Is your old PC slowing down? Do you feel that your laptop is
a slow as molasses? Maybe it’s time to upgrade that old spinning hard drive to
a newer and faster SSD. If you’re afraid of the upgrade process then perhaps
getting an upgrade kit is the way to go. I decided to upgrade my old 128GB SSD
on my Asus laptop to the SP S60 240GB SSD. Once again, let’s see if I made the
right decision and hopefully I’m able to share some pointers on the whole
process.
Specs:
- Clone,
transfer and install. Immediate upgrade your notebook/desktop in 3 simple steps
- Includes
a SATA III Slim S60 SSD, rugged HDD enclosure, cloning software, screws, a
screwdriver, 7mm to 9mm adapter
-
Slim
type 7mm SSD, ideal for Ultra Slim Notebook Upgrade
- Armor
A30 rugged HDD enclosure for protection against shock, scratches and abrasions
-
3-year
warranty
-
US$
80 from Amazon
Installation
Since this is the second time I replaced the hard drive of my
laptop, I had a fairly easy time opening up and replacing it. But before we get
into that, the kit comes with an external case so that you can use your old
disk as an external USB drive. However, if you want to clone your existing hard
drive then you’ll need to install the new SSD in it first, connect it via USB
and fire up the cloning software. The cloning software (NTI Echo 3) is part of
the package but you’ll need to download and activate it. By the way, the
license code for the cloning software is located in the manual, it’s small, hard to read and
the codes are confusing (lots of zeros and letter O).
Everything went well up until I started the cloning process.
I would always get an error at about 8%. I tried so many times that it took
almost the whole day trying to troubleshoot the problem. I contacted Silicon
Power’s tech support but by the time they responded to my inquiry, I had
already downloaded a different free cloning software (Drive Clone Free) which
worked right away. Finally I was able to use my new SSD.
 |
| Everything you need is in the box |
 |
| My error message |
Performance and Conclusion
After going through the frustration of the cloning process, I
finally had it installed and working. All my old files were cloned properly.
Boot-up was fast. But since I already had an SSD I didn’t really notice much
difference. Read/Write speeds were slower than advertised but still fast enough
for my needs. There are a lot of comments on Amazon that says Silicon Power
switched to a different chip manufacturer to save cost and that’s the reason
for the slower speeds. But the average person won’t really notice. I’m still
undecided if getting an upgrade is worth it, as I found out the hard way that
there are cloning software that you can get for free. It is very easy to buy an
external USB drive enclosure and I’m sure you have a screwdriver somewhere in
your house.
The Good:
-
Price
-
Complete
kit
-
External
USB Enclosure
-
Tech
support was helpful
- 3-Year warranty
The Bad:
-
Speed
is slower than advertised (still fast enough for me)
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