Question 1

Backward compatible with SATA II?

Accepted Answer

All sata 3 devices are backwards compatible to previous gen sata configurations. However, the drive will only run at sata 2 speed (3gbps) and not sata 3 speed (6gbps).

Question 2

Will this drive work in a desktop or is it specifically for a laptop and do i need to purchase a adaptor if it will work in a desktop?

Accepted Answer

This will work in a desktop, no adapters needed. It connects with a SATA cable and uses standard power connectors.

Question 3

This is a technical question. If you successfully clone your current hard drive to this SSD, and say, 3 months down the road decide to get a new motherboard, will this SSD automatically "accept/recognize" the motherboard without a re-installation of the operating system and other installed programs. I ask, because I understand that the license code for the operating system (O/S) is tied to the motherboard, which makes we wonder that if the motherboard is replaced, whether the O/S needs to be reinstalled to the SSD. Is this the case?

Accepted Answer

I see it more as the legal, than the technical question. As far as I know, Microsoft allows one time hard drive change, but the motherboard is trhe different story. You might want to review the MS license agreement, but I had to call Microsoft in the past and they were very cooperative.
On the technical side of your question, the motherboard chipset may be the major obstacle for you. If the disk controller has different driver, you might not be able to bott at all. One of the msot common solutions is to change to "standard IDE controller", prior MB replacement.

Question 4

does it come with a transfer/cloning cable and/or software?

Accepted Answer

No cable, any SATA to USB cable will work. Not sure about a disc, Samsungs come with disc but no cable either. I didn't need it, I did a system restore on my laptop. This SSD works perfectly, I've had no problems.

Question 5

How is this SSD paired with a Seagate 2TB SSHD? At that point would it just be better to get this and a HDD or just the SSHD?

Accepted Answer

I personally have no experience with SSHDs yet, but I would venture to say that the solid state capacity on a hybrid drive will be less than having a separate SSD from HDD.  On my PNY 120GB SSD I have been able to fit my entire OS, drivers and core web browsers for optimal read/write speeds.  I couldn't be happier with this setup at the moment; my rig boots from off to Windows in about 15-20 seconds.

What I would be most afraid of in a hybrid drive is one of the drives failing and having to replace both parts.  I suggest sticking to separate entities, as the money saved may not be worth the hassle of troubleshooting the new technology.

Question 6

Does Macrium Reflect Free or other cloning software automatically adjust for correct “SSD partition alignment” when cloning?

Accepted Answer

I honestly can not say for certain if the programs listed will align the partition for you, especially with a clone, as the clone will do a sector for sector copy. AFAIK Aligning should be done prior to clean install from a command prompt. 
If the drive you are cloning from is larger than the target the clone will fail.

Your best bet would be to start with a clean install and restore backup files after.

Question 7

Is this compatible with Windows 8.1?

Accepted Answer

Yes, this is compatible with Windows 8.1.

Question 8

If a motherboard chipset or system BIOS does not not support ACHI, is there a go-around to achieving TRIM. For instance, does PNY provide a software utility that manually runs TRIM so it can be run periodically? (I believe Samsung and Intel provide such TRIM utility).

Thank you.

Accepted Answer

SSDs and the TRIM command
The TRIM command is dependent on the SSD itself, and the operating system supporting it. It is not dependent on the host controller, and AHCI is not a requirement. TRIM is natively supported in Windows 7, as well as Linux since kernel 2.6.33.

Question 9

what are the dimensions?

Accepted Answer

It's standard width and length for a 2.5" hard drive but the thickness is only about 5mm so it comes with a spacer just in case you need it.

Question 10

Compatibility with older laptops?

Im needing to replace the HDD on a HP Elitebook 6930 and just started considering an SSD.

Will this work without any major changes or problems?

Like the potential power savings and performance increase, butnot wanting to have too many issues to combat.

Accepted Answer

Using a solid state hard drive is widely considered one of the best upgrades you can get for a computer. I'm not entirely sure about the specifications of your laptop in question, but provided you're installing Windows 7 or 8 (I'm not sure how well XP, Vista, and other OSes work on SSDs!) and your laptop supports SATA III, this is a wonderful piece of hardware.

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