Laptop Hard drive replacement

hey guys, just a simple quick question here. i currently have a sony vaio laptop that has two hard drives in it, and with all the music and programs and papers ect on them, they are getting rather full. and instead of purchasing an external HD i would rather just replace the smaller of the two with a 100 GB HD or so. but i am unsure how i would do this. such as the pulling the HD out, transfering data to the new one, making sure it ran properly ect. so if anyone could tell me how i would go about doing this it would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance guys.
chris

 

2 drives? Are you sure that there is not one physical drive that is partitioned into to logical drives? I'm leaning towards this being the case. Get back to us on this, and we'll go from there.

Quick check. Right click "My Computer". Click on properties. Go to Hardware, then select Device Manager. Under "Disk Drives", there will be either one or two devices.

~Rich

 

under the disk drives section there are two things. one is entitled "IC25N060ATMR04-0" while the other is entitled "MemoryStick or MemoryStickPro Decvice"

 

That means that you only have one physical drive that has been partitioned. So, when you replace that drive, you end up losing both of your logical drives. Best way to do this is to buy a drive that fits your needs for space. Put it in, install the OS (using a restore CD, or whatever method you have), run all your updates, and reinstall all software that was on the old drive. Then get a USB enclosure for the old drive (can be found for approx $20), and transfer your old data to your new machine.

Anyone have a different view on this?

~Rich

 

Cloning the drive would work as well. A lot less work. But being that the laptop is 3 years old (and assuming the OS has never been reinstalled), a clean reinstall is not a bad idea. Up to you on what you think would be easiest.

~Rich

 

the HD in it right now is roughly a 60 GB, i would love to have something around 120+. this would give me plenty of room for the music programs ect. would i go about cloning the origonal HD but just putting it into the USB HD enlcosure and file transfering the whole thing over onto the new one that would be inside of the laptop? this would be a lot easier becuase i would not want to reload all of the programs onto the comp again. that would take FOREVER to do. also would the OS disc be with all of the origonal packaging that came with the comp? and the OS hasnt been reinstalled becuase it has never been taken in for service or anything of that nature. or would the OS be re-installed when the origonal HD was cloned to the new one?

thanks
chris

 

you guys are awesome. but to make sure im 100% clear of how to do this.

#1 buy new laptop HD
#2 buy usb enclosure
#3 put new HD in new enclosure
#4 transfer EVERYTHING from origonal HD to new HD via USB cable
#5 switch old HD with the new HD
#6 make sure comp works correctly with new HD
#7 reformat old HD so it doesnt have anything on it and can use it as storage.

correct me if im wrong here.

thanks

chris

 

one more thing before i buy the HD. will any HD work like one made for a dell, or toshiba ect. of would i be better off buying one made for a sony. also if i got a 3.5 inch HD instead of the 2.5 inch HD and put it in with the adapter plug would it fit or would it be to large for the laptop? thanks

chris

 

awesome. from what i can see on ebay a dell is about the only 160 bg HD i can find. also where can i download the ghost or casper software from?

 

is the ghost program the one that norton makes? and is the casper program the same one that i can obtain from download.com?

 

use the 2003 norton ghost the new one is awful. No.4 you have to clone the drive not just copy everything