How to mount an ssd on a laptop step by step

Currently with the available sizes increasing more and more and with many models bringing at least a value of 0.5 € / Giga, although it seems that we are going to have a price increase due to the high demand for memory chips in smartphones. Not for this reason, we bring you, what is possibly the best guide on how to mount an SSD on a traditional laptop. Here we go!

Index of contents

We recommend reading the following guides:

The best SSDs on the market at the moment. SSD vs HDD: everything you need to know. How to optimize an SSD disk in Windows 10. Disk M.2 and NVMe all the information and recommended models.

How to mount an SSD on your laptop

There are not many notebooks that are already sold with an integrated SSD, and those that have it, cannot offer enough space for a more demanding user. In this way, Professional Review creates a quick and easy guide for anyone, even with little technical knowledge! With this guide you can equip your laptop with two disks: the speed of the SSD and the storage capacity of your hard disk.

There is only one disadvantage to this process: to mount them, we will have to make a modification to the laptop. In this case, we are going to remove the DVD / CD player and mount an adapter with one of the discs in its place, thus losing the ability to read DVDs / CDs.

However, we managed to economically resolve this setback, buying a SATA to USB adapter, thus converting the reader that we remove from the laptop into an external reader that can be used on any computer. In the event that your laptop does not have a DVD player, you may be interested in the rest of this guide, discovering how you can change the HDD for an SSD.

The guide we present here and the steps to follow will be explained in a generic way so that they can be adapted to any laptop.

Materials needed

Before we start, let's confirm that we have all the material we need so as not to leave the process half-finished.

Obviously you can't miss an SSD. As for the model to buy at this time, the choice is very wide and only depends on your pocket. However, even the slowest SSDs are going to be vastly faster than a laptop hard drive, and since processors and laptops are usually more limited in terms of speeds, my advice is to be guided by the best options in terms of price per giga (0.5 to 1 euro per giga).

We will use a caddy adapter to mount the second disk. It is necessary to be careful in this purchase since there is more than a generic size, for a perfect fit you will have to discover what is the height of your current reader. You can do this in the following way: open the explorer in the "My Computer" folder, right-click on a blank space in this folder and select the "Properties" option. Another window will appear and in the options on the left at the top of this window select "Device Manager", and finally, by expanding the field "DVD / CDROM drives" you will get to see the model of your current reader. It is enough with a Google search with the model and the keyword "dimensions" to find out the height of the reader. And finally, tools: a screwdriver or small screw stars are essential.

In the event that we do not want to part with the reading unit, we will make a substitution of the hard disk for an SSD disk.

Caddy SSD mount: first remove the battery

Now that we have all the necessary material, let's start with the assembly. First of all, we will remove the battery from the laptop, this way we make sure no unexpected accidents happen.

Remove screws

Remove the screws, the cover that protects the hard drive and that in turn hold the DVD player.

The position and number of these screws can vary quite a bit depending on which laptop you have, but normally the cover that protects the hard drive and / or memories is quite visible due to the icon that is usually printed (a kind of cylinder with several layers that represents a hard drive) as by cutting out the rest of the chassis.

As for the DVD player, it is usually held in place by a screw and does not involve removing any cover as it slides out of the laptop after removing the screw.

After removing the screws, it's time to remove the cover carefully, without folding it too much, since it is usually fitted and will not come out easily in most cases.

First confirm that you removed the screw that secures the DVD player to the chassis.

Then just push the reader out. It should come out easily.

Mount the disk on the adapter

You may need to remove a plastic piece that is taking up a free space in the center of the adapter. Fit the disc in the adapter tab, once again, only with horizontal movements and in the unique position that it fits. After the disc is integrated, rotate the adapter counterclockwise and fit it into the 2 or more available holes.

Fit snap-in piece to adapter

In the DVD player you removed earlier, there should be an L-shaped part on the back supported by 2 screws, this is the part that holds the reader to the laptop chassis.

Then we will disassemble the reader and install the caddy adapter. This should be centered on the back of the adapter and only fit in one position.

Change the reader and adapter tabs

To make it look perfect, you can remove the front plate of your DVD player, which is specific to the model of your laptop, and change it with the tab that may come with the adapter.

The fittings must be compatible, since they are generic parts. Once again, be careful when undocking since they are plastic pieces and, normally, it will be necessary to press the main socket so that the tab is removed without breaking anything.

Changing internal SSD without adapter

There is usually a system that allows you to easily remove the disk, since it usually has little more than the strictly necessary space. In my case it was enough to pull a plastic tape.

Attention: Never pull the disc upright to disconnect it, it is surely connected with a splittable chip. To uninstall it, always pull horizontally to the opposite side to which it is connected.

Change disk

The bracket you removed in the previous step is screwed onto the disk. You will have to remove the screws and the disc. Then you just have to fit the new disk into the holder and screw it back on. Please note that there is only one suitable position to fit it.

After everything is integrated into the site, you can re-cover this area with the plastic piece that you removed at the beginning. Once more careful, be careful when fitting it as it is a plastic piece that adapts to force, as long as it is applied in the right places.

With these simple steps you have already completed half the process, or if you only wanted to change the hard drive for an SSD, then this is the whole process.

Mount the adapter and screw everything

Finally, to finish the process, you just have to fit the sliding adapter in the same way that you removed the DVD player until it does not fit anymore and screw everything you unscrewed initially.

If all the connections are well done, you can now go to the BIOS of your PC and confirm that there are 2 detected disks, an SSD and an HDD, or simply turn on the computer, and if the BIOS is well configured, it will be possible to boot the system operational, since this is still on the HDD.

End of assembly

With these simple steps, it is then possible to give an incredible boost in the performance of your computer for daily tasks. For gamers this is not going to make a significant increase in the game's FPS, but it is going to make a big difference in the load times of all the programs that access the disk.

The choice of which drive is in the adapter and which drive is in the main place for the disks is up to you as they both have SATA connections and are compatible on either side. The choice of placing the HDD in the place of the reader and the SSD instead of the main disk is based on the heat that the HDD releases.

What do you think of our guide on how to mount an SSD on a laptop? Your opinion matters a lot to us!