Installing a new hard drive. (1 Viewer)

[Bailey58]

A lot of thinking has gone into this and I still have the headache but I plan to install a new 1TB hard drive on my laptop.

The thinking revolves around lugging a 99% full laptop plus the associated charger, mouse etc. on holiday with me, the fact that my Galaxy Mini S3 is too small to do anything serious on and the plan to buy or upgrade to a Galaxy Tab 10.1 when my contract is up which will (almost) do the work of the laptop when away. I say almost as I understand the Galaxy doesn't have a USB port so it will restrict the amount of pics and music I can lug around. having said that my grandson is telling me to go for the iPad but that involves the learning curve maybe that I've just read on another thread.

Anyway as I don't particularly want a new laptop for aforementioned reasons my new hard drive has just fallen through the letterbox and I'd like to know what I'm facing.

The mechanics seem simple enough, I've copied everything I can think of onto an external drive and wonder what will happen when I boot up having swopped drives. I have the Win7 disk which was an upgrade from Vista a while back, other programme disks as far as I can see so will I get a menu come up telling me to do something or what?

Thoughts on tablets would also be useful, is there anything with a USB to increase the capacity from a measly 16 or 32GB that most seem to offer and do any take a SIM card when we're away from wifi?

 

[DBK]

A lot of thinking has gone into this and I still have the headache but I plan to install a new 1TB hard drive on my laptop.

The thinking revolves around lugging a 99% full laptop plus the associated charger, mouse etc. on holiday with me, the fact that my Galaxy Mini S3 is too small to do anything serious on and the plan to buy or upgrade to a Galaxy Tab 10.1 when my contract is up which will (almost) do the work of the laptop when away. I say almost as I understand the Galaxy doesn't have a USB port so it will restrict the amount of pics and music I can lug around. having said that my grandson is telling me to go for the iPad but that involves the learning curve maybe that I've just read on another thread.

Anyway as I don't particularly want a new laptop for aforementioned reasons my new hard drive has just fallen through the letterbox and I'd like to know what I'm facing.

The mechanics seem simple enough, I've copied everything I can think of onto an external drive and wonder what will happen when I boot up having swopped drives. I have the Win7 disk which was an upgrade from Vista a while back, other programme disks as far as I can see so will I get a menu come up telling me to do something or what?

Thoughts on tablets would also be useful, is there anything with a USB to increase the capacity from a measly 16 or 32GB that most seem to offer and do any take a SIM card when we're away from wifi?

You can get tablets with USB ports, a bit of Googling should throw up a few.

However, my Google Nexus 7 didn't have one either but for about £3 I bought an OTG cable off Amazon which turns the mini-USB socket into a full sized USB port.

I can use this in conjunction with an SD card reader to move files to and from another SD card. I found the ASTRO file manager app was useful for doing this. It isn't perfect but it is free. Suggestions for a better android file manager app would be appreciated.

For WiFi I tether the tablet to my phone.

 

[makems]

I use a Seagate wireless plus 1tb disk drive. It creates a wireless network so you can access it from any device that has wifi. I access it from iPhones, iPads neither of which have USB ports. I can also access it from my laptop either by wifi or by Its USB3 port.
Good piece of kit.
I can't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to access it from a Galaxy or any other Android device.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[scotjimland]

..........my new hard drive has just fallen through the letterbox and I'd like to know what I'm facing.

The mechanics seem simple enough, I've copied everything I can think of onto an external drive and wonder what will happen when I boot up having swopped drives. I have the Win7 disk which was an upgrade from Vista a while back, other programme disks as far as I can see so will I get a menu come up telling me to do something or what?

Yes..

Replacing the hard drive is fairly straight forward ..

after replacing, boot up with the Win7 disc in the CD drive.. and install ..

just follow the on-screen instructions..

more info from Windows.

 

[Gellyneck]

Given you've got an external hard drive rather than reinstalling Win 7 from the upgrade disc and then having to reinstall all the updates and other software would it not be easier \ better to clone the original disc (System Image) and then restore onto the new one?

A number of tutorials out there and as an example - http://notebooks.com/2011/02/16/how-to-move-windows-7-to-a-larger-hard-disk/

I've done this a few of times with both Windows 7 System Imaging and also third party tools.

 

[Bailey58]

Given you've got an external hard drive rather than reinstalling Win 7 from the upgrade disc and then having to reinstall all the updates and other software would it not be easier \ better to clone the original disc (System Image) and then restore onto the new one?

A number of tutorials out there and as an example - http://notebooks.com/2011/02/16/how-to-move-windows-7-to-a-larger-hard-disk/

I've done this a few of times with both Windows 7 System Imaging and also third party tools.

That sounds useful but I imagine it would also transfer all the cra other junk I've accumulated over the years but I will have a look.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[scotjimland]

That sounds useful but I imagine it would also transfer all the cra other junk I've accumulated over the years but I will have a look.

I'm of the same opinion .. nothing quite as good as a fresh install, especial as it's a new HDD

yes, it takes ages to get all the Windows updates.. but imo worth the wait.. when it's all done it is lighting fast.. that is until you clutter it up again ,..

 

[Hymie]

I have a verbatim media share, it creates a wifi hot spot which you connectand you can connect any HDD, memory stick or SD card, this is accessed through the app on your device.

Once connected wirelessly to your device you are still able to access the web via the play through port if you so wish.


Hymie

 

[Gellyneck]

That sounds useful but I imagine it would also transfer all the cra other junk I've accumulated over the years but I will have a look.

Agreed, a fresh install will take it back to "as new" however only you can evaluate what junk you've got there vs the effort to get all the software reloaded. Done that a few times as well!

If it's an update copy of Windows 7 you may need to install twice (assuming it will let you) as it will possibly look for an existing operating system. Make sure you don't scrub the original hard disc until you've successfully installed the new one so you can go back to it if any probs.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}