Hard Drive Swap Questions

Looking at getting an Emachine M6805/7 to hold me over for another year until the next new batch (the ones AFTER the 9700 and 5700) of mobile GPU's come out.

My question is this: how easy would it be to swap out the hard drive for a faster one? And once I get it in, will the Emachine restore cd's allow me to use the new drive. . .or would I have to purchase another Windows XP disk, thereby costing too much money for what I am considering?

If I can upgrade the hard drive and memory (which I can), I think this one is a winner. Comments would be GREATLY appreciated if anyone has done this or knows if it can be done with success.

 

anytime you purchase a new computer that includes XP Home or Pro you should get a restore cd that also includes that OS and your license key to it, so using the restore cd on a new hard drive will always be a good way to start out with a clean machine.

i'm 90% sure the eMachines notebook hard drive is not swappable, but rather is fixed. That's sort of the way they're able to keep prices low, fixed parts and configurations rather than modular are almost always cheaper.

 

Hey Andrew,

You can upgrade the hard drive. Many people are upgrading to the 7K60 drives with 7200RPM. Apparently, it's pretty simple to perform. I looked for directions, but didn't find any. But, they are not soldered in.

Cheers!

Nobbie

 

thanks Nobbie, I stand corrected!

 

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has swapped out the hard drive. As I noted in another post I have the 4200 and would consider upgrading. My unit came with the xp restore disc and code. The only disk it came with.

 

nesbo just did this without issue and he noticed a nice performance upgrade. Swapping drives is generally a very easy procedure.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

sorry to ask a dumb question for this thread....but,

how does one determine which hardrive one has (4200, 5400, etc)?

thanks

 

In your device manager you can see which model you have. The default is 4200 usually, unless specified.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Here is a link to a page on the emachines website for instructions on replacing memory, hard drive, etc.

http://www.emachines.com/support/service_programs.html

Scroll down to the bottom to download the pdf instructions.

I'm not sure if replacing the HD voids the warranty or not. Can anyone confirm this?

 

Anything that does not require you to open up the laptop will not void the warranty. i.e the memory, HD, and Mini PCI card.

 

Swapping out the hard drive in a M6805 requires removing 2 screws. Intructions with pictures are in the manual.