Laptop/Notebook XP HDD upgrade?

Question

I have a Packard Bell Laptop/Notebook PC with Windows XP installed. It has the Vista Transformation Pack 6 & Samurize installed. It runs really slow (even though these themes take up very little cpu power, total cpu power is usually about 17% used & ram about 60% even with a ram usage forcer app) & video capturing even before these themes were installed was choppy. So I'm guessing that it's the hdd that makes things slow. I think it has a 5200rpm hdd, I want to upgrade it to a 7200rpm or faster hdd. How would I do this? I have a dvd with lall the Windows XP files on it including the I386 folder & I have a non-microsoft boot disc. I re-installed Widnows XP on the original HDD, so how difficult would it be to install it on a new one. Could I just format it via usb in windows xp & copy all the files over from the bootdisc, then plug the hdd in replacing the original one? would this work?

I don't want to take it to a pc shop as it would probably be expensive, plus I want the challenge of doing it myself.

When running video capture programs (using Grandtec a/v usb 2.0 capture device) it uses about 70% cpu power & 70mb of the 192mb ram. Before when I used a usb2.0 7200rpm hdd the video capture was super smooth, but since then that hdd has choppiness, (damage from static perhaps even though I have been very careful with it). So It seems that even under high pressure the cpu & ram are ok. I want to upgrade the internal hdd so that windows xp will run faster too (as the usb hdd made video capture good). I have done loads of soldering etc to computers so upgrading the hdd should be easy for me, it's just the software(getting it to work) that's new to me.

Answer 1

No, you'd need a transfer kit to transfer the files over to the new hard drive, simply copying the folders over WILL NOT work. That being said, Newegg has just the thing, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155602 this will transfer your existing installation and make it bootable on the new drive then all you have to do is swap them out, put the old drive in the enclosure and you can use it as external storage if you want. Boot from the included CD and follow the directions.

That being said, I doubt the hard drive is responsible (in whole) for the choppiness and it couldn't hurt to scan for spyware, viruses, run the disk cleaner and defrag the drive. After you've done that I'd look at your specs... how much memory do you have (1GB should be adequate for what you are doing), how fast and what type processor do you have (if it's not a Pentium M, Pentium 4, Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor of at least 1.6GHz then you're in trouble) and lastly for the video capture what kind/type of video device are you using and do you have a dedicated video card, if you don't have a dedicated video card, I would almost expect these types of problems.

It's probably a combination of things that are making it slow, the hard drive is probably not one of them but you can try, it doesn't hurt to try. But keep in mind what I said.

Yeah, in addition to the hard drive I would get more memory, 192MB isn't a lot to work with, especially if you are running this stuff under XP. More memory, faster hard drive and I think you should be all set.

It sounds to me that you might have 256MB of memory with 64MB of that going to some kind of integrated graphics (correct me if I am wrong) either that or you have 64MB + 128MB memory modules (which is an odd combination). Either way you will want to get at least 512MB of memory though 1GB would be highly preferred.

Answer 2

Thats a little tricky. First off, you can not upgrade the CPU in a laptop, especially a Packard Bell. PB is notorious for manufacturing junk computers that have little or no upgrade capability due to all the proprietary parts they use. The hard drive is the one part whose speed has little or no impact on overall operating speed. Your problem is related to CPU power and system RAM. If I had to guess, you probably have a Cyrix or Celeron based system, with 128MB or so of RAM. A RAM upgrade would definitely help. However, if your CPU is weak, it won't help that much.

To answer the rest of your question, no you can not take the files off the DVD and copy them to a new hard drive and make it work. you MAY be able to clone the old hard drive onto a new one, but even that doesn't work all the time, especially if the new hard drive is a larger capacity than the old one because the geometry is different. The best way to upgrade the HD is to install the new one and just install a fresh copy of XP on it. You will have to reinstall all of your programs, but believe me.. It will run better. Windows tends to need to be reinstalled every 6 months or so. You can then get a USB enclosure for your old HD and plug it in, then transfer your files/music/videos over to the new one. (note, this will NOT work for your programs.. they must be reinstalled from the original disc or setup file).

My advice though is to scrap that PB hunk of crap and buy a Dell or IBM. Toshiba's good too.

Answer 3

The Harddrive is always the slowest thing on a computer and although a 7200rpm would speed things up it may not be the issue. The only way your processor would be the issue is if the program requires a faster speed, but I doubt that this is the issue.
(As a opposed to the answer above).
By the sounds of it you are running near the upper limits of your RAM. Running at 60% is that everything or just that program? Either way you need more RAM.
It sounds like this issue may be graphic related. If the graphics are too intense for your video card that would definitely slow you down because the RAM and HD have to take over.
I seriously doubt that this is Hard drive related. But unless you are confident in your abilities to break open a laptop to swap out the HD, I would take it to a shop.

Answer 4

It can be done quite easily. Your drive will quite happily accept being formatted in NTFS format instead of FAT32. You can also leave it as FAT32 but it's an inferior format that is much more prone to data loss. So long as you have over 1.5GB to install Windows, over 64MB RAM and your processor is faster than 233MHz then it will accept XP. Old machines often benefit from having XP installed because it's more efficient and quicker than the Windows 95/98/ME series, although it takes more space on the hard drive. I've installed XP on a 400MHz machine before now and it ran fine, although a bit slowly. If you want to keep your data you should use a memory stick, second hard drive, second computer or burn Cds to keep your data as you'll lose the contents of the drive when you format it. You won't be able to transfer your programs and will have to reinstall them. As said below, you really need a minimum of 256MB RAM, 512MB or 1GB will make it work much better. RAM is cheap these days but ensure that your motherboard will accept it before you buy it. A processor of about 800MHz upwards will work well with sufficient memory.

Answer 5

check if it is the power settings , when using the battery low performance, when using the plug power high performance. Upgrading the hdd wont do alot , upgrade the ram. Put more ram storage, if can a faster ram speed or just change to a faster cpu just like what the dude just said.

Answer 6

honestly, your best bet would be to just purchase a new cpu, because if you upgrade one thing, then it wont run well with the others, just get a new cpu