[Candy$Cars]

Originally Posted by carboy

My Dell Inspiron 3750 laptop will complete 5 years in August. It has a 256 GB NvME SSD as the only hard disk. Haven't faced any problems yet with the disk but I am a little worried that if something happens to the disk, I will have to spend a lot of time to restore data. I am wondering if it's worth spending time to clone the disk on a new SSD & replace the old one.

The laptop's battery is old & hence very weak & will have to replace that also soon.

I am wondering if it's worth spending money on these 2 changes considering it's nearing 5 years.

Hi sir!
You can install CrystalDiskInfo which will show you the health of the SSD.

If your laptop is able to fulfill your needs and uses and is not laggy etc. then you can go ahead and get the SSD cloned and a new battery. SSD today cost peanuts compared to 5 years ago. You can easily get the laptop back into shape in 7-8k. Why spend good money for something which will end up doing exactly same things the current one is doing?
Buy new one if the current one is not matching your needs or you now want something better, say with a better screen or little more snappy.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Candy$Cars

Hi sir!
You can install CrystalDiskInfo which will show you the health of the SSD.

Thank you. The reports says my SSD is good.


So should I buy a new Disk & Clone or is it OK to wait?

I will get a new battery either way.

[BRZRKR]

Originally Posted by carboy

Thank you. The reports says my SSD is good.
Attachment 2450803

So should I buy a new Disk & Clone or is it OK to wait?

I will get a new battery either way.

Hi. The specifications for the drive quote an endurance rating of 120 TB. Your drive has a long way to go before it fails due to excessive use.

If the drive capacity isn’t a concern you should just change the battery and call it a day.

Please refer to the link for details.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/10383...nd-client-ssds

[Candy$Cars]

Originally Posted by carboy

Thank you. The reports says my SSD is good.
Attachment 2450803

So should I buy a new Disk & Clone or is it OK to wait?

I will get a new battery either way.

On my laptop, in the health status box, it shows the exact percentage too. My SSD is at 83% and it still shows good health (similar read/write cycles). If you can get the total TBW (terabytes written) value your SSD is rated to, you can match the written value shown and decide better. TBW is the total terabytes that a ssd can write in its lifetime.

It is completely your call. Though you have a lot of read/write cycles on your current SSD, you may change it and keep the current one as backup. SSDs can last much longer but unlike HDDs they don't show any signs of failure before going out.
If you decide to go ahead, go for a good one and not the cheapest one as the price difference is not much to cheap out on a critical component.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Candy$Cars

If you decide to go ahead, go for a good one and not the cheapest one as the price difference is not much to cheap out on a critical component.

What is a good brand of SSD if I do get one? Also I assume cloning a SSD will make the new SSD also bootable, right?

[Aroy]

Unlike the HDD with a rotating spindle, SSD can fail without any warning.

I prefer backing up my data rather than cloning, as cloning normally requires a disk of same specs as the original one.

A good software can help you backup automatically, even when you are working.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Aroy

Unlike the HDD with a rotating spindle, SSD can fail without any warning

What is the usual life of a SSD?

Originally Posted by Aroy

I prefer backing up my data rather than cloning, as cloning normally requires a disk of same specs as the original one.

I was thinking cloning because it would mean that just replacing it with the cloned one means that your machine will boot & be up & running right away.

Originally Posted by Aroy

A good software can help you backup automatically, even when you are working.

Can you recommend such a software?

[Candy$Cars]

Originally Posted by carboy

What is a good brand of SSD if I do get one? Also I assume cloning a SSD will make the new SSD also bootable, right?

BRZRKR above has rightly said that your SSD has quite a lot of life left but if you still want then -
Most likely the SSD in your laptop is a m.2 SSD. In that case you can go for the WD Blue m.2 SATA SSD.

If it is a 2.5inch SSD then the Crucial MX500 and WD Blue (available in both 2.5inch and m.2 form factors) both are good.

Cloning will make exact copy and you then you can simply put in the drive and start using like before.
You can use Macrium Reflect to clone. It is a free software and I have used it earlier, it works well.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by carboy

What is the usual life of a SSD?

I was thinking cloning because it would mean that just replacing it with the cloned one means that your machine will boot & be up & running right away.

Can you recommend such a software?

A.
Life of SSD depends on the make and design. Here are a few links of interest

https://4ddig.tenorshare.com/hard-dr...-lifespan.html

https://www.avg.com/en/signal/ssd-hdd-which-is-best

In general the modern SSD drives last about 10 years, but that is under ideal conditions. SSD life can be reduced due to
. Lots of Reads/Writes on a few sectors
. High Temperature
. Voltage fluctuations

On the other hand HDD last and last, unless there is a mechanical failure.

B.
Cloning is fine, but generally the disks have to be same. However modern software is able to overcome this limitation by copying the MBR and files sperately

https://www.easeus.com/questions/bac...0GB%20to%201TB.

https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/...ning-software/

C.
There are a lot of backup software on the net Most of them are from disk manufacturers and free. Some exotic software costs money, but then you have to evaluate the cost-benefits of these.

In general for non critical applications SSD has an advantage of speed and small physical size. But for enterprise level and critical cases, SSD hs an HDD at the back end and a Tape Drive for long term archiving.

[smrtdvl]

I am in the lookout for a replacement for my 8yr old home laptop primarily used by my daughter & wife for ppt presentations till date. But off late it suddenly freezes during zoom sessions and reboots. My current requirements are zoom, office and some content creation by my wife. Looking for suggestions for at least 6 yr future proof laptops at a budget of 40 - 50k. TIA

[vishal21]

Originally Posted by smrtdvl

. Looking for suggestions for at least 6 yr future proof laptops at a budget of 40 - 50k. TIA

Hi smrtdvl, looking at your requirements, you can actually look out for these x360 foldable laptops. It would be a stretch, but would be worth the extra buck. They're are also usually compact. They also support touch and stylus mode these days. They could prove productive for something like a Zoom meeting or MS office. But I would not prefer them for anything more than this which would be resource hungry.

However, Gadgets these days don't remain as future proof as they used to. For example, I bought a 4th ge i7 notebook 9 years ago, upgrade the ram to 16gb, and then upgraded the storage to SSD a couple of years later. Still using it effortlessly. These days even changing a battery is a hassle. But it all goes by maintenance too. If you maintain them well, should last a good amount.

Attaching an example, there are many more options to look for
Hp Pavilion X360 11Th Gen Intel Core I3 14 Inches Fhd Multitouch 2-in-1 Laptop(8Gb Ram/512Gb Ssd/B&O/Windows 11 Home/Fpr/Backlit Kb/Pen/Alexa/Uhd Graphics/Ms Office/Natural Silver/1.52Kg) 14-Dy0207Tu https://amzn.eu/d/hRhD1J4

Dell Inspiron 7420 2in1 Laptop,12th Gen Intel Core i3-1215U, 8GB & 256GB SSD, 14.0" (35.56Cms) FHD+ WVA Touch 250 nits, Backlit KB, Win 11 + MSO'21, 15 Month McAfee, Platinum Silver, 1.57KGs https://amzn.eu/d/7swH2O2

[prasi55]

Whichever laptop you get, I would recommend getting one with 16GB RAM. MS Office apps are very resource and memory intensive apps. Even Word uses around 2 GB. PowerPoint can go even higher. Not to forget Windows 11 itself, which is very bloated.
Getting a laptop with 16GB RAM instead of 8GB RAM is a simple way to make the laptop more future proof.
(I did not have a great experience with the HP x360 series, it had heating issues.) Also, the cheaper laptops from Dell are no longer as great, from my research and reading of reviews.

That's why, when I got a laptop recently, I decided to go for either Asus or Lenovo. Chose Lenovo. (Lenovo IdeaPad 5)

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by prasi55

Whichever laptop you get, I would recommend getting one with 16GB RAM. MS Office apps are very resource and memory intensive apps. Even Word uses around 2 GB. PowerPoint can go even higher. Not to forget Windows 11 itself, which is very bloated.
Getting a laptop with 16GB RAM instead of 8GB RAM is a simple way to make the laptop more future proof.
(I did not have a great experience with the HP x360 series, it had heating issues.) Also, the cheaper laptops from Dell are no longer as great, from my research and reading of reviews.

That's why, when I got a laptop recently, I decided to go for either Asus or Lenovo. Chose Lenovo. (Lenovo IdeaPad 5)

I agree. RAM prices are quite low nowadays. getting 16GB or even 32GB is quite cost effective, so get the maximum you can afford.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by carboy

My Dell Inspiron 3750 laptop will complete 5 years in August. It has a 256 GB NvME SSD as the only hard disk. Haven't faced any problems yet with the disk but I am a little worried that if something happens to the disk, I will have to spend a lot of time to restore data. I am wondering if it's worth spending time to clone the disk on a new SSD & replace the old one.

Originally Posted by BRZRKR

Hi. The specifications for the drive quote an endurance rating of 120 TB. Your drive has a long way to go before it fails due to excessive use.

Originally Posted by Aroy

Unlike the HDD with a rotating spindle, SSD can fail without any warning.
I prefer backing up my data rather than cloning, as cloning normally requires a disk of same specs as the original one.

In the couple of months since I posted my question, my Laptop has crashed at least 5-6 times with this kind of screen - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...page-fault.png . Could this be a hard disk issue? Crashes happen due to driver issues, but could it be driver reading a bad sector or something?

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by carboy

Could this be a hard disk issue? Crashes happen due to driver issues, but could it be driver reading a bad sector or something?

Check the event log and look for the errors and warnings, especially those occurred near the time of the crashes.