I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon >after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be >upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to
be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up
to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to >installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western >Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. >When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive
and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there.
After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when >prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual
and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if
I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)",
then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new >drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not
show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
It can't be upgraded to Windows 11
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to
be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up
to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive
and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there.
After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual
and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if
I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)",
then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not
show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
What does Disk Management say about the new drive? Does it need to be formatted? Does it need to have a drive letter assigned?
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 01:16:37 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:
What does Disk Management say about the new drive? Does it need to be
formatted? Does it need to have a drive letter assigned?
I agree with Char's suggestions.
To open Disk Management, open a Run window (Windows key plus R), then
type
diskmgmt.msc
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
Steve wrote:
[snip]
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
When I've done this I've bought the SSD from Crucial.a It came with a
link to install Acronis True Image, for free.
Installed Acronis.a Connected the SSD via a USB to SATA adapter. Acronis only finds the SSD when the USB cable is plugged into a front USB socket
- this is on a OptiPlex 3020 Small Form Factor I5-4570.a So it's fussy!
Run Acronis to clone the HDD to the SSD - completes OK.
Remove HDD, fit SSD in its place.a Boot: works as expected.
However, in the past I've tried repeating the process, and it fails.
Acronis appears to require a factory formatted SSD which apparently
contains a key to allow Acronis to work.a Without this key, it would be necessary to buy the Acronis software.
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to
be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up
to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive
and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there.
After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual
and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if
I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)",
then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not
show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
Graham J wrote on 12/19/2025 2:45 PM:
Steve wrote:
[snip]
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
When I've done this I've bought the SSD from Crucial.-a It came with a
link to install Acronis True Image, for free.
Installed Acronis.-a Connected the SSD via a USB to SATA adapter. Acronis >> only finds the SSD when the USB cable is plugged into a front USB socket
- this is on a OptiPlex 3020 Small Form Factor I5-4570.-a So it's fussy!
Run Acronis to clone the HDD to the SSD - completes OK.
Remove HDD, fit SSD in its place.-a Boot: works as expected.
However, in the past I've tried repeating the process, and it fails.
Acronis appears to require a factory formatted SSD which apparently
contains a key to allow Acronis to work.-a Without this key, it would be
necessary to buy the Acronis software.
There's a half dozen image softwares that work just as well and are
free. I use the free version of macrium reflect, but there are several others. These programs don't care what brand the disk drives are, or anything else for that matter.
I prefer booting a restore flash usb containing the imaging software (so windows is not running), then taking an image of the source drive,
saving it on another usb drive. Then I switch out the drives, replacing
the old drive with the new one. Then simply restore the saved image to
the new drive and reboot the computer. Sometimes using the "clone"
function will cause a conflict because it will have the same disk
Identifier numbers. You can fix it, but it's one less step fiddling around.
On 2025/12/19 21:47:49, Hank Rogers wrote:
Graham J wrote on 12/19/2025 2:45 PM:I was thinking of suggesting the same (I use Macrium Free, but for this purpose at least there's probably not a lot of difference between the alternatives); I have my Macrium on a DVD, but a USB would work too.
Steve wrote:
[snip]
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
When I've done this I've bought the SSD from Crucial.-a It came with a
link to install Acronis True Image, for free.
Installed Acronis.-a Connected the SSD via a USB to SATA adapter. Acronis >>> only finds the SSD when the USB cable is plugged into a front USB socket >>> - this is on a OptiPlex 3020 Small Form Factor I5-4570.-a So it's fussy! >>>
Run Acronis to clone the HDD to the SSD - completes OK.
Remove HDD, fit SSD in its place.-a Boot: works as expected.
However, in the past I've tried repeating the process, and it fails.
Acronis appears to require a factory formatted SSD which apparently
contains a key to allow Acronis to work.-a Without this key, it would be >>> necessary to buy the Acronis software.
There's a half dozen image softwares that work just as well and are
free. I use the free version of macrium reflect, but there are several
others. These programs don't care what brand the disk drives are, or
anything else for that matter.
I prefer booting a restore flash usb containing the imaging software (so
windows is not running), then taking an image of the source drive,
saving it on another usb drive. Then I switch out the drives, replacing
the old drive with the new one. Then simply restore the saved image to
the new drive and reboot the computer. Sometimes using the "clone"
function will cause a conflict because it will have the same disk
Identifier numbers. You can fix it, but it's one less step fiddling around. >>
But it requires a third storage medium of sufficient capacity to store
the image, which the OP may not have. (Well, a bit smaller - Macrium
will offer compression when making the image; I don't know if the alternatives do.)
But if you _do_ have somewhere big enough to store the image, I'd agree
- doing it when Windows isn't running "feels" less error-prone. (And you don't need two SATA connections.)
Make sure - whether you're cloning or imaging - that it copies/creates
_all_ the partitions that are on the source drive; there will be the
main C: partition, but also one or more hidden ones (100M in size or
less). I don't profess to know what they all do, but in order for
Windows to boot, they need to be there. (The cloning or imaging software _may_ make all that transparent.)
On 2025/12/19 21:47:49, Hank Rogers wrote:
Graham J wrote on 12/19/2025 2:45 PM:I was thinking of suggesting the same (I use Macrium Free, but for this purpose at least there's probably not a lot of difference between the alternatives); I have my Macrium on a DVD, but a USB would work too.
Steve wrote:
[snip]
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
When I've done this I've bought the SSD from Crucial.-a It came with a
link to install Acronis True Image, for free.
Installed Acronis.-a Connected the SSD via a USB to SATA adapter. Acronis >>> only finds the SSD when the USB cable is plugged into a front USB socket >>> - this is on a OptiPlex 3020 Small Form Factor I5-4570.-a So it's fussy! >>>
Run Acronis to clone the HDD to the SSD - completes OK.
Remove HDD, fit SSD in its place.-a Boot: works as expected.
However, in the past I've tried repeating the process, and it fails.
Acronis appears to require a factory formatted SSD which apparently
contains a key to allow Acronis to work.-a Without this key, it would be >>> necessary to buy the Acronis software.
There's a half dozen image softwares that work just as well and are
free. I use the free version of macrium reflect, but there are several
others. These programs don't care what brand the disk drives are, or
anything else for that matter.
I prefer booting a restore flash usb containing the imaging software (so
windows is not running), then taking an image of the source drive,
saving it on another usb drive. Then I switch out the drives, replacing
the old drive with the new one. Then simply restore the saved image to
the new drive and reboot the computer. Sometimes using the "clone"
function will cause a conflict because it will have the same disk
Identifier numbers. You can fix it, but it's one less step fiddling around. >>
But it requires a third storage medium of sufficient capacity to store
the image, which the OP may not have. (Well, a bit smaller - Macrium
will offer compression when making the image; I don't know if the alternatives do.)
But if you _do_ have somewhere big enough to store the image, I'd agree
- doing it when Windows isn't running "feels" less error-prone. (And you don't need two SATA connections.)
Make sure - whether you're cloning or imaging - that it copies/creates
_all_ the partitions that are on the source drive; there will be the
main C: partition, but also one or more hidden ones (100M in size or
less). I don't profess to know what they all do, but in order for
Windows to boot, they need to be there. (The cloning or imaging software _may_ make all that transparent.)
J. P. Gilliver wrote on 12/19/2025 5:35 PM:
I was thinking of suggesting the same (I use Macrium Free, but for this
purpose at least there's probably not a lot of difference between the
alternatives); I have my Macrium on a DVD, but a USB would work too.
But it requires a third storage medium of sufficient capacity to store
the image, which the OP may not have. (Well, a bit smaller - Macrium
will offer compression when making the image; I don't know if the
alternatives do.)
I'm pretty sure you can store the image on the macrium rescue USB drive.
I haven't done that in ages because I use faster usb drives (nvme in
usb3 enclosures) instead of putting it on the rescue drive which is
usually a USB3 flash drive. So the rescue drive is mostly to boot
without running windows, but I think there is no problem also putting
the image file on it IF there is enough room, and if you're happy with
the slower speed.
But see Paul's post about Cloning with Macrium, rather than Imaging;But if you _do_ have somewhere big enough to store the image, I'd agree
- doing it when Windows isn't running "feels" less error-prone. (And you
don't need two SATA connections.)
Make sure - whether you're cloning or imaging - that it copies/creates
_all_ the partitions that are on the source drive; there will be the
main C: partition, but also one or more hidden ones (100M in size or
less). I don't profess to know what they all do, but in order for
Windows to boot, they need to be there. (The cloning or imaging software
_may_ make all that transparent.)
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to
be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up
to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive
and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there.
After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual
and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if
I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)",
then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not
show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
Macrium will happily put the image file anywhere you tell it, including
on the same "drive" as the Macrium itself if it's writable; my concern
was that the OP might not have anywhere with enough room. (And my
Macrium is on a DVD, so not writable.)
On 19/12/2025 06:29, Steve wrote:
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there. After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)", then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
I've used all these to clone drives.
Clonezilla - http://clonezilla.org
DiskGenius (D) - https://www.diskgenius.com/free.php
Hasleo Disk Clone - https://www.easyuefi.com/disk-clone/disk-clone-home.html Macrium Reflect Free - https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html
Some of the popular free programmes will only image a partition, not a complete drive, whilst other have size limits.
Acronis True Image, Paragon Drive Copy need the non freeware versions.
Hasleo also do a well recommended Backup Suite
-a- Hasleo Backup Suite - https://www.easyuefi.com/backup-software/backup-suite-free.html
On Fri, 12/19/2025 6:35 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
On 2025/12/19 21:47:49, Hank Rogers wrote:
Graham J wrote on 12/19/2025 2:45 PM:
Steve wrote:
The advantage of the Macrium clone, is it generates new unique GUID for
the blkid, then it fixes the boot menu to point to the new value,
and what this does, is make the HDD and SSD "independent" of one another.
The SSD boots whether the HDD is plugged in or not, when done that way.
As far as I know, there is some option to put the WinPE Macrium
boots from, right on the C: drive. This is no good for "bare metal restore" particularly, but, if you want to do "partition at rest" backups
or clones, it might be a useful option. Then you would not
need any USB stick to boot it and make a clone. You'd still
need the SSD drive you are cloning to, of course.
I haven't tried this, so don't have the first hand experience to comment.
Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
[...]
As far as I know, there is some option to put the WinPE Macrium
boots from, right on the C: drive. This is no good for "bare metal restore" >> particularly, but, if you want to do "partition at rest" backups
or clones, it might be a useful option. Then you would not
need any USB stick to boot it and make a clone. You'd still
need the SSD drive you are cloning to, of course.
I haven't tried this, so don't have the first hand experience to comment.
Yes, when making the 'Rescue Media', there is an option:
"Select Device
<icon> Windows Boot menu
Add/change the boot menu for the selected Windows PE version"
My notes say that this option is selected by default, so you have to unselect it if you do not want this functionality. You also can remove
it later by doing a 'Create Rescue Media...' again and then use the
"Remove boot menu" option.
I have the Windows Boot menu enabled on both our systems. I do not
actually use it, but have it as a backup, just in case the USB memory
stick with the Rescue Media fails.
[...]
On 2025-12-20 03:54, Paul wrote:
On Fri, 12/19/2025 6:35 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
On 2025/12/19 21:47:49, Hank Rogers wrote:
Graham J wrote on 12/19/2025 2:45 PM:
Steve wrote:
The advantage of the Macrium clone, is it generates new unique GUID for
the blkid, then it fixes the boot menu to point to the new value,
and what this does, is make the HDD and SSD "independent" of one another.
The SSD boots whether the HDD is plugged in or not, when done that way.
This might backfire.
Widows 7, and probably W8, looked at the disk identifier to know Windows was legal and not pirated over to another computer.
Telcontar:~ # fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: ST2000DM001-1CH1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 9020FF2C-... <====================
...
The disk identifier is not the blkid, but I'd guess it will also look at it.
On Sat, 12/20/2025 9:45 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
[...]
As far as I know, there is some option to put the WinPE Macrium
boots from, right on the C: drive. This is no good for "bare metal restore"
particularly, but, if you want to do "partition at rest" backups
or clones, it might be a useful option. Then you would not
need any USB stick to boot it and make a clone. You'd still
need the SSD drive you are cloning to, of course.
I haven't tried this, so don't have the first hand experience to comment.
Yes, when making the 'Rescue Media', there is an option:
"Select Device
<icon> Windows Boot menu
Add/change the boot menu for the selected Windows PE version"
My notes say that this option is selected by default, so you have to unselect it if you do not want this functionality. You also can remove
it later by doing a 'Create Rescue Media...' again and then use the
"Remove boot menu" option.
I have the Windows Boot menu enabled on both our systems. I do not actually use it, but have it as a backup, just in case the USB memory
stick with the Rescue Media fails.
[...]
The materials it uses should be in some place like C:\boot or so.
Have a look and give us a review of what you find. There should
be a WIM on the thing, if you need to locate it that way.
On my Daily Driver W11, I see a C:\boot\Macrium and there is structure
under that, but it does not appear on mine to be ready for booting.
It's just a folder tree at the moment. Maybe yours has additional folders
and a .wim file.
The advantage of the Macrium clone, is it generates new unique GUID for
the blkid, then it fixes the boot menu to point to the new value,
and what this does, is make the HDD and SSD "independent" of one another.
The SSD boots whether the HDD is plugged in or not, when done that way.
As far as I know, there is some option to put the WinPE Macrium
boots from, right on the C: drive. This is no good for "bare metal restore" particularly, but, if you want to do "partition at rest" backups
or clones, it might be a useful option. Then you would not
need any USB stick to boot it and make a clone. You'd still
need the SSD drive you are cloning to, of course.
I haven't tried this, so don't have the first hand experience to comment.
Paul wrote on 12/19/2025 8:54 PM:
The advantage of the Macrium clone, is it generates new unique GUID for
the blkid, then it fixes the boot menu to point to the new value,
and what this does, is make the HDD and SSD "independent" of one another.
The SSD boots whether the HDD is plugged in or not, when done that way.
I stopped doing it that way after I had a case where macrium didn't do that.a It left the two drives with the same numbers.a I finally figured it out and manually fixed it.
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to
be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up
to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive
and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there.
After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual
and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if
I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)",
then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not
show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to
be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up
to speed.
On 19/12/2025 06:29, Steve wrote:
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up to speed.
Wow. What are you complaining about. Most Windows PCs need to be restarted much more often than that. And even if they don't actually need it, it makes sense to restart Windows regularly to keep things as stable as possible.
On 19/12/2025 06:29, Steve wrote:
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up to speed.
Wow. What are you complaining about. Most Windows PCs need to be
restarted much more often than that. And even if they don't actually
need it, it makes sense to restart Windows regularly to keep things as stable as possible.
Brian Gregory <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> wrote:
On 19/12/2025 06:29, Steve wrote:
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon >>> after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be >>> upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to >>> be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up >>> to speed.
Wow. What are you complaining about. Most Windows PCs need to be
restarted much more often than that. And even if they don't actually
need it, it makes sense to restart Windows regularly to keep things as
stable as possible.
Well, for over two decades, ever since Windows XP, I hardly ever
restart our systems (mostly laptops, now a laptop and a Mini-PC). Why
would I?
They're only restarted by the mandatory montlhly Windows Update
restart. And when we were on our (near-yearly) extended trips to/in Australia, the laptops were often not restarted for four months.
But that's probably because, like Paul mentioned, we're used to real systems, whiich just keep running. In my job, we were used to seeing
uptimes of up to a year and sometimes even longer.
But to be [f|F]rank, this month, I had to restart my laptop for some
weird problem, which I could not fix (I forgot what it was), but that
was an exeption, not the rule.
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
On 19/12/2025 06:29, Steve wrote:
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10
soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It
can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down
and needs to be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before
it gets back up to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to
installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western
Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new
drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source
drive and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already
there. After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in
when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as
usual and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the
computer, if I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...
(whatever)", then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is
exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is
there, but it does not show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
Well it's a new unformatted SSD.
More importantly, can the software you're planning to use to clone all
the partitions on your old drive, see the new drive?
On 19/12/2025 06:29, Steve wrote:
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10
soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It
can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down
and needs to be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before
it gets back up to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to
installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western
Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new
drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source
drive and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already
there. After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in
when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as
usual and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the
computer, if I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...
(whatever)", then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is
exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is
there, but it does not show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
Well it's a new unformatted SSD.
More importantly, can the software you're planning to use to clone all
the partitions on your old drive, see the new drive?
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:54:39 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I mean: WHY?
No, neither the software (Samsung Magician) nor my computer can see the new SSD.
Someone earlier asked what it shows on Disk Management. I looked.
It says Disk 0 Basic 931.32 GB Online. Then the next box shows 931.32 GB Unallocated.
So Disk Management knows it's there. Now I need to know how to format it and give it a drive number.
On Sun, 12/21/2025 1:38 PM, s|b wrote:
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:54:39 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I
mean: WHY?
New computers are becoming too expensive (RAM/Flash).
You use what you've got.
Your OS is licensed.
You got the free upgrade from, Win7SP1 --> Win10 --> Win11
So you use it.
I'm running W11 25H2 on a 12 year old computer, loaded on a *hard drive*.
I use that to take pictures of 25H2 menus.
A 15 year old computer might not be instruction set compatible.
My 17 year old E8400 has no POPCNT instruction.
It stopped at W10 22H2 (and needed a different video card
to go from 21H2 to 22H2). The machine it is in, has enough RAM (16GB).
I wouldn't throw anything away, just yet.
Use it and enjoy it.
We may see a lot of things disappear, before the AI bubble bursts.
Paul
So Disk Management knows it's there. Now I need to know how to format it
and give it a drive number.
On 21/12/2025 19:38, Steve wrote:
So Disk Management knows it's there. Now I need to know how to format it
and give it a drive number.
Let the disk cloning software do it.
If you didn't understand why it didn't immediately have a drive letter > then there's absolutely no chance at all the you would understand how to
partition it ready for Windows.
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:54:39 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I mean: WHY?
On 2025/12/22 3:32:31, Brian Gregory wrote:
On 21/12/2025 19:38, Steve wrote:I thought he said he'd tried the cloning software without success?
So Disk Management knows it's there. Now I need to know how to format it >>> and give it a drive number.
Let the disk cloning software do it.
If you didn't understand why it didn't immediately have a drive letter
then there's absolutely no chance at all the you would understand how to
partition it ready for Windows.
Paul wrote on 12/21/2025 2:46 PM:
On Sun, 12/21/2025 1:38 PM, s|b wrote:
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:54:39 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I >>> mean: WHY?
New computers are becoming too expensive (RAM/Flash).
You use what you've got.
Your OS is licensed.
You got the free upgrade from, Win7SP1 --> Win10 --> Win11
So you use it.
I'm running W11 25H2 on a 12 year old computer, loaded on a *hard drive*.
I use that to take pictures of 25H2 menus.
A 15 year old computer might not be instruction set compatible.
My 17 year old E8400 has no POPCNT instruction.
It stopped at W10 22H2 (and needed a different video card
to go from 21H2 to 22H2). The machine it is in, has enough RAM (16GB).
I wouldn't throw anything away, just yet.
Use it and enjoy it.
We may see a lot of things disappear, before the AI bubble bursts.
aaa Paul
Some people are rich and don't accept others using what they have,
instead of buying new top-notch
equipment.
They whine ... and I ignore.
s|b wrote on 21/12/2025 :
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:54:39 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I
mean: WHY?
well not 15yo, but about 10yo
mine is an intel i7-6700 cpu, with 16Gb ram and 4x2 Tb hdd (plus an ssd
for the OS), dismissed by a customer: whay should I waste it since it
works properly for the few things I need?
On Mon, 12/22/2025 1:38 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
On 2025/12/22 3:32:31, Brian Gregory wrote:
On 21/12/2025 19:38, Steve wrote:I thought he said he'd tried the cloning software without success?
So Disk Management knows it's there. Now I need to know how to format it >>>> and give it a drive number.
Let the disk cloning software do it.
If you didn't understand why it didn't immediately have a drive letter
then there's absolutely no chance at all the you would understand how to >>> partition it ready for Windows.
Cloning software will "see" a disk, even if the disk is "all zeros"
and is completely and utterly flattened :-) I test stuff like this.
I flatten disks, end to end, for forensics projects.
The disk can also be seen in Disk Management right now. The OP
has printed in a post
"the next box shows 931.32 GB Unallocated"
If that is partitioned as "MBR" from the left-most square on that
row, then a partition can be added just for fun, so that a drive
letter shows up in File Explorer.
Otherwise as Brian says, use the cloning software to load it.
But if the cloning software (for whatever reason) refuses
to acknowledge the "931.32 GB Unallocated", then like a fisherman,
you can manually set it up with MBR and add a partition, so it
is more "obvious" to any other software.
The cloning software "really really" should not need this.
But we're dealing with computers, and just about anything
can happen with a computer.
Paul
"I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new
drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source
drive and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there. After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when
prompted. Nothing."
That read to me (assuming this "Magician software" is in effect a
cloning software) as saying it wasn't working as you and I would have expected it to.
But we're dealing with computers, and just about anything
can happen with a computer.
Paul
:-(
Yes, I suppose I'd try manually making a partition in the "unallocated"
space on the new drive in Disk Management. Though with a sinking feeling
(in case the cloning software coughs if it sees anything on the target).
On 2025/12/22 8:9:53, Ammammata wrote:
s|b wrote on 21/12/2025 :
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:54:39 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I >>> mean: WHY?
well not 15yo, but about 10yo
mine is an intel i7-6700 cpu, with 16Gb ram and 4x2 Tb hdd (plus an ssd
for the OS), dismissed by a customer: whay should I waste it since it
works properly for the few things I need?
That is the question some just don't understand: "why should I waste it
since it does what I want".
On 2025/12/22 3:32:31, Brian Gregory wrote:
On 21/12/2025 19:38, Steve wrote:I thought he said he'd tried the cloning software without success?
So Disk Management knows it's there. Now I need to know how to format it >>> and give it a drive number.
Let the disk cloning software do it.
If you didn't understand why it didn't immediately have a drive letter
then there's absolutely no chance at all the you would understand how to
partition it ready for Windows.
Some people are rich and don't accept others using what they have,
instead of buying new top-notch
equipment.
They whine ... and I ignore.
On Sun, 12/21/2025 1:38 PM, s|b wrote:
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I mean: WHY?
New computers are becoming too expensive (RAM/Flash).
You use what you've got.
Your OS is licensed.
You got the free upgrade from, Win7SP1 --> Win10 --> Win11
So you use it.
I'm running W11 25H2 on a 12 year old computer, loaded on a *hard drive*.
I use that to take pictures of 25H2 menus.
A 15 year old computer might not be instruction set compatible.
My 17 year old E8400 has no POPCNT instruction.
It stopped at W10 22H2 (and needed a different video card
to go from 21H2 to 22H2). The machine it is in, has enough RAM (16GB).
I wouldn't throw anything away, just yet.
Use it and enjoy it.
We may see a lot of things disappear, before the AI bubble bursts.
s|b wrote on 21/12/2025 :
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I mean: WHY?
well not 15yo, but about 10yo
mine is an intel i7-6700 cpu, with 16Gb ram and 4x2 Tb hdd (plus an ssd
for the OS), dismissed by a customer: whay should I waste it since it
works properly for the few things I need?
That is the question some just don't understand: "why should I waste it
since it does what I want".
if it takes 2 minutes to open a window...
On Sun, 21 Dec 2025 15:46:35 -0500, Paul wrote:
On Sun, 12/21/2025 1:38 PM, s|b wrote:
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I >>> mean: WHY?
New computers are becoming too expensive (RAM/Flash).
You use what you've got.
Your OS is licensed.
You got the free upgrade from, Win7SP1 --> Win10 --> Win11
So you use it.
Wouldn't something like Linux Mint run better on old hardware?
I'm running W11 25H2 on a 12 year old computer, loaded on a *hard drive*.
I use that to take pictures of 25H2 menus.
So you don't really use that to work with.
A 15 year old computer might not be instruction set compatible.
My 17 year old E8400 has no POPCNT instruction.
It stopped at W10 22H2 (and needed a different video card
to go from 21H2 to 22H2). The machine it is in, has enough RAM (16GB).
I wouldn't throw anything away, just yet.
Use it and enjoy it.
We may see a lot of things disappear, before the AI bubble bursts.
Oh, I don't throw away either. Next to my 4yo PC (W11) I have a 8yo
laptop (Linux Mint 22.2) and a tower that still runs under W7.
I was just wondering how well W11 runs on a 15yo computer. Yes, you can
get it to work, but if you have to wait 2 minutes for it to open a
window...
But to be [f|F]rank, this month, I had to restart my laptop for some
weird problem, which I could not fix (I forgot what it was), but that
was an exeption, not the rule.
Well, for over two decades, ever since Windows XP, I hardly ever
restart our systems (mostly laptops, now a laptop and a Mini-PC). Why
would I?
On Mon, 22 Dec 2025 09:09:53 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
s|b wrote on 21/12/2025 :
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I >>> mean: WHY?
well not 15yo, but about 10yo
mine is an intel i7-6700 cpu, with 16Gb ram and 4x2 Tb hdd (plus an ssd
for the OS), dismissed by a customer: whay should I waste it since it
works properly for the few things I need?
I'm not talking about not getting rid of old hardware, but rather about
using that hardware with an OS that wasn't built for that hardware. If
it runs fine, why not, but if it takes 2 minutes to open a window...
I've got a PC that is god know how old, but it runs under W7 and I use
it to rip music CDs to MP3 with EAC every now and then. I could take out
the CD/DVD (re)writer out and install it in the tower I'm using now, but
I can't be bothered.
On 21/12/2025 10:48, Frank Slootweg wrote:
But to be [f|F]rank, this month, I had to restart my laptop for some weird problem, which I could not fix (I forgot what it was), but that
was an exeption, not the rule.
Wasn't restarting the first thing you tried?
If not you're you must be MAD.
On 21/12/2025 10:48, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Well, for over two decades, ever since Windows XP, I hardly ever
restart our systems (mostly laptops, now a laptop and a Mini-PC). Why
would I?
Because if you don't you're just assuming everything works 100%
perfectly 100% of the time and cosmic particles never ever corrupt your
RAM and...
On Mon, 12/22/2025 6:25 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
On 2025/12/22 8:9:53, Ammammata wrote:
s|b wrote on 21/12/2025 :
On Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:54:39 +0100, Ammammata wrote:
try Rufus, https://rufus.ie/en/
I was able to upgrade computers even older than your
The question is: do you really want to install W11 on a 15yo computer? I >>>> mean: WHY?
well not 15yo, but about 10yo
mine is an intel i7-6700 cpu, with 16Gb ram and 4x2 Tb hdd (plus an ssd
for the OS), dismissed by a customer: whay should I waste it since it
works properly for the few things I need?
That is the question some just don't understand: "why should I waste it
since it does what I want".
I'm running Win11 on a 4930K which is ~4th generation. The 6700 is
6th generation and is newer than mine.
That's apparently a Skylake.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/88196/intel-core-i76700-processor-8m-cache-up-to-4-00-ghz/specifications.html
My install was done with Rufus. The OS is licensed. Is it fast ? Not really. Does it work ? Yes.
Paul
On Sun, 21 Dec 2025 19:36:22 -0600, Hank Rogers wrote:
Some people are rich and don't accept others using what they have,
instead of buying new top-notch
equipment.
They whine ... and I ignore.
I'm not rich at all, but I'm wondering how well W11 runs on a 15yo
computer.
I run W11 myself on a PC that is almost 4yo. Its hardware is
"compatible" with W11.
I also have an old laptop, 8yo, with a broken battery, but I use it to--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
play around with Linux Mint. It runs exceptionally well. If I wasn't so hooked to several (freeware) Windows programs I'd switch in a heartbeat.
I already use Fx, TB and LibreOffice.
I don't have a lot of NVMe, because they are a nuisance to install and remove.
I've only got one of those. It's sitting in its retail box right--
now,
awaiting its next adventure.
Paul
On 21/12/2025 10:48, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Well, for over two decades, ever since Windows XP, I hardly ever
restart our systems (mostly laptops, now a laptop and a Mini-PC). Why
would I?
Because if you don't you're just assuming everything works 100%
perfectly 100% of the time and cosmic particles never ever corrupt your
RAM and...
On Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:25:44 -0500, Paul wrote:
[snip]
I don't have a lot of NVMe, because they are a nuisance to install and
remove.
Those tiny screws can stick to things you wouldn't think of as sticky, and >drop off in places where they'll never be found.
On Sun, 21 Dec 2025 19:36:22 -0600, Hank Rogers wrote:
Some people are rich and don't accept others using what they have,
instead of buying new top-notch
equipment.
They whine ... and I ignore.
I'm not rich at all, but I'm wondering how well W11 runs on a 15yo
computer. I run W11 myself on a PC that is almost 4yo. Its hardware is "compatible" with W11.
I also have an old laptop, 8yo, with a broken battery, but I use it to
play around with Linux Mint. It runs exceptionally well. If I wasn't so hooked to several (freeware) Windows programs I'd switch in a heartbeat.
I already use Fx, TB and LibreOffice.
On 22 Dec 2025 20:27:20 GMT, Mark Lloyd <not.email@all.invalid> wrote:
On Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:25:44 -0500, Paul wrote:
[snip]
I don't have a lot of NVMe, because they are a nuisance to install and
remove.
Those tiny screws can stick to things you wouldn't think of as sticky, and >> drop off in places where they'll never be found.
I keep a couple of hard drive magnets around so that I can refresh the magnetism of my screwdrivers when necessary. They work really well for
that.
After serious thinking s|b wrote :
if it takes 2 minutes to open a window...
it doesn't: starts in about 10 seconds, windows open in less than a
blink, reading mail or watching youtube or browsing the web is painless
...and there's a LOT of space on the disks :-)
The graphics are still accelerated. The machine has a graphics card.
Windows can open slower due to storage speed. If the window is opening
too slow for you, replace the HDD with an SSD.
The machine doesn't run at 6GHz, but it still manages to get the window open.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive.
When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive
and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there.
After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when
prompted. Nothing.
On Mon, 22 Dec 2025 13:20:29 -0500, Paul wrote:
The graphics are still accelerated. The machine has a graphics card.
Windows can open slower due to storage speed. If the window is opening
too slow for you, replace the HDD with an SSD.
The machine doesn't run at 6GHz, but it still manages to get the window open.
Well, if you're happy, it's fine by me. I somehow didn't expected W11 to
run smoothly with older hardware.
Improving your storage, helps.
And not using a $40 video card, also helps.
I had Windows 11 up & running on an ancient Toshiba Satellite A500. It
ran surprisingly well.
Like all my Windows 10/11, nothing personal goes on them. They are for familiarisation only.
I keep a couple of hard drive magnets around so that I can refresh the magnetism of my screwdrivers when necessary. They work really well for
that.
Quite the contrary, thank you very much. Why would I waste time
shutting down and restarting everything, including all programs, just in
case the problem might be 'fixed' by that? Makes more sense to try a few things while the system is up. But as I said, we're used to real systems
and yes, Windows NT and beyond can behave as a real system, well sort
of. :-)
On 22/12/2025 18:41, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Quite the contrary, thank you very much. Why would I waste time
shutting down and restarting everything, including all programs, just in case the problem might be 'fixed' by that? Makes more sense to try a few things while the system is up. But as I said, we're used to real systems and yes, Windows NT and beyond can behave as a real system, well sort
of. :-)
So your system worked, now for some unknown reason it doesn't. You're
not sure why it stopped working. But you NEED to be able to make it work
in the future no matter what. Do you
A) fiddle with it until it seems to be working but and write down the details of the necessary fiddle in case you need it in the future.
B) Reboot and check that that makes it work.
I'll take B every time.
I need to make sure I have a simple straightforward way to get the
system running in the future therefore I MUST check that everything
still comes up working correctly after a reboot.
On Tue, 23 Dec 2025 11:06:18 -0500, Paul wrote:
Improving your storage, helps.
And not using a $40 video card, also helps.
I have an integrated graphics card.
*ouch*
Brian Gregory <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> wrote:
On 22/12/2025 18:41, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Quite the contrary, thank you very much. Why would I waste time
shutting down and restarting everything, including all programs, just in >>> case the problem might be 'fixed' by that? Makes more sense to try a few >>> things while the system is up. But as I said, we're used to real systems >>> and yes, Windows NT and beyond can behave as a real system, well sort
of. :-)
So your system worked, now for some unknown reason it doesn't. You're
not sure why it stopped working. But you NEED to be able to make it work
in the future no matter what. Do you
As I said, I don't remember what the problem was, so this is a rather theoretical (non-)discussion. But in any case, it was not that the
*system* stopped working, so nothing like a system crash and not even a program crash, just something which didn't work just right and which I
could not get to work as it should.
But let's take a general case of something not working as it should.
A) fiddle with it until it seems to be working but and write down the
details of the necessary fiddle in case you need it in the future.
Yes, I would do that. But I would not 'fiddle' endlessly. There must
by some effort-reward tradeoff.
B) Reboot and check that that makes it work.
If not doing A), then B) is often just a hack, i.e. you *hope* that it goes away and stays away, but you have no certainty, let alone guarantee
that it stays away.
Did I already mention that I was a professional troubleshooter for a
large part of my working life? :-) It was always A) and only B) as a
last resort stop gap until the actual cause was found by continuing A).
(See my earlier comment about Five Nines and only 5 *minutes* maximum downtime per *year*.)
I'll take B every time.
I need to make sure I have a simple straightforward way to get the
system running in the future therefore I MUST check that everything
still comes up working correctly after a reboot.
I have absolutely no reason to think that everything will not come up after a reboot. *If* I needed reassurance, the occasional Windows Update Restart is reassurance enough. And there's always this thing called
backup (both system/image backup and file backup).
But if you feel better by doing frequent restarts/reboots, then by all means do so. Your system, your rules. But also, my system, my rules.
On 23/12/2025 20:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:[...]
Did I already mention that I was a professional troubleshooter for a large part of my working life? :-) It was always A) and only B) as a
last resort stop gap until the actual cause was found by continuing A). (See my earlier comment about Five Nines and only 5 *minutes* maximum downtime per *year*.)
On Windows?
I guess Windows servers can manage that, what with being free of users
like me starting and stopping random things at their whim.
But if you feel better by doing frequent restarts/reboots, then by all means do so. Your system, your rules. But also, my system, my rules.
A lot of my work-arounds for software misbehaving are of the form lets
try changing it so that program A doesn't start immediately the system starts up, lets put a 30 second delay and see if that helps. Frequently things that didn't seem to work well together can be made to behave that way, but obviously I have to test it by rebooting, usually multiple
times. Without rebooting the fix is as good as meaningless.
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here
who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to
be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up
to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I
finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive
and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there.
After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the
power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual
and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if
I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)",
then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not
show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
A week ago, I asked this question. I have been unable to get a new message to post here.
I couldn't even get it to show any new messages after the first few days. I tried to
respond to some people, but couldn't. Right now, I see lots of new messages showing up.
Maybe it's working. Here goes...
Wait! I decided to look over the new replies before I clicked SEND and discovered my
own messages are here. They sent when I wasn't looking. I wondered why they weren't
saved in drafts.
I'll send this out anyway so people will know I wasn't intentionally being rude by
not coming back.
On 12/19/2025 1:29 AM, Steve wrote:
I haven't been here in ages. It looks like there are still people here who can help with problems.
My computer is at least 15 years old. It was upgraded to Windows 10 soon after it was available. I want to keep this computer going. (It can't be upgraded to Windows 11.) Once or twice a month it bogs down and needs to be restarted. It can take more than a few minutes before it gets back up to speed.
For a long time, I wanted to switch over to a solid state drive. I finally bought one a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing it last week. my current hard drive is a 1 terabyte Western Digital. The new drive is a Samsung SATA 2.5 inch 1 TB drive.
I downloaded the Samsung Magician software to transfer to the new drive. When I went to use it, it showed my current drive as the source drive and prompted me install the Samsung SSD drive. It was already there. After a couple of tries, I unhooke3d the ssd and plugged it in when prompted. Nothing.
Thinking maybe a cable wasn't working, I shut it down and swapped the power and data wires between the 2 drives. It started right up as usual and the ssd still wasn't recognized. When I'm starting the computer, if I watch the screen, I see it identify my old drive "WD...(whatever)", then right below that I see "ssd EVO 870" which is exactly what the new drive is. So it recognizes that the new ssd is there, but it does not show up anywhere in File Explorer.
So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?
Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?
Brian Gregory <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> wrote:
On 23/12/2025 20:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:[...]
Did I already mention that I was a professional troubleshooter for a >>> large part of my working life? :-) It was always A) and only B) as a
last resort stop gap until the actual cause was found by continuing A).
(See my earlier comment about Five Nines and only 5 *minutes* maximum
downtime per *year*.)
On Windows?
I guess Windows servers can manage that, what with being free of users
like me starting and stopping random things at their whim.
No, not on Windows. Like I said, on real systems (Windows is just one
FSVO 'real' :-)). They were Unix/UNIX systems in clusters of at least
three systems with most if not all component duplicated, 'even' things
like network interfaces, power supplies and the power 'cords'. The 5
minutes maximum downtime was documented in a SLA (Service Level
Agreement) and if we did not manage that, there were rather hefty
(financial) penalties.
[...]
But if you feel better by doing frequent restarts/reboots, then by all >>> means do so. Your system, your rules. But also, my system, my rules.
A lot of my work-arounds for software misbehaving are of the form lets
try changing it so that program A doesn't start immediately the system
starts up, lets put a 30 second delay and see if that helps. Frequently
things that didn't seem to work well together can be made to behave that
way, but obviously I have to test it by rebooting, usually multiple
times. Without rebooting the fix is as good as meaningless.
Understood.
I don't know if this was/is the same on Windows 10 (I'm now on Windows 11), but on my system I see that programs started from Start-up [1] are started much later (some five minutes) than programs which 'start
themselves' (i.e. have some setting, which says start at login). As I
hardly ever restart :-), I have not investigated where this delay comes
from.
[1]
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
On 24/12/2025 09:57, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Brian Gregory <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> wrote:
On 23/12/2025 20:20, Frank Slootweg wrote:[...]
-a-a-a Did I already mention that I was a professional troubleshooter for a
large part of my working life? :-) It was always A) and only B) as a
last resort stop gap until the actual cause was found by continuing A). >>>> (See my earlier comment about Five Nines and only 5 *minutes* maximum
downtime per *year*.)
On Windows?
I guess Windows servers can manage that, what with being free of users
like me starting and stopping random things at their whim.
-a-a No, not on Windows. Like I said, on real systems (Windows is just one >> FSVO 'real' :-)). They were Unix/UNIX systems in clusters of at least
three systems with most if not all component duplicated, 'even' things
like network interfaces, power supplies and the power 'cords'. The 5
minutes maximum downtime was documented in a SLA (Service Level
Agreement) and if we did not manage that, there were rather hefty
(financial) penalties.
[...]
-a-a-a But if you feel better by doing frequent restarts/reboots, then by all
means do so. Your system, your rules. But also, my system, my rules.
A lot of my work-arounds for software misbehaving are of the form lets
try changing it so that program A doesn't start immediately the system
starts up, lets put a 30 second delay and see if that helps. Frequently
things that didn't seem to work well together can be made to behave that >>> way, but obviously I have to test it by rebooting, usually multiple
times. Without rebooting the fix is as good as meaningless.
-a-a Understood.
-a-a I don't know if this was/is the same on Windows 10 (I'm now on Windows >> 11), but on my system I see that programs started from Start-up [1] are
started much later (some five minutes) than programs which 'start
themselves' (i.e. have some setting, which says start at login). As I
hardly ever restart :-), I have not investigated where this delay comes
from.
[1]
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Ah. So you were just commenting in case I wasn't aware of how unreliable Windows is. I wish you'd said.
On Sat, 12/20/2025 8:15 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-12-20 03:54, Paul wrote:
On Fri, 12/19/2025 6:35 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
On 2025/12/19 21:47:49, Hank Rogers wrote:
Graham J wrote on 12/19/2025 2:45 PM:
Steve wrote:
The advantage of the Macrium clone, is it generates new unique GUID for
the blkid, then it fixes the boot menu to point to the new value,
and what this does, is make the HDD and SSD "independent" of one another. >>> The SSD boots whether the HDD is plugged in or not, when done that way.
This might backfire.
Widows 7, and probably W8, looked at the disk identifier to know Windows was legal and not pirated over to another computer.
Telcontar:~ # fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: ST2000DM001-1CH1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 9020FF2C-... <====================
...
The disk identifier is not the blkid, but I'd guess it will also look at it.
The license validation is a multi-factor thing. While the disk identifier
may factor into the determination, the motherboard serial number (NIC MAC address) factors a lot higher. One of the reasons motherboards have
captive (onboard) Ethernet and Firewire, is they have MAC addresses that
help identify the motherboard.
The CPU is not supposed to have a serial number. Maybe only one generation
of Pentium III had a serial number. The temptation to put a serial number
in the CPU, must be an overpowering one... :-)
Not a lot of identifiers on a computer, positively identify an attempt
to duplicate a licensed setup. If the hard drive dies, the user has the
right to use a new hard drive (with a different serial number). That
factor alone should not tip over the license.
It usually takes
two or three offenses (an obvious offense, and some suggestive
but not conclusive evidence collected from the sum total of hardware).
Much of this is supposition collected during the WinXP era.
On Fri, 12/26/2025 3:40 PM, Steve wrote:
A week ago, I asked this question. I have been unable to get a new message to post here.I don't know where the setting is for this, but I've discovered one copy of Thunderbird
I couldn't even get it to show any new messages after the first few days. I tried to
respond to some people, but couldn't. Right now, I see lots of new messages showing up.
Maybe it's working. Here goes...
Wait! I decided to look over the new replies before I clicked SEND and discovered my
own messages are here. They sent when I wasn't looking. I wondered why they weren't
saved in drafts.
I'll send this out anyway so people will know I wasn't intentionally being rude by
not coming back.
here (in a test VM), insists on starting*every* session in "Offline Mode". In the File
menu, is an "Offline" submenu with items of interest, so you can check there to see
of something is amiss.
Your messages will pile up. Your incoming will stop. That's when you are Offline.
When you switch the tool back to Online again, your piled-up messages are all sent
out. (If they are not, check for an Outbox or UnSend box in your local boxes section
near the top on the left.)
We're hoping for a progress report, such as "got the SSD", "cloned OK", "managed
to boot it by itself", indicating you're on the right track.
As far as a progress report... yes, I have made some progress but I still haven't gotten the data to transfer over to to the SSD. I'm thinking I should start with a new question starting from where I am now. There are so many posts on this thread and most of them are just people bantering back and forth about things other than my question.
I know this is taking a long time, but I get busy with other things and I don't get back to solving my problem as often as I would like.
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