Hard drive swap in and out easily?

Rob I tried this with a Sony Vaio which was really messed up, bought another one on E-bay and swapped the drives, I was able to access documents and many of the programs worked but If I recall correct the registry is stored somewhere else so many of your programs may not function.

So to answer your question.. Yes, it worked for me.

Now it just depends on what you are trying to access, files? or programs?
Good luck

 

BTW this is not by chance the lap top you use to host Ferrari Chat should we expect another F-Chat crash???

If so I'm rushing to th Bikini thread to save as many pix as I can before they are lost!!!!

 

Some of the guys I work with swap out HDs like that though all the computers are identical.

 

It will possibly work but wont be easy. Windows, as installed, will have installed drivers for all the hardware (not just the display driver, - but the chipset, USB chips, ethernet, and more). All that will be different, likely Windows may not even boot, but if you maybe can hit f8 and start it in safe mode.

You can also get mini-IDE drive (laptop) adapters that allow you to connect it to a regular ATA/IDE cable in your desktop PC. The laptop drives are the same, just smaller and with a denser connector.

You can then set it up as a slave, connect it to a PC and read all your files off. Then when you get the files off, either get a used laptop and 'upgrade' to this old drive (if its bigger) or just copy the files and keep it for a hard backup "just in case".

Newegg.com sells full-size->laptop HDD adapters.

P.S> if you are looking for a new, cheap laptop, Circuit City is doing a deal for $299, its a 15.4" laptop, 60gb HDD, CDWD/DVD-RW drive, 512MB ram, and a Intel Pentium 520 (I think) - its a 1.6Ghz mobile pentium chip. Thats a STEAL for $299!

Just get there real early - like 2am to get one!

 

I've done it Dell to Dell, but that is no guaranty it will work. Some models that look similar will use different connectors.

 

Couldn't you just put your HD in another computer and set it up as a slave or secondary drive. I did that with my Dimension 8100 before I reformatted.

 

I looked online and at the Sunday newspaper ad and didn't see anything. Is this a day after thanksgiving thing?

It's worth the trip over there to try to get one... I need a laptop and that's too good a deal to pass up.

 

Dave,

Go to bfads.net, then on the left scoll down and click Circuit City. Its the "Compaq Presario with Celeron M420". If you click on the little camera icon, you can see the actual scan of the ad. Looks like a pretty decent machine for the money - normally $649 or $699 or something.

Call the biz day before and ask where they will be. Sometimes they are at the electronics counter, sometimes stacked in the middle of the store. There will be a herd of people rushing in to get one, so dont wanna run for electronics if they are over near the service desk, ya know! It is a day-after thing only, and at that I believe its 5am-10am or something - but it says "limited quantities, while supplies last", so I bet within 10 minutes they will all be gone.

 

Thanks Mike!

[OT]BTW did you still need one of those Sonicares?[/OT]

 

No worries bud!

On the sonicare thing - if you didnt already get it from your dentist, then I will be fine. I have a "feeling" someone may have gotten it for XMas It was on my amazon.com wishlist and my sister mentioned something today that gave it away.

But if you already got it, I'll take it and give it to my girlfriend but if not I'll get her something else. Thanks so much for offering before, that was very cool.

 

I didn't already get it - glad you were able to find it on amazon. I don't think the one my dentist sells is any different, aside from the different model number so they can say it's "exclusive to dental offices"

 

ok

 

Heads up to anyone who might be looking at this computer - it does not have a PC card slot. Sucks for me, as I wanted this computer to mount in my truck with a Verizon wireless card.

Also, at circuit city, they are doing vouchers for their limited quantity stuff. If you show up anytime before they open (even as early as 2am) you can get a voucher and then as long as you return by noon you can pick up what you wanted.

 

Good info!

On the PC Card thing - maybe theres a USB version?

Also, do a search on "black friday ads". The site I posted doesn't have them all, but I seem to remember that Office Depot was doing a deal on another laptop for not much more - maybe the same price. I think Best Buy, CC, Office Depot, and Staples are all doing laptop deals, and one of them was a different model/brand. It had a larger (80GB I think) HDD but it was a CD-RW/DVD instead of a DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive. It may have a PC card and work for what you want.

I was at CC today picking up some Wii games, and they told me usually people line up starting around 3am. They said that they hand out 'vouchers' for each item that is in demand, and in the store they have stations set up with counters around them, and they give out as many vouchers as they have items, and to get the item, you present the voucher and there ya go.

They told me they come outside around an hour before they open and give out the vouchers.

There are several items I want at CC so I'm gonna go there around 10pm and suck it up and stick it out. Dipping into the 20's here at night so if I don't come back on F-chat you guys know I died of hypothermia

 

FWIW

www.salescircular.com

They have lots of ads - not sure about the 'Black Friday' stuff, though.

It's worth a look for anyone shopping for electronics of any kind.

Rob - buy a new laptop and get a DVD Burner, backup junk more easily when you need to. But you already know that.

 

Check out Craiglist. I've found a couple good laptops on there for 400-500 with warranties still on them. BTW, Dells can be notorious for overheating. I also loathe Compaqs.

This day in age you should get an external HDD. They have a few on sale that are 200GB for around $50 tomorrow. There's only one guarentee about hard drives, they WILL fail.