hard drive upgrade

basic hard drive upgrade instructions

---*-*---UPGRADE HARD DRIVES BEFORE THE HARD DRIVE'S 5-YEAR LIFESPAN EXPIRES!---*-*---

LAPTOP:

see tools. you should have upgraded the drive within the 4-5-year part of its 5-year lifespan. unscrew hdd cover and remove hard drive, removing any 3rd-party connectors that may be attached (if it is IDE - has 2 rows of lots of gold pins). keep any screws and put them in a baggie and tape it to the laptop!

DESKTOP:

with some manufacturers,they put security tape on the case, and removing the case cover will void the warranty, as evidenced by the leaving of gunk or partial hologram sticker on the case. If it is past warranty, you can probably ignore this. business computers sometimes have a switch that senses when the case is opened, and the event is logged in CMOS.

If you want to mount the drive in a USB external drive cable: unscrew case, then unscrew hard drive. you may need to extract the hard drive cage if it has one to get the drive out. there is typically a catch or screw-plate to hold it in place.

If you want to upgrade internally inside the computer (I prefer this): unscrew case, you may need to extract the hard drive cage if it has one to get the drive in. there is typically a catch or screw-plate to hold it in place.

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES:

you MIGHT be able to upgrade these before it expires. send them to eman data recovery. maybe to the manufacturer IF they perform data recovery. a lot of those things are sealed.

Desktop Hard Disk Upgrade Software

I have selected these programs out of a list of programs which I have found on the internet, most of which don't work and usually haven't been updated in years. so I weeded out the junk.

Future Systems Casper 5.0, available from fssdev $49.95 home,$89.95 PGP WDE encryption,$549.95 tech (there are other prices, like for upgrades)

disk upgrade SW. This SW actually works! The trial version is limited to exact-size clone. Full version works, however, ISO version 's dialogs would not fit on my screen on my older 98-era computer. Company is putting in that series of video drivers for it, so should be fixed by now. very responsive support for missing video drivers.

Symantec Norton Ghost 15.0 (1 User), available from product brief $49.99+1.99

bootable drive image backup to blu-ray (including 50GB blu-ray DL). also can upgrade hard disks. I have not tested this program for upgrading hard disks, although it is said you can do it with this program.

2.5" Universal HD upgrade kit, available at apricorn $39, newegg.com $27.79+6.98

USB 2.0 upgrade kit without hard drive. comes with upgrade software. includes universal SATA/PATA/IDE usb 2.0 external hard drive case.

Laptop Hard Disk Upgrade

Read the reviews of users. get your IDE drive while you can. you may not be able to see any more then 137GB if your BIOS can't handle it, but chances are you won't have this problem.

2.5" Universal HD upgrade kit, available at apricorn $39, newegg.com $27.79+6.98

USB 2.0 upgrade kit without hard drive. comes with upgrade software. includes universal SATA/PATA/IDE usb 2.0 external hard drive case.

2.5" EZ Upgrade Universal & PATA Hard Drive Bundle HD upgrade kit w/160GB, available at apricorn $119

USB 2.0 upgrade kit with 160GB IDE/PATA hard drive. comes with upgrade software. includes universal SATA/PATA/IDE usb 2.0 external hard drive case.

2.5" Xtreme Upgrade 7200 RPM SATA HD upgrade kit w/320GB/500GB, available at apricorn $149,$169,$229

USB 2.0 upgrade kit without hard drive. comes with upgrade software. includes universal SATA usb 2.0 external hard drive case.

Laptop hard drives

2.5" Western Digital Scorpio WD10TPVT 5400RPM 1TB SATA 8ms hard drive 8MB cache (no NCQ) (2 black connectors - really looks like 1), available from newegg $99.99

12.5mm high and may not be compatible with all notebook systems. Consult system specifications for maximum allowable drive height before attempting to install.

2.5" Seagate Momentus 5400RPM 640GB SATA 3Gbps internal hard drive 16MB cache 512-byte sectors, available from newegg $79.99+4.99

(2 black connectors - really looks like 1), 2yr warranty

2.5" Seagate Momentus 7200RPM 500GB NCQ SATA 3Gbps internal hard drive 16MB cache 512-byte sectors, available from newegg $64.99

(2 black connectors - really looks like 1), operational g-force protection, 2yr warranty

2.5" Seagate Momentus 5400RPM 500GB NCQ SATA 3Gbps internal hard drive 8MB cache 512-byte sectors, available from newegg $54.99+2.99

(2 black connectors - really looks like 1), has NCQ for speed, quiet, non-operational anti-shock up to 1000 G's, 2yr warranty. pretty much all other drives not listed here are encrypted.

2.5" SATA hard drives (2 black connectors - really looks like 1), available from newegg $40-260

This is the current standard.

2.5" ATA-133 hard drives (PATA/ATAPI/IDE, wide connector with 2 long rows of gold pins), available from newegg $

There is no BIOS size limitation on older laptops. This is the older standard.

2.5" ATA-100 hard drives (PATA/ATAPI/IDE, wide connector with 2 long rows of gold pins), available from newegg $

There is no BIOS size limitation on older laptops. This is the oldest standard.

Laptop tools

General Tools 17 Piece Precision Screwdriver Set 63518 - Cyberguys.com, available at cyberguys.com $20

required to open the laptop access panel.