Hey folks, Valkor here. This next piece comes from the folks at Imation, makers of all kinds of data storage including Flash and Solid State drives. Keeping it with the SSD, we've been given the chance to try out the M-Class 64 GB Solid State Drive and Upgrade kit. What's great about it is that it doesn't render your old HDD completely useless, and if gives you the added boost of an SSD drive. Check it out.
I used to think that replacing my old laptop HDD would be a daunting task, met with all types of frustration, aggravation, leaving me weeping on the floor wishing for the dawn. But the M-Class has very easy instructions to follow, making the task as painless as possible. First and foremost before tackling any job replacing an HDD, always back up your data. I can't stress that enough (I'm talkin to you, Hyoga!) All you really need do is, first you hook up the casing, which is a SATA to USB box that contains your SSD and with the included USB cord hook it up to your laptop then power up that bad boy with the included power adapter. Next you insert the included CD, Acronis True Image HD, which will guide you through the backup/cloning process (cloning your all your data from your old HDD to the new SSD). Once the process is complete, you merely swap out the drives and BOOM! You're off and running with a new SSD. After you've insured the process went off without a hitch, you can then use your old drive as an external drive, and the enclosure makes a perfect travel case to take along on business trips and vacations (store all your digi-photos and digi-films on the external).
But how did the M-Class really fare in Val-Cave testing?
The Bang:
First and foremost is the setup, which really, it's so easy even a cavem… ooops can't use that can I? But seriously, it is a simple and painless process. And you won't have to worry about getting anything wrong, because you honestly can't. And if you do, you really did something wrong. I also find that the added use of using your old HDD as an external an awesome concept because I'm the kind of guy that shoves my old HDDs in a draw somewhere, never to be heard from again, whereas with the M-Class enclosure I'd be sure to use my old HDD for constantly storing all my goods.
The Slack:
I was given the 64 GB version of the M-Class and my own HDD is 120 GB. Needless to say my old HDD won't clone over to the new SSD. I thought I could pick and choose what I want to carry over, but no good. So now I essentially have the 64 GB as my backup. So I did a fresh install of Windows 7 on the 64 GB and swapped it with my old HDD to see if there was a speed difference. Honestly I didn't notice much of a difference in speed as far as OS boot time and loading time of other software.
Imation is no slouch when it comes to HDDs and SSDs and with the M-Class you get a lot more than just the added function of a Solid State Drive. You also get the ability to make use of that old HDD, keeping it in rotation for backing up and storing. Though the price maybe a bit much (Lowest I've seen is 224) and it's a bit slow, I'd say for the newbie crowd who are looking to experiment with HDD swapping, this would be the safest way to go as you can really do no wrong. Out of TOV 5 stars, I'm giving the Imation M-Class 64 GB SSD and Upgrade kit a Solid State 3.5 stars and it's been Valkor tested and TOV approved.
