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How to Replace Hard Drive in Laptop
Get the right laptop hard driveYou can replace your hard drive with any other brand of hard drive. Laptop hard drives are not proprietary to the computers. Any brand drive will work in any laptop if it fits correctly ... with one exception - IBM laptops require IBM hard drives. Do all laptop hard drives fit?The fact is that there is a hard drive almost for every laptop. But not all hard drives fit all laptops. Most places that sell hard drives keep extensive databases on which drives fit which laptops. In order to buy the right hard drive you need to provide them with the laptop brand and model, and they'll look it up in their vendor database for suitable hard drives. Beware of BIOS LimitationsIssue: Some laptops have BIOS limitations built-in by manufacturers. For instance, if your laptop was originally built with a hard drive smaller or equal to 8GB then your laptop may have BIOS limitations meaning that it will only recognize 8GB out of your new larger capacity hard drive. Resolution: You can remove these BIOS limitations. Go to your laptop manufacturer's web site and download and install the latest BIOS upgrade available for your laptop model. If you can't find a BIOS upgrade for your laptop than get "Drive Overlay Software" at this web site: www.drivesolutions.com/info/aboutbios.shtml. It will over-ride the BIOS limitations. Backup data before you install your hard driveYou should backup your important data before you install the hard drive. In case of any data loss during the installation, you'll still have your files. Insure you can Boot your new driveCreate a bootable diskette before you install hard drive. To create one, go to Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, and select the "Startup Disk" tab:
You'll need this diskette to boot your new empty drive, and to format it. Seriously Consider Cloning hard driveGet a new hard drive and clone it from your old one. Before cloning, make sure that the new drive fits your laptop so you don't waste time cloning onto the wrong drive. Hard drive cloning will give you these key benefits: - you won't need a backup or a bootable diskette. The new drive will have all your data and you'll boot off it. Verify screw patterns before you install hard driveIssue: Many laptop drives have a tray or a caddy attached to it using screws. The tray is not sold with the hard drive. When buying a new drive you want to make sure that the screw hole pattern on your new drive matches the hole pattern on the old tray. Drives larger than 2GB may have a screw hole pattern different from the older smaller drives. On the old smaller drives the screw holes are usually located close to the middle of the drive. On the newer larger drives they are close to the outside of the drive. Resolution: Try to purchase a drive with the same screw hole pattern that is on your old caddy or... purchase a new drive and a matching caddy. Hard drive heightsLaptop drives from different manufacturers have the same mechanical interface, length, and width. Only different is the height, and it depends on drive's capacity. The standard heights are 9.5mm (2.5"), 12mm (3.5") and a rare 8.5mm. You can replace a 12mm drive with another 12mm or 9.5mm drive (as long as its hole pattern matches your caddy). But to replace hard drive that is 9.5mm or 8.5mm you must purchase the same height drive. See instructions on how to install hard drive next... Contact Us: infogate@comcast.net |
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So you'd like to replace hard drive in your laptop. There are few things you need to consider before attempting to replace hard drive...