How easy is it to replace m1330 HD?

Just wondering, I might chuck an SSD in it when the prices fall

 

Very. 4 screws, pull out.

 

Cheers, what'd be the best way to transfer the data over then? SSD in an enclosure and copy it all over prior to replacing?

 

An enclousure could be fine, but you can make a clone of your HD before uninstalling is, so yo justinstall the new one and get to work, but in my case i prefer a new install for a new HD, specially if you use a SSD.
After removing the 4 screws you will also have to remove 2 more for the HD plastic cover, and remenber remove the battery before uninstalling the HD

 

How do you make a clone of a hard drive? Does it require special hardware or software?

 

You don't need special hardware, just somewhere for you to store the image of the old hard drive while you plug in the new one. I use Norton Ghost, it's easy to use, and it's fast.

 

Does changing the HD or RAM effect your warranty?

 

RAM and HD are user replaceable. Dell won't cover what you replaced but it should not affect your warranty on the rest of the laptop unless you damage the laptop while replacing the memory or HD.

 

Thanks for the reply.

So when this becomes affordable, I can pop one in

 

Sure... can you imagine how much that's going to go for?

 

Heh..I hate to think.... but then they're also bringing out a 1.8" version later this year . Even the 2.5" model is only 9mm thick !

I think we're slowly beginning to see the inevitable demise of traditional HDs in portable computing...

We're finally starting to see some viable sized SSDs. With the abundance of multimedia nowadays, 32/64GB just dont cut it for most people...but 256GB...well....thats a different story

Its only a matter of time before size > cost.

 

I agree. My next notebook, in a few years, will use SSD instead of a traditional HD.

 

So say you use Norton Ghost to make the image of your hard drive. You save it onto the same harddrive or burn to multiple DVDs or something? i don't see how you can possibly clone your hard drive unless you were able to plug in both hard drives into your laptop which I don't think is possible. (Not with only one bay)

 

What i do is use the norton ghost, and clone direct to other hd, i add the hd with one of 2 options, an external casing, or a universal USB cable, after that you just switch the Hard drives

 

So if I were to buy external casing from Newegg, what exactly would I look for? Do you have any recommendations? I'm looking at external enclosures:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=2.5++external+enclosure

theres all this IDE, etc. I'm not sure which one would work.

 

For my HD that is a SATA drive, i use Trascend store jet 2.5 SATA, I Think you should have a SATA drive too, so i any enclousure for 2.5 SATA drive will work fine.

there are also some SATA and IDE available, but if you want to buy something cheap just for cloning, i got mine for around 15 USD on ebay

 

As mentioned above, you would need an external source to store the image on and then run Norton's recovery cd to copy that image over your drive.

M1330s come with SATA drives so you would want to look under there, also I recommend Vantec enclosures, they're a little bit more expensive, but they do a very good job of dissipating heat and protecting the hard drive; they're very light as well.