SaneThinking.com "Protecting yourself from a laptop disaster

Protecting yourself from a laptop disaster - Swapping the hard drives.

Changing the hard drive on a laptop is actually easier than it is on a typical PC. It doesn't require a lot of skill or knowledge - but be cautioned now, it does require some. Don't let that put you off as I plan to enlighten you. The average laptop owner will be able to do this job in a breeze.

Just to give you an idea now rather than the full details, the main things to be aware of are static electricity (and how to prevent it from destroying your hard drive) and the other is physical handling so that you don't cause fatal damage by physical shock (to the hard drive). Some technicians don't take much notice of these two but they should and as the owner you need to be aware of this too. The precautions are not hard to follow but they are important. This is the bare bones of what you should do and needs to be read beforehand so that requirements can be met without becoming obstacles during the actual process eg obtaining a screwdriver/s that fits the screws is something you need to do prior to attempting the job itself. So read through this and make notes and do all the preparatory work before you try the swap. You also need to be sure you understand and follow simple cautions regarding electrical and physical risks to yourself and to the drives as well as to the laptop. Don't progress unless you have at least read through some preliminary cautionary advice such as I have provided in my other articles in this set. You need to read about drive handling especially.

Then read the relevant parts of your laptop manual especially about handling the drive. There may not be any such section, okay, well at least you checked first. I know the above is obvious and easy to just assume but it mustn't be overlooked.

Next make sure you unplug everything and slide out the battery (having shut down first).

Now make sure that your table top area is clear of everything that you don't need.

Turn you laptop upside down (lid closed of course). Undo the screw and remove the panel, the cover that the hard drive is located under, and carefully place these to one side observing that the screw must not get lost by dropping out of the panel.

(Note, in the picture below, how I cover the screw with my thumb, a simple precautionary measure. You don't have to do this too of course but if the screw falls out and finds it's way into the laptop innards you may wish you had done!)

Don't use any force on the drive. Use a gentle pull. Do not lift it until it is clear of the connector, unplugged in other words. I have not shown a picture of me 'sliding' it to unplug it but you have to exert finger and thumb pressure gently but firmly and from side to side in a progressive fashion until the drive is completely out of the connector. This is quite a tough task because it does require a lot of pressure but don't overdo it. At this stage you must also take care not to allow it to suddenly release and bang itself as it does so. This is the most technically skilled part. You must not subject the drive to a sudden impact shock. Take it steady, allow time. There are additional precautions you could take but at some point I have to limit this article so I won't cover them.

In the picture below you can't see how I am holding the drive but be assured I am holding it by the sides and more importantly that's how you need to also - I have advised on this point in another article and you really shouldn't be attempting this unless you have read all my drive handling articles.

In the next picture (below) you can see two similar drives, one just removed from my laptop and the other just about to go into the laptop. Now you may also note that the drive is actually in a caddy which is why the laptop drive looks unusal. If you are just testing the cloned drive then you probably don't need to change the caddy too but can get away with putting the cloned drive directly into the laptop. However I recommend that if you do it like this then be very observant to make sure that there is not metal (especially foil) that might 'short' the hard drive's printed circuit board. In my own laptop there is a foil area and every time I swap the drive I put a thin piece of paper over the foil to make sure a 'short' cannot happen. This is very important.

There is another caution which is to make sure that you line up the pins correctly before pushing the drive home. This is important whether you put the swap drive into the caddy or not but especially if not as the sideways 'play' will be great enough to get the pins out of alignment. This sounds more difficult than it is and is really just a very easy visual check that everything is lined up correctly.

Once the drives are swapped then put the cover back on to secure it and turn the laptop right side up again, replace the battery and connectors and fire it up.

If Windows starts up normally, just as it did with the other drive, then everything works and you have now safeguarded yourself in the best way possible against the dreaded laptop disaster scenario!

That completes this series of articles. I hope you found them useful and that, like me, you are now committed to backing up and cloning your laptop drive frequently as a matter of easy routine.

Although this is the final article as far as the instructional ones go, I have also written some more articles along the lines of my own case true stories (as that is what they are) which you may also find interesting to read. You can get at these from:-

Main Contents Page for this series

By Paul E. Coughlin
SaneThinking.com
30 June 2008

You may like to know that there may be other articles, similar to this one, here, in this category:
Laptop Owners

If no earlier date is shown above then this page began life on 30.06.2008. It was most recently updated, improved, tarted-up, sexed-up, modified, polished, or just imperceptably re-edited, due, most likely, to compulsive and unrestrained perfectionism, influenced quite possibly by a minor degree of pedantic extremism, on 01.07.2008.