could I put my hard drive from my old laptop into my new one?

Question

they are the pretty similar specs, would it work fine?

Answer 1

I have replaced or upgraded 2 Dell Notebook PCs in the past few months: 1st was new Dell Latitude D620 that came from factory with 40GB Toshiba SATA that I went out and bought 100GB Hitachi Travelstar. Down the road I pickup or exchange and happen to acquire older Dell Latitude D800 without hard drive bec owner's has thing about identity theft. No problem I thinking bec I still have 40GB Toshiba from D620 as backup/spare.

SURPRISE! All older Notebook PCs have different interface, IDE and even require connector piece. Secondly finding an older compatible IDE hard dive that is reasonably priced turns out to be more difficult and more expensive than newer SATA Notebook hard drive bec the hard disk manufactuters Hitachi Travelstar, Western Digital, Seagate, etc are no longer making IDE hard drives other than spares so availability is rather limited thus driving price higher...

A few words of advice - easiest way to move important files from your older Notebook PC to newer Notebook PC or even from say your important files on your work PC, you change jobs or they give your a new desktop PC is with external hard disk with USB 2.0 bec very fast and less time consuming.

Basically any new hard drive once Windows XP has been installed or reinstalled and registered, 1st order of business is to download all XP updates and FYI SP2 is very time consuming and I have even experienced failure/unsuccessful install where Microsoft Tech Support intervened at no costs that witn patience, everything went well. Next load all application software via CD...this may be a problem if you don't have all the authenitc licensed CDs and is beyond anything I know bec I am just novice...but I do know that IT Technies running the big WAN-LAN configure new incoming PCs with hard disk imaging I believe via Norton Ghost? Finally hook up your external USB hard drive and then copy back all your important files to your new PC.

Hope the Above Info Helps and Best of Luck!

Answer 2

**** Check with the Laptop Manufacturer -- swapping HDs may VOID the warranty. ****

I'd strongly recommend purchasing a cheap external USB enclosure from www.newegg.com and put the old HD into it and transfer your files over that way.

Here's why:
1) Windows doesn't like it when the Motherboard changes, so it's not uncommon for Windows to encounter a physical memory dump (AKA Blue Screen of Death) when the motherboard is changed out. -- Even if their 'specs' are similar, there's no way of telling if the motherboards are close enough to work. You do have a better chance if both are from the same company, i.e. both are Dell's -- significantly less of a chance if they are different OEMs.

2) Swapping hard drives and reinstalling hardware drivers is considered a 'dirty install' -- the registry will increase significantly (called registry bloat) which may cause Windows to run slower then if it were reinstalled

3) Any future problems you may have will always lead you to wonder if it was because you swapped HDs and there is a software incompatibility somewhere deep down in the system. - Which will eventually lead you to doing a complete reinstall down the road, so you might as well do it right the first time.

4) Your Laptop manufacturer's Technical support will always point to the fact that you swapped the HDs as reason that you are having issues. -- They will likely not help you until you reinstall Windows from scratch or use their restore CD.

Answer 3

The only problem with that is physically removing the old hard drive and replacing the new one. With laptops, all the components are squeezed together, and some parts may not be readily accessible, and some things to get at may require you to take apart the whole thing. So unless the hard drive is very easy to take out or you really know what you're doing, I wouldn't recommend it. If you're doing this to copy all your files to the new computer, there are plenty of software alternatives to doing this.

Answer 4

We'd have to know the model numbers of your old and new laptops to say for sure. However, I'd say probably so. Laptop hard drives are a standard size, and there are only two common interface standards.

Your biggest problem will be hardware drivers. The hardware in your new laptop will probably be a little different from that in your old laptop. When you boot up the first time, Windows is going to have to re-detect and set up all of that new hardware. You may need to go to the laptop manufacturer's website to download the appropriate drivers and install them.

Answer 5

are you trying to simply access the data on the old drive?

one thing about using the old drive...you would probably need to reinstall all your drivers if you were replacing the "new" drive with the old one. they won't be the same.

if you need to access the data, how about mounting the old drive into a hard drive enclosure?

here are some:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=2777&name=Hard-Drive-Enclosure

also, physical size of the drive matters...3.5 inch? 2.5 inch? 1.8 inch? makes a difference.

edit:
oh, and on most drives now, you just undo two screws, pop off a panel, and you slide the drive out by pulling on a tab attached to it. it's very simple to take a laptop drive out and replace it. the hard part is setting up the new drive with all the right information to load properly.

Answer 6

Well if ur looking to keep both they have kits to make a hard drive into a external hard drive that u could just hook up to ur new laptop

Answer 7

May be will maybe not. In case not you can backup an OS to the DVD using True Image by Acronis and then restore it on your new laptop and then simply transfer important data.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Answer 8

won't paintings, enormous adverse aspects. The previous toshiba possibly had an IDE force. the hot one might have a SATA force. additionally the Toshiba drivers won't paintings on the HP, so sound, video, on the spot and so on wont paintings. Your suitable guess is to get a USB caddy and placed your previous force in that, then plug interior the USB of your new pc and replica what you desire. as quickly as you coppied all you desire off, you are able to re-format it and use it as a backup or media force.

Answer 9

i would say to you could to. if you have a large disk this may work but the best thing would be to buy a back up thing that you plug into ur usb. then plug into your laptop usb and it sould all be there but that may only work if say they are both xp or vista ect.

Answer 10

should do. my dad transfered all of my stuff from the old computer to my new laptop and it works fine.