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

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

You are right, after downloading the manual for the Dell computer, I
found the hard drive is 7 mm thick.

I have decided to go with another Seagate like the one in it, except it
will be an SSD. It's sixty five dollars, pretty cheap for an SSD.

I think I need this ST500LM001 model, but I'm not sure.

What does it mean when the drive has encryption?

My existing drive is SATA 3Gb/s and the drive I'm looking at is SATA
6Gb/s, does it matter?

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard...d-drive/#specs

On 3/11/2015 8:53 AM, Johnny wrote:
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.

You are right, after downloading the manual for the Dell computer, I
found the hard drive is 7 mm thick.

I have decided to go with another Seagate like the one in it, except it
will be an SSD. It's sixty five dollars, pretty cheap for an SSD.

I think I need this ST500LM001 model, but I'm not sure.

What does it mean when the drive has encryption?

My existing drive is SATA 3Gb/s and the drive I'm looking at is SATA
6Gb/s, does it matter?

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard...d-drive/#specs

The difference in interface speed will not matter as the newer 6Gb/s is
downward compatible, much like USB3 and USB2.

The self encrypting drive means that the data encryption is built into
the hard drive or SSD interface controller. This is an anti-theft
feature that means if I pull your hard drive out of your PC I will not
be able to read the data from any other PC, with out your access
password. Give this link a read and remember to replace SSD for hard
drive as you read it.

http://www.computerweekly.com/featur...ption-security

The other thing is that if you wanted to encrypt the drive using an
older non-encrypting drive your PC had to spend CPU time
encrypting/decrypting the data all the time. With a SED drive it is
built into the drive and your motherboard and CPU don't have to be
slowed down doing the encryption/decryption.

On Wed, 11 Mar 2015 12:28:31 -0500
GlowingBlueMist wrote:

The difference in interface speed will not matter as the newer 6Gb/s
is downward compatible, much like USB3 and USB2.

The self encrypting drive means that the data encryption is built
into the hard drive or SSD interface controller. This is an
anti-theft feature that means if I pull your hard drive out of your
PC I will not be able to read the data from any other PC, with out
your access password. Give this link a read and remember to replace
SSD for hard drive as you read it.

http://www.computerweekly.com/featur...ption-security

The other thing is that if you wanted to encrypt the drive using an
older non-encrypting drive your PC had to spend CPU time
encrypting/decrypting the data all the time. With a SED drive it is
built into the drive and your motherboard and CPU don't have to be
slowed down doing the encryption/decryption.

All companies should be using these with a password to unlock the drive.

It's good to know you don't have to enter password to unlock the drive,
but it will still be encrypted if its stolen.

From the article:

The encryption key used in SEDs is called the Media Encryption Key
(MEK). Locking and unlocking a drive requires another key, called the
Key Encryption Key (KEK) supplied by the user (or the platform, or the
network).

As the name implies, the KEK is used to encrypt or decrypt the MEK. The
KEK is never stored in plaintext inside the drive. If no KEK is set,
the drive is always unlocked and appears not to be encrypting even
though it is.

Johnny wrote:
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.

You are right, after downloading the manual for the Dell computer, I
found the hard drive is 7 mm thick.

I have decided to go with another Seagate like the one in it, except it
will be an SSD. It's sixty five dollars, pretty cheap for an SSD.

I think I need this ST500LM001 model, but I'm not sure.

What does it mean when the drive has encryption?

My existing drive is SATA 3Gb/s and the drive I'm looking at is SATA
6Gb/s, does it matter?

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard...d-drive/#specs

That's a page full of SSHD drives.

Those are not SSD drives.

An SSHD consists of:

8GB flash (used as a cache, probably a read cache)
A rotating platter, just like a hard drive

The Flash operates as a cache.

So it has the same unreliability level as a regular hard drive.
With a slight (uneven) boost when reading certain files.

*******

Unless the drive includes software for controlling the encryption,
don't buy it. Buy a non-encrypted drive. Full disk encryption,
the best way is if it is integrated with the laptop BIOS, and
a BIOS prompt asks for a password.

If you want another rotating drive, of 500GB capacity, there
is one listed in the "thin" section here.

http://www.seagate.com/www-content/p...0-1-1402gb.pdf

ST500LM021 7200RPM 500GB --- a slightly warmer replacement for your drive
ST500LT012 5400RPM 500GB --- your existing, non-encrypted drive

A 512GB SSD would cost a fortune.

A 500GB SSHD with 8GB Flash would be a bit more
expensive than a 500GB HD. The performance will
be "uneven". Some OS operations may perform
very quickly. But sustained write (saving out
a video edit in your video editor), will be
"platter limited", and little better than
the two rotating drives in the previous paragraph.
Sooner or later, on a sustained transfer, the
platter is the rate-limiting step.

I don't know how cost sensitive you are, so I can't
gauge which direction I should push my recommendation.

The best compromise, is a pure SSD. Say 128GB.
For around $100. Make *sure* it has MLC flash chips.
Not any TLC flash chips. You will need to "clone+resize"
to move the data. Macrium can do that. Acronis likely
too.

The 8GB cache on an SSHD, can be the good stuff, the SLC
chips. You would also want to verify that is what
is present in the cache. SLC is the best. MLC is good
for regular SSDs (because they have overcapacity and
spare sectors to burn). TLC, after about three months,
*every* sector that hasn't been updated regularly,
throws errors at the raw level. The error correction
block fixes *all* of those. But, the price you pay,
is reduced read speed. The drive still works. It
just doesn't meet the 550MB/sec read speed promised
any more. So it's a "spec failure" in a sense. If
they're going to list TLC SSD drives for sale,
they should list the "stale read rate" with full
error correction applied to each and every sector.

TLC needs heavy-weight error correction. The engineers
know the noise margin is slimmer. The only mistake
they make, is not computing the syndrome and error
corrector stuff, with dedicated logic. The slow
speed tells me the multi-core processor in the
SSD is doing error correction on-the-fly. Still
impressive, but not good enough if you want
to meet the "550MB/sec" spec for the entire
life of the drive.

The least intrusive change, is the 7200RPM hard drive.
You still get the 500GB capacity as before.

ST500LM021

Something like this, is a little more expensive
(probably 2x the hard drive price), but the
performance level would be noticeable. Your
wife will see the difference. But if the original
drive was 90% full of data, of course all her
data won't fit. If the original drive is
mostly empty, this is a good solution.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148820

The only thing I'm concerned about with SSDs,
is the lack of ventilation in some laptops,
and the degree to which the power consumption
figures are not properly stated. The rotating
hard drive, draws 5 watts for only the first
ten seconds or so (spinup), whereas some of those
SSD drives draw close to that power level while
doing a sustained write. So the drive bay could
end up getting a bit warmer. Hard drives tend to
have decent idle power, but if you believed
the spec sheets, SSDs should be "cold as ice".
And I don't think that is really true.

And as is normal, you cannot expect every SSD
drive ever made, to have reviewer power measurements.
If I was reviewing a drive, I'd provide power
numbers. But few Internet reviewers have the
skill or interest. Even Anandtech, at one time
they got a clamp-on ammeter for some review. But
they didn't make such an approach a regular feature.

A couple of the review sites, they engage an engineer
to make a custom measurement setup for them. But even
they don't maintain that setup for more than a couple
years, before it disappears again.

Paul

Paul wrote:

spare sectors to burn). TLC, after about three months,
*every* sector that hasn't been updated regularly,
throws errors at the raw level. The error correction
block fixes *all* of those. But, the price you pay,
is reduced read speed. The drive still works. It
just doesn't meet the 550MB/sec read speed promised
any more. So it's a "spec failure" in a sense. If
they're going to list TLC SSD drives for sale,
they should list the "stale read rate" with full
error correction applied to each and every sector.

That's beautiful, Paul.

On Wed, 11 Mar 2015 20:56:44 -0400
Paul wrote:

I have decided to go with another Seagate like the one in it,
except it will be an SSD. It's sixty five dollars, pretty cheap
for an SSD.

I think I need this ST500LM001 model, but I'm not sure.

What does it mean when the drive has encryption?

My existing drive is SATA 3Gb/s and the drive I'm looking at is SATA
6Gb/s, does it matter?

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard...d-drive/#specs

That's a page full of SSHD drives.

Those are not SSD drives.

An SSHD consists of:

8GB flash (used as a cache, probably a read cache)
A rotating platter, just like a hard drive

The Flash operates as a cache.

So it has the same unreliability level as a regular hard drive.
With a slight (uneven) boost when reading certain files.

*******

Unless the drive includes software for controlling the encryption,
don't buy it. Buy a non-encrypted drive. Full disk encryption,
the best way is if it is integrated with the laptop BIOS, and
a BIOS prompt asks for a password.

If you want another rotating drive, of 500GB capacity, there
is one listed in the "thin" section here.

http://www.seagate.com/www-content/p...0-1-1402gb.pdf

Thanks, I now know the difference between an SSD and an SSHD.

I just sent an Email to the Dell Sales Dept., asking if it would cause
any problems if I replaced the 5400 RPM hard drive with a 7200 RPM hard
drive. I also asked if they would recommend a hard drive.

I received a reply that they got the Email, and would contact me later.

On 3/12/2015 2:01 PM, Johnny wrote:
On Wed, 11 Mar 2015 20:56:44 -0400
Paul wrote:

I have decided to go with another Seagate like the one in it,
except it will be an SSD. It's sixty five dollars, pretty cheap
for an SSD.

I think I need this ST500LM001 model, but I'm not sure.

What does it mean when the drive has encryption?

My existing drive is SATA 3Gb/s and the drive I'm looking at is SATA
6Gb/s, does it matter?

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard...d-drive/#specs

That's a page full of SSHD drives.

Those are not SSD drives.

An SSHD consists of:

8GB flash (used as a cache, probably a read cache)
A rotating platter, just like a hard drive

The Flash operates as a cache.

So it has the same unreliability level as a regular hard drive.
With a slight (uneven) boost when reading certain files.

*******

Unless the drive includes software for controlling the encryption,
don't buy it. Buy a non-encrypted drive. Full disk encryption,
the best way is if it is integrated with the laptop BIOS, and
a BIOS prompt asks for a password.

If you want another rotating drive, of 500GB capacity, there
is one listed in the "thin" section here.

http://www.seagate.com/www-content/p...0-1-1402gb.pdf

Thanks, I now know the difference between an SSD and an SSHD.

I just sent an Email to the Dell Sales Dept., asking if it would cause
any problems if I replaced the 5400 RPM hard drive with a 7200 RPM hard
drive. I also asked if they would recommend a hard drive.

I received a reply that they got the Email, and would contact me later.

They are probably going to tell you it will void the warranty.

I'm using a 7200 RPM SSHD on a 2011 Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 64 bit
and I think it is awesome. It is much faster than my 2 year old HP
laptop running Windows 8.1 64 bit which has a better processor, and 2
more GBs of RAM (4 vs 6)

This is the one I bought after *two* Toshiba hard drives failed. One was
under warranty when it failed the other one wasn't.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148591

I paid around $100.00 for it in 2012 from Comp USA (now Tiger Direct).

No idea why Newegg is asking $157 for it.

Better price at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Moment.../dp/B003NSBF32

I haven't shopped for a hard drive in a while. No doubt there are 2 TB
namebrand hard drives for $50 now. It's like "wow" without even looking.
The beat goes on.

....apparently were not quite at the 2 GB namebrand HDD for $50 mark, yet.