Upgrading laptop hard drive

[LinktheDeme]

Is this even possible? How do I go about it? And how much money is it?

[virusiidx]

Yes, it's possible. Depending on the laptop, it's usually just unscrewing a panel from underneath the laptop and slipping out the HDD and inserting the new one, and of course reformatting/reinstalling the OS. Last question is kinda vague as there are different brands, speeds, sizes, etc... take a look here. What you're looking for is most likely a 2.5" notebook HDD.

Newegg.com - Notebook Hard Drives, Laptop Hard Drives, Notebook Internal Hard Drive, Laptop External Hard Drives, Hard Drive

[Kohan]

If you want to know specifically how difficult/easy it is, posting your laptop's model information would be a good way to start (so people could find service manuals for it).

[Gippo]

but if you want to actually clone your current drive onto a larger drive, you'll need to ghost that. Would take you an hour or so, but you wouldnt have to reload any OS and you wouldnt lose data.

[LinktheDeme]

but if you want to actually clone your current drive onto a larger drive, you'll need to ghost that. Would take you an hour or so, but you wouldnt have to reload any OS and you wouldnt lose data.

I have a dell Inspiron E1705.

This is exactly what i'm looking to do. Do you think best buy or something would do it? And how much money is it to ghost.

Atm I have a 50 (or 60 iunno it said 60 when I bought it but I only have 51GB available.) So i'm looking for something in the 100 range and wondering how much it would cost as well as how much it is for ghosting it or is this something easy to do?

[Gippo]

you've got a 60 probably, i had the same laptop.

you can do it yourself but you'd need a couple tools i doubt youd have. namely a usb-sata connector for plugging your drive directly into another pc with a usb connection, and you'll need a program to actually clone it, I use symantec ghost thats bundled in mini p.e.

id let a tech shop do it if youve never done it. you can easily go the wrong way and erase your original drive if you're not careful.

oh, and if you take it to a tech shop, do yourself a favor, buy your new HD first, most 3rd pt tech shops sell drives at higher cost to turn a profit, you need a sata drive, any size works. also take your original HD out of your laptop and label it, you can remove it with a small phillips screwdriver - it slides out the side.

Anything you can do to eliminate labor costs is always best. Walk into wherever you are going to do this with your new drive, and your original and thats it. Also note that most tech shops are not responsible for work not specifically laid out in the order, so if you want them to make a backup of your data before they clone it, its up to you to tell them that.

Ghosting a drive is easy with the right tools, but if things go bad, they go very very bad.

"Hey Joe, we copied the new drive onto the original, so we lost all this guy's data"
"That's ok, just tell him the original drive crashed, charge him for an attempted data recovery, and tell him if he wants his os back on it, it will be an additional 2 hours labor."

That seems like a horror story, but trust me, i was a witness.

[LinktheDeme]

what do you mean a sata drive? what do you suggest I buy and from where? ;o

[Gippo]

you mentioned you have a best buy near you. Go there. Walmart doesnt carry this type of stuff often. In the PC accessories department you'll find them, or ask someone. anymore you'll be hard pressed to find an IDE drive, so you'll have no problem getting a sata drive. The box will actually say SATA somewhere on it.

just pick the size you want and make sure its for a laptop. I like western digital myself. drives are pretty cheap, you can get a 250gb sata for like 70bucks

but if you go to best buy's website here:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218030894551

after checking around, you can find some cheaper online, but its through ebay, with no guaruntee that the drive has already been used.

[Kohan]

Optionally, you can order one from NewEgg. Here's a cheaper example with the same capacity, and free shipping.

Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar 5K320 0A56415 250GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - Laptop Hard Drives

I wouldn't recommend having Best Buy do the technical work for you unless you have no other trustworthy options.

[mootsfox]

I upgraded my X61 from a 5400rpm 120gb to a WD black, 320gb 7200rpm monster.

Newegg.com - Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - Laptop Hard Drives

It's wonderful :D

[LinktheDeme]

Optionally, you can order one from NewEgg. Here's a cheaper example with the same capacity, and free shipping.

Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar 5K320 0A56415 250GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - Laptop Hard Drives

I wouldn't recommend having Best Buy do the technical work for you unless you have no other trustworthy options.

How do I check if its compatible with my laptop and etc?

[mootsfox]

It will be.

Get a 7200RPM drive though, it's worth it.

[LinktheDeme]

It will be.

Get a 7200RPM drive though, it's worth it.

is there a 7200 RPM drive with lower memory? 320 GB is nice but for a 25 dollar mark up just wondering if a 200-250 GB will be like 10 dollars cheaper.

edit: also the OS i have is XP ;o

edit 2: this actually caught my eye
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822149080

will it be compatabile with XP, and my specs and etc? ;o
or does anyone have any suggestions / comments?

[Gippo]

yes, drives are independant of operating systems, it will work.

[LinktheDeme]

Current one is

Hitachi Travelstar
Model: HTS541060G9SA00
5400 RPM
60 GB SATA

I just called Best Buy and they said i'd have to purchase the software and thats 39.99 and purchase an external hard drive if I don't have one and the SERVICE to do that is 59.99

So it'd be 99.99 plus the external hard drive so fuck that shit I'm doing it on my own.

ok so I need an external hard drive as well as a USB SATA cord. (lol every time i say that I think sneak + trick attack)

anyone have a lay down of the process or anything of that sort or anything else I'll need? I'll probably just torrent the ghost program

edit: Side question is cloning really necessary? The only reason I'm doing this is because I don't have the drivers to reinstall for my speakers, video card and etc. Figured this would be easier than trying to find all the drivers.

[Kohan]

Cloning would help you avoid all of that, but unless you'll lose any software you'll sorely miss/won't want to reinstall, formatting and finding drivers for your laptop isn't difficult.

Inspiron E1705 Drivers & Downloads

EDIT: If you don't want to constantly burn CDs or anything of the like to transfer files (e.g., drivers) from one PC to another, having one of these is incredibly handy, too: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148154

[LinktheDeme]

Cloning would help you avoid all of that, but unless you'll lose any software you'll sorely miss/won't want to reinstall, formatting and finding drivers for your laptop isn't difficult.

Inspiron E1705 Drivers & Downloads

EDIT: If you don't want to constantly burn CDs or anything of the like to transfer files (e.g., drivers) from one PC to another, having one of these is incredibly handy, too: Newegg.com - Crucial Gizmo! 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model JDOD4GB-730 - USB Flash Drives

I think I'm going to go the cloning route.

from my research I THINK this is what I have to do any suggestions comments would be appreciated

get a SATA to USB cable and plug my new hard drive into my PC through a USB slot while my current one is inside.(No Idea where to get this or proper name any input plz?)

From there I used a software to clone my current hard drive to the new hard drive.(not sure of a good software i'll probably look for a free one because my school is anal about torrent)

Take out old hard drive put one back in and pray it isnt too advanced to make my motherboard go kabooms (I know how to do this step :D)

Am I missing anything?

[Gippo]

Ok, so your set on doing it yourself. Thats fine, but you'll need these

Newegg.com - SABRENT USB-DSC5 Serial ATA (SATA) or IDE 2.5" and 3.5" to USB 2.0 Cable Converter Adapter - Adapters & Gender Changers

+

Newegg.com - Symantec Norton Ghost 14.0 - Security / Utilities Software

+ your drive you buy.

if you really think its worth the 80 dollars to not have to reinstall drivers and essential software, then thats up to you. But like kohan said, you can easily get drivers for that system.

Just remember, 19.95 gets you a flash drive to copy files to before you pull out the old drive too. BTW, that's bs about best buy. i gauruntee they have the tools to do it, they're just trying to rip you off.

[LinktheDeme]

im doing it myself buying the stuff for my own purposes.

but they were charging for ME to buy the ghost program if i wanted to do it through them ;/