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Generally the most complicated thing about replacing a laptop hard drive is getting to it! Have a look at the website for the manufacturer as sometimes it's not obvious which screws you have to remove to get to it, or which panel slides out etc.

Once it's in, installation is no different to desktop, make sure bios is set to boot from cd, or hit f12 or whatever button that laptop uses for boot one off preference, boot off cd and install as normal.

when ordering the new hard drive, it might be worth getting a caddy/docking bay to get any files off the old drive.

Quote:
admars says...
when ordering the new hard drive, it might be worth getting a caddy/docking bay to get any files off the old driveIt m ay also be worth checking the type of drive INSIDE an external USB drive (usually the little USB powered type) as 9 our of 10 times they are a standard 2.5" SATA laptop drive these days and are comparable if not cheaper than their bare bones counterpart.

I've done this twice with a 320gb and a 500gb for a couple of friends and it meant there were caddy's after removing the drive to use to then be reused as either external drives or as admars states, to get stuff off the old drive.

In both instances the drive inside the case was £10 more expensive when bought as a drive only, only major difference is the warranty implications.

Jimbo : oÞ

"There's that word again... is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull in the future?"

Cheers guys - I'll be trying to sort this problem out first (before touching my parents laptop) so I'll let you know what a mess I get myself into trying to fix it.  I can see the laptop getting chucked at the end of this!

Well worth looking at an SSD if you're replacing the drive.

You're like a SSD salesman Miles; you love those drives!

It's for my sister so it will be done on a budget.  I'm going to start looking at photo/video editing as I've just got myself a new SLR so I'm thinking of getting myself a SSD if the photo/video editing is slow.

Thinking of doing this myself on my recently knackered NC10 netbook. And yes, it will be a SSD (probably this).

Alfie - I have the two of the Crucial M4's, one in the desktop and one in my Macbook. They're good, reliable drives.

@r8sso - mate, once you've used them you will wonder why you never upgraded to one before!
It was the best upgrade that I've ever performed on a PC in terms of performance gained.

Good to know!

How do these SSD drives compare to a standard drive in terms of size and connections?  Will it be as easy as swapping over my HDD with my sisters HDD then putting a new SSD in my laptop?