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    Question about replacing hard drive

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by bjcadstuff, Jul 3, 2009.

  1. bjcadstuff

    bjcadstuff Notebook Consultant

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    My daughter has a 3 year old laptop with a 30GB hard drive, which is of course full right now.

    I was thinking about replacing her hard drive with a new one. She has a lot of things installed so I thought it would be easiest to just clone the old hard drive into the new hard drive. I could pull the old hard drive out, connect it to my desktop, then use acronis or ghost to clone it to a new drive, then install the new drive. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

    If it was a desktop I would be more apt to just reinstall everything even though this would be a pain for her, but I'm concerned about getting all of the laptop-specific drivers installed.
     
    bjcadstuff, Jul 3, 2009
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  2. qhn

    qhn Notebook User

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    You don't need to pull the old drive out to clone it. Get an external housing and clone the new drive, then just replace it.

    Acronis is good.

    cheers ...
     
    qhn, Jul 3, 2009
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  3. Hep!

    Hep! sees beauty in everything

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    Your plan will work.. and that's what I would do.
    Reloading a laptop is no more difficult than a desktop though, you can download all the drivers you need from Dell's website.

    @qhn - Yes, it can work by hooking up a USB dongle, but that will require an additional part to be purchased of the OP doesn't have one.
     
    Hep!, Jul 3, 2009
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