How easy is it to replace a laptop harddrive?

ultim · 11 Apr 2007 at 11:10

Hi
ive got a really old laptop and lately its died on me. When i boot up it says no operating has been found.
In the bios it says no harddrive has been detected and i suspect the hd has failed.

How easy is it to replace the harddrive?

semi-pro waster · 11 Apr 2007 at 11:19

It depends on the laptop but generally pretty easy, the best idea is to look on the manufacturers website to see if they have a disassembly guide, some are notably better than others for this. Failing that I just start removing everything until I find the hard drive, that is the hard way though. Remember that if it is a really old laptop you might not be able to access the full size of a new hard drive depending on what the bios will recognise.

PhillyDee · 11 Apr 2007 at 11:56

I know mine has a little door secured by 2 screws. Nice and easy. Just open it up and pop it out.

steve258 · 11 Apr 2007 at 12:35

Yep every laptop has very different layout so I'd try to take off every cover at the bottom and see if you can access the HDD.

Mine is secured by a screw and after removal the HDD cage can simply slide out from the battery bay. Didn't realise that until half my laptop was dissembled lol

Amonlym · 11 Apr 2007 at 12:57

as above, depends largely on the laptop

best start is the user manual, some will tell you how to change it

- some examples i have seen

Clevo D470K - pannel on bottom, remove 4 screws shows drive. drive is attached to a cradle that sits in the machine. removing is easy, putting back is hard due to ribbon cable.

some fujitsu or another - front middle, 2 screws and drive slides out in a tray. very easy

OLD (486DX 25) - remove all screws on bottom, flip, open screen remove top cover, remove keyboard, remove upper pcb (power) unscrew and slide out FDD, hdd is under this, held down with 4 more screws direct to chasis

-
if you can egt the exact modle, im sure someone can find you a link or guide!

ultim · 11 Apr 2007 at 13:08

thanks guys, ill give it a go tonite. i suppose i dont have anything to lose by trying.

RobH · 11 Apr 2007 at 13:34

I've taken the hard drives out of a HP notebook, Fujitsu notebook, EI System notebook and a Apple MacBook and they all had a removable cover to access the hard drive. The EI System required removing the bottom panel of the notebook which provided access to the battery, memory and hard drive, the MacBook required removing the battery and a cover, the other 2 had covers on the outside case secured by a couple of screws. Should be pretty easy to do as most manufacturers make them removable without having to tear apart the case.