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Message
Worth It to Replace a Laptop Hard Drive?
Posted on 12/16/14 at 5:34 pm
Posted on 12/16/14 at 5:34 pm
Dell laptop is a few years old (bought it refurbished less than a year ago). Repair place quoted $150 to fix. Don't know if that includes a new hard drive. Thinking it'll be easier just to move on.
2
Posted on 12/16/14 at 5:38 pm to shutterspeed
Just replace it yourself
Posted on 12/16/14 at 5:46 pm to shutterspeed
Replace it yourself with an SSD and it'll be like getting a whole new laptop.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 5:51 pm to ILikeLSUToo
What ballpark would I be looking at?
What's the difficulty level of this fix?
What's the difficulty level of this fix?
Posted on 12/16/14 at 5:59 pm to shutterspeed
Screwdriver and cost of SSD of your preferred size.
The most difficult part is reinstalling windows, really.
The most difficult part is reinstalling windows, really.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 6:06 pm to ILikeLSUToo
quote:
Replace it yourself with an SSD and it'll be like getting a whole new laptop.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 6:11 pm to ILikeLSUToo
quote:
The most difficult part is reinstalling windows, really.
That may prove to be the deciding factor. The company that refurbed the laptop installed Windows on it. I don't actually have a copy for it.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 6:13 pm to shutterspeed
What version of Windows? Is there a sticker on the bottom with the product key for the copy they installed?
Posted on 12/16/14 at 7:32 pm to ILikeLSUToo
XP. I'll check tomorrow when I pick it back up.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 8:11 pm to shutterspeed
If it's XP, it's probably best to move on. XP's support has ended and doesn't get security patches anymore, so you're vulnerable as hell running it.
Although fixing this should be pretty easy to do yourself for cheaper than $150.
Although fixing this should be pretty easy to do yourself for cheaper than $150.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 8:14 pm to efrad
quote:
If it's XP, it's probably best to move on.
This. If it's a refurb running XP it's old enough that you might be able to get a comparable performing new laptop for the $150 hard drive repair cost. If you up your budget to $300-$400 you'll get a much better computer.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 8:35 pm to shutterspeed
quote:
XP. I'll check tomorrow when I pick it back up.
Oh, yeah that means it's probably at least 8 years old. In fact, it could be so old that the hard drive uses the IDE interface instead of SATA, which means an SSD is a no go.
Just out of curiosity, give me the full model name/number when you find out. Always the remote possibility it was an early Vista machine rolled back to XP (I've done this myself because Vista was so clunky for low-end hardware). Odds are, as said above, it's probably still too old to spend any money repairing.
This post was edited on 12/16/14 at 8:36 pm
Posted on 12/16/14 at 9:07 pm to ILikeLSUToo
I'll check it out. I don't think it's necessarily an 8-year-old computer. My wife has the exact same refurbed laptop from the same company, and hers came with Windows 7.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 9:11 pm to shutterspeed
This is the exact one I ordered:
Dell Latitude ATG D630
Screen Size 14.1 inches
Screen Resolution 1280 x 800
Max Screen Resolution 1280 x 800 pixels
Processor 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM 0.5 GB DDR2
Memory Speed 667 MHz
Hard Drive 80 GB SATA
Graphics Coprocessor Mobility Radeon
Chipset Brand AMD
Card Description Mobility Radeon X1600
Graphics Card Ram Size 512 MB
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 4
Expand
Other Technical Details
Brand Name Dell
Series Latitude
Item model number ATG D630
Hardware Platform PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Business
Item Weight 4.4 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 13.27 x 1.26 x 9.37 inches
Color SILVER
Processor Brand Intel
Processor Count 1
Computer Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
LINK
Dell Latitude ATG D630
Screen Size 14.1 inches
Screen Resolution 1280 x 800
Max Screen Resolution 1280 x 800 pixels
Processor 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM 0.5 GB DDR2
Memory Speed 667 MHz
Hard Drive 80 GB SATA
Graphics Coprocessor Mobility Radeon
Chipset Brand AMD
Card Description Mobility Radeon X1600
Graphics Card Ram Size 512 MB
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 4
Expand
Other Technical Details
Brand Name Dell
Series Latitude
Item model number ATG D630
Hardware Platform PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Business
Item Weight 4.4 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 13.27 x 1.26 x 9.37 inches
Color SILVER
Processor Brand Intel
Processor Count 1
Computer Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
LINK
Posted on 12/16/14 at 10:10 pm to shutterspeed
It's just on the cusp of sort of salvageable. It would absolutely need more RAM (at least 2GB) to support an OS upgrade. The CPU is on par with what you'd find in a laptop between $300 and $400. An SSD upgrade on SATA I (1.5gbps) would be less amazing but still noticeably faster, but not worth the trouble unless you expand the memory. You can grab a 2GB module for it off Amazon for $15 -- LINK
That's just if you're looking to dirt-cheap salvage an old laptop -- $60 on a 128GB SSD, $15-$30 on RAM, and a pirated copy of Win 7 or 8. You might have issues installing legacy drivers for that old ATI card on Win 7 or 8.
Overall, I definitely wouldn't blame you for scrapping the whole thing. But surely, do not pay anyone else a dime to work on it.
That's just if you're looking to dirt-cheap salvage an old laptop -- $60 on a 128GB SSD, $15-$30 on RAM, and a pirated copy of Win 7 or 8. You might have issues installing legacy drivers for that old ATI card on Win 7 or 8.
Overall, I definitely wouldn't blame you for scrapping the whole thing. But surely, do not pay anyone else a dime to work on it.
This post was edited on 12/16/14 at 10:11 pm
Posted on 12/16/14 at 10:16 pm to ILikeLSUToo
Thanks. Guess the next thing I'll need to do is research the process of replacing a harddrive on a laptop.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 10:25 pm to shutterspeed
Figure out how to access the hard drive tray on your specific laptop
Laptop hard drives are usually secured with one, single screw.
Laptop hard drives are usually secured with one, single screw.
Posted on 12/16/14 at 10:27 pm to shutterspeed
quote:
. Guess the next thing I'll need to do is research the process of replacing a harddrive on a laptop.
FYI, don't get an SSD if you aren't going to upgrade the OS. Windows XP is missing some native features that keep SSDs running properly in the long term.
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