Replacing OEM hard drive with SSD in my Acer Aspire A515-51. Could someone help me?

Gordow

Could someone help me out with a few questions?

Im pondering replacing the hard drive in my Acer Aspire A515-51 with a SSD and was wondering what specific drive I should get that will fit this laptop?

Also if I get a cloning dock what should I be looking for and will it make a exact clone so I just have to pop the old drive out put the SSD in and away we go, or will it not copy everything?

What about cloning software, is there free cloning software and what's the best or should I stick to purchased software?

Anything else I should be looking at for this change?

[Edited the thread to add model number to the title]

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/719339/replacing-oem-hard-drive-with-ssd

Hi, this guide shows you how to replace the HDD: Hard drive installation instructions for Acer Aspire A515-51 and A515-51G - Acer Community
I can recommend the 2.5" Samsung 870 Evo V-NAND Sata-3 SSD up to 2TB, I replaced my old HDD in a a515-54G laptop in 2020 with that SSD and it is super-fast. Don't like cloning as it requires identical size drives but use exclusively an external USB Seagate Backup Plus HDD 4TB also to back up my complete boot drive monthly. Windows7 Backup Image file creator in Control Panel (Windows11 23H2 and 24H2) is easy to understand and creates a Windows Recovery flash drive at the end to restore a backup (and used to repair your system when you can't boot anymore). Highly recommended.