Originally posted by: spartacuskzm
Separately, I'm assuming this means I need to buy another copy of Windows (it was 95, but I'll get XP I guess) since I don't have the old disk that went w/ this formerly corporate laptop. Correct?
Lastly, any step-by-step hints for newbies (like resetting the bios to boot from the CD, etc, etc) that I should know.
Thanks from a Noob.
I've upgraded many notebooks, all brands (but not Toshiba...), and I have a few tips that might prove helpful to you.
* In general, you shouldn't have any issues with putting in any standard 2.5" drive, especially 9.5mm formfactor drives, into any recent notebook. You'll have to remove the original drive caddy, dissect it, and then put the generic drive into the caddy. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes. The BIOS should detect it automatically. I'd suggest sticking with Toshiba drives since they are cheap, good, reliable and are less likely to give you compatibility issues. And lastly, you can ALWAYS put a 9.5mm drive into a machine that originally had a 12mm unit, but you cannot always go the other way.
www.basoncomputer.com is a good resource for finding good mobile drive deals, and I've had many, many good experiences with them. I'm only affiliated as a happy customer.
* Homework: go to the Toshiba site, and look for a few things:
- Check for BIOS upgrades. An upgraded BIOS will improve your chances of putting in larger drives, and working with newer versions of Windows. This is a must.
- Check to see what variants of your model were offered. For example, if Toshiba shipped the same hardware with Win98, or Win2k, you'll have an easier time of finding drivers and the like for those OS's.
- Also for OS compatibility: get a specsheet or service manual for your model. Make a list of all the hardware in the machine beyond the chipset - video, modem, ethernet if applicable, etc. Then cross reference that with the HCL (hardware compatibility list) of your target OS. Microsoft has HCLs for all modern Windows on their site. You might find, for example, that WinXP has all the drivers you need built-in. Be careful here - if you don't find the support you need on either Toshiba's site, or in the HCL, you should probably avoid a given version of Windows.
In other words, don't try to force XP onto the machine if you aren't 100% sure it'll work out for you. Driver support for notebook video and sound chips is much sketchier than for desktops - try to stay with either what the vendor supported, or what MS supports.
- Look to see if Toshiba offers a utility to make new suspend/hibernation partions for their notebooks. You'll need that in order to continue using suspend to disk, if that was a feature in the first place.
* Lastly, confirm that the HD is indeed dead. The EASIEST way to to do this is to buy a notebook drive IDE adapter and put it in a desktop to see if you can access it. If you can, it means that there is either a power issue or a chipset problem. I've seen both of these, in notebooks, as the true culprit behind "bad hard drives". I strongly urge you to take this step unless you are in a real rush - although the problem probably is a dead HD, what if you buy a replacement, put it in... and can't access it? Cheap insurance is a good thing.
Once you get the HD in the machine, and after you've sorted out driver issues the like, it shouldn't be particularly difficult to load a generic OS and then tweak it out for mobile use. Booting from the CD came later for notebooks than for desktops, so you might have no choice but to create boot floppies. The BIOS should tell you all you need to know.
And, as others have said, there is more to upgrade than just the HD. You can, if you're daring, upgrade the CPU, and its a piece of cake to put in more memory. My current mobile is a Dell Inspiron 3700 that has had its memory, CPU and HD upgraded, and it is much faster than when it came from the factory
jonathan
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