[Steve DeVore]

My daughter has two dell laptops a Dell D400 and a Dell 610, the D400 while a smaller earlier model is the better machine, however it's hard drive has failed. The Hard drive in the Dell D610 works fine, however the machine is missing keys and has no wireless card installed. What do I have to do to swap the hard drive from the d400 to the d610.

please help

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Since it is not the same Dell model, you cannot just swap for swap and expect it to work. hardware and drivers are different from model to model so whatever is on the HD of the D610 will only work on Laptop exactly the same and not a D400.

Install the hard drive in your D400 and format the drive and reinstall your OS (xp, Vista or)

If you do not have an Installation CD that came with your D610 then it probably means you had an hidden partition on your hard drive with the files needed to install/recover your OS. If this is so you will have to either borrow a CD of the OS you want to install and then downloaad from the manufacturer (DELL) all the drivers needed for your laptop or either purchase or find a recovery cd made for your laptop model (D400) this way all the drivers will be included on the cd making it easier for you.

If you already had a cd for your D400 then just format and install your OS making sure to format any hidden partition if any from your D610 HD you will now use on the D400 so to not create conflict between the two installation versions of laptop.

[Alzeimer]

Since it is not the same Dell model, you cannot just swap for swap and expect it to work. hardware and drivers are different from model to model so whatever is on the HD of the D610 will only work on Laptop exactly the same and not a D400.

Install the hard drive in your D400 and format the drive and reinstall your OS (xp, Vista or)

If you do not have an Installation CD that came with your D610 then it probably means you had an hidden partition on your hard drive with the files needed to install/recover your OS. If this is so you will have to either borrow a CD of the OS you want to install and then downloaad from the manufacturer (DELL) all the drivers needed for your laptop or either purchase or find a recovery cd made for your laptop model (D400) this way all the drivers will be included on the cd making it easier for you.

If you already had a cd for your D400 then just format and install your OS making sure to format any hidden partition if any from your D610 HD you will now use on the D400 so to not create conflict between the two installation versions of laptop.