Step by step guide on how to upgrade a 2.5” SATA hard drive

Hi I'm a relatively new notebook owner having just purchased my first notebook in January.
I live in the UK so everything I am about to say will make a great deal more sense to people who live in the UK.
I always like fiddling about with computers and rely on various forums to point me in the right direction but in truth I've contributed rather little.
I will now try and remedy this.
This guide is aimed at people who have basic IT knowledge but have never actually done any of the wonderful things you hear forum posters going on about.
Thus I will not be going on about things like the difference between IDE and SATA.
For that read another guide then come back here.
I will use lots of photos and try and make this guide idiot proof.
I have checked through the forum and there don't seem to be any other simple guides like this.

My notebook came with a 40Gb Hitachi SATA drive which is most politely described as bijou.
Lately I've been trying to run a dual boot Windows 7/Linux system.
This is next to impossible with a 40Gb drive.
So after shopping around and reading up what my best options were

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288101

I went for a Seagate 320Gb 7200rpm drive for £72.58 including VAT (local sales tax) and delivery from Misco. You buy whatever is best for you from whoever you like.

It was an OEM package so no screws or bits just a raw drive. Don't worry your not missing anything. You should only buy the retail boxed version of a hard drive if you have a very clear reason in your mind for doing so.

Here is how it looked fresh out of the box

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1731&ppuser=219591

Now though it is a 2.5” drive the width of the unit (of all 2.5” drives) is 2.75” or thereabouts. I have learned that the 2.5” refers only to the platter dimensions. Doubtless all you experts know this but no one told me.

This is what the raw drives underside (the side you won't see when it's inside the caddy) looks like.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1732&ppuser=219591

And here is the topside that you would normally see if you unplugged your drive.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1734&ppuser=219591

This is the underside of my laptop. The hard drive is located centrally in a secure compartment. Your layout maybe different check with your manual.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1735&ppuser=219591

Quick tip – when working on your laptop take out the battery to avoid any danger of live current damaging you or any component. Also having taken out the battery press the power button a few times to drain any remnant of current from your system.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1736&ppuser=219591

I was being really careful so I used an anti static wrist strap (£6 from Maplin). Most people would say that's overkill though.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1750&ppuser=219591

You undo two screws to get access to the hard drive bay

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1737&ppuser=219591

You need a 2mm Phillips screw driver. Get one with a big long handle as the screws can be very tight so you might need to give it some welly.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1744&ppuser=219591

I got mine as part of a 6 piece set for £2 from a local hardware store

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1743&ppuser=219591

Undo the retaining screw (your machine may have more than one - check beforehand) and the drive comes out with a gentle tug.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1738&ppuser=219591

Here is a picture of my old Hitachi 40Gb drive in its little caddy

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1740&ppuser=219591

Here you see a view of the front showing the standard SATA connector. It's offset so don't worry you can only put it in the right way.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1741&ppuser=219591

Now a side view of my Hitachi showing that it is screwed into it's caddy with 4 screws (2 are on the other side).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1742&ppuser=219591

You undo the 4 screws and pull the old drive out of the caddy. Leaving the bare caddy ready to take your new drive.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1745&ppuser=219591

It was a pain on my one with the screws being very tight but persevere.
In comparison to getting the Hitachi out of the caddy getting the Seagate in was a breeze.
Quickly put 2 screws in on each side and there you go

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1746&ppuser=219591

Now put the drive caddy (with drive inside it) back in the drive bay. It should smoothly go on to the SATA port. There isn't really a hard click but you'll be able to tell when it's in right. Then fasten the retaining screw (or screws).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1747&ppuser=219591

Screw the cover back. Put the battery back in. Flip open your laptop and turn it on.
You don't need pictures of that.
Now there is obviously nothing on the hard drive so it won't boot. First go into BIOS (by whatever means your system specifies on my machine I just hit delete on boot) and check your laptop has recognised it and everything is hunky dory.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1748&ppuser=219591

Insert a boot CD (DVD in the case of Windows 7) and install the OS from optical media to hard drive in the usual fashion.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1749&ppuser=219591

Post install I had an issue.
It's probably unique to my setup but it might come up for you as well so I should tell you what happened.
The new hard drive instead of taking the old hard drives place of 2nd boot device got shoved to the back of the line behind the CD/DVD drive and the network card.
End result after I thought everything was working the machine refused to boot. The machine turned on, the CD drive whirred a bit and then a error message came up saying can't boot from network.
It was simple enough to fix. Just went into BIOS and changed the boot order. You'd have figured it out I'm just telling you as a precaution.

Initial impressions of my drive are mixed. It doesn't really feel that much faster. It probably is a bit faster I just thought the change from 5400rpm to 7200 rpm would be more pronounced. On the other hand though it is whisper quiet. Quite noticeably quieter than my old Hitachi which doesn't make sense as it's spinning faster so surely that mean more noise.
Or do hard drives just get noisier as they get older. You know wear and tear moving parts it makes sense but I haven't heard anything on this one way or the other.

Golden rule check your particular setup before doing anything.
If you like me are planning on selling your old drive on eBay obviously make sure you format it beforehand.

Also check out the many tutorial videos on Youtube. Youtube being youtube the videos are of variable quality but I've never actually seen one that I thought was flat wrong.

There you go I made a positive contribution to the internet.

P.S.

I uploaded all the images as, what I thought was a reasonable size, 640x480 jpegs but now I can only see little thumb nails. Anyway to put links to the full size images?

 

Nice guide plus one