Noob hdd>usb adapter qestion

so i need to upgrade the drive in my school laptop and becuase of all the random programs, drivers, and,slow usb ports; using flash drives to back up files and reinstall windows isn't really an option; so i'm thinking drive cloning is the only choice

i ordered a new drive earlier today: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152288

i'm betting it wont come with any sort of adapter so i'm guessing i have to buy one

some looking and i see these 2 things: http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-NexStar-2-5-Inch-External-Enclosure/dp/B002JQNXZC http://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Notebook-Upgrade-Connection-ASW-USB-25/dp/B002EUCU3O/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_y

so do i have this correct, does anyone know of a better thing to use, know that some brand is complete crap or something

i know one of those comes with software, but i dont have a cd drive, i also don't have any usb 3 ports, so don't recommend something with usb 3

So let me get this straight:

  • you need to upgrade the laptop's hard drive because of the random crap that is presumably slowing it down
  • USB is too slow to back up and re-install windows
  • You're going to invest in an external enclosure with another slow laptop drive, which will be limited by USB (see above comment), and clone the old drive, which will carry over all the crap slowing it down in the first place (see first comment).

Unless you need a capacity upgrade, this doesn't make any sense. The way you worded your post makes it seem like you trying to upgrade the drive for increase performance

In any event, the best was to clone the drive is by using another computer, specifically one with multiple SATA ports. Even the first revision of SATA (~180MB/s) is much faster than USB. Just plug both drives in (SATA connectors are the same on both laptop and desktop drives), and clone using desired software.

Also, USB 3 devices are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 (and 1.0/1.1) ports. I have a USB 3 external enclosure with a 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda plugged into my front-panel USB 2 right now without issue.

the drive isn't slow it's out of space

i have 1 14GB slow flashdrive to transfer 80GB of files that will involve backing them up, dumping them on another computer, taking them from the other computer and dumping them back on the new drive

as opposed to 1 single copy

and i don't have access to a decent computer with multiple sata ports

In that case I do have a suggestion. Granted, I haven't actually cloned a disk before, so be sure to do your own research on this, but here it is:

  • Get an external enclosure (preferably separately powered)
  • Grab a copy of GParted Live and put that on your USB flash drive.
  • Boot up GParted Live and copy.

I've used GParted before (comes with various live Linux Distros), and rather like it, but as I've stated, I've never cloned a disk before. It seems pretty straight forward to me, but there could be hiccups so be sure to backup your data if possible. Also, the NexStar enclosure you pointed out should work fine, if you have 2 USB ports in close proximity.

thanks for the recomendation

i'm going to pick up that nextar enclosure, hopefully i dont have to dig up a usb extension cable or anything, i have 2 ports pretty close, but hardly next to eachother