HD Swap

Hi. right now I'm using an HP dv6500t with a 200gb HD. The thing is, I just received my replacement laptop which is a DV6700tse with the exact same specs. Is it possible to just swap hard drives, or do I need to do something else. Only one difference is the new laptop has 4GB ram and 256 8400gs while my old one had 2GB ram and 128 8400gs.

DV6500t:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2Ghz
2GB RAM
128MB 8400GS
Intel 4965AGN With Bluetooth

DV6700tSE:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2Ghz
4GB RAM
256MB 8400GS
Intel 4965AGN With Bluetooth


Thanks a lot. Love this website.

 

You can go ahead and swap the HDDs out. They are both SATA drives and can be take out very easily. If you look on the bottom of your laptop you will notice a symbol with 3 disks stacked on top of eachother, that is the symbol for the HDD. Right next to the symbol there will be a rectangular compartment with screws fastening it down, take the screws out and life the panel. You will then see the HDD, take any remaining screws out and pull the HDD out. There will be an adapter on the HDD, but you won't need to take it off because the other HDD will have the adapter on it as well. Perform the same steps on the other laptop, swap the HDDs, screw them down, put the panel back on top and screw it down as well.

Are the OS's the same on both laptops? If they aren't you might want to burn the recovery disks before you swap the HDDs so you have the OS if you want to reinstall or anything. Also, if there is any hardware that is different you will have to download the drivers and then install them since you are sending back the newer HDD.

 

Great. first off, I am running the same windows. Both Original OS's are Vista Home Premium. But on my hard drive it's Vista ultimate. but that wouldn't make a difference because I'm taking those hard drives out. formatting them and using them as an external. meanwhile putting my HD in the laptop. i'll play around abit with it and see how it goes. Thanks anyway I appreciate the effort. You explained it very well

 

Since I am going to be doing the same thing...

Does Vista register itself with the motherboard S/N or anything?

 

I don't think so. it wouldn't make sense.

 

But then again, I didn't try it yet. I'm going to try it in about an Hour or so. I'll let you know how it went.

 

How did it go?

 

Yitzter,
Apparently Vista OEM, which is what you get when you purchase a prebuilt computer, registers itself with the Motherboard. Now I don't know all the little details about how it exactly works and what will happen when you move it to another computer, so let us know what happens and then we can go from there.

 

It will probably give "invalid key" error message and a phone number to call. I did this one time for fun and Microsoft only asked for a key listed on the back of the computer and verified it, gave me a valid key, connected online and away I went. Took about 5 minutes and all was well.

 

sorry guys I was a bit busy yesterday, so I didn't get around to doing it. But I have to do it today. I will post back how it went.

 

Worked like a charm. I just swapped the Hard drive, turned on the machine and it booted right into windows. No problems whatsoever. Just bear in mind that it's practically the same machine. the first one was a DV6500t and the second one DV6700Tse with the exact config. But thanks to you all anyway for helping me out a bit. Really appreciate the help!