Help with buying new hard drive
I would like to replace the hard drive in my wife's Dell laptop computer. It has a 5400 RPM drive now, and I want to install a 7200 RPM hard drive. I went to Seagate, Amazon and Newegg, and they don't recognize the product number. I'm going to have to get Windows 8.1 installed on the new drive, and the laptop didn't come with a DVD, only a restore partition. Is there some way I can move the existing operating system to the new hard drive? It also doesn't have a DVD drive, only usb ports. Also I have never worked on a laptop. Is it very difficult to replace the hard drive, and is it easy to damage the computer while changing the drive? description: ATA Disk product: ST500LT012-1DG14 vendor: Seagate physical id: 0.0.0 bus info: logical name: /dev/sda version: 0001 serial: S3P9582G size: 465GiB (500GB) capabilities: gpt-1.00 partitioned partitioned:gpt configuration: ansiversion = 5 guid = 88a640ee-cbad-4852-88d7-26494c9fdf02 sectorsize = 4096 description: CPU product: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N2830 @ 2.16GHz vendor: Intel Corp. physical id: 4 bus info: cpu@0 version: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N2830 @ 2.16GHz slot: CPU 1 size: 1992MHz capacity: 2407MHz width: 64 bits |
Help with buying new hard drive
On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 15:56:14 +0000
Stormin' Norman wrote: Are you making this change to increase the speed or because you need more room? If you have plenty of free space on the existing drive and are primarily looking to increase speed, have you considered a solid state drive? They are lighting fast and somewhat reasonable in price. If you need more than 500GB, the SSDs get a little pricey. It's strictly for speed. Windows 8.1 is very slow on that computer. An SSD is something to think about. Like I said I don't know anything about laptops. I just want to make sure the drive I order will fit in her computer. Are they all physically the same? |
Help with buying new hard drive
On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 10:10:49 -0600
Ken1943 wrote: Not sure if there could be a heat problem. Dell does it's own thing,so you could have trouble changing the drive. Would an SSD eliminate the heat problem? |
Help with buying new hard drive
On 3/9/2015 10:13 AM, Johnny wrote:
I would like to replace the hard drive in my wife's Dell laptop computer. It has a 5400 RPM drive now, and I want to install a 7200 RPM hard drive. I went to Seagate, Amazon and Newegg, and they don't recognize the product number. I'm going to have to get Windows 8.1 installed on the new drive, and the laptop didn't come with a DVD, only a restore partition. Is there some way I can move the existing operating system to the new hard drive? It also doesn't have a DVD drive, only usb ports. Also I have never worked on a laptop. Is it very difficult to replace the hard drive, and is it easy to damage the computer while changing the drive? description: ATA Disk product: ST500LT012-1DG14 vendor: Seagate physical id: 0.0.0 bus info: logical name: /dev/sda version: 0001 serial: S3P9582G size: 465GiB (500GB) capabilities: gpt-1.00 partitioned partitioned:gpt configuration: ansiversion = 5 guid = 88a640ee-cbad-4852-88d7-26494c9fdf02 sectorsize = 4096 description: CPU product: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N2830 @ 2.16GHz vendor: Intel Corp. physical id: 4 bus info: cpu@0 version: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N2830 @ 2.16GHz slot: CPU 1 size: 1992MHz capacity: 2407MHz width: 64 bits From what I've been able to locate, the existing drive is a standard 2.5 inch laptop SATA drive that is 7mm thick. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178125 With that in mind, you could use any SATA 7200 RPM drive that is also 2.5 by 7mm in size. Here is one that is also 500GB and runs around $50. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178573 You might also consider upgrading to a SSD drive like one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148946 if speed is your only concern. It is also a drop in replacement for what you currently have. Then you don't have to worry about bumping the laptop and crashing the drive as the SSD has no moving parts, runs cooler, and takes up much less battery usage as well. As for actually replacing the drive, you did not give out which model your Dell laptop is but most of them have a little plastic panel on the bottom of the laptop that is held on by a couple of small screws. Along with the screws the plastic cover has to be slightly twisted as you remove it as they make it a tight fit. The drive itself may be screwed in place but most now a days can be unplugged from the built in SATA socket once the plastic panel has been removed. Some 2.5 drives come in 9mm thickness and with out knowing the exact model you have it's best to just stick with the 7mm thickness that matches the existing drive when looking for a replacement. To get the operating system from your existing drive over to the new drive you could plug the drives into a desktop PC that has two free SATA sockets on the motherboard, (just buy two extra SATA cables) and make sure there are two SATA power connectors available. Then with both drives plugged in you can use various free drive cloning software to copy over your existing drive to the new drive, and then plug the new drive into the laptop. One cloning program I use is Macrium Reflect which can be found at: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...e_edition.html But you can also use the Seagate Disk Wizard program since your existing drive is a Seagate and can be located at: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/discwizard/ Have fun. |
Help with buying new hard drive
On 3/9/2015 11:02 AM, Johnny wrote:
On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 15:56:14 +0000 Stormin' Norman wrote: Are you making this change to increase the speed or because you need more room? If you have plenty of free space on the existing drive and are primarily looking to increase speed, have you considered a solid state drive? They are lighting fast and somewhat reasonable in price. If you need more than 500GB, the SSDs get a little pricey. It's strictly for speed. Windows 8.1 is very slow on that computer. An SSD is something to think about. Like I said I don't know anything about laptops. I just want to make sure the drive I order will fit in her computer. Are they all physically the same? laptop drives and SSD's come in 7mm and 9mm thickness. Your existing drive is 7mm. Other than that they are all the same size. |
Help with buying new hard drive
On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 11:18:06 -0500
GlowingBlueMist wrote: From what I've been able to locate, the existing drive is a standard 2.5 inch laptop SATA drive that is 7mm thick. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178125 With that in mind, you could use any SATA 7200 RPM drive that is also 2.5 by 7mm in size. Here is one that is also 500GB and runs around $50. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178573 You might also consider upgrading to a SSD drive like one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148946 if speed is your only concern. It is also a drop in replacement for what you currently have. Then you don't have to worry about bumping the laptop and crashing the drive as the SSD has no moving parts, runs cooler, and takes up much less battery usage as well. As for actually replacing the drive, you did not give out which model your Dell laptop is but most of them have a little plastic panel on the bottom of the laptop that is held on by a couple of small screws. Along with the screws the plastic cover has to be slightly twisted as you remove it as they make it a tight fit. The drive itself may be screwed in place but most now a days can be unplugged from the built in SATA socket once the plastic panel has been removed. Some 2.5 drives come in 9mm thickness and with out knowing the exact model you have it's best to just stick with the 7mm thickness that matches the existing drive when looking for a replacement. To get the operating system from your existing drive over to the new drive you could plug the drives into a desktop PC that has two free SATA sockets on the motherboard, (just buy two extra SATA cables) and make sure there are two SATA power connectors available. Then with both drives plugged in you can use various free drive cloning software to copy over your existing drive to the new drive, and then plug the new drive into the laptop. One cloning program I use is Macrium Reflect which can be found at: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...e_edition.html But you can also use the Seagate Disk Wizard program since your existing drive is a Seagate and can be located at: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/discwizard/ Have fun. Thank you for all the useful information. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. |
Help with buying new hard drive
In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny
writes The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the fly? If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine. -- Bill |
Help with buying new hard drive
On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:24:54 +0000
Bill wrote: In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny writes The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the fly? If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine. That's the first I've heard of WimBoot. After looking it up, it is supposed to be used for small drives like 32 GB or smaller, and this computer has a 500 GB hard drive. How could I tell if it was set up for WimBoot? |
Help with buying new hard drive
In message 20150309153755.442fe007@jspc, Johnny
writes On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:24:54 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny writes The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the fly? If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine. That's the first I've heard of WimBoot. After looking it up, it is supposed to be used for small drives like 32 GB or smaller, and this computer has a 500 GB hard drive. How could I tell if it was set up for WimBoot? Https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...=255&MSPPError =-2147217396 http://tinyurl.com/nmzsy8z I think WimBoot is free up to 32GB drives, paid for over that. But it's all a bit of a mystery to me. -- Bill |
Help with buying new hard drive
On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:55:02 +0000
Bill wrote: In message 20150309153755.442fe007@jspc, Johnny writes On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:24:54 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny writes The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the fly? If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine. That's the first I've heard of WimBoot. After looking it up, it is supposed to be used for small drives like 32 GB or smaller, and this computer has a 500 GB hard drive. How could I tell if it was set up for WimBoot? Https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...=255&MSPPError =-2147217396 http://tinyurl.com/nmzsy8z I think WimBoot is free up to 32GB drives, paid for over that. But it's all a bit of a mystery to me. I checked. It's not set up for WimBoot. I can't believe Dell would install Windows 8.1 on a computer that's not capable of running it properly. The computer has 4 GB of Ram and a dual core 2.16 GHz processor. The only thing I can think of that is slowing it down is the 5400 RPM hard drive. |
Help with buying new hard drive
Johnny wrote:
On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:55:02 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309153755.442fe007@jspc, Johnny writes On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:24:54 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny writes The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the fly? If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine. That's the first I've heard of WimBoot. After looking it up, it is supposed to be used for small drives like 32 GB or smaller, and this computer has a 500 GB hard drive. How could I tell if it was set up for WimBoot? Https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...=255&MSPPError =-2147217396 http://tinyurl.com/nmzsy8z I think WimBoot is free up to 32GB drives, paid for over that. But it's all a bit of a mystery to me. I checked. It's not set up for WimBoot. I can't believe Dell would install Windows 8.1 on a computer that's not capable of running it properly. The computer has 4 GB of Ram and a dual core 2.16 GHz processor. The only thing I can think of that is slowing it down is the 5400 RPM hard drive. ST500LT012 TYPE SATA II RPM 5400 Start 5V @ 1A Seek 1.2W Idle 0.45W ******* Let's say we look at an SSD. As we want a definite benefit, and so spend a little extra to get it. An SSD for $110, 256GB and smaller than your 500GB drive. Would require "clone+resize" step, using a third-party utility. Like a lot of drive products, I think I see Acronis TIH mentioned as part of the package. "Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148820 That's a 7mm drive. Some notes on "dishonesty in advertising". Spec sheet gives no info. Now we look for a review. http://www.storagereview.com/crucial_mx100_ssd_review Picture shows "5V @ 1.7A" on the drive casing. That's a max. That max is above the 5V @ 1A for your 5400 (or for a 7200 RPM drive). The manufacturer provided fluff says this: Power consumption: Idle: 100mW Active Average: 150mW Active Average, means some amount of writes as well as longer periods of idleness. Unless the industry uses a "reasonable mix" of commands, we don't know if only 150mW of heat would be sensed by the "average" user. If you scroll to the end of the article, you see the *real* information, as measured by the reviewer. Write: 4.16W Read: 2.48W sustained 1.41W random Idle: 1.06W Start: 2.58W So compare the idle on the SSD (1.06W) to the hard drive (0.45W). It's possible the SSD will run warmer. If you were writing the drive from end to end, it would draw 4.16W continuously, and be above the 1.2W of your original rotating drive. The 7200 Seagate hard drive I was looking at, draws a bit more power than the 5400, like maybe 50% more, for the lower power states. So even a 7200 will be a bit warmer. It all depends on how well ventilated that area is, as to whether a high-power solution would be a mistake or not. It's hard to do good planning, if the manufacturers are not honest about stuff. Paul |
Help with buying new hard drive
On 3/9/2015 5:12 PM, Johnny wrote:
On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:55:02 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309153755.442fe007@jspc, Johnny writes On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:24:54 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny writes The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the fly? If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine. That's the first I've heard of WimBoot. After looking it up, it is supposed to be used for small drives like 32 GB or smaller, and this computer has a 500 GB hard drive. How could I tell if it was set up for WimBoot? Https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...=255&MSPPError =-2147217396 http://tinyurl.com/nmzsy8z I think WimBoot is free up to 32GB drives, paid for over that. But it's all a bit of a mystery to me. I checked. It's not set up for WimBoot. I can't believe Dell would install Windows 8.1 on a computer that's not capable of running it properly. The computer has 4 GB of Ram and a dual core 2.16 GHz processor. The only thing I can think of that is slowing it down is the 5400 RPM hard drive. It should run fine on there. I'm running it on a Toshiba with an Intel B-940 processor (less powerful than yours) and 4GBs of RAM. Have you checked out how many start-up items that you have? Have you run your AV program to see if there is anything there? What about running a malwareware scan with Malwarebytes? https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/ |
Help with buying new hard drive
In message , Ron
writes On 3/9/2015 5:12 PM, Johnny wrote: On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:55:02 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309153755.442fe007@jspc, Johnny writes On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 20:24:54 +0000 Bill wrote: In message 20150309112330.2f038634@jspc, Johnny writes The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15-3531. I see that that model comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing. Does this mean it is a WimBoot machine having to decompress Windows on the fly? If it is, that would explain slowness with a 5400rpm drive. If it isn't I'd check whether it is really just the drive that is making it slow, or whether it is what is running on the machine. That's the first I've heard of WimBoot. After looking it up, it is supposed to be used for small drives like 32 GB or smaller, and this computer has a 500 GB hard drive. How could I tell if it was set up for WimBoot? Https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...=255&MSPPError =-2147217396 http://tinyurl.com/nmzsy8z I think WimBoot is free up to 32GB drives, paid for over that. But it's all a bit of a mystery to me. I checked. It's not set up for WimBoot. I can't believe Dell would install Windows 8.1 on a computer that's not capable of running it properly. The computer has 4 GB of Ram and a dual core 2.16 GHz processor. The only thing I can think of that is slowing it down is the 5400 RPM hard drive. It should run fine on there. I'm running it on a Toshiba with an Intel B-940 processor (less powerful than yours) and 4GBs of RAM. Have you checked out how many start-up items that you have? Have you run your AV program to see if there is anything there? What about running a malwareware scan with Malwarebytes? https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/ Of course, it depends on what you are trying to run on the machine, but I'd have expected that processor and ram combination to be fast enough with a 5400 drive. I have machines here running 8.1 with 5400rpm drives and with processors between 1.6GHz and 2.53GHz. Only the 1.6GHz one seems a bit slow. In general use, it is the cache size of the drive and the seek time that matters most. Rotation speed matters for things like video and audio recording and editing, where data is being streamed relentlessly from the drive. MalwareBytes is a good start. Does the drive need defragmenting? Do you have multiple Antivirus softwares? One of the best, if a bit daunting at first, programs to see what is running on the machine is "AutoRuns" from Microsoft's free Sysinternals set of programs. -- Bill |
Help with buying new hard drive
On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 19:52:09 -0400
Ron wrote: The computer has 4 GB of Ram and a dual core 2.16 GHz processor. The only thing I can think of that is slowing it down is the 5400 RPM hard drive. It should run fine on there. I'm running it on a Toshiba with an Intel B-940 processor (less powerful than yours) and 4GBs of RAM. Have you checked out how many start-up items that you have? I checked the startup programs. There are three Intel programs, and two Dell programs, that have to do with graphics and hardware acceleration. After doing some research about these programs, I found that they also connect to the Internet. I assume they are sending information to Dell and Intel. Norton anti-virus is also running. I found this website: Create installation media for Windows 8.1 Applies to Windows 8.1 If you need to install or reinstall Windows 8.1, you can use the tool on this page to create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media I'm wondering if I use this installation media from Microsoft, if it will just install Windows 8.1 with out the Dell and Intel programs? Will it leave the restore partition alone? I'm downloading the 4 GB ISO right now, and have about an hour to go. If I don't see an improvement after this, I will definitely buy an SSD. |
Help with buying new hard drive
Johnny wrote:
On Mon, 09 Mar 2015 19:52:09 -0400 Ron wrote: The computer has 4 GB of Ram and a dual core 2.16 GHz processor. The only thing I can think of that is slowing it down is the 5400 RPM hard drive. It should run fine on there. I'm running it on a Toshiba with an Intel B-940 processor (less powerful than yours) and 4GBs of RAM. Have you checked out how many start-up items that you have? I checked the startup programs. There are three Intel programs, and two Dell programs, that have to do with graphics and hardware acceleration. After doing some research about these programs, I found that they also connect to the Internet. I assume they are sending information to Dell and Intel. Norton anti-virus is also running. I found this website: Create installation media for Windows 8.1 Applies to Windows 8.1 If you need to install or reinstall Windows 8.1, you can use the tool on this page to create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media I'm wondering if I use this installation media from Microsoft, if it will just install Windows 8.1 with out the Dell and Intel programs? Will it leave the restore partition alone? I'm downloading the 4 GB ISO right now, and have about an hour to go. If I don't see an improvement after this, I will definitely buy an SSD. If that disc is real installation media, you should be able to point it at the partition that is to receive the OS. I have, on occasion, set up a partition structure, before doing an OS installation. As a means to "coax" the installation to be done a certain way. It's one possible way to get the boot partition and the system, into the same primary partition. But whether that works with just any media, who knows. The thing is, Microsoft isn't exactly very consistent now. They tend to do whatever they feel like. On the last Win10 Technical Preview "upgrade", the installation created a 450MB recovery boot partition, and they just chewed 450MB off one partition, changed the partition table order (bumped my DATA partition from slot 3 to slot 4). And all without consulting me. So when it comes to any policy that comes with the disc you're downloading, it might all depend on whether the disc is the "original" 8.1, or something they cooked up just for the purpose. The only positive thing I can say about the whole process you're about to go through, is the OS will activate automatically. It'll use the Win8 key value stored in a BIOS table of your OEM computer. But as for the rest of it, will it leave the disc alone and so on... do a backup first! You can't really trust anyone these days. Any time "flaky" maintenance is scheduled here, I disconnect any excess drives. For example, when the Win10 TP update came in, I disconnected the other disks in the computer, before carrying out the operation. Because I hate surprises. I have had one "accident" here, involving a Microsoft installer CD. This is just so you know what the worst case is. I booted the Win2K installer CD, was preparing to install, and entered the "custom" partitioning step. I decided to cancel (I think I was just refreshing my memory on what options were available). And even though I canceled, the installer CD had already *deleted* the MBR contents. (It didn't set up any new partition or format the partition or anything.) I no longer had a partition table that matched the two partitions still on the test disk. Lucky for me, TestDisk could put that back. But the lesson learned, is yes, an installer CD *can* trash a computer. Just like GRUB on Linux, can install the first stage of GRUB boot, on the wrong hard drive. **** happens. Paul |
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