Asus N76 SSD Upgrade Tut?

So I recently purchased the Asus N76 Laptop(Loving it so far). I'm finally taking the jump to SSD and will be ordering either the Crucial M4 512GB SSD Or ADATA XPG SX900 512GB SSD and I wanna make sure I do this right so can someone give me a Tut so Ill know exactly what to do.And should I do a freash Windows 7 Install?

 

I am going to do the exact same thing with the same laptop. have you done it yet? and if so, any advice?

 

There are some general guidelines in the guide in my signature. It's not as difficult as it seems, very few things can actually go wrong. And if you make a mistake, you can still just put in the old hdd.

If you plan to have both disks in the system, you really, really should install the OS on the ssd. Since that will speed things up. A lot. And it might be an idea to only have the ssd in the system first. Then complete the install. And then put in the other hdd in the second slot later. No real reason to do that, but if you're lucky, and asus bios tweaking being what they are - you could be lucky and have the second disk booting half-way during the install, etc. Since that disk will have a valid boot-sector as well, and the first disk might not. So.. instead of manually picking the right disk on the first boots, etc.

(Another thing - leaving some.. 10Gb of unpartitioned space at the end of the ssd will make a linux install later on very easy.)

 

I did a quick one here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/686797-quick-n76vz-ds1-ssd-installation-tutorial.html

I was going to add more pics to it, but the upload utility was giving me a hard time.

There should be enough info in the link, but I''ll do my best to answer any questions that you may have. I'll check the forum periodically over the next week or so.

 

i want to get rid of the split partition on my main drive because it just seems like a waste, and i dont want to have to do a new install because this is my second one as on the first one the "W" key barely worked which i unfortunatley didint realize until after i fully installed everything. and i dont want to do it a third time. i also am getting a dual slot usb 3.0 external hdd case which i will put my hdd's in for backup.
Newegg.com - SYBA SY-ENC25024 2.5" Black USB 3.0 Dual 2.5" SATA HD/SSD Enclosure with USB 3.0 Super Speed
and i just planned on completely reproducing my exact system and then just plugging the two ssd's and going from there, but i mainly dont want them to be split into partitions anymore (main one is 480 GB, and the second is 240GB)

 

You can't do this in the Windows environment (as far as I know), but there's a program called EaseUS Partition Master that can do it for you.

 

Thanks for the tips. 2 questions...I am about to install Crucial M4 256gb SSD on ASUS N76VJ-DH1.
1) Will the EZgigIV software work for cloning the main hdd with the OS etc to the ssd?
2) If cloning works, then I just need to replace the hdd with the ssd. How do I know which hdd to replace when I open the back cover? Are they labeled SATA 0 vs SATA 1?

 

It's generally advised you don't clone; seemingly more convenience with considerably more potential for problems (which makes it not as convenient as a fresh install). If you decide to image it anyway, just ensure the HDD is aligned first.

If you can check your BIOS, that will tell you which drive is your primary drive. Make a note of it and then remove that drive when replacing it with the SSD. I can't recall whether there is a distinct physical label or not.

 

Thanks. I tried to clone but it wouldn't work. EZgig says it is successful, but then I get error message that one of the drive partitions needs to be formatted, and when I replace hdd I get error message that it needs to be repaired. Same same thing happened on an HP laptop...I wonder if Windows 8 machines are harder to clone. Anyway, I am giving up. I called Microsoft and ordered Windows 8 Pro for a clean install as you suggest...it was on $69 and I'll have the discs if I ever need to restore.

 

I've never used EZgig; programs I'm most familiar with for imaging are Norton's Ghost, Acronis, and CloneZilla. I think cloning is more convenient for disk deployment in an enterprise environment, rather than for end-users.

Let us know if you need any help with installing or post installation setup!