Thread: Tell Me About Installing my OLD Hardrive into my NEW Laptop.

Laptops are notoriously next to impossible to disassemble and put back together again. On top of that, the hard drive is one of the first things to usually fail. I would recommend instead either converting your old internal hard drive to an external one, or installing it into an old tower and transferring its contents to the new one via an external hard drive.

Originally Posted by Mario92

Laptops are notoriously next to impossible to disassemble and put back together again. On top of that, the hard drive is one of the first things to usually fail. I would recommend instead either converting your old internal hard drive to an external one, or installing it into an old tower and transferring its contents to the new one via an external hard drive.

This doesn't have to be true in the case of switching out harddrives though.

You should check out the manual for your laptop. If switching out the harddrive is a simple task, it should be described in there. In my current Toshiba, it's simply a matter of screwing open a lid. Chances are you will void the warranty though, so make sure to check up on that. If anything, you can buy a cheap external adapter and simply connect the harddrive through USB. Such a piece of equipment might also come in handy later on in your life

Crap I just remembered about the warranty. It probably DOES void the warranty.

I remember it was SUPER EASY to take out the hard drive from my toshiba laptop. (it was easy as Marvo said, just a couple screws & lid) I'm sure this one would be the same. The reason being is because I have a 320 on this new laptop, and my old HD was a 500GB so it's pretty obvious why. lol

I will carefully take the screws & back lid apart and see if it's an easy task. If it is, I will most likely switch it. If not, then I will take you up on that advice marvo. Can you point me in the right direction to where/what those adapters are specifically called, and/or if you can provide me a link? Thanks a ton!


Side Questions:

Will I have to worry about HP and their BLOATWARE not being on my old HD?

Once I turned on my computer I went through a setup process that PROBABLY (though I have no fucking clue) associated some programs/software with it's current Hard drive?

Will anything bad happen if I put in my old one?

They both carry the same OS which is Windows 7, my old HD just has a bunch of files on there ranging from videos/documents/pictures/pornos etc etc.



If the process is easy to switch, will their be ANY "worries" that I should be aware of?




Thank you, and have a nice day!

Hardware should be compatible in the case of hard drives. So long as they are the same size, you ought to be fine. Bloatware isn't gonna render the new one useless. But if you want to clean up the bloat, there is a program called PC Decrapifier, available here: Welcome | The PC Decrapifier Or, if you're just gonna throw it away or turn it into external storage, you could format it.

Originally Posted by Mario92

Hardware should be compatible in the case of hard drives. So long as they are the same size, you ought to be fine. Bloatware isn't gonna render the new one useless. But if you want to clean up the bloat, there is a program called PC Decrapifier, available here: Welcome | The PC Decrapifier Or, if you're just gonna throw it away or turn it into external storage, you could format it.

Sweet thanks bro! I am going to put it into my PS3 which formats it, so I'm not too concerned with the bloatware.

My main goal is to just put in my bigger hard drive into this laptop. If that's possible, then I am most likely going to do that tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Marvo

Chances are you will void the warranty though, so make sure to check up on that. If anything, you can buy a cheap external adapter and simply connect the harddrive through USB. Such a piece of equipment might also come in handy later on in your life

Oh also, let's say "hypothetically" I do void the warranty, then my laptop breaks. Would there be any evidence of it if I switch back the hard drive? Would that get rid of the "void-ness" of it? lol


Remember hypothetically of course ;]

So I've done it... 8-/


Is there any reason why my computer could be running a bit slower?

It seems like my processor was quick on my old Hard drive. Maybe because this only has 85.9 GB free of 453?

Because my harddrive is pretty full?

If I clean it up will it speed up slightly?

Yeah, cleaning it up would probably help make it run faster. One problem could be a cluttered registry. Try running CCleaner's registry cleaner.

Sweet thanks Mario. I am cleaning up a whole lot of shit.


Would de-fragmenting help?

What else should I do to speed up and "clean" up my laptops HD, any other recommendations?

Yeah, defrag (with a good program), uninstall and delete any programs you never use, scan for viruses/malware/etc. There's a program called Tree Size Free that will show you exactly how much space is being used and where it is at on your drive.

^^

Thanks again man, I decided to go with MyDefrag it was free and I heard it was really good. I also have finished doing the registry cleanup with that program. It's hard to find a lot of files to delete. I have tons of videos and pictures and "self-help" programs that take up a HUGE amount of space. I may just buy an external HD.

Know any cheap sites?


Thanks again!

Amazon.com: Western Digital WD Elements 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN: Electronics

Amazon has tons of stuff like this. ...really, this is a pretty good price for a 2tb hard drive. If you can afford it and think you can use up 2tb in the near future, then I'd recommend this one.