Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/07/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Have you been inside your computer yet? I have ( and have had) several Dell computers. I have just put in a big drive to replace my older 200GB drive. My experiences.... of several drive replacements/additions.... #1 Open the box up and figure out what you want to do..... add #2 drive? Replace #1 drive? If you wish to add #2 drive, first find out where the second drive goes.... do you need a special plastic cage? do you need right angle wiring harness? You must buy both from Dell. The good news? They are cheap. If you wish to replace drive #1, why? OS is too old and dirty ( my situation ) or you just want a bigger drive? IF all you want is a bigger drive, then you can CLONE your old drive using a piece of SW that Seagate includes for free with new, RETAIL BOXED ( only, not bare drives) drives. It makes the process almost ( note that word, almost) painless. You willl however, need to buy a second SATA ( your drive IS SATA, right?) drive cable. You can get it from Dell, or your local Frys, Best Buy, etc It does not need to be right angled..... OK.... So now you know what you want to do.....What about doing it? #2 Buy all the stuff you need.... see above...... #3 If you are trying a fresh install of the OS, or do you want to install a newer OS? buy it too...... or get out your old disks..... if you can find them..... #4 For cloning....... Open computer up, plug in the new #2 drive cable and power cable, follow directions that comes with the new HDD. YOu will need to nmodify the BIOS to know the new HDD is there, but that is pretty easy....YOu have clonded the HDD..... took about 3 hours for me... Non-interactive. Then switch out physically the old and new drive. Hide old drive, you my need it.....! Re-modify the BIOS to 1 drive Run computer, pray.....everything should run and play like it used to. Just a biger drive in there..... Now if you want to install a new OS, the process is a LOT longer..... and more complicated.....and gets worse if you go from XP to Vista......It is long, boring, requiring maybe 12 hours to complete... ( most of that is finding your old program disks and getting updates to the old programs.....) Anyway, I use the new Seagate 1.5TB drives. They seem as good as the WD drives I have had for years....And they have a 5 year warranty... which I like. Get your backup plan in place and use it... the newer USB drives seem to do this well, and with little fussing from you.... Frank... still putting on the last of the programs I use......