upgrading hard drive

[mhow]

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro L300-1FK laptop which has a small hard drive and wonder if it is possible to upgrade.From what I have been reading there are now hard drives of up to 320GB for laptops and as I am a novice would appreciate any advice and guidance as to whether it is possible and if so how to go about it.

[thescruff]

I plug a remote hard drive into my laptop and use it as drive E

[mhow]

Thanks Scruff but what I want to do if possible is replace the existing hard drive with a more powerful one.

[dave.m]

Some general instructions here:
http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-co ... ive-646488

You would have to check whether your HD is SATA or the older IDE version.

dave

[mhow]

Thanks Dave, your answer is very comprehensive and provides all that I should need if I can summon the courage to attempt this major exercise.
Mhow

[dave.m]

All you should need is a small Pozidrive #1 screwdriver and a can of compressed air to blow out all the dust and fluff (crud) that is inside the case.

Nolt sure if yours is quite the same as the L350 but steps one and two on here may help:
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/T ... mbly-1.htm

If not quite the same, then have a look at this list:
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
to see one that matches yours.

dave

[mhow]

You are sending some excellent material through today Dave though it is not the mechanical side of dismantling and assembly that makes me hesitate but all the bother of backing up and restoring all my files and whatnot,which being a novice I have never attempted.
Regards
Mhow

[kellys_eye]

Check that you have the ability to format/install the new Operating System - this is usually on a hidden sector of your original HDD and cannot be copied over to a new one (I think - not without considerable hassle I should reckon).

Think carefully about copying your old data to a USB backup HDD first and you might find the free space you gain is more than enough to keep you going using the original HDD. You could always reformat using the built-in facility if you really want to go back to 'square one' and gain yet more HDD space.

[RichieP]

If you're prepared to spend a bit more money, you can "clone" your hard drive onto a new larger one.

Once the cloning is complete, you won't notice any difference, ie all your programs, data, etc will be exactly as they are now, you'll just have more hard drive space.

You'll need some sort of enclosure to connect the new drive for about £10.

There is various free cloning software, example here

Once the cloning is complete, take out the current drive and put in the new one.

You just need to find out if your drive is IDE or SATA for the enclosure to buy.

[Megaross]

I had to upgrade my laptop to 2 500gb drives before I gave up and bought a NAS. I download a lot.

Easiest upgrade ever though, slot in a new hard drive, install the appropriate OS, drivers, programs. Then using an external adaptor plug the old hard drive in, transfer personal files and format it (and the likely hidden partition).

If you install a drive of a higher RPM monitor how hot your laptop is getting, I went from a single 5400rpm to 2 7200rpm drives in mine and the heat shot up substantially. Ended up lapping the processor heatsink for better cooling. Compared to something like soldering a new power socket on the motherboard it's a walk in the park.