RAID storage technology allows you to combine multiple hard drives together by distributing the data across multiple disks.You can also combine the strengths of SSDs and hard drives. RAID is an abbreviation of the term Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Thus, I recommend having at least two hard drives in RAID operation. If your backup hard drive fails, you will lose all your media collection.You can find instructions here. The 1 TB internal drive is partitioned with a Mac Journaled/Windows split, FYI.For a Macbook or Macbook Pro can replace the internal optical drive with your old Hard Drive or order a large SSD drive and replace your old hard drive with it. This makes an SSD an especially attractive upgrade if you already have a hard drive, since you can move the operating system over and “demote” the hard drive to storage duties.I have an internal 1 TB drive which I would like to start using for all future application installations, however the App store automatically installs the apps to the primary hard drive which is filling up fast.
What Physical Size Should the Drive Be?If your Mac has additional users, their information is also encrypted. But for most people, a smaller SSD combined with a larger hard drive is a great compromise. External hard drives, thumb drives, USB drives, flash memory cards and devices like iPod are examples of storage devices you can connect to your Mac using.If money is no object—or if you’re limited to a single drive connection in your laptop—you can spend quite a lot to get a multi-terabyte SSD. This involves pulling out the. Enable A Second Hard Drive For Storage On Password Before TheyUSB 3.0 or 3.1 will be fast enough for user files with an hard. For an hard drive, try to get a 7200-rpm drive. The possible exception to this are the super-small form factor PCs that can only handle a 2.5″ drive.Check around for options for external drives, as prices can vary by large factors. The 3.5″ drives are also known as “full size” or “desktop drives.” Pretty much every desktop PC out there has room for at least one (and sometimes many) 3.5″ drives. Click Enable Users, select a user, enter the login password, click OK, then click Continue.Hard drives typically come in two sizes: 2.5″ and 3.5″. If there’s an Enable Users button, you must enter a user’s login password before they can unlock the encrypted disk. Excel for mac appThese drives actually look more like a stick of RAM than a hard drive. That’s what size you’ll use whether you’re mounting it in a desktop or laptop.RELATED: What Is the M.2 Expansion Slot, and How Can I Use It?And speaking of SSDs, there is one more form factor to talk about: the M.2 standard. Note that these are usually labelled as “SSD mounting brackets.” This is because all SSDs in the traditional hard drive form are 2.5″ drives. If yours doesn’t, you’ll need a mounting bracket like this one. Some desktop PCs have built in mounting points for 2.5″ drives. As they’ve gotten smaller and sleeker, laptops have also gotten harder to upgrade. It often voids the warranty as well.One other note about laptops. Some laptops, like Macbooks, use an M.2 storage drive that requires advanced, model-specific instructions for replacement. If you’re interested in the M.2 drives, you’ll have to determine whether your PC supports them. If your PC only offers the older 4-pin Molex cables, you can buy adapters that work just fine.The SATA data cable requires that your motherboard support a SATA connection (all modern PCs do). What Connection Do I Need?All modern 3.5″ and 2.5″ drives use a SATA connection for power and data.If you’re installing the drive into a desktop PC, the SATA power cable is a 15-pin cable that runs from your PC’s power supply. Upgrading those drives will probably void your warranty, and you’ll need to look for a model-specific guide, like this one on iFixIt. Other models might need some extensive work to get to the drive bay, or may not have access at all, especially if they’ve moved to the expensive M.2 standard. Cheaper, bulkier laptops, and few business-class designs like Lenovo’s ThinkPads or Dell’s Latitudes, still allow access fairly easily. You’ll usually be able to plug the drive right into a slot that already has the power and data connections ready—no cables to connect.One other word on SATA drives. You should get SATA cables with your hard drive, but if you’re working in a particularly tight space, be aware that these other options exist.If you’re installing into a laptop that allows user access, things are easier. Some SATA cables have straight plugs or L-shaped plugs on both ends. The L-shaped plug makes it easier to fit into jacks that are closer to other components. Some (like the one pictured below) have a straight plug on one end and an L-shaped plug on the other end. How Much Storage Do I Need?This one’s easy: whatever fits your budget. Laptops don’t use SATA cables, so just make sure that the drive you’re upgrading to uses the same SATA revision or newer than the drive it’s replacing. The same goes for the SATA cable you buy. On desktops, you’ll want to make sure that the drive you’re buying is as fast or faster than the connection that your motherboard accepts—most motherboard SATA connections from the last five years have at least 3.0 support. Some high-performance hard drives are offered at 10,000 RPM, but these have been mostly superseded by faster SSDs. 5400 RPM is a typical speed for inexpensive drives (especially in 2.5″ form factors), with 7200 RPM drives also being quite common. Getting more storage on an SSD will be more important to most people than getting more speed.If you’re buying a regular drive, speed is generally expressed in RPM—the revolutions per minute of the spinning data platters. So you might not want to splurge on the fastest SSD you can get. How Fast Does My Drive Need To Be?The default answer here is “as fast as you can afford.” That said, if you’re upgrading from a hard drive to an SSD, you’re going to be blown away by the speed increase no matter what. It might be worth the small price premium versus a standard hard drive. This won’t magically make your hard drive as fast as an SSD, but the file caching can make a considerable improvement if you’re constantly accessing mostly the same programs and files. “ Hybrid” drives combine a large, standard hard drive with a small cache of flash storage. The good news is that it isn’t too hard to do. The bad news is that this is a slow and tedious process. The downside is that it’s a pretty slow and tedious process.RELATED: How to Upgrade to a Larger Hard Drive Without Reinstalling WindowsIf you’re upgrading from only one drive to another (as opposed to simply installing an additional drive in a desktop), you’ll probably want to transfer your operating system to the new drive instead of installing fresh. Transferring Your Operating SystemTransferring your operating system (and all your data and installed apps) means not having to worry about reinstalling Windows, setting it up the way you like it again, and then reinstalling each of your apps. There are pros and cons for each. Your next step is to decide whether you want to transfer your operating system to the new drive or just do a clean installation and start fresh. You get to set it the way you want, and only install what you want.The downside, of course, is that you have to do all that. No old program installations hanging around it’s a fresh copy of your OS without the clutter. The big one is that you get to start fresh. Performing a Clean InstallationRELATED: How to do a Clean Install of Windows 10 the Easy WayThere are also advantages to just performing a clean installation of your operating system on your new drive. You can go that way with a desktop, too, but it may be easier just to install the new drive, do the transfer, and then decide whether to leave the old drive in place for extra storage or uninstall it. And if you didn’t get a free tool, there are other ways to upgrade to a larger hard drive without reinstalling Windows.If you use a laptop, you’ll need to use a USB-based SATA adapter or enclosure so that you can have both drives hooked up at once. I pulled it off, and then placed it on the new drive.Then, I reverse the process, slipping the new drive onto the SATA connection in the laptop, screwing the caddy back down to the frame, and replacing the body panel. You can see the hard drive in the lower-left corner.To pull the drive itself out, I need to remove another screw, pull the drive up a bit, and then slide it off of the integrated SATA connection.For this model, the drive caddy is just a thin piece of aluminum with a rubber bumper. The design is a few years old now, but it’s small enough that it requires the entire bottom to be removed, which is fairly typical among designs that allow a hard drive upgrade.To access the drive, I have to remove the battery, and then take out eight different screws.That loosens the metal body plate enough to let me pull it off the computer. You can usually find specific instructions by searching the web for your laptop manufacturer and model.For this example, we’re swapping the drive in a ThinkPad T450s. Some business-class designs let you swap out a drive by removing a single screw, others might need you to completely remove the bottom of the machine or even take out the keyboard.
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