How to Replace a Hard Drive on Laptop

As a laptop ages, its hard drive may malfunction due to mechanical or electrical failure. With the correct preparations, you can replace the drive in less than an hour.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Laptop
• New hard drive
• Laptop owner's manual
• Backup media

Preparation

1. Back up essential files from the old drive onto external media, such as an external hard drive or thumb drive, or CDs or DVDs. Alternatively, you can make a complete image of the hard drive with a program such as Norton Ghost. This will create a one-step backup of all files, including the operating system.

2. Find the specifications of the old drive; it will either be parallel ATA or serial ATA. It's also useful to know the maximum hard drive capacity that the machine will accept without a BIOS modification, as well any physical size limitations, such as the hard drive thickness.

3. Find a new drive with the same interface and physical size. If the drive capacity is larger than what the laptop can accept, special software will allow the drive to work in the system.

4. Purchase the largest-capacity hard drive possible. If there is a choice between rotational speeds, or RPMs, choose the faster drive. Though a faster drive will be louder, the computer will feel much more responsive.

Installation

5. Disconnect the laptop’s AC power supply unit, and remove the battery.

6. Determine how to access and remove the hard drive by referencing the laptop’s manual. Some laptops have a special door on the underside, while others may have an enclosure for the hard drive that slides out from the side.

7. Remove any special mounting attachments or drive enclosures from the old hard drive, and transfer them to the new unit.

8. Install the new hard drive into the appropriate bay, close the access door, or insert the drive enclosure. Reinstall the laptop’s battery and connect the AC power supply.

9. Boot the machine, and ensure that the hard drive is recognized by the laptop’s BIOS. If the drive is larger than recommended by the laptop manufacturer, install the software installed by the manufacturer of the hard drive.

10. Install the operating system and copy any files needed to the new drive, or restore the disc image.

Tips & Warnings

• While it is quicker and easier to use disk-imaging software to make a one-step backup of the old laptop hard drive, installing a fresh copy of the operating system may lead to better performance after the new hard drive is installed. Just make sure that all of the hardware drivers for the laptop are on external media before removing the old hard drive.