Last Updated on November 23, 2016 by Dave Farquhar
A longtime reader asked me to verify the easiest way to migrate from an obsolete hard drive to a new, shiny SSD: Is it to use the SSD migration tool included with the drive?
Yes. Yes it is. And it may even be able to help you if it doesn’t come with the drive.
Intel and Samsung allow you to download its SSD migration tool. So even if you buy a bare OEM drive that doesn’t even come with screws, let alone a CD, you can still download the tool and use it. It’s locked to the make of the SSD, but it doesn’t know or care whether it’s a retail or OEM drive.
An OEM drive won’t include a handy USB adapter to hold the SSD while you migrate–a must-have for a laptop migration–but you can get one of those for $6. Shipped.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.
Yep, worked like a charm! Your Amazon Linkee no workee, but another advantage of the handy-dandy USB adapter is that I can wipe the old drive and use it for periodic backups.
Intel’s latest Migration software is at http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19324
It prompted me to make a bootable CD/DVD