Question 1

Does this drive come with a mounting bracket?

Accepted Answer

No. You have to buy a separate kit. I bought this kit with the drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994157 I was glad I did because I needed everything that came with it.

Question 2

Does it include the usb cable?

Accepted Answer

No.  This package just includes the drive, doc, and CD with some disk porting software.  If you're looking for an adapter so that you can mirror your old drive to this one, you'd have to buy some sort of adapter separately.  I have a Thermaltake BlacX Duet, so I plugged that into my laptop, and used Samsung's software on the CD to copy my laptop's disk to this one.  Then just swapped the drives.

Question 3

Stupid question. I currently have a VelociRapter HDD with Vista64, I want to upgrade my desktop with an SSD for apps (Games) and operating system.  So if I buy this drive, and Win7 or 8, is there a way to migrate my old apps over (including games), or will I need to reinstall all my apps and games again from scratch?

I have an AMD Phenom II x4 965 processor and Crosshair III Formula motherboard if it matters.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Accepted Answer

Keith,

I purchased this 500GB for my Macbook Pro a couple months ago and am now considering one of my HP laptops (Win 7). I have never found a satisfactory way of migrating an application under any Windows operating system other than re-installing. The complexity of the registry just does not lend itself to that, among other things. That's one advantage of most of the Unix-based systems, like Mac OS X, the applications are usually complete packages. In Windows you have hardware dependancies built in to applications, etc.

There are packages out there that purport to be able to migrate applications, but I have never had more than 50% success.

Good luck.

Tom

Question 4

Does this drive plug into a USB port and can be moved between computers?

Accepted Answer

It has a SATA interface, and if you want to plug it into a USB port, you'll need a special adapter for that purpose.  It does NOT come with one, but I believe there is Kit version of the drive that does come with the USB adapter.  I saw it on the web while I was investigating this one.

Question 5

I am building a new machine and I am new to the SSD's. I am not going to clone an existing HHD. I wanting to know if they are as easy to install as HHD's? (i.e. installing windows, etc.) Is there anything special I need to do other than make sure it is compatiable with the MB?

Accepted Answer

I think the number one thing is to update your MB bios to latest revision and get your windows up to date without hesitation.  Without having your Bios updated you may experience Unable to Find HD error, which can be overcome with reboots, but it's a hassle.  Good luck, this is a super fast drive that works wonderfully once everything is up to date.

Question 6

can this ssd be installed in a tower or only a laptop?

Accepted Answer

You will need a conversion mount to install this in the standard slot. this is available through new egg copy and paste in browser http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1B0-0003-00001

Question 7

can i do a fresh install with my HP recovery dish using this drive?

Accepted Answer

George,

Hopefully this will help:

I put my Samsung ssd in my hp laptop and it is working great! Copying the old hard drive was a sinch and took very little time.

I also had another HP ssd (made by pny) that I put in my wife's lenovo.  My wife had a virus that was hiding files and programs and so I was in a similar situation as you are and wanted to start fresh.

Unfortunately, I only had an upgrade disk and so what I had to do was copy my old drive to the new ssd and then I reformatted the new drive with a fresh install of windows. My wife's lenovo has been working great ever since I did this with no problems.

FYI... Make sure you have a way to get and install all of the drivers you will need after you start fresh.  With the HP recovery disk you should be fine.  I only had a windows upgrade disk and had to go to lenovos website and load the necessary drivers onto a jump drive.

Sincerely,
Marshall

Question 8

I have a mac pro with 2GHz intel core i7. Would there be any compatibility issue?

Accepted Answer

David R: I can't give you an answer as to the compatibility issue. I just installed this same SSD in a PC running an Intel core i5/3.3 GHz/8gigs ram/ASUS mother board. My 'computer experience factor' jumped from 5.9 to 7.1. The computer boots in about 35 seconds and all programs seem to run faster. The Samsung data migration software (supplied) made the switch over easy and took about 35 minutes to move approx. 77 gigs of programs & data. This migration process does wipe your existing hard drive leaving you no choice but to do a 'clean install' of your operating system should something go wrong, but most users are reporting no such issues (as I was doing my research).

A local PC Parts store employee told me he had two of these same drives in his personal computer and rates the Samsung as the best available.

I also installed a 250 gig SSD (Samsung) in my Dell laptop. It gave this machine a whole new personality as it now boots in about 35 seconds vs. 4.5 minutes!

You might need to ask a pro about the 2 GHz processor speed issue?

Question 9

HI, I asked if this SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE500BW 2.5" 500GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) would work in my Dell M 6700. I have not received an answer?

Thank you,

Jim Murray

Accepted Answer

From Dell's website for the M6700, the Hard drive specs are this:

Hard Drive:
    Up to 1000GB hard drive
    Up to 750GB hard drive
    Up to 512GB X_SATA3SS hard drive

The Chipset in this laptop is the Intel QM77 which has 2 SATA3 ports + 4 SATA2 ports.

The hard drives that come with the laptop are 2.5" SATA drives so this SSD will work and because the chipset supports SATA 3, it's very likely that DELL chose the SATA 3 connection for the hard drive which means you'll get the full performance out of this SSD.

Question 10

What is the actual capacity of this drive?

Accepted Answer

In reality it is 400 GB. That is because there is the usual stuff that makes it not hit 500GB.
But, what is peculiar to SSD's is that Samsung recommends that at least ten percent of the disk not to be made into a volume. That is "unallocated" space. Since SSD's get bad cells that are then destroyed it allows the drive to trim better. (beyond my technical skills).
If ten percent is good then twenty percent must be better so that is why mine is only 400 GB.
The magician software is really nice but I install and uninstall it when needed for firmware updates, etc. Windows 8 does a better job of managing the drive.
If you want to explore this more then go to the support section of Samsung and download all the manuals to the magician software because it will have a lot of the specs you want in it.

Questions & Answers