Who has upgraded their HD?

I am looking to upgrade my HD on my m6809 simply because I want my computer to run faster, programs load quicker, etc.

Who has done it? Would you recommend it? How much did it cost?

My problem is that I have spent hours if not days loading all the software that I use, mounting it on virtual drives, finding keys, etc. If i have to do all the work again, I will probably be happy with a slower computer. Is there a program that lets you mirror the entire old drive to your new drive so you can just power down the computer swap out the drives, and have the exact same computer except with a new drive?

thexbox.blogspot.com

 

very easy [ ] I just did this and did a bunch of research beforehand:

(1) use Norton Ghost to take an image of the hard drive - write it to DVD (which you'll boot from when restoring the image to the new drive)

(2) buy the 60GB 7200rpm Hitachi travelstar 7K60 (I bought it from dell on sale a month or two ago at $140 or so, and posted on this site as it was a great deal - heard it went as low as $125). don't get the travelstar E7K60 - waste of $$ and recommended against.

(3) pop in the hard drive, and if you're OEM drive was 60GB, extremely easy. If it's 80GB, you'll have to do a drive re-size after restoring the image to reclaim the space.

Note: Seagate recently announced 80 and 100 GB 7200 rpm drives, but probably not avail until January.

for more info, do a search on this site and notebookforums.com http://notebookforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=7518d343ff732d483cc9a1381c15ac2b&f=76

good luck!

 

Stupid question:

How can norton ghost, let you burn an 80 gig hard drive image to a 4.5 gig DVD?



thexbox.blogspot.com

 

It compresses the data, however an 80GB hard drive that is full would take at least 15-20 DVDs to hold the data. As far as drives go I would get the tried and proven Hitachi 60GB 7200 rpm drive. The announced seagate drives will be awhile before they hit the market and it is foolish to be on the bleeding edge so to speak when a new capacity point coupled with the 7200 rpm spindle; it would be wise to wait before buying one of these until a few months after they come to market so that the bugs and problems are worked out.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

good point on the ghost. I keep regular updates of all my core OS and applications, which is about 9-10GB, and with high compression, ghost fits onto a single DVD. I keep all my data, media, cd software images, installables, etc. on an external USB2 drive (you can buy a $10-15 enclosure for your current internal drive). I also coincidentally had the OEM 60GB and replaced with the 7200rpm Hitachi.

It is possible with the right gear to clone the 80 to the 60 (assuming you have used 60 or less), and keep it as bootable, etc., but you'd need another computer and a couple usb enclosures. not a huge deal, but if you have it around not difficult to do.

good luck!

 

Another option would be to use an external HD (USB2.0) Use Norton Ghost to backup to the external HD. Create a standalone Ghost CD or floppy (use an external one) and restore from the external HD. One disk, don't have to keep swapping.

I haven't done the deal yet, but I'm thinking I'm going to. RAM first though. Then HD, if I decide I truely need it (in which case, I'm going 80GB 7200RPM....are any available atm?)