The subsequent installation of an SSD hard drive has given your computer a new life, regardless of what processor you have. This occurs due to the read and write speeds offered by SSDs compared to mechanical ones. Our whole system goes much faster, but how to install an SSD? We explain it much more in the post.

SSDs are cheaper today than ever. You will probably want to use a hard drive for storage purposes, because per gigabyte, hard drives are still cheaper, but for a boot or game drive, SSDs are a great way to improve your PC experience.



When installing any new drive on a PC, check the BIOS after installation to confirm that it has been recognized by the system. Otherwise, it may be necessary to ensure that all connections are correct.

Two Tips Before You Do
When you want to install an SSD, you need to prepare an SSD in advance. Then, you may ask which SSD should you use in your PC? Choosing a good solid-state drive is important.

After connecting your SSD to your computer, you need to go to Disk Management by right-clicking This PC or My Computer to choose Manage and initialize the disk to MBR (if your computer is old).

Transfer Data and System to Your New SSD
How to install SSD in PC without reinstall Windows?

If you want to install an SSD as a primary drive, the first step you can do is to transfer the operating system to the SSD via disk cloning. To only keep the SSD in your computer, you can also transfer data to it.



To move the Windows system and files to your solid-state drive, you need to use a piece of PC cloning software to clone HDD to SSD. Here, we strongly recommend using MiniTool ShadowMaker.

At first sight, you find this software is a piece of backup software. Besides, it is also a program that can be used to perform disk cloning with its Clone Disk feature.

Everything including Windows operating system, settings, apps, registry keys, files, etc. is cloned to your SSD.

Step 1: Connect your SSD to your computer and ensure it can be recognized by the machine.

Step 2: Double-click the icon of MiniTool ShadowMaker to launch it, then click Keep Trial and choose the first Connect button to start the cloning operation locally.

Step 3: Go to the Tools tab, locate and click the Clone Disk feature to continue.

Step 4: In the pop-up window, click the corresponding modules to choose your original disk and target disk. Here, the HDD should be the source drive and your SSD should be the target drive.

And then, click OK.

Step 5: Now the disk cloning operation is performing. Wait some minutes patiently.

After finishing the disk cloning, disconnect the SSD from your computer and you can perform the SSD installation to your PC in order to boot the machine from the cloned SSD for better performance.

How to Install SSD in Windows 10 PC
The operations to install an SSD are a bit complicated and you need to follow these instructions below. Here, we will show you how to install an SSD into a laptop and desktop.

How to Install SSD Laptop
For a SATA SSD:

Step 1: Disconnect the power cable, use a screwdriver to take out the screws on the back of your laptop and remove the computer bottom cover.

Step 2: Remove the battery of the machine.

Step 3: Locate the storage bay and remove the original hard drive.

Step 4: Fasten your SSD to the bracket. If anything is attached to the old disk, remove it and put it on the SSD in the same way.



Step 5: Fasten the bracket, put the new SSD to the laptop via SATA connection and put the battery back in.



Step 6: Remount the laptop’s bottom panel and screw the fasteners.

For an M.2 SSD

Step 1: Also, open the bottom panel of the laptop.

Step 2: Inside the M.2 SSD to the M.2 slot on the motherboard. Note that the side with product information and labels should be up.

Step 3: Use the screwdriver to screw in place with the SSD.

Step 4: Make sure everything is in place and screw the laptop’s cover back in.

After following these steps, it is simple to install an SSD in your laptop. If you are using a desktop, now let’s see how to install SSD in desktop.

Step 1: Disconnect the power, remove all cables, and put it to a cool and dry place.

Step 2: Take the case cover off and you can see the installed hard drive.

Step 3: Connect your SSD to the motherboard via the SATA cable and use the SATA power cable to connect the SSD to the PSU.

Step 4: Put the SSD to the mounting tray and slide the tray into the case.

Step 5: Remount the desktop case.

Install an M.2 SSD

Step 1: Also, open the computer case.

Step 2: Choose the M.2 slot you want to use and place the M.2 SSD to the motherboard.

Step 3: Tighten the screw down and put the case back.

Boot Your PC from the New SSD
After finishing the SSD installation, there is another thing you should do and that is you need to tell the computer to boot from it.

Another Way: Install Windows 10 on New SSD
If you don’t want to use the original operating system, you can choose to perform a clean install of Windows 10 on the new SSD. Here, Media Creation Tool can be used to perform this work.

Just get it from the Internet and create a bootable USB flash drive. Next, boot the PC from the USB drive and start the clean install.

Bottom Line
Now we come to the end of this post. From the article, you know how to install SSD in PC including a desktop or laptop, and how to boot the PC from the SSD.

If you have a need to perform the SSD installation, just follow the guide above – transfer system (and data) from HDD to SSD and install an SSD into a PC.



So far our guide on how to install an SSD in Windows 10 PC. I hope that it has been useful for you and, if you have any questions, leave it below.

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