HDD Died, Want To Replace w/SSD. Have back up of HDD

you can restore from an image, but I wouldnt. your getting an ssd, speed is its biggest selling point; why saddle it with your old os and crap thats collected over time. start fresh and only install the essentials!!

Is the backup a system image of the original drive or is it simply a file-by-file backup? If a system image then you should be able to restore it providing the NovaStor software has the ability to create a bootable disk to initiate the restore. If the image is recent, your ssd should be able to boot and the system and be pretty much identical to how it was before the hdd died.

If the backup is strictly a file-by-file, then you will need to do a clean install of your OS onto the ssd, then re-install all of your programs then you will be able to restore your data from the backup.

Arelem no mate all you need to do is get the SSD and use this https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

Then it is just a matter of transferring your stuff to it only I would suggest you get as large a drive as you can afford the 120GB is used up fairly quickly.

You could do this if you want to get rid of any bloatware that came with your machine too

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 see pic for picking the Windows version

Nice choice mate I have a smaller one and not had any problems with it. But still go with the alignment tutorial.

That is a decent price for a 480G SSD. I recently got a great deal on a Samsung 840 EVO 500G SSD for $209.25 (including extended warranty and taxes). I happened to have a $200 gift card so the thing cost me only $9.25 out-of-pocket.

I used it to replace a 5400 rpm spinner in my laptop. My situation was a little different than yours since my hdd wasn't dead, but I simply cloned the hdd to the ssd, removed the hdd, installed the ssd and it booted fully intact. I did some tweaking which you need to do to optimize the ssd like check alignment but other than that, the process was rather smooth and trouble free. Hope yours goes just as well.

Actually I have the 250GB EVO in my main machine and the 840's in two others and for my money Samsung is the best. But Crucial, and even SanDisk have done well by me.