[jarg1985]

Hello, I am posting this topic because my Hard Drive is dieing in my Dell Inspiron E1505. It has been dieing for months now with a loud whining sound, getting ever louder and I do not want to lose my information on it, so I'd like to transfer all my programs and data to a new one, if someone could direct me as how to replace a hard drive and transfer all the data and the programs from the old on to the new one it would be greatly appreciated. I also would need to know which replacement Hard Drive to buy and which would be best for my computer.

Thanks

Edited by jarg1985, 04 August 2008 - 05:53 PM.

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Hi

There's a few different methods you could use for backing up your data:

1) Buy a 2.5" USB hard drive caddy. Replace the hard drive in the laptop with a new hard drive & restore the operating system using your restore disks or Windows CD depending on which you have. Once the laptops up & running again, place the old drive in the USB caddy, connect it to the laptop & transfer your data across to the new drive.

2) Assuming you have a CD Writer or DVD writer in the laptop, then burn all the data you want to keep to blank discs. This would probably be the most sensible option as you could do that right away plus it would give you a permanent backup of your data.

3) If you want to restore windows exactly as it is now (i.e. programs/settings/windows/documents etc) then you would need to create an image of your current drive to a DVD using imaging software. Provided the imaging software allows you to create a bootable restore DVD containing the image, then you should be able to swap your current hard drive with the new one, boot from the DVD & restore windows that way. I would recommend either Acronis True image or Paragon Drive Backup for imaging software.

See the link below for reviews of imaging software:

Imaging software

[Samm]

Hi

There's a few different methods you could use for backing up your data:

1) Buy a 2.5" USB hard drive caddy. Replace the hard drive in the laptop with a new hard drive & restore the operating system using your restore disks or Windows CD depending on which you have. Once the laptops up & running again, place the old drive in the USB caddy, connect it to the laptop & transfer your data across to the new drive.

2) Assuming you have a CD Writer or DVD writer in the laptop, then burn all the data you want to keep to blank discs. This would probably be the most sensible option as you could do that right away plus it would give you a permanent backup of your data.

3) If you want to restore windows exactly as it is now (i.e. programs/settings/windows/documents etc) then you would need to create an image of your current drive to a DVD using imaging software. Provided the imaging software allows you to create a bootable restore DVD containing the image, then you should be able to swap your current hard drive with the new one, boot from the DVD & restore windows that way. I would recommend either Acronis True image or Paragon Drive Backup for imaging software.

See the link below for reviews of imaging software:

Imaging software

[jarg1985]

Yeah I think i will go option #1, thats just what I need to do is replace the hard drive completely and take all of the old data and programs out fo the old one and into the new. Now in buying a new Hard Drive should I get the same one as I have currently or a different manufacturer?

[Samm]

You don't need to get a drive from the same manufacturer.
All you do need to do is make sure that:

(i) the new drive is the same type (i.e. SATA or IDE). This appears to be highly classified information as my trawl through Dell's support pages have failed to find out which type of drive you have... If you don't know either, then you can either try to find the drives model number (in the bios or in device manager) or physically remove the drive & have a look.

(ii) If you do have a sata drive, it may be a good idea to make sure the new drive is the same sata version (i.e. sata 150 (aka sata I) or sata300 (aka sata-II).

As far as manufacturers are concerned, I normally recommend Seagate as the first option (primarily because they are the only ones that offer a 5 year warranty as standard). Failing that, Western Digital are pretty good.

[jarg1985]

Alright thanks, im going to need help as how to remove my hard drive from my computer and install a new one, but let's take 1 step at a time so I will first buy a hard drive, I'm looking at the ones you have recomended and they look good, i will post again once i have purchased a new hard drive.

[The Admiral]

Hehe SATA-II, 2.5". Also, here are instructions for swapping the hard drives.

Edited by The Admiral, 12 August 2008 - 11:28 AM.

[jarg1985]

Thanks i think i will get one from dell, the SATA just to be safe i will post a reply once it is delivered.

Edited by jarg1985, 16 August 2008 - 03:47 PM.