Replacing The Internal Hard Drive of A Dell Latitude c800 Laptop & Recovering Old Files?

Question

I have a Dell Latitude c800, its about 5 or 6 years old , it runs on Windows XP. Don't know if anymore information is needed. I am a little computer illiterate, and I found out my Dell Latitude's hard drive needs to be replaced. I want to do this myself, the Dell manual online seems to be straightforward, but ....
1) How will I retrieve old files after replacing my old hard drive ?
2) Can I retrieve old files before replacing the hard drive
3)What kind of hard drive should I buy,lowest memory is okay


Honestly if I can get my old files I would gladly buy a new laptop, I have had lots of issues with this one. Thanks in advance for any assistance or suggestions.

Thanks for the information everyone, I forgot to add that my laptop does not allow me to log on. It provides me with the OS options and once a selection is made, it automatically restarts, but I assumed I could still retrieve my files because the computer technician I went to said he could back up my files which aren't alot (320 MB), but I decided to do this all myself because he was asking for too much money.

I put my hard drive in the freezer and now my lap top is back to its old self and I was able to retrieve all my files, who would've known.

Answer 1

So if im reading this correctly, you're old hard drive is dying, and you want to replace the drive?

A. Since your PC is 5-6 years old it's most likely running a EIDE Hard Drive, the good thing about this is that they're pretty inexpensive, just make sure the new one you buy is running at 7200 RPM.

B. If you're still able to boot up then yes you can retrieve your old files. You can get any Drive Clone software that will copy your entire old hard drive to your new one, including your OS.

Answer 2

You have a lot of options. How much information do you need to copy from your laptop's hard drive? If it is a few GB, you can copy the files on to blank CD's or DVD's. There are plenty of free backup programs available so you don't need to spend a dime. CD's and DVD's are cheap at 35 cents/ disc. CD's can hold 700MB and DVD's can hold 4.7GB, assuming you have a CD or DVD burner on your laptop. You can also buy an external hard drive enclosure ($30) and install your old laptop's hard drive into it. Now, your laptop's hard drive is an external hard drive that you can connect to any computer with an USB port. Copying files off your old hard drive is as simple as copy and paste to the new hard drive. You could just buy a adapter cable without the enclosure but I recommend you use an enclosure. There are several free software programs to migrate files from the old hard drive to the new one. Here are some software recommendations:

1. Backup files to CD/DVD - FinalBurner FREE 1.16.0.90 (http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/FinalBurner_FREE/1159970809/1)

2. Migrate files to new hard drive - Windows XP's free Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FAST for short) (http://lifehacker.com/software/windows-xp/transfer-files-and-settings-to-a-new-pc-211276.php)

Answer 3

First of all do you have a desktop? If so you can buy for a few bucks an adapter that will allow you to plug the laptop drive into your desktop and then back it all up to the hard drive on the desktop. This is the simplest way as long as the hard drive is good. Your nearest tech will probably charge you about most an hour labor to do it for you.

Answer 4

the easiest solution is to buy a "USB to 2.5" IDE" (USB to laptop drive) cable.

run the new computer as normal, bot to Windows XP etc.
(assemble) the old hard drive into the USB adapter cable
Plug the USB adapter into the new computer
A new dedive will be detected, and will eventualyl create a new drive letter in Windows (My Computer)

drag and drop the old files onto the new laptop (C:) drive

These cables usually can be bought from a computer store, or on ebay.

Usually called USB to 2.5" IDE Interface
Laptop drives are called 2.5" IDE drives.

the device is usualyl a small aluminum box that your old drive fits into. The cable coming into the box connects on one end to the old laptop, the other end convert to a regular USB cable that plugs into the new computer, or laptop USB port.

Answer 5

First you have chose a working no longer undemanding stress. Insert your OS deploy disk on your DVD participant. Boot from the DVD and run a deploy, once you get to form on your key, bypass and enter on different option for the considerable this is Vista. while the computer screen will ask you what version you have chose to place in, tell the actuality, for domicile windows will delete unneeding data for the product key. Now you have working laptop with purely the OS loading. Now turn off your laptop > unplugged > If IDE then replace the jumper on new stress to understand and old stress to Slave. seem on end of stress you will see MA,SL,CA. MA=grasp SL=Slave CA = Cable elect place a jumper around the pins. Plug interior the stress and power plug. do no longer mount on account which you will unplug the stress and pass jumper on the recent stress back to CA. If the drives are Sata then do no longer something, no jumpers. Then drag and drop your records on stress C (new stress) from stress D (old stress). you may no longer drag and drop any courses because of the fact once you put in this gadget you upload DLLs and pointer in registry. you may desire to re-deploy utility. in case you get carry of the document, do no longer deploy old version pass out to the internet website of maker to get new version. i do no longer save any application data because of the fact there is greater useful version on the internet. I even have finished this many situations