Laptop Hard Drive Replacement

Laptop hard drive replacement is not a very difficult job. First of all, you would need to know which type of hard drive is in the laptop. The most popular hard drives are with SATA interface and if the laptop screen is wide format, then definitely the hard drive needed would be the SATA type. Older laptop hard drives are with ATA or PATA interface.

The PATA and ATA hard drive interfaces are backward compatible. Just PATA interface is newer and are usually bigger in capacity.

There are so many laptop models out there and so many different laptop designs that have their hard disks placed differently, right from a corner to deep inside the body on the motherboard. Sometimes, the more difficult task is to replace the hard disk of older laptops. It is because in older laptops, the hard disk is first connected to the adapter and then connected to a slot in motherboard. In very old laptops, you need to go deep inside the laptop, unscrew the screws holding the hard disk case, remove the hard disk case and only then can you remove the hard disk from the metal case. How it looks in reality is shown in the picture below.

Picture with hp laptop xe3 hard disk

This is a very old laptop and we guess that it is now very difficult to find such a laptop. If your laptop is so old, replacing its hard disk will certainly be a tough job.

To replace a hard disk in a laptop, first of all you need to find the hard disk compartment. In newer laptops, it is usually located beneath the laptop. So, it is needed to turn the laptop upside down. The compartment usually is the size of the hard disk itself or it could be little bit bigger with one or two screws holding the lid. Simply unscrew these screws with a small screwdriver and remove the lid. In newer laptops, you will need to slide the hard disk to take it out. After you take it out, you need to remove it from the casing too. Casing is screwed to hard drive usually with 4 screws and also the same screwdriver can be used to unscrew them. That's it. The hard drive is removed. Now the next task is to find the right hard drive for upgrade. In case, you already have it then just do the same procedure as when taking hard drive out but reverse all the steps you performed earlier.
 
One more thing we need to mention is where you could get a hard drive for your laptop. If is all right to use a secondhand drive. The best way to get it is to look on a website such as eBay. Many sellers form Malaysia and China sell their computer parts for affordable prices here.

Another source would be specialized online retailers like tigerdirect.com or microdirect.com in the UK. Again, we need to mention here that before buying a hard drive, you need to know its type.

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