New laptop versus new hard drive: thoughts?

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I’m woefully ignorant regarding the inner workings of a computer, so please forgive a remedial question!

When a laptop with an old-fashioned spinning hard drive finally dies, what other components—besides the hard drive—are susceptible to wear? Are there huge advantages to purchasing a new laptop versus simply replacing the hard drive?

On the face of it, it seems wasteful to discard an otherwise solid machine if replacing a single component could give the machine a new lease on life. While I understand the appeal of the “latest and greatest,” my laptop does everything I need it to do.

If anyone has thoughts about this, I’d love to hear them. Thanks.

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Well, I recently replaced a HDD by a SSD on a laptop, for a family member, and the laptop just behaves like a new one. This was done on a 8 year old laptop, running a celeron processor.
So, if you are happy with the laptop, performance wise, other than the HDD, yes, getting a SSD (you can get a 256GB SSD for less than $100) is a very viable option and that would be my choice, if I were in your shoes.

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Well, you didn’t mention the make, model or even age of your laptop so my thoughts are… it’s very hard to advise without more info.

For all we know it could be a week old and you’ve just been unfortunate with the hard disk. However, you haven’t mentioned ‘warranty’ so I’m going to guess that it’s at least a year old.

You haven’t mentioned what you use it for, only that it does everything you need it to do. So it could be a top-of-the-range gaming laptop where a replacement could be a couple of thousand dollars versus a new SSD or spinning hard drive at a fraction of the cost… or it could be a $200 bottom-of-the-range laptop you only use to play Solitaire, in which case a new hard disk of either type could represent a fairly high percentage of the cost of a similar replacement.

I doubt this helps… but hopefully will show that the more info you provide, the better advice you are likely to get back in return.

To answer your specific question, i.e. what other components—besides the hard drive—are susceptible to wear? For a laptop it’s usually the battery. Depending on the make and model, it could also be internal fan(s) because some (many?) laptops have poor airflow so their cooling fan(s) can get quite stressed by overworking.

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Since you say the laptop does everything you say you want, a new hard drive could well be a practical repair. However you should also be wary of the following:

1). The batteries die as well, and the average lifetime is about 5 years for that;
2). The fans are mechanical components. Some laptops have no fans at all but if yours does, be aware that fans are a common trouble spot over the long run;
3). New standards. Your laptop will not have upgradable hardware for new standards. Screens keep growing in size and pixel density. SATA-2 was replaced with SATA-3, a hard drive interconnect standard. USB 2 was replaced with USB 3, and now there’s a USB 3.1 Type 2 (I think? The branding is getting hard to remember). Wi-Fi 802.11 G was replaced with N, then AC, and there’s a new AH standard on the horizon (the latter not yet available).

Having said all that. CPUs aren’t getting faster at the rate they used to. New operating systems like Windows 10 don’t require more RAM than Windows 8 or 7. From that perspective, replacing the hard drive could be an appealing option. Though I would seriously consider getting an SSD, if possible, since that would be a significant speed upgrade for the system.

So what to do? Overall, I’d still use the age of the system as a guideline on whether to fix it or not. The only thing needed is to adjust the threshold age where you rule out system repairs. My gut says, if the system is less than 5 years old, I’d take a shot at repairing the HD. Just be aware that you are going to have to replace that battery soon. If the system is more than 5 years old, get a new one. If it’s right at the 5 year mark, use your best judgment. That’s where the difficult choices come in.

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Since you say the laptop does everything you say you want, a new hard drive could well be a practical repair. However you should also be wary of the following:

1). The batteries die as well, and the average lifetime is about 5 years for that;
2). The fans are mechanical components. Some laptops have no fans at all but if yours does, be aware that fans are a common trouble spot over the long run;
3). New standards. Your laptop will not have upgradable hardware for new standards. Screens keep growing in size and pixel density. SATA-2 was replaced with SATA-3, a hard drive interconnect standard. USB 2 was replaced with USB 3, and now there’s a USB 3.1 Type 2 (I think? The branding is getting hard to remember). Wi-Fi 802.11 G was replaced with N, then AC, and there’s a new AH standard on the horizon (the latter not yet available).

Having said all that. CPUs aren’t getting faster at the rate they used to. New operating systems like Windows 10 don’t require more RAM than Windows 8 or 7. From that perspective, replacing the hard drive could be an appealing option. Though I would seriously consider getting an SSD, if possible, since that would be a significant speed upgrade for the system.

So what to do? Overall, I’d still use the age of the system as a guideline on whether to fix it or not. The only thing needed is to adjust the threshold age where you rule out system repairs. My gut says, if the system is less than 5 years old, I’d take a shot at repairing the HD. Just be aware that you are going to have to replace that battery soon. If the system is more than 5 years old, get a new one. If it’s right at the 5 year mark, use your best judgment. That’s where the difficult choices come in.

He said he is happy with what he already has. Respect it.

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An SSD would breath new life into a formally mechanical drive laptop, but it will be contingent on you doing your own diligent homework;

SSds are cheap enough that you won’t break the bank upgrading, especially if
you are content with the laptop you currently have. If you weren’t I’d just advise you to save for a new machine.

Make certain you know the specs of your current laptop and weather you actually can replace the current drive with an SSD.
(new drive size, power & SATA connections- all fit appropriately).
Make a planned effort to install or restore your OS of choice to the new drive.
(OEM vs Retail OS, you should know before hand what you can and can’t do).

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This handy guide to real life SSD performance may help you choose a new drive. You can sort by price as that’s likely to be your most important factor.
http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Explore/Best-Value/10

cheers, Paul

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You didn’t say which operating system your laptop has. If it has Windows 7 (and you want to keep Windows 7), and if there is no damage other than the hard drive, then I would advise keeping the laptop.

You’ll need to consider how easy or difficult it is to replace the hard drive. Most laptops have a door on the bottom which can easily be removed to access the hard drive. But sometimes, replacing the hard drive involves a lot of disassembly. And when you disassemble a laptop, you can easily damage the fragile parts inside of it.

If you do end up disassembling the laptop in order to replace the hard drive, you should do some other things while the laptop is disassembled:
* Blow out all of the dust.
* Replace the CMOS battery.
* Reattach the heat sink to the CPU with high-quality thermal compound.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I wouldn’t touch the heatsink unless you are having heat problems – some things are best left alone.

cheers, Paul

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If you do go that route:

If you have a really old laptop the drive may not be a SATA and require a old PATA IDE type. You would likely be out of luck.

Try like heck to get the ‘Service Manual’ for your model, there are a myriad of configurations and if you make the wrong assumption about dis-assembly you could do damage especially if you want to change the cmos battery. I am not saying it will be hard just prepare and be careful. HDDs are usually easy, a common pit fall is a small adapter that (sometimes) goes between the drive and the M/B.

If yo do any dis-assembly besides the HDD ‘door’ take a picture after each step, segregate the hardware, all those little screws look alike the next day.

If you do not already do regular imaging now would be an excellent time to get an external drive and get familiar with an imaging program. The most commonly recommended ones here are Acronis and Macrium Reflect, both have free versions.

:cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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If you are running Windows XP you can forget about using an SSD. Windows 7 or later only need apply.

cheers, Paul

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If you are running Windows XP you can forget about using an SSD. Windows 7 or later only need apply.

cheers, Paul

Many people use SSDs with XP and firmware, these days, deals better with the lack of TRIM. That said, I would recommend an update to 7, if nothing else, for security reasons and it will help with the SSD, as well.

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If you are running Windows XP you can forget about using an SSD. Windows 7 or later only need apply.

cheers, Paul

Yet some manufacturers have utilities that allow manual execution of the TRIM command. Maybe not as well implemented as would be natively on an OS but it should still be faster then a HDD.

:cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I greatly appreciate the time you guys put into sharing your thoughts with me.

I should have mentioned that my hard drive is still chugging along, and that my laptop is only two and a half years old. So this is not a matter of urgency. But over the weekend, while hauling YET ANOTHER BOXLOAD OF DEAD ELECTRONICS to my neighborhood recycling center, I felt tired—tired in my bones—of replacing gizmos that either break down or become obsolete in a scant few years. Endlessly, endlessly.

This is my forth laptop. It’s a desktop replacement—heavy, not at all pretty, but built like a Brink’s truck. Am running Win 7 Pro x64 on it, and so far (knock wood) it’s been trouble-free. The specs, while not a wow, are more than adequate for the things I need a computer to do. Don’t know if Windows 10 would require more resources than I have, but I’m perfectly content to stick with Win 7 until I absolutely need to buy a new computer.

Which is all by way of saying that I’d like to spackle and buttress this thing for as long as possible. I rarely use the batteries, but understand that they might need replacing eventually. Ditto the fan (thanks Rick). If spinning hard drives become obsolete (will they?), I’ll have to hope that someone makes an SSD that fits the laptop.

And to facilitate that, I’ll likely need the help of a pro because…..

Make certain you know the specs of your current laptop and weather you actually can replace the current drive with an SSD. (new drive size, power & SATA connections fit appropriately). Make a planned effort to install or restore your OS of choice to the new drive. (OEM vs Retail OS, you should know before hand what you can and can’t do).

Thanks, CLiNT! You’ve no idea how out of your league I am! But I appreciate your expert advice, and am taking careful notes.

You haven’t mentioned what you use it for…..So it could be a top-of-the-range gaming laptop where a replacement could be a couple of thousand dollars versus a new SSD or spinning hard drive at a fraction of the cost.

Thanks, Rick. I use it for word processing, web browsing, storing music, infrequent scanning, light photo editing…..and that’s all, Rexall. The machine, when new, cost about $1800.

Don’t quite know what I’m lookin’ at here, but since you asked:

[INDENT]Dell Precision M4700 Workstation (discontinued)
CPU: Third generation Intel Core i7 2.80 GHz, Ivy Bridge
Drive: 320 GB Seagate SCSI Disk Device (SATA-II)
RAM: 8 GB
Intel Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller
DVD-ROM drive
2 USB 3.0 ports
1 USB 2.0 port
15″ screen, 1920 x 1080[/INDENT]

(I chose Dell’s smallest hard drive because, after 20 years of computing, I’m only using 31% of the drive’s capacity.)

You’ll need to consider how easy or difficult it is to replace the hard drive. Most laptops have a door on the bottom which can easily be removed to access the hard drive….If you do end up disassembling the laptop in order to replace the hard drive, you should do some other things while the laptop is disassembled:

* Blow out all of the dust.
* Replace the CMOS battery.
* Reattach the heat sink to the CPU with high-quality thermal compound.

Thanks, Jim. As far as I can tell, the hard drive snaps in and snaps out. Thanks for the additional tips.

Paul T, I wouldn’t know a heat sink if it punched me in the schnozz, so I won’t be messin’ with it!

If you have a really old laptop the drive may not be a SATA and require a old PATA IDE type. You would likely be out of luck.

Thanks, Wavy. All to be determined by someone with more tech savvy than I.

Guys, thank you so much. I really appreciate your input.

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“If Apple’s MacBook Pro is the Lamborghini of laptops, then Dell’s Precision M4700 is a monster truck. It’s big, brash, heavy and not going to win any design awards for its aesthetics – but in every other way our review model of this 15-inch laptop excels over the equivalent MacBook Pro. And that can even include outdoing the Retina Display.” One of many favourable reviews.

Given the very good specs and what you use it for, IMHO, you’re best served by keeping it and, when the time is due, replacing the current hard disk with something like a 256 GB SSD (as you don’t use the hard disk for a lot of storage).

“Dell have gone to great lengths to make it easy to swap the hard disk and memory on this machine” Replacement of the hard disk with an SSD looks particularly uncomplicated.

This type of upgrade would be relatively cheap and painless.

Hope this helps…

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:)If you need to replace your battery, you may want to know my experience. The off brand Anker I purchased on Amazon proved to be worthless. I then purchased one at Batteries + that has worked well and is a Ray-0-Vac.

Ray-o-Vac recommends not keeping your laptop plugged in to AC power when not in use. They also recommend taking the battery out if you won’t be using it for a period of time.

And like you’ve been advised, a SSD drive sped up my my 5-year-old laptop.

Good luck!

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Rick, you’ve made my day. Very kind of you!

So I guess the hard drive doesn’t just “snap in and snap out,” but the process doesn’t look too daunting either. I’d be chary nonetheless of taking the Nestea Plunge without the guidance of a professional.

I remember configuring the machine before purchase, and making the choice not to go with a solid state drive. In retrospect, that may have been unwise, although I could swear I read conflicting opinions regarding the stability of SSDs.

Thank you again!

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I remember configuring the machine before purchase, and making the choice not to go with a solid state drive. In retrospect, that may have been unwise, although I could swear I read conflicting opinions regarding the stability of SSDs.

Probably a wise decision at the time. SSD’s have matured quite a bit in the last couple of years.

Anyway, glad to help.

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To the original post: IMHO, if a laptop is serving your needs and a single component dies that is readily replaced it is worth repairing if you can do it yourself. If you have to pay someone then that cost plus the part plus the accuracy of the user diagnosed problem need be weighed over the age of the laptop.

If the laptop was slow and is old then things start to fail and it is not worth throwing more money at it.

Laptops are really made to last about 5 years. There are some exceptions, but unless you spent significantly more than $1,000 on a laptop it is a plastic disposable item.

The parts that can be replaced easily to moderately difficult and inexpensively (<$150) by the user include RAM, boot drive, screen, keyboard, wifi and maybe a fan. Some other parts model dependent.

Most RAM and boot drive upgrade is easy and should be done within two years of purchase to boost performance.

In the specific scenario posted by the OP, heck yes. Sounds like the laptop is doing what you want. Bad drive. $100-150. Usually a few minutes time. If it is still working,buy a external enclosureor transfer cable and image copy the bad drive to the good one. If it has failed then you will need to load your backup image or the OS (around $15 recovery disk), drivers and laptop apps from the maker's TS site on the new drive.

boot drive upgrade thoughts: HDD, SSD, hybrid drive, 7,200RPM drive, 1TB or 2TB, ….

edit: A Dell WS laptop is well worth repairing and I assume you don;t operate on battery much.

120GB of space used, a 250 GB SSD (though frankly I prefer the space of a 500GB now) like the Crucial BX100, as a boot drive would perk it up and I assume the laptop has a second bay for a second HDD so transferring would be easy? Cooler, silent and less power using too.

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If you like Windows 7, you probably should keep your current laptop, fixing it as needed, rather than buying a new one, because it appears that Microsoft is on a path of disabling Windows 7 on new hardware:

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//174037-Microsoft-says-new-processors-will-only-work-with-Windows-10

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Appreciate your words of encouragement, F. Nation, and thanks for all the good tips.

unless you spent significantly more than $1,000 on a laptop it is a plastic disposable item.

I’d never owned an expensive laptop prior to this one. None of the others cost more than $1,000, and all were flimsy. The last one put up a valiant fight for nearly seven years, although, towards the end, its date with the Elephants’ Graveyard was overdue.

The higher cost and better construction of my current laptop are two reasons I’d like to prop it up as long as possible.

Most RAM and boot drive upgrade is easy and should be done within two years of purchase

I’m midway through year three, so have apparently missed the cutoff! Briefly, how come those upgrades need to be done so early in the life of the machine?

it appears that Microsoft is on a path of disabling Windows 7 on new hardware

Can you beat that? Schmucks. I don’t look forward to Windows 10. Not because the OS is hard to navigate, but because of the continual forced updates. My online connection is godawful slow. (As in, fifteen minutes to download a three-minute YouTube video.)

You guys have given me lots to think about, and thanks again.

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…. how come those upgrades need to be done so early in the life of the machine? ….

Because most people wait until their machine is crawlingly old before they ask about adding more RAM and a faster drive. Fairly inexpensive upgrades and when hardware gets too old the boost you get to counter the aggravation should have been done (sometimes cheaper if parts have been superseded by newer form factors) a lot sooner when instead of aggravation it would have delayed the feeling that your life is streaming by while you are waiting for control to return to the screen so you can get on with the next task.

That said with your laptop being high end that should not be such an issue. 8GB of RAM is still quite nice as there are few 64 bit apps around and even fewer that need use more than 1GB of RAM. But an SSD would perk things up.

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Hardly disabling W7. Not supported doesn’t equal disabled.

cheers, Paul

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My impression, from the link I posted in #19, was that Windows 7 would be “fixed” so as not to work with new hardware:

Microsoft and its partners will not be putting in the significant work necessary to make new hardware work with older versions of Windows. The old operating systems, at best, will merely lack the latest updates. At worst, they might not function properly.

The only way they can pull that off is to send an update to Windows 7 which will make it not work with the new hardware.

Or am I misreading it?

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I read that as Win 7 won’t be upgraded to work with Skylake processors. However it will still work with new processors if they aren’t Skylake ones. Looking at this Wikipedia article, most processors are probably Broadwell ones (I3, I5 and I7). How long for? I don’t know.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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I read that as Win 7 won’t be upgraded to work with Skylake processors. However it will still work with new processors if they aren’t Skylake ones. Looking at this Wikipedia article, most processors are probably Broadwell ones (I3, I5 and I7). How long for? I don’t know.

W7 already supports SkyLake cpus!
:cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I read that as Win 7 won’t be upgraded to work with Skylake processors. However it will still work with new processors if they aren’t Skylake ones. Looking at this Wikipedia article, most processors are probably Broadwell ones (I3, I5 and I7). How long for? I don’t know.

W7 already supports SkyLake cpus!
:cheers:

If that’s the case, then Microsoft must be planning to do an update to W7 to block W7 from working with SkyLake CPUs.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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:cheers:

If that’s the case, then Microsoft must be planning to do an update to W7 to block W7 from working with SkyLake CPUs.

I believe the interpretation of this discussion rests on how one defines ‘support’. I believe MS means it will not provide non Priority (read security) updates not in a more strict sense i.e. That bridge will only support 1 ton and your 500 ton tank ain’t gonna make it. IMHO any way. :cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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If the processor / ancillaries are backward compatible – aren’t they always – there should be no issue. More likely the manufacturers won’t release drivers for older Windows which may cause problems.

cheers, Paul

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If the processor / ancillaries are backward compatible – aren’t they always – there should be no issue. More likely the manufacturers won’t release drivers for older Windows which may cause problems.

cheers, Paul

They have been backward compatible until now. At least, there hasn’t been any effort to not make them backward compatible.

One of the reasons Microsoft has been able to capture and hold its iron grip on the market is backward compatibility. People know that new and old stuff — hardware, software, OS — will probably work together without much if any issues. In my case, I have a 32-bit Windows Vista computer which maxes out at 2GB of RAM. It works well with Windows 8.0. I’m running 7 on it with absolutely no issues. And I am certain that if I get a new computer today, I can make Windows 7 work on it.

If Microsoft abandons their commitment to backward compatibility, as it appears that they will do, I believe that they will be abandoning this key factor which keeps customers onboard with Microsoft. They will financially gain in the short term, in reduced support and development costs; but they will lose in the long term, by losing their hold on the market.

Of course, if aftermarket manufacturers don’t release drivers for Windows 7 / 8.x for their new devices, that isn’t Microsoft’s fault, unless Microsoft has pushed them in that direction.

But no matter who is responsible for Windows 7 not working on new hardware, if 7 doesn’t work on the new hardware, and the OP wants to have 7, he will have a very good reason to keep the current laptop in good repair rather than replace the current laptop with a new one.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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A 480GB or 500GB SSD is available for between $129 and $199. This provides good storage space for current and future requirements.
All SSDs are fast.
The key factors, therefore, are reliability and durability.
The two most reliable brands are generally Intel and Crucial with 5-year warranties. If you go upscale then Sandisk Extreme Pro uses top quality MLC NAND (the memory chips in the drive that store everything) and it has a 10-year warranty. At home we’ve also had good service from Samsung, Kingston and lower price Sandisk. However, the first three i mentioned remain most reliable.
Installation is actually pretty easy, but there’s nothing wrong with having your local computer repair shop install it and clone your existing drive onto the SSD (or start afresh with a clean Windows install). But check out this video first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMtpn3MRfTo

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You have stats to backup the “most reliable” claim?

cheers, Paul

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You have stats to backup the “most reliable” claim?

cheers, Paul

+1:cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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You have stats to backup the “most reliable” claim?….

Thanks. Made me look for anything done recently:

https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~omutlu/pub/flash-memory-failures-in-the-field-at-facebook_sigmetrics15.pdf – A Large-Scale Study of Flash Memory Failures in the Field

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Fascist Nation,

Thanks for posti9ng the article; however, it’s way beyond me. Please explain it in layman’s terms.

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Fascist Nation,

Thanks for posti9ng the article; however, it’s way beyond me. Please explain it in layman’s terms.

My explanation is colored both by what the authors didn’t say and by my own experience. Other experts here may take a different view. The article is an interesting study of SSD flash memory used in educational/commercial/industrial situations over a period of years. Early designs failed more often when substituted in place of regular hard drives. All SSDs were more likely to fail when subjected to high operating temperatures. SSDs that automatically slowed themselves down to prevent overheating failed less often. “Write-heavy” workloads (saving lots of files) were also closely related to SSD errors and/or failure. “Read-heavy workloads” (opening files) were less likely to induce errors and/or failure. There is much more in the article and some may interpret the results differently.

An important lesson for manufacturers is that “validating” (thorough testing) of the flash memory chips (called NAND) and the “controller” (the SSD’s built-in software that makes sure that saving and opening files is done quickly and in a way that extends the life of the SSD). is vital. Thorough validation improves reliability. Another lesson learned is that “throttling” (reducing SSD speed automatically when temperature rises above a certain point) improves reliability. And, yet another lesson learned is that the added ability to finish saving files in the event of sudden power failure also improves reliability.

Most home computers are Reading/opening files much more frequently than they are Writing/saving files. Most home computers have sufficient airflow in the case to prevent a hot environment. Laptops may run hotter but still not excessively so unless they are working very hard. SSDs are so fast that even when saving large files they are only working for a few seconds, meaning they rarely get hot. Exceptions may include heavy or extended video or photo editing or extended intense 3D gaming.

Intel, Crucial/Micron, and Sandisk are major suppliers worldwide of commercial/industrial SSDs. Their expertise in manufacturing and validating SSDs is also applied to SSDs they make for retail consumer use. Their best consumer models include 5-year warranties instead of the standard 3-year warranty. A few even include 10-year warranties. It would be extremely foolish and unprofitable to provide such warranties on products whose life expectancy and reliability is questionable.

At home we have some SSDs we bought 4 or 5 years ago which are still in daily use. A couple of them came with a 2-year warranty and others with a 3-year warranty. One of those did fail suddenly after about 18 months. The manufacturer replaced it without question and even provided a newer model (Kingston). I’m still not sure if a power surge may have been the cause or if the SSD just died. Over the same 4 or 5 years we’ve had 2 Seagate regular hard drives and 1 Hitachi regular hard drive fail. This information is, of course, anecdotal rather than scientific evidence. Nevertheless, our experience is that SSDs are generally fast and reliable whilst regular hard drives are cheaper and slower but have larger capacity. We will continue to use regular hard drives to store large amounts of our documents, photos, music and videos until such time as large capacity SSDs are cheap and plentiful. But, the days of our computers’ processors and memory waiting, waiting, waiting for a regular hard drive to boot up, open or save files, load programs, etc. are behind us. I hope yours are, too.

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;)When your Kingston SSD failed, did you receive any message about impending failure?

Thanks again.

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;)When your Kingston SSD failed, did you receive any message about impending failure?

Thanks again.

Mmm, probably not, but it was several years ago and i don’t recall the exact details. It was on my GF’s computer, and there was no “toolbox” software for checking or monitoring the drive’s health. I recall that the widely used Sandforce controller software had a bug or glitch so that if you used Windows “Hibernate” feature a Sandforce-based SSD would freeze or crash coming out of hibernation. This affected millions of computers around the world until it was eventually fixed by a firmware update. This goes to the importance of validation before releasing a product onto the market. We have a 96GB version of that same Kingston model (called V100+) and it’s still going strong. for what it’s worth. Some brands including the three i mentioned earlier do offer free toolbox software which is handy for those who want to check drive health. Personally, i just back up data each week and make a system image every month. Nothing i do could be called mission-critical so that’s sufficient, and it’s scheduled so it’s automatic.

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Two caveats and one recommendation-

First, are you certain the hard drive is the problem? While others have mentioned batteries and fans, the motherboard can also be a problem, although rarely so these days.

Second, if the hard drive IS, indeed, the problem, make sure any drive you get is compatible with your SATA II connections- some are only compatible with SATA III.

The recommendation is that you get NTI echo software and a USB-to-SATA cable when cloning your HD. The cable is the fastest way to connect the new drive to you laptop. If you have partitioned your HD, NTI Echo software allows you to resize partitions on the copy, which is especially important if your new drive is different in volume than your old drive. If the new HD is smaller, you can make sure any restore partition from the OEM isn’t sized so small it won’t copy over. You can also adjust the OS partition and the data partition- a wise partitioning to do, if you’ve already done it- in order to make sure your OS partition is large enough (at least 20% free space) and then use the remaining space to store as much data as possible.

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The OP can always use the Thread Tools to Mark this thread as solved if his/her question(s) have been answered.

43323-_mark_thread_as_solved
Click to enlarge

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Don’t quite know what I’m lookin’ at here, but since you asked:
Dell Precision M4700 Workstation (discontinued)
CPU: Third generation Intel Core i7 2.80 GHz, Ivy Bridge
Drive: 320 GB Seagate SCSI Disk Device (SATA-II)
RAM: 8 GB
Intel Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller
DVD-ROM drive
2 USB 3.0 ports
1 USB 2.0 port
15″ screen, 1920 x 1080
(I chose Dell’s smallest hard drive because, after 20 years of computing, I’m only using 31% of the drive’s capacity.)

This minor spec sheet [pdf] would indeed indicate that your system is NOT too terribly old [DDR3 memory standard] and that you CAN readily & easily replace the hard drive.

Go here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Products/?app=manuals
See if you can find any manuals that show your SATA standards and or other schematic diagrams.
With a workstation model you should be able to replace the drive at will and it shouldn’t be too old for a SSD drive replacement.
Dell might even have suggestions.

The next thing for you to do, if your comfortable enough, would be to open the hard drive bay and eyeball the drive.
you’ll be looking at size and SATA+power connections, then go looking for SSD drives that match.
There are a number of size standards: 1.3 inch, 1.8 inch, and 2.5 inch (most common), and 3.5 inch (not likely to be compatible for you)
You’ll likely be looking at something that you could “plug in” to the slots on your laptop’s internal drive bay.

Your replacement might look something like this.

Another alternative is to take it into a shop and have someone verify. Maybe they can even image your current drive and restore it to the SSD.

Good luck on your endeavor, the laptop’s specs certainly looks decent if you’re not having any
other issues and you are fully content with it otherwise.

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FWIW, I run CrystalDiskInfo to monitor the SMART attributes of my disks. Others use HD Sentinel (not free) and Hard Drive Monitor.

cheers, Paul

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FWIW, I run CrystalDiskInfo to monitor the SMART attributes of my disks. Others use HD Sentinel (not free) and Hard Drive Monitor.

cheers, Paul

Thanks for the reminder about CrystalDiskInfo. We’ve used their companion app CrystalDiskMark many times for a quick check on hard drive and SSD performance. If anyone here wants to download either of these utilities may i suggest that you choose the “Portable” version which comes without ads and doesn’t need installing. It just runs directly as a .exe file.

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Others use HD Sentinel (not free)

There is a free/trial version, last time I checked their forum, indications from the author were that it was ok to continue using the trial version. I’m sure he’d prefer it if you were to upgrade to one of the better versions though.

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How do you check a SSD with Crystal Info? How do you interpret the values? Thanks in advance for explaining this to me.

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You don’t need to interpret the values for the warnings to work.

If you are keen you should keep an eye on these for increases.
Reallocated Sector Count: Bad sectors found and fixed.
Uncorrectable Error Count: Sectors that can’t be fixed and may have lost data.

cheers, Paul

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