W10 laptop won't recognise SSD but desktop does

W10 laptop won't recognise SSD but desktop does

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singlecoil

Original Poster:

33,313 posts

245 months

Saturday 24th August 2019
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Some time ago I successfully cloned the HDD in an old Sony laptop onto a Samsung SSD and it has transformed its perfomance. I decided to do the same with a newer Lenovo laptop which has a very slow SSHD. The problem is that when I connect the SSD to the laptop using a USB3 to SATA adapter that worked fine before W.E. won't recognise it.

I tried it on my hi-spec desktop and after initialising it in Disk Manager and assigning it a drive letter plugged it back in to the laptop, and in Disk Manager it shows the existing C drive but the the SSD flashes up as 'Disk 1 unknown' and then disappears, only to flash up again a few seconds later then disappears and the cycle repeats.

Back in the desktop it works fine.

Any ideas?

Seanseansean

171 posts

86 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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I had something similar with my wife’s pc.
Wouldn’t read my memory stick.
Think it need a driver update? Think I just watched a YouTube video.

Shadow R1

3,798 posts

175 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
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Whats device manager showing for the ssd and usb adapter ?


singlecoil

Original Poster:

33,313 posts

245 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
quotequote all
Thanks for the replies.

I've continued to experiment, tried the SSD and adapter lead in another computer (worked fine) so had to assume the problem is in the Lenovo laptop, either software or possibly a hardware problem with the USB3 sockets. I tried it in the USB2 socket and suddenly it works! Interesting.

So I started up the Samsung Data Transfer software and it starts cloning at 1MB/S. Hoping for a quicker transfer I tried it back in one of the USB3 sockets and after a bit of replugging and wiggling the SSD is recognised and it's cloning now, though only at the rate of about 23MB/S. Having said that it's always been a slow loading computer and thinking about it the SSHD has been underperforming since it was new, but has got worse recently. For instance, to restart, load Sketchup and a file was taking nearly 8 minutes.

Anyway, it's 45% cloned at time of writing so I'm hoping when it's finshed and I install the new drive I'll be good to go.

singlecoil

Original Poster:

33,313 posts

245 months

Sunday 25th August 2019
quotequote all
Update:

installed the freshly cloned SSD and no luck, 'no bootable media'. So downloaded Windows10 onto a memory stick and tried that in the laptop. Still no good, the installation pages just kept installing and them asking to be installed again.

Thought maybe the SSD needed wiping so had it out and did that, put it back in and started it up. Then realised I hadn't reinserted the memory stick. But turned out I didn't need it, Cortana started up and asked a few questions, I provided the WIFi password and a few minuted later I was good to go.

Compared to before, the laptop is now fking quick. Which is nice.