How to Install & Format your 2.5 SATA SSD

16 Steps to Install & Format your 2.5 SATA SSD

This article should be considered a supplement (and not a replacement) to the installation guide that was included with the SSD you purchased, which you can find copies of here. We recommend going through the installation instruction carefully before starting the install process.

1. Review your SSD installation instructions.
2. Grab a screwdriver.
3. Before removing the SSD from its antistatic sleeve, make sure to ground yourself. We recommend using a de-static bracelet.
4. Power your computer down, unplug everything and open it up.
5. Locate the 2.5 inch bay, if your tower doesn’t have a 2.5 inch bay then you’ll need a bracket adapter so that the 2.5 inch SSD can fit in the 3.5 inch bay.
6. Insert the drive and screw it into place.
7. If you’re replacing a primary drive, just remove the cables from the existing drive and plug it into the new SSD.
8. If this is a secondary drive, locate an available SATA power cable coming off your motherboard and attach that to your new drive, then take the supplied SATA connector and plug one end into your SSD and the other into your motherboard.
9. For new PC builds with this SSd as the primary drive, make sure to set a SATA device in the boot sequence of the BIOS setup.
10. Power on your computer with your Windows OS disc loaded.
11. Start the operating system installation process once the computer loads.
12. Follow the prompts and designate your install drive by confirming the capacity.
13. Proceed with the default settings.
14. If this isn’t a new PC build, you’ll need to format the drive in the Disk Management utility. To access this, right click the Windows Start Button.
15. Your drive will show up as unallocated space, right click and choose “New Simple Volume”.
16. Follow the formatting prompts and choose your drive labels and settings.

If your plan is to replace your old drive with your new SSD, we recommend Seagate’s DiscWizard, a free application that will let you backup your files, programs and operating system, and then recover it completely intact on the new drive. This process is called disc cloning and here are the simple steps to completing this process.

How to Run DiscWizard’s Clone Disk Application

1. Open DiscWizard.
2. Click “Tools & Utilities” and then select “Clone Disk”.
3. Click “Automatic Mode”.
4. Select your old hard drive as the “Source Disk” and select “Next”.
5. Select your new hard drive as the “Destination Disk” and select “Next.”
6. Confirm that all partitions can be erased and click “OK”.
7. Double check that all your drives look correct and click “Proceed”.
8. Let the DiscWizard work it’s magic.

And remember that with every drive, Seagate offers a free software tool called SeaTools, which you can install and monitor the performance of all your drives. Performing routine maintenance is key to maintaining the longevity of these drives, all backed by Seagate’s great warranty.

For more tips and tricks on how to optimize all your gaming needs, check out more videos at Inside Gaming with Seagate.

Thanks for reading and happy gaming ✌