[dba-Tech] New machine migrate to SSD

[Jim Lawrence]

Hi John:

No wonder I don't fix laptops. 

I made that decision when disconnecting and re-connecting a video cable from the monitor and loosing the wedge that held the connector in place (10 of these items could fit on your finger tip), I was asked what were the 5 digit number on the back of the connector. I had to use a magnifying glass to see but a microscope would have been better.

Here, there is a very fine little company that I have been doing business with for years and they will do a complete backup from any harddrive, remove the spinning rust, install the SSD, re-install the backup and get the OS authenticated if MS wishes it...the price of the SSD, taxes and $40. Best $40 I ever spent. ;-)
  
Jim  

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Colby" <jwcolby at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 7:23:02 PM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] New machine migrate to SSD

OK, MY disk replacement was ...  a mess and I screwed it up.  Sigh. 
Inside of the machine, the disk had a ribbon cable running right over 
the top of it, in fact glued down to the disk.  The disk and it's 
circuit board had to be unscrewed, and pulled out, then the disk 
unscrewed from a carrier and slid out of the connector, the new disk 
slid into the connector and screwed into the carrier, then the carrier 
slid back into place and screwed back down.

This ribbon cable went from the circuit board that is the disk 
controller, physically over the original disk, glued down to the 
original disk, then over to the edge of the case and serves signals to:

1) The memory card reader
2) The headphone / mic plug
3) The 2.0 USB plug.

Super sigh!!! :(

I had no choice but to unplug the cable and unglue it from the disk.  
Sadly it was not possible to get that ribbon back in place. It had a 
teeny tiny little white strip that jammed into the connector to hold the 
cable in and the pins pressed down to the circuit board.  And of course 
I did not have the correct tool to push it back into place.  I actually 
broke that little widget trying to force it back into the socket over 
the top of the cable.

So... the disk replacement worked but I lost usage of those three IO 
ports.  That is to say that the SSD does in fact work, but now those 
three ports on the edge of the case do not.  I might be able to cut some 
strips of plastic and jam them into place into the little connectors, 
over the top of the ribbon cable.  Jury Rig it IOW.  I haven't tried 
that and am not sure that I will ever get around to trying.

The only saving grace is that HOLY CANNOLI is the computer FASTER!!!!!

It went from 30 seconds to boot to maybe 3 seconds???  Similar results 
for loading a browser, or any other program.  Insanely fast.  Well, 
relative to the same experience with a 5K RPM rotating disk.

So I knew going in that this was not a "user replaceable" disk drive.  I 
have always managed, this time not so.  Had the drive not worked I would 
have been really unhappy.

-- 
John W. Colby



On 11/11/2015 1:40 PM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> Hi John:
>
> I have found that no electrical equipment survives long on a boat... ;-) ...unless it is clean and dry.
>
> Yesterday I migrated a Window 7, netbook (a great travelling machine) to Windows 10. This was in hope that performance would improve. It didn't so the plan is to exchange the hard drive for a SSD drive. Now if that doesn't work its going to a Debian Linux with a Mate desktop...and then it will run fast.
>
> Aside: I bought a cheap ($2.87+tax from the Dollar store) mini mouse with retractable wire. When I have had enough of the touch pad and have the room, the mouse is a welcomed relief.
>   
> Jim
>    
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Colby" <jwcolby at gmail.com>
> To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
> Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 7:55:05 AM
> Subject: [dba-Tech] New machine migrate to SSD
>
> My laptop died the saltwater death.  :(
>
> The Samsung 840 EVO 500K SSD however survived.  :)
>
> I decided that I need a CHEAP machine to leave on the boat, so I just
> purchased a low end ASUS laptop, open box from Egghead.  Dual core i5
> 2.2 ghz with 8 gigs RAM, no touch (yep, still exists) but with a 500g 5K
> RPM drive.  The drive is killing the performance.
>
> It had Windows 8.1 on it.  I cannot express how badly Windows 8.x
> sucks.  With no touch... whooo doggy dies it suck even worse.  Try
> operating Windows 8.x with a touch pad.  Woof, what a dog!  :)  I dug
> out a mouse, then allowed it to install the 168 updates, THEN it decided
> to allow upgrade to Windows 10.
>
> I am actually quite impressed with the Windows 10 upgrade experience, at
> least from a new Windows 8.1 install.  I started it running, came back
> many hours later and it was logged back in to my Windows 10 install.
>
> Windows 10 with classic Shell is quite usable.  Once I got rid of the
> desktop and all of it's constantly flashing crap, and of course turned
> off all the spy crap / advertisement servicing, it is back to being an
> OS which runs my programs.  I have been using that on my Dell All-In-One
> desktop for about a month now, and if it weren't for the horrid "modern"
> look (and upgrades I can't control) I wouldn't really know it wasn't
> Windows 7.
>
> So back to my low end laptop.   I am in the process of copying all of
> the good (user data) stuff off of the salvaged Samsung SSD onto backup,
> and will format and system prep / migrate my Windows 10 install onto my
> Samsung SSD.  Unfortunately the laptop has to be disassembled (really
> just opened) to replace the drive.  It looks like just 8 screws.  Since
> an Open Box has no warranty anyway... But hey it was cheap at about $400
> shipped.
>
> I hope to have the SSD in it by the end of today, which should allow it
> to be a reasonably fast little machine.
>

-- 
John W. Colby

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