Replacing a hard drive in a lappy

[Buz]

I have an Acer laptop, for the last 18 months it has been warning that one of my hard drives is about to fail.
Well, looks like this moment has nearly arrived, I've rebuilt it to factory default, installed the bare minimum of software ie, Browser, virus guard and whatever else it self installed. Twice a day (at least) i'm getting the Blue Screen of Death and the lappy reboots. I was going to try loading Windows 7 but feel it is down to the hard drive dying so feel that a waste of time.
The ideal would be to replace the lappy, at the moment finances will not allow as I intend upgrading to a MAC eventually. I'm trying to work out the cheapest easiest way to sort this out to obtain a lappy that is mainly used for surfing t'internet.

Is it possible to buy another hard drive and somehow copy the Vista OS to this new drive? I have a 500gb drive i can copy the old data (operating system) to then copy it to a new hard drive but do not know how to do this and i have no operating system disc/drivers for cards installed.

I have backed up all data so its only the OS and drivers i need to worry about

 

[GSwadd]

Pretty easy. Unscrew panels on bottom of laptop and slide old drive out from the connector. Insert new one (only about $60 for a 160gb drive here, so probably about 25p there) and install OS from the install discs you created just after you bought the Acer originally (as it would have told you to). If you didn't do it borrow some (or install Win 7) and use your number from the sticker on the bottom. If all else fails install Xubuntu or some other flavor of Linux and it will be the perfect surfing machine.

 

[turbine_2]

Yup. You need to find out what drive it is first but I'll probably be something like a 2.5" 5400 RPM unit. Pretty much find the drive, unplug, get new drive, plug in, go in to BIOS (F2 I think) save changes then reinstall.
There are various drive copying programs around that will copy from one to other, but if your existing drive is on the way out like that then the safest bet would be a resinall from scratch as some of the files may already be corrupt.
Hardest part may be getting the old drive out (depending on where it is).
Best of luck.

 

[geordie458]

Check drive

Check if the drive is PATA or SATA. They're not compatible. As said earlier, changing the drive takes minutes. Reinstalling everything takes the time.

 

[AA388]

i'm getting the Blue Screen of Death

whats the error numbers that it comes up with? That way you have some way of telling whats failing in the first place.

 

[Buz]

and install OS from the install discs you created just after you bought the Acer originally (as it would have told you to). If you didn't do it borrow some (or install Win 7) and use your number from the sticker on the bottom. If all else fails install Xubuntu or some other flavor of Linux and it will be the perfect surfing machine.

Yep, you guessed it, never managed to create the recovery disc
Tried going through creating one now but it is erroring whilst doing it

Never used Xubuntu or Linux

whats the error numbers that it comes up with? That way you have some way of telling whats failing in the first place.

I think it's a different error each time, I've not made note of them so far cus assumed it would be dueto the imminent failure of the drive



Looks like it will be - load new OS then try and find ALL the required drivers

 

[turbine_2]

Drivers shoulnd't be a problem if you're moving to windows 7; it's not like Vista where they released it before it was ready. Plus, as I recall it, the Acer site it pretty good for holding the drivers and software.

 

[GunZenBomZ]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...rive&aq=0&aqi=g3g-v3&aql=&oq=cloning+a+laptop

hope this helps also

http://www.ehow.com/how_4898255_clone-laptop-hard-drive.html