
Windows 7 to AHCI' to find out how to reset windows before changing the
BIOS setting. If you do change it from IDE to AHCI and don't get the
Windows 7 setting right you can go back into the BIOS and change it
back to IDE mode and try again. You won't get into a no boot situation.


I was thinking maybe the port was set to RAID
in the BIOS. As that might cause a pseudo SCSI,
two level driver installation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...evo-500gb.html



"If that doesn't work then it's probably because your
SSD is in RAID mode (even though it's not part of an
actual RAID array) that Samsung Magician doesn't
recognize it."

"Putting the controller in AHCI mode fixes it, but
of course you lose raid mode."

Paul

I think you are putting your finger in the right area because even the
Magician main screen is pointing it out, as seen he
http://i60.tinypic.com/2r2yvyh.jpg

However, I don't find anything in my PC BIOS that allows configuring the
drive, except setting the boot order or running a diagnostics on it.
And the MS driver Properties tab also doesn not have anything that I can
set to wffect the changes you suggest.

What happens if you navigate to the Program Files
folder with Magician in it, right-click the executable
and select "Run As Administrator" ?

I was thinking that perhaps it has a permissions problem,
and cannot get low level information that it is looking for.
Rather than the device being the wrong type as such.

Paul

On 6/21/2015 3:01 PM, Rodney Pont wrote:
On Sun, 21 Jun 2015 14:22:58 -0700, cameo wrote:

I think you are putting your finger in the right area because even the
Magician main screen is pointing it out, as seen he
http://i60.tinypic.com/2r2yvyh.jpg

However, I don't find anything in my PC BIOS that allows configuring the
drive, except setting the boot order or running a diagnostics on it.
And the MS driver Properties tab also doesn not have anything that I can
set to wffect the changes you suggest.

It will likely be under SATA configuration, not under an individual
drive setting.

There is mo SATA entry in the Device Manager and as you see from the
Magician screen, it is unable to detect a SATA interface. This is weird
and frustrating when I actually run a SATA drive.

On 6/21/2015 8:52 PM, Paul wrote:

What happens if you navigate to the Program Files
folder with Magician in it, right-click the executable
and select "Run As Administrator" ?

I was thinking that perhaps it has a permissions problem,
and cannot get low level information that it is looking for.
Rather than the device being the wrong type as such.

Well, I tried to run it as Administrator but there was no difference.

On Mon, 22 Jun 2015 10:34:20 -0700, cameo wrote:

However, I don't find anything in my PC BIOS that allows configuring the
drive, except setting the boot order or running a diagnostics on it.
And the MS driver Properties tab also doesn not have anything that I can
set to wffect the changes you suggest.

It will likely be under SATA configuration, not under an individual
drive setting.

There is mo SATA entry in the Device Manager and as you see from the
Magician screen, it is unable to detect a SATA interface. This is weird
and frustrating when I actually run a SATA drive.

We are talking about the SATA controller configuration in the BIOS,
long before it gets to Windows Device Manager. Options may be RAID,
AHCI, SATA and/or IDE - you want SATA.


--
Faster, cheaper, quieter than HS2
and built in 5 years;
UKUltraspeed http://www.500kmh.com/