Question 1

How do I connect power to this drive?  Does it use the same power connector as a standard SATA HD?

Accepted Answer

The connections and cables are the same as any standard SATA HD. Benefits of the SSD is there are no moving parts in it so it is more durable, no noise, much less heat. So you could attach this harddrive to the inside of your case with velcro and run your standard SATA cables from your mobo to it and it works just fine.

Question 2

Hello all,  My motherboard will only support SATA 2.0.  Will this drive work with that specification?

Accepted Answer

Yes Bill, it will work fine but will be limited to the ceiling of Sata 2 bandwidth. Only in a few scenarios would the difference be detectable between the having it hooked up to Sata2 or Sata3 anyhow. It will still be a huge leap over a traditional harddrive running on Sata2.

Question 3

What does Windows report as actual usable capacity?

Accepted Answer

You'll have 238 "usable" gigabytes. Windows does take about about 8 gigabytes though, so expect about 230 usable gigabytes.

Question 4

Does this SSD come with a version of Windows already on it or would I need to buy the operating system separate and install it?

Accepted Answer

No storage device manufacturer can legally ship a disk or ssd with a legal copy of any Microsoft - or other vendor's proprietary software pre-installed on it.  All hard disk drive and solid storage devices are shipped as blank media, they must be formatted and loaded with an operating system through the installation process or via a cloning process from an existing storage device containing a legally licensed copy of an operating system.  Hope this helps.

Question 5

I understand this comes with Acronis. Yes/no? I do NOT want Acronis or anything else on a new drive. If it comes with such crap, can I simply format it first?

Accepted Answer

mine didn't come with anything on it. If it comes with Acronis (which I honestly don't remember) I think it's in the form of a download/serial number type deal.

Question 6

Does this come with a bracket or adaptor to use in 3.5 drive?

Accepted Answer

No, but you can use standard HD screws to facen it to any 3.5 or standard HD slot. I have 2 SSDs sitting vertical side by side.

Question 7

Does this come with a SATA to USB transfer cable?

Accepted Answer

No, you would have to purchase a USB adapter to do something like that. They aren't expensive, and they work well. Hope that helps.

Question 8

I have an older hp. Is this drive compatible?

Accepted Answer

I installed this as second drive in a pavilion dv7-6b32us (about 3 years old) and it is fast. Drive should work with any HP that has a existing sata hard drive. The bus speed (1.5, 3.0, 6.0 gbit/s) of the computer can affect how much speed improvement there will be over your previous spinning hard drive.

Question 9

Can I put this in a bay for a 3.5 inch drive?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it fits in my 3.5" bay on a NUC micro computer with no issues.
There seems to be an issue with some SSD being too high (thick) to fit in certain bays, but I believe this MX100 is a standard height (thickness) for most 3. 5" bays.

Question 10

What's in the box? (data migration software, SATA 3 cable???)

Accepted Answer

No software. No cable. It does come with a spacer but that is it.  I will add that I have been very impressed with this drive. I have it in a Dell laptop and it is snappy. You cannot beat the price for a 256 GB SSD.

Questions & Answers