Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Okay, the first thing I have to say is that adding this to my computer -- an ASUS ROG GL752VW-DH71 17.3-inch Gaming Laptop (Intel i7 2.6GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB HDD, GTX960M 2GB Graphic Card, Windows 10) -- and having it take over the boot drive responsibilities from the existing hard disc drive (HDD), using the included Acronis software was as easy as easy gets. I have read reviews, blogs, articles, and forum accounts of people who bad-mouthed the included Acronis True Image data migration software. The varying accounts and approaches had me braced for the worst. I searched high and low for any and all information I could find. Forewarned is forearmed, right? I had several tabs at the ready on another laptop, just in case I ran into problems. Some praised other software; some of them found that other software simple to use, while others jumped through all kinds of hoops. My research and preparation took HOURS and HOURS of my time, but, not knowing what to expect, prepared is good, right? What a waste of time it turned out to be to prepare for troubles other people had in doing that which was ridiculously easy for me. I don't know why this was so easy for me, yet so fraught with peril for others, but here's (more or less) how I did it: - Before starting, I assigned a new drive letter ("O", for "optical") to my DVD/CD drive. The computer comes with the HDD set to "C" and the DVD/CD set to "D" -- but I knew I was going to want my new Crucial M.2 SSD to be my new drive "C" and the HDD renamed to "D," so I just got the renaming of the DVD/CD out of the way right off the bat. (Clearing the decks, so to speak.) - This MAY or MAY NOT have had something to do with my ease of setup, but I'm going to share it, just in case: I had been playing with the notion of using BSD or Linux instead of Windows. In order to try out some "live" CDs, I had changed a few BIOS settings: 1) Security menu -> Secure Boot: disabled 2) Boot menu -> Fast Boot disabled 3) Boot menu -> Launch CSM enabled - Two screws (requiring a very small Philips screwdriver) undone, and I was into the laptop case. The Crucial M.2 SSD slid into the connector with little resistance. (Be CAREFUL: if it seems hard, take a closer look and make sure you don't have the card upside down. There are two notches in the card connector end, but only one corresponding positioner in the motherboard connector; it's easy to make the mistake of trying to put it in the wrong way.) Use one of the provided screws (and an even smaller Philips driver) to screw down the other end of the SSD card to the Motherboard standoff. (It will be obvious.) PROPS to Crucial for including the screws! Another popular brand (Samsung) couldn't see fit to package a few cents' worth of screws with their $150 card. (The argument that the computer should have the screw already is without merit. I've been repairing and building computers for thirty years and have almost NEVER found an extra screw in a motherboard or case; the fasteners always come with the components, if at all.) Crucial even threw an extra one into the bag, just in case you lose one (which would be easy; they are very small). Warning: if you DO lose one INSIDE your laptop, you're going to want to find it. Loose metal objects bouncing around working electronics can end in disaster.) * Sorry for the digression, but here's something I did that helped with getting the screw in: BEFORE inserting the Crucial M.2 SSD card, I used a tweezer to hold the screw atop the standoff, then turned the screw in, just about 1½ threads. Then I inserted the card firmly into the slot and lowered the end over the screw. It would not pass the screw head, so I *carefully* loosened the screw just enough for it to tilt a bit, but not allowing it to fall away. The card dropped down; I then carefully stood the screw straight back up, then tightened it down. - Turned on the computer. Opened Windows' Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk (sic) Management. Windows showed the new drive, unformatted, ~488 GB. (Not 525, but get used to it. Manufacturers have been playing fast and loose with capacity claims for some time now. They conveniently use metric standards for marketing purposes, while old sticks in the mud like me understand that a KILObyte, in computers' binary shorthand, means 1,024, NOT 1,000. Then there's overhead for whatever may be preinstalled... Tradition be damned; salesmen point to the difference between a GB and a GiB, while users are left wondering why their new storage devices don't show the same numbers onscreen that the shiny packages show... but I digress.) So, I was pleased as punch to see that Windows recognized the new Crucial M.2 SSD -- and was calling it Disk 0 (as in "zero"). Very promising! (For the uninitiated, we old C programmers, users of the foundation language of modern programming, start counting at "0" -- not "1." Could this be an indication that making this the boot drive was going to be a bit easier?) * At this point, Windows was showing me the option to format the drive, but I DISREGARDED it, choosing to give Acronis the chance to work with a clean slate. Preformatting it might have made the process more complex. (Not knowing how Acronis worked, I couldn't know, but, generally, when formatting any drive, SSD, HDD, or floppy, starting in an unformatted state is less likely to bring out potential bugs in formatting software.) I exited the Windows' Computer Management program. - Following the simple instructions included with the Crucial M.2 SSD, I downloaded the Acronis True Image program, installed it, and entered the activation serial number (plainly printed on the back of the instructions) and e-mail address (yes, but I gave them a special e-mail address I only check if I HAVE TO). I did NOT have to verify the email address, which was nice. - Installing and running Acronis took a few minutes. I chose the "clone drive" option to copy the HDD contents to the SSD. Being a new computer, there was less than 50 GB worth of material to copy. Nonetheless, I like to keep whatever control I can over how my computer is configured, so I didn't simply accept the "trust me" options. I chose to check the settings and I think what I used is what the defaults would have been, anyway. When the cloning was done, I rebooted the computer, and Windows loaded up FAST. Could it be...? I went back into Windows' Comouter Management -> Storage -> Disk Management and, lo and behold, the newly cloned Crucial SSD, still "Disk 0," was now drive "C" and the HDD had been rename to drive "D." All automatically. I did nothing to make that happen. Curious to see what BIOS thought of the new hardware, I Restarted the computer, holding the [Esc] key down until I was presented with a menu of boot options. There, at the top of the list, was the new Windows boot partition on the SSD. In 2nd place was the old Windows boot partition on the HDD. Also on the list were the HDD device and the DVD/CD drive. I chose to enter Setup and look further in the Boot menu screen. There I found confirmation of the boot choices I had just been presented. I quit the BIOS utility and let it boot -- automatically, into Windows, using the new Crucial M.2 SSD, all without my having to do anything to make that happen. I am amazed. Ever since the onset of Plug and Play so many years ago, this was easily the best example of automatic configuration I've experienced. I've timed the boots a few times, now, and I'm getting a login screen in 12 - 13 seconds from a "cold" (non-hibernating) start. After logging in, my desktop appears in 2 - 3 seconds. (If it was in hibernation, the desktop appearance time is immeasurably fast; visually instantaneous.) The performance on the SSD is everything you've already read about -- just incredibly fast. The performance improvement you'll get out of this SSD almost eliminates the lag introduced by code bloat of new software. (Seriously, almost EVERYTHING is measured in tens or hundreds of MBs these days.) Even if you don't have loads of RAM, the swapping to and from an SSD happens so much faster than through a hard drive, even the most sloth-like software works at a good pace. This was a GREAT investment to have an SSD, in general, but the installation of this particular Crucial M.2 SSD and bundled software, in particular, made the upgrade painless. I highly recommend it.