Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I want to get a new laptop and tried some out at bestbuy. I looked at some lenovos I liked but alot of them had small hard drives. If I buy one and replace the hard drive with a larger one will it boot up ok? Will I have to re-install windows?
Buy an adapter that connects from USB to the new drive.
Download Macrium Reflect (Home version - free) and clone the laptop drive to the one in the adapter. Swap them out.
With more information (hard drive, ssd drive) we can tell you what adapter to buy. Since you say it's small I assume an SSD drive. Crucial can help you find the right drive to buy.
I just did this with our server and will be doing both laptops this weekend.
Do what Tek_Freek said, that way you Also retain the emergency partition for troubleshooting. Much easier to clone the drive than to install Windows IMHO.
Or, you could pay someone to do Just that (for probably $50 or less).
And you still have the original drive for backup. If you're not comfortable doing it alone come here and I'll walk you through it. It really isn't that difficult.
The hardest part (at least for me) was making sure I was buying the correct SSD drive for our laptops. Who knew there were so many variations?
Once connected and the cloning process was set up (about 15 minutes) it took around 40 unattended minutes to clone a 160GB to a 480GB.
Buy an adapter that connects from USB to the new drive.
Download Macrium Reflect (Home version - free) and clone the laptop drive to the one in the adapter. Swap them out.
With more information (hard drive, ssd drive) we can tell you what adapter to buy. Since you say it's small I assume an SSD drive. Crucial can help you find the right drive to buy.
I just did this with our server and will be doing both laptops this weekend.
You can clone an SSD to AN HDD. Whether or not it will fit is something you need to research. The website I mention earlier (Crucial) can tell you what will fit. You do need the model number of the laptop to find pout.
I want to get a new laptop and tried some out at bestbuy. I looked at some lenovos I liked but alot of them had small hard drives. If I buy one and replace the hard drive with a larger one will it boot up ok? Will I have to re-install windows?
Before you buy go look at the Lenovo you want and make sure you can see lots of screws on the underside or that the HD is easy to remove - you can check on IFIXIT to see if they have video instructions. Note the HD needs to be easy to remove. Buy the processor you want with the smallest HD. Buy an aftermarket Samsung 2.5 SSD with will come with free cloning SW. This SW works great - I have used it half a dozen times. I am tying this on a HP with a replaced SSD. It will take about 45 minute or less and then boot back up. It will work perfectly and be faster.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
