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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 |
#2
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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. |
#3
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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. |
#4
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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 |
#5
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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? |
#6
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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 |
#7
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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. 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 |
#8
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Help with buying new hard drive
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. |
#9
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Help with buying new hard drive
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. |
#10
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Help with buying new hard drive
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 |
#11
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Help with buying new hard drive
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. |
#12
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Help with buying new hard drive
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. |
#13
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Help with buying new hard drive
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 |
#14
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Help with buying new hard drive
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. |
#15
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Help with buying new hard drive
....apparently were not quite at the 2 GB namebrand HDD for $50 mark, yet.
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