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Replacing hard drive in laptop, advice pls

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AroundAgain
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Posted October 8, 2012 at 9:28PM

Hi guys

Yes, another 'project'!! I love it but only with your help. I learn such a lot by 'tinkering' ;)

Laptop, HP Compaq Presario C700, Intel Pentium Dual T2310 @ 1.46GHz, RAM 2G running Vista SP2, with only 80Gb Hard drive, 10Gb of which is partitioned for Recovery files. Of the remaining 70Gb, even with moving as much as possible to the External Drive (1Tb), it is often 'in the red'. After a clear out today, there is now 7Gb free!!!!

So, I assume (? correctly) that a larger hard drive would improve the situation???

I have found the part number and details of the hard drive and searched around on the internet, it would seem I could buy a new HDD with 1yr warranty without too much problem.

My questions are -

Are there any pitfalls/major risks that I should be aware of?

Is this OK to do myself, with tutorials/YouTube?

Would buying 'new' on ebay be a huge risk, if rating is good and a registered business/outlet?

Any particular recommendations of online business of particularly high reputation with reasonable prices?

Sorry to list so many questions but I don't want to get myself in hot water, do I??? ;)

Thanks for any help or advice

Cheers

PS Last 'project' to increase RAM on friend's PC has been very sucessful :) Thanks to all who helped me there.

Note to Chronus - you'll be pleased to learn my 'old' PC is now behaving well - since I installed the drivers!!! Ha! So stupid of me ;) Oh well, there you go - live and learn, eh? Hope you OK. J

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AroundAgain

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 7:52PM

Hi again

Well, I've tried with both usb's plugged in. The little light comes on ok but the laptop doesn't 'see' it, even though it makes the normal noises that a pc/laptop makes when a new device is plugged in. So very strange!!!

I have also tried it on my pc and exactly the same - not recognised even though it made the normal noises.

So, does this suggest the drive is not the right one for the laptop, or something (even though all the specs seemed right)?

Would the drive be faulty, perhaps? If so, as I've bought a little caddy for it, how do I determine, or convince the sellers, that the hard drive or casing is possibly faulty? The casing was from Amazon, as suggested in a previous post.

I'm stumped and very disappointed. I do hope there is an easy solution that one of you has to offer ...

Cheers J

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rdave13

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 8:38PM

Have a look here,http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsvista/ht/partition-hard-drive-vista.htm Stick to one partition, then format. Make sure it's the right drive even if Vista won't allow you to format the c: drive.

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woodchip

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 9:46PM

With the Drive connected, right click My Computer/Properties/Device Manager Button see if you have any coloured icons if So right click on them the choose un-install pull the drive plug out then plug it in another port for it to see the drive, "take note of what it sets it up as" in the above

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Miké

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 9:58PM

Is it showing in 'Disk Management' does it need initialising?

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AroundAgain

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 10:08PM

Hi

I'm working through the article suggested by rdave13, and have got into Disc Management.

Yes, it is showing there, as unallocated, just as the article has suggested. So, I'm now in the Wizard at Step 7 ...

It seems to be behaving as suggested in this article so, just keep your fingers crossed and pray lots !!!

Watch this space ... ;)

J

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AroundAgain

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 10:11PM

Just a thought ...

I need to assign a drive letter. The Wizard is suggesting 'F' but, when it's the only drive (as it will eventually be) it's going to be confusing if it's 'F' and not 'C'.

So, do I take the option to 'leave unassigned' for now? Would it then become 'C' once replaced the old drive?

Thanks J

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 10:30PM

F is fine it will automatically be reassigned to C when put back in the PC.

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AroundAgain

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 10:32PM

Brilliant! Thanks Fruit Bat

Will continue again ...

Watch this space !!!

Thx J

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AroundAgain

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Posted October 16, 2012 at 10:48PM

It's now formatting!!! Yay!!!

After going through the partitioning bits, it then said it couldn't do it because it wasn't initialised!!! So, thanks to your link, Mike, I was able to do that, then worked through the Wizard to partition and now following the instructions re formatting, which it is now doing.

So, hopefully, I should then 'see' the drive 'F' and proceed with the cloning!

Well, I have to say, when things don't go as one expects, then (subject to appropriate help, like you guys) one learns more than if it all went so smoothly! So, I'm learning a lot!!! ;)

Ha! It's showing Formatting: 1% so I think it could take some time as yet. I might have to leave it running till morning!

Don't stay up, eh! Would assume there will be little to post about now, for a while. Catch you all tomorrow.

Thanks for all your help this evening. You've been great.

J

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AroundAgain

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Posted October 17, 2012 at 12:06PM

Hi

Having formatted, initialised and then 'cloned' the 'C' drive, plus Recovery drive,I've gone to Win Explorer and this is what is showing -

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/141/mycomputer.jpg/

ie, Recovery drive as 'A', Laptop drive 'C', another Recovery drive 'D', and the new drive 'F'. However, the 'F' drive is/should be 500Gb, not 67.4, which is what the original drive is.

So, this is my current situation and I'm well confused!!!

Also, I tried to 'Safely Remove' the new drive but it said it couldn't as there was a program running on it, although all programs were closed, that I know of. So, I set it to re-start, in the hope I could then disconnect, but it has gone into CHKDSK and looks like it is recovering orphaned files!!! It's now finished that, and booted up but still the same situation, as far as I can see.

I've now switched off, disconnected the new drive and re-booted. It's booted up ok with the new drive disconnected, which is good, but what do I do about the new drive which doesn't seem to have 'cloned' as I had expected? Maybe I need to re-format and start over but I must have done something wrong, presumably?

Oh dear ...

Hopefully, you can help me out with what I have to do next, please?

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