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Tópico: quick question..

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on the advise of a few 'veterans' on here I've decided to take the plunge and perform some upgrade surgery on my sony vaio..

I've already built up the confidence to open her up and spring clean the fan so no problems there! however..

being a newbie to 'self' upgrading (i.e. not paying someone else to do it) I don't wanna attempt the hard drive swap without being sure about how to reboot the system so I'm calling on you 'experienced' peeps to point me in the right direction ;)

I've done a recent back-up of all my files to my external hdd
I assume the OS is on there because my lappy came with Vista 32 bit pre-installed

I have backed the system up onto 2 cd disks as advised shortly after purchase..but, my cd rom drives broken so I'll be attempting to load the backed-up O.S. / Music / Virtual DJ etc to the new hard drive from the external drive.

Dum question I know but can anyone tell me in a nutshell what I do after installing the new internal drive..?

Thanks again in advance crew ;)

Also I'm gonna ramp the chips up to 4 gigs too to really improve performance, should I upgrade the Ram first, then swap the drives..? or the drive first then the chips..?
 
Mensajes Wed 02 Feb 11 @ 12:49 pm
hi man, being that i do a lot of system customizing i thought id give mmy few cents worth.

firstly theres no correct order to ugrade your ram and hdd. though in my personal opinion i would do hdd first then ram. the reason behind this is, and to be veryy honest.

it would normally be done like this.

buy a new hdd and format it to the same filesystem as the one on your oorigional hdd. next you create a complete backup of your old hdd onto the new one via a usb hub that accepts laptop hdd's.

when you do this it not only copies the data you want to keep, but your entire operating system and built in system recovery software partition. it also allows you to keep the laptops boot sector of the laptop alive for when or if you need to use recovery discs.

some laptops dont have the boot sector but thought i would mention it.

ok so now what your left with is 2 perfectly identical drives, except your new one is larger (if thats what your doing).

next all you have to do is to swap out the hdd's new for old. in doing this when you turn on the power the laptop will boot windows paefectly how you had it on the old hdd. the operating system, software, drivers, music, pics, vid etc.. will all still be there just as you left it. except your now using a new larger hdd.

once you have completed this procedure shut down the system and remove the battery. open up the ram slot and remove your old ram cards.

replace them with the new ones, seal everything back up and replace the battery.

now boot up your system again and reap the benefits.

it really is that simple.

backing up your os and data seperatley and re installing from scratch wont give you complete functionality. you will loose your recovery sector so you will never be able to return your laptop back to factory settings if ever the need arose, like trying to sell it or someting.

you also have to go through the whol reinstalling everything crap. then updating it and redoing your drivers. then put all your data back on. then mess around trying to get it back to the compltet functional state you had it prior to the upgrade.

making a 100% ghost copy of the entire old hdd content like for like is by far the fastest simplest way of upgrading your hdd.

hope this helps and if you need anythingelse let me know.

also be sure to remember to ground yourself out before you touch the internals of any laptop or pc. static shocks can cause problems. so touch something metal first before you open her up. a radiator works perfect.

let me know how you get on.
 
so if I've got this right.. i copy all of the internal drives contents over to the external, then put in the new drive in and format it..then copy the entire contents of the old drive over to the new, from the external right..?

' ghost copies'..is this the same as making a 'clone' of my old drive..? i take it this is different from straight 'back-ups' ?

my sony is a VGN-NS10L for spec purposes


 
yes a clone is the same as a ghost copy.

you are right in your thinking. copy the lot to the external. then format the new drive and copy everything back.

im not sure on how you would work the formating and the reload of the new drive without an external hub but thats what you need to do.

what i would do if i didnt have a hub, would be to go buy one, use it, and take it back for a refund or an exchange for something i actually need.lol.

straight backups will backup your operating system, software and data. but the WILL NOT back up your recovery sector. therefore you will loose the ability of onboard recovery.

also without the onboard recovery section, your straight backup discs will not work. the system recovery and backup system relys strongly on the recovery partition built into the system origionally by the manufacturer.

one major reason for keeping this recovery sector is your licence key. a laptops recovery section holds the activation key for your operating system. if you delete this then you may have trouble reactivating your operating system with your coat of arms as the operating system is automatically activated upon re-installation from the recoery sector or from your backup discs.

it is possible to fresh install with just an operating system and then create your own backups to disc but its a major sore point if ever you try to sell it or if you wanted to return it to its origional state for some other reason. the coat of arms may possibly be used but in the past ive come across licence keys that are limited to one machine only. if you installed your own OS without keeping the recovery sector you may invalidate your key completely as the manufacturers auto activation is no longer available.

it is my personal opinion that you should always always keep the recovery sector no matter what.

spec is unimportant as the same rules apply for most modern laptops produced in the last maybe 5-7 years.
 
damn i cant even make a clone of my internal drive..my version of windows vista doesn't include a full pc back-up :(

do i have to upgrade my OS before i even attempt to make a cloned copy..grrrrrrrrrrr

is there anyway around this obstacle ?

not sure about the 'hub' thing bud..dont quite follow what you mean by using an external one ?

do you mean link the two drives up (old and new) outside the pc ?

could you be more specific with that please ;)
 
hi,

1 no you dont have to upgrade before you make a cloned copy.

2 there is no obstical

3 you can use a few methods to achieve the clone, personally i use one of these. not this exact one but a similar item.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=2.5+hdd+clone+docking+station&_sacat=0&_odkw=hdd+docking+station&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

remove the olddrive and put both drives into the hub. plug it into another computer and wait for it to do its job. put the new drive into the laptop and reformat the old drive.

then i would get one of these for your old drive

you need one of these if its a SATA hdd

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-5-SATA-USB-HARD-DRIVE-CADDY-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/110620054110?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item19c178125e

or one of these if its and IDE hdd

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-5-IDE-USB-HARD-DRIVE-CADDY-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/110620054108?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item19c178125c


then what you do is put your old hdd into the caddy and reformat it so you can use it for storage :D

there are better caddys and hubs on ebay than these but you can have a look and see which you would prefer. i ws just thinking cost effective.

btw that docking hub is a one touch. so once its powered up and youre ready to go, just push the button and wait. the article says it cant be used offline so i expect that means it has to be plugged into another computer to be able to handle the partitioning etc.
 
oh and vista doesnt need a full version backup option, you can use norton ghost. or some other form of cloning software.
 
''remove the olddrive and put both drives into the hub. plug it into another computer and wait for it to do its job.''

i assume this is just to use another pc's usb hub to power the clone hub right ?

I guess the only other question that remains if I do it this way is: how do I know when the process of copying drives has started and finished..?
are there any leds to signify start/end etc?

many thanks for this dude by the way ;)
 
the hub is powered externally. but i suspect it has to be connected so it has software support. the one i use is self sufficient. just plug em in and press the button. chances are that might do the same but i wouldnt say that as a definite just incase. but theyre a really good investment. you can use 3.5 inch desktop drives in it too.

anyway youre welcome to the help. if you need anything else you know where i am
 
Blulite wrote :
the one i use is self sufficient.


which one do you use bro ?

rather use one thats been tried n tested ;)
 
 
 
yeh im using sata..glad i am too theres a big difference in price !

thanks again Bud ;)
 
youre welcome, anytime!

let me know how things go.

i added you to my friends list by the way.
 
nice one dude !

see ya around ;)
 


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