ahduncu
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Post by ahduncu on May 29, 2018 10:53:39 GMT -5
I have been thinking about replacing a dying hard drive in an old laptop with a new drive. I note that some drives being sold are "bare drives". Does this mean that I have to remove parts of the old drive for the new one or what? The old drive is very easy to remove from the laptop, would I have trouble replacing it with a "bare drive"?
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Post by jholland1964 on May 29, 2018 11:20:10 GMT -5
Here are several links for you;
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Post by budgall on May 29, 2018 16:03:49 GMT -5
As Judy mentioned a new bare hard has no manual and cables, it also has no operating system, no programs or data files on them. So some planning is required as to how you get your computer back up and running. You have two options available to complete this task. The first option is to clone your current hard drive to the new one. The second option is to manually install the operating system, reinstall all your programs and restore your data files.
Remember: The first step and most important step of this process is to create a backup of the entire current system. I would recommend the backup of the entire computer be a clone that can be restored if necessary plus a separate backup of any data files that you want transferred to the new hard drive.
The downside to the first option is that any unused programs, junk files and other accumulated garbage will get transferred to the new hard drive. The other downside is that since most laptops only have space for one hard drive additional hardware will be needed to clone the hard drive.
The second option also has a downside as it will require you to have the operating system disks to install the operating system, the program disks for the programs you want to reinstall and backups of all the data that needs to be restored. You will also need to have all the software licenses of the programs you are installing.
One other item needed is time as the whole process can be time consuming.
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Post by jholland1964 on May 29, 2018 16:32:52 GMT -5
Something else neither budgall nor myself mentioned is how you described this computer, "an old laptop". A Key question is "how old"? If it is too old then it likely is not worth the money or the effort because if the hard drive IS failing then there is a likelihood other hardware may also be failing.
Another one is do you feel 100% comfortable opening and working on this laptop? Some laptops are not easy to open or easy to work on unless you are a professional.They certainly are not as easy to open and work on as a standard tower/desktop PC.
budgall mentioned operating system disks and all the software licenses of the programs you are installing, including the operating system which brings us to another question is what is the operating system?
Not trying to dissuade you from doing this, just want to be sure you consider everything before you make this commitment to take on what will likely be a fairly long project.
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MrBill
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Post by MrBill on May 29, 2018 16:43:58 GMT -5
Laptops have no cables to plug into the HD. Some have a carrier that has to be used. The HD is just plugged into a connector that has everything that you need. If it has a carrier, usually it is just 4 small phillip head screws to take out the old one and put a new one in its place.
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ahduncu
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Post by ahduncu on May 29, 2018 17:29:06 GMT -5
Laptops have no cables to plug into the HD. Some have a carrier that has to be used. The HD is just plugged into a connector that has everything that you need. If it has a carrier, usually it is just 4 small phillip head screws to take out the old one and put a new one in its place. That is what I needed to Know. The laptop is very easy to open and swap hard drives, it only requires some small screwdrivers. I have updated the operating system so that it now is the latest Windows 10 (with the spring 2018 update) and I have copied the complete system on an external hard drive. I have a boot disc to access that backup and I assume that backup will set up the new drive complete with an operating system. Let me know if I am wrong?
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Post by budgall on May 29, 2018 17:59:01 GMT -5
I am not comfortable with the "I have copied the complete system on an external hard drive" statement. How was this copy made? What software was used to do this "copy". Is it a "copy" or a complete system backup? More details please.
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ahduncu
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Post by ahduncu on May 29, 2018 22:55:53 GMT -5
I am not comfortable with the "I have copied the complete system on an external hard drive" statement. How was this copy made? What software was used to do this "copy". Is it a "copy" or a complete system backup? More details please. It is a complete system backup using EasUS Total Backup and I have a EasUS Total backup boot disc to boot into the backup on an external hard drive. I also have backups of Windows 10 on a flash drive so that I can do a clean install if necessary to install an operating system and then, using the backed up system, install and update everything else. |
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MrBill
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Post by MrBill on May 29, 2018 23:01:23 GMT -5
I am not comfortable with the "I have copied the complete system on an external hard drive" statement. How was this copy made? What software was used to do this "copy". Is it a "copy" or a complete system backup? More details please. It is a complete system backup using EasUS Total Backup and I have a EasUS Total backup boot disc to boot into the backup on an external hard drive. I also have backups of Windows 10 on a flash drive so that I can do a clean install if necessary to install an operating system and then, using the backed up system, install and update everything else. Is this the laptop in your signature or a different one? |
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Post by budgall on May 29, 2018 23:51:46 GMT -5
I am not comfortable with the "I have copied the complete system on an external hard drive" statement. How was this copy made? What software was used to do this "copy". Is it a "copy" or a complete system backup? More details please. It is a complete system backup using EasUS Total Backup and I have a EasUS Total backup boot disc to boot into the backup on an external hard drive. I also have backups of Windows 10 on a flash drive so that I can do a clean install if necessary to install an operating system and then, using the backed up system, install and update everything else. Good I was afraid that it was just a copy of the hard drive using the copy command which would not have worked. Looks to me you have things under control. |
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ahduncu
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Post by ahduncu on May 30, 2018 9:28:54 GMT -5
It is a complete system backup using EasUS Total Backup and I have a EasUS Total backup boot disc to boot into the backup on an external hard drive. I also have backups of Windows 10 on a flash drive so that I can do a clean install if necessary to install an operating system and then, using the backed up system, install and update everything else. Is this the laptop in your signature or a different one? It's a different one, a Lenovo, about 6 years old. |
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Post by jholland1964 on May 30, 2018 9:38:41 GMT -5
Is this the laptop in your signature or a different one? It's a different one, a Lenovo, about 6 years old. It certainly would not have come with Windows 10 installed, have you run Windows 10 on it already? |
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ahduncu
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Post by ahduncu on May 30, 2018 10:54:29 GMT -5
It's a different one, a Lenovo, about 6 years old. It certainly would not have come with Windows 10 installed, have you run Windows 10 on it already? See my reply #5, I have completely updated to Windows 10 including the latest major update, 1803, the spring update. |
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MrBill
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Post by MrBill on May 30, 2018 11:44:34 GMT -5
It certainly would not have come with Windows 10 installed, have you run Windows 10 on it already? See my reply #5, I have completely updated to Windows 10 including the latest major update, 1803, the spring update. I don't understand this post with the 2 quotes in it.
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Post by jholland1964 on May 30, 2018 12:26:38 GMT -5
See my reply #5, I have completely updated to Windows 10 including the latest major update, 1803, the spring update. I don't understand this post with the 2 quotes in it.
You previously asked it this was the same computer in his signature. He replied I I then replied; Then he referred to his reply #5 where he says he had updated to Windows 10 v.1803
My concern is this, was the computer really run a long time with Windows 10 on it and now suddenly the hard drive appears to be failing OR has this just begun since the upgrade to Windows 10 from whatever other operating system came installed on the computer. If it has not actually been run for a long time with Windows 10 on it then there is a chance the hard drive is fine but the hardware on the computer is not really capable of running Windows 10 correctly. If that is the case then replacing the hard drive won't make a difference because if the other hardware does not meet the physical requirements to run Windows 10 then it will act the same way.
Here are the very barest of requirements;
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Free hard disk space: 16 GB
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
Even if the computer has these barest requirements it will not run as you would feel it should run or like it to run.
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ahduncu
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Post by ahduncu on May 30, 2018 22:56:11 GMT -5
I don't understand this post with the 2 quotes in it.
You previously asked it this was the same computer in his signature. He replied I I then replied; Then he referred to his reply #5 where he says he had updated to Windows 10 v.1803
My concern is this, was the computer really run a long time with Windows 10 on it and now suddenly the hard drive appears to be failing OR has this just begun since the upgrade to Windows 10 from whatever other operating system came installed on the computer. If it has not actually been run for a long time with Windows 10 on it then there is a chance the hard drive is fine but the hardware on the computer is not really capable of running Windows 10 correctly. If that is the case then replacing the hard drive won't make a difference because if the other hardware does not meet the physical requirements to run Windows 10 then it will act the same way.
Here are the very barest of requirements;
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Free hard disk space: 16 GB
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
Even if the computer has these barest requirements it will not run as you would feel it should run or like it to run.
I have been running Windows 10 since it was introduced, on that machine (what is that 2 or 3 years now?); The hard drive failure is not due to Windows 10 it's due to age or use. In fact since I updated to the latest Windows 10 it seems to run even better, with a failing hard drive. I know that the drive is failing because it will occasionally shut down and the speccy program says that it is bad. |
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ahduncu
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Post by ahduncu on Jun 18, 2018 11:20:05 GMT -5
I installed a new hard drive (I just had to remove the carrier from the old drive and install it on the new one), booted into my external hard drive and installed all of the imaged operating system and programs. When I finished everything was installed but the computer was operating very slowly and I thought the new drive was defective. I rebooted several times, shut down for the night and the next morning the computer was operating perfectly as it should have been! I don't know why the slow operation after installation but as long as it's working well now, I am satisfied! I thank everyone for their advice and help.
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Post by budgall on Jun 18, 2018 12:11:24 GMT -5
Thank you for the update. Happy that it all worked out and your satisfied. I think the initial slowness is due to Windows going thru the process of adjusting to the new hardware. I have seen that initial slowness in the past with hardware changes I have made.
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