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#11
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Hi there.
Laptop is dell xps 15 9550 i5 HQ6300 processor
8GB RAM, 1.0TB HD 5400RPM + 32GB mSATA SSD
Does that tell you about which SSD i could use?
https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-9550-..._cd_al_qh_dp_t
It appears to be the above laptop. One of the reviews says this about the SSD: "It's not user accessible though. It's auto managed and used for caching".
That tells me it's as I thought--one single "hybrid" drive, not an HDD and an SSD. They are one unit, NOT separate. I'd guess it fits into a standard laptop hard drive mount, but I've never seen one. Maybe someone else knows. I'd assume a standard 2.5 inch Samsung SSD will fit, but I'm not sure as I know little about laptops.
Yeah, you could remove it from the laptop and connect it up to some other PC, such as your desktop, and wipe it there. But why do you need to wipe it at all? You can reuse it without formally "wiping" it.
Can you explain this? You telling me putting this on a new laptop will wipe everything just like that and be brand new? I didn't know that.
"Putting it on a new laptop" won't do anything. HOWEVER, a clean Windows install will. You'd normally delete all partitions as part of a clean install,which effectively "wipes" it.
Okay so let say i bring my samsung pro ssd to a repair shop and asked them i want to replace this new laptop ssd with this ssd. They don't need to wipe anything?
They could formally wipe it, but they probably would not. A formal wiping is rarely needed. You DO need to delete partitions if you want to do a clean install.
You have to decide if you or the shop wants to do a clean Windows install to the Samsung SSD or instead transfer the existing installation on the hybrid drive to the Samsung SSD. Either is possible. I'd vote for a clean install, BUT you have to confirm you have a valid Product Key attached to the new Dell laptop. You need the Product Key to activate a new clean Windows install.
If you chose to do a transfer rather than a clean install, then you might want to do a formal wipe in advance.
And if they do, how long does it take?
Under an hour, maybe under a half hour; assuming there are no unforeseen snags.
About the wiping thing... well i want to wipe all the files in my ssd because i figure i need it brand new when putting in new laptop?
Deleting all partitions is effectively a wipe, which I assume is what you mean by "brand new".
Okay so forget about buying that enclosure for $10 online right since i probably would have issues even using it? Thus the repair shop could do this pretty easily? But is it better to keep an enclosure just in case?
A clean install should be an every day of the week job for a shop. A transfer might be less common, but still not difficult---assuming they are halfway competent. Maybe they are terrible and thieves. That's for you to find out.
I don't use enclosures so I don't know how much of a pain they are.
I don't see why you'd need one UNLESS you did NOT own an external drive. And you would NOT need an external UNLESS you were doing the job yourself and did NOT want to do a clean install.