• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Installing New Hard Drive

B

bigal40

Senior member
Right now I have an emachines m6805 laptop (specs in sig). It only has a 4200rpm hd and it is really slow when turning on and loading programs. I am thinking about upgrading to a hitachi travelstar 7k60. My question is what would be the best way to install windows onto the drive. I am planning on transferring all my documents files that I will need to my desktop and then installing windows onto the new harddrive using the restore disk that cam with the computer, but how would I do this? If I put the new HD in will I be able to use the CD drive to read the restore cd because all the drivers will be gone.
thank you for the help
 
Normally, using the restore CD that comes with a laptop will blow away your installation and return it to the factory defaults. If you want to do that, you need to move the data off the hard drive.

If you don't have a huge amount of data to backup, you can just burn your files to CD, or copy them to an external hard drive, then reinstall Windows onto the new drive.

If you have access to a desktop system, you can also put both laptop drives into the desktop system with adapters, then Ghost your current install onto the new hard drive.

It's no different than moving your install onto a new drive in a desktop system.
 
I've never used one of those "restore" disks before, but if it works similar to a normal XP install CD, you should be fine. Your motherboard knows enough to get the boot/install process started (you won't need any additional drivers.) The process you have outlined above should be fine. Just put in the new hard drive, put the restore CD in, restart, and make sure that in BIOS it's set to boot from CD.

There _may_ be a chance that the proprietary restore CD won't let you restore to a different hard drive, but I doubt it. Good luck.

sk
 
When I did my laptop hdd upgrade, I decided to buy an external 2.5 hdd enclosure (about $15.00). Installed the new hdd into the ext encl and then ghost the old hdd. After ghost, I replaced the old hdd with the new hdd and then placed the old hdd into the ext encl as a back up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top