Dell laptop -XPS1210, new 06/2007 with Vista. Has a Samsung 120 drive. been making clicking noise for about year & a half but Dell would not replace under warranty as was still "working" but warned to keep backups current- ya right!
So now its bad & off warranty. Did research on the Samsung & found info they are prone to clicking noise & dieing. Should have found this out while under warranty-my bad.
The question is, since the cost of a much higher capacity drive is next to nothing (actually cheaper at some stores) is there any issue with changing out to a say 320 gig?
Found a Western Digital 320 with the free-fall protection at a great deal. The reviews on this brand seem good??
Have all the original CD from Dell for re-install, 4 I think.
Is reinstalling the operating system, drivers, etc something a barely computer-literate guy could do? I learn fast & can follow directions quite good.--(Just ask my wife ) Or is this generally for an expert? I have all winter because to keep online I just picked up a HP Mini 110 netbook with Windows 7. That little guy works just as good as the DEll which is much more powerfull and 4 times the price.
Any opinions or advise appreciated--
On edit--the Samsung is 5400 rpm, the western Digital is 7200 which seem to offer better performance? Would this speed diff cause any issue??
2000 F250 V10 dragin a 2005 Titanium 29E34RL fiver
Increase in speed would create more heat, BUT I don't know how much difference it would make. Dell might know.
There are a couple of web sites that show you step by step, with photos, of how to open up your particular model of laptop. I will see if I can find it again,
If you can use a small "Screw Driver, NO NO NOT THAT TYPE OF SCREW DRIVER, the type you hold in your hand and turn once it is in the slot, then you can do it.
"So easy a caveman can do it".
lwmuddy wrote: Increase in speed would create more heat, .........
OP was only talking about increasing his Hard Drive from a 120GB to a 320GB. OK, so it spins a little faster but I doubt extra heat (if any) would be a problem?
To the OP - I'd say go for it. With all the original install discs you should be OK. You got the manual(s) too?
Keith J, Retired from GM Engineering
1999 Sunnybrook 27RKFS Fiver
2005 GMC Sierra 2500HD SLE 2WD/CC/SB/DA, 52 gal Titan tank, Bilsteins, Line-X, Westin steps, Prodigy, Retrax, 16K Superglide, 5th-Airborne pin box, Multi-vex mirrors, TST TPMS.
The only thing to make sure of it the max hard drive size for the bios. Did a quick check and the one source I looked at said 320g is the max the bios would recognize. Don't know if that is the as shipped bios or newer one that Dell has. What all that means is the bios in the laptop has to be able to recognize hard drives with large capacities. If the bios doesn't it will not give you full capacity of the hard drive.
Not real difficult, take hard drive caddy out and put the new hard drive in the caddy and reinstall. Put restore disk in and follow the prompts.
The higher speed drive will draw a little more power which means a little less time on battery power.
Get a Digital Multimeter and Learn How to Use It
2000 Sea Breeze F53 V10 - CR-V Toad
Dawson Creek - Start of Alaska Highway
Don't Forget - USS Liberty, June 08, 1967
Along with what has been stated in this thread already do be sure to go with a 7200RPM drive versus a slower RPM hard drive. Speed in a hard drive is a real plus!
Understand that the re-installation will take several hours. After you install the original software, windows will need to be updated with all updates and service packs.
If the old drive is still bootable or you did make good backups (hopefully a system image backup) it should be an easy matter to install the new drive and clone the old drive or restore the backup image.
You should be able to change the drive out without even giving it a second thought. I had done one of mine recently and used the WD 7200 rpm 320GB. Works very well, and the increase will make you think you have a whole new unit. The only problem I had, which I doubt most run into, is that even though I had all my original installation discs, some of the necessary info was NOT on the cd. As a result I had to upgrade my OS, doing a "clean" install. I was told that this happens frequently, and you would only know the info was missing of course, if you needed it as you do. It was fine as the clean install not only upgraded my OS but was probably faster as a result. The only downside is if you have programs that you need and are not included with or are incompatible with the new OS. As far as changing the drive, very simple and I believe that you will be surprised at how simple the whole process is.
What I have done, if the old drive is still working, was to install a new drive, and then format and rebuild it clean per instructions. After applying updates, sevice packs and it is running OK, then reinstll the old drive as secondary. (d). Just watch any jumper changes. If all works ok, then you have access to all our old stuff, Even with this, all or most of your old programs will need to be reinstalled, but you will have all your data type files such as pictures, documents and so on. You will really see the speed difference with the 7299 rpm drive. I have one system with one of each, and the difference is really visible.
Noel and Betty Johnson '99 Hurricane 2007 HHR 1 wife, 2 1/2 dogs
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) Or is this generally for an expert? I have all winter because to keep online I just picked up a HP Mini 110 netbook with Windows 7. That little guy works just as good as the DEll which is much more powerfull and 4 times the price.
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