To upgrade the hard drive on a M1710 do you have to remove any heatsinks ?

I am just wondering how complercated it is to upgrade the hard drive on my M1710 laptop. if I have to remove the GC or CPu then I wont bother

Thanks !!

 

It's easy to do physically...

The tough part is re-partitioning and re-installing the OS and applications...

If you can find a connector that adapts from a USB port to an internal hard drive pin interface, you can Ghost your current hard drive over to the new hard drive (Symantec and Acronis both have software to do that...I recommend Acronis)...unfortunately, I'm not too sure either software can set up the partitions for Media Direct...

As far as the installation, turn your laptop over, and unscrew the two locking screws for the hard drive bay and slide it out...

Unscrew the four screws that hold the hard drive to the caddy (thin metal cage) and remove the old hard drive...

Put the new hard drive in the caddy, and re-fasten the four screws...

Slide the bay back into the laptop and re-fasten the two locking screws...

It's the easiest laptop upggrade to do (physically)...software wise, it can be a nightmare...particularly if you want the Dell Media Direct partition or you're going to install an OS from scratch...

PS. I own an m1710 and I have done what you're wanting to do...the Dell website also has pictures of the operation described above on their Support webpage for the m1710

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsm1710/en/SM/hddrive.htm#wp1123687