OT: Questions about installing an SSD into my laptop

[Rick Bowers]

At 5/18/2013 06:03 PM, you wrote:
>On 5/18/2013 12:50 PM, Rick Bowers wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm looking to possibly replace my existing hard drive with an SSD
> > drive. In spite of googling for information, I'm still confused
> > regarding suitability. Folks on this list seem knowledgeable in these
> > matters so I'm asking for some guidance here.
> >
> > I have an HP G60-642NR laptop. It came with the following Hitachi drive:
> > 
> http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-hard-drives/hitachi-travelstar-7k500-hts725032a9a364/4507-9998_7-33875493.html
> >
> > I am considering this Samsung drive:
> > 
> http://www.adorama.com/SSG7TD500BW.html?utm_term=Other&utm_medium=Shopping%20Site&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=pgrabl
> >
> > My basic questions are:
> > - Are these drives compatible? HP.Com gives me no guidance wrt
> > upgrading the drive in my laptop
> > - Should I look at other drives? Which ones?
> > - Price in a big consideration -- is this price reasonable for a
> > 500GB drive (I've looked at Pricewatch.com and it seems to be in line.
> > - What other considerations should I evaluate?
> >
> > I'm currently running Windows 7 but am looking to upgrade this to
> > Windows 8 (or, possibly, linux -- I know the consensus of this 
> group on that)
> >
>
>I often use Crucial SSDs, but recently my notebook's drive failed and I
>found the SSD Samsung Pro Series 256G (MZ-7PD256BW ) has a lot of good
>reviews so I tried it. So far so good. No problems with Windows 7 or Linux.
>
>The Samsung SSD is SATA3. Your Hitachi drive is SATA2, so I guess your
>notebook supports only SATA2. If so, even you do not gain by having your
>drive SATA3, but moving from mechanical drive to SSD is a big gain already.
>
>I think Samsung has 5-year warranty for the Pro-series SSDs . When I
>bought my drive from Newegg, it is said to have 3-year warranty, but
>Samsung site says it has 5-year warranty. I just looked up your model
>and it has 3-year warranty. If warranty time is an important factor to
>you, then you may consider looking at the Pro series.
>
>Vu
Thank you, Vu. That is good information.
One of the things I wasn't able to determine was which version of 
SATA the drive(s) supported.  Now I know.
Can I assume a SATA-3 drive is backward compatible with my SATA-2 laptop?

~Rick