Hard Drive Upgrade Question, Am I Doing this Right?

Inspiron 1520 Specs:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.50 GHz
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (32-Bit)
Hard Drive: 120.0 GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM
Memory (RAM): 2.0 GB
Network: Dell Wireless 1505 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card
Video: 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
BIOS: Dell Inc. 11/05/2007
1 USB 2.0 Port

I am planning on upgrading my hard drive and I have found some suitable replacements for really cheap and they are well worth it, now I would have to ask, since I have been using a 120.0 GB for a while now, is it possible for me to just upgrade to a 320/500/750 GB @ 7200 RPM?

I mean I saw this on the SeaGate website, I'm willing to pay the price, but will it fit my laptop (physically)? And moreover, the real question, will I be able to save all my material from my current hard drive and use it on my new one? I heard someone say earlier that I should just clone it - How do I do that?

I do not want to install everything (Windows, Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and etc.) over again. Also, if someone would explain to me what the benefits are of updating BIOS - atm, I have basic idea of what that is, however too far beyond my understanding to know how to update it...

 

transferring the image from small HDD to larger HDD is pretty straight forward and is well supported under Windows 7, nothing to worry about that. Just create the image and save it to a temperary external USB drive and boot up Windows 7 DVD and restore them back to the new primary HDD.

The only thing to watch out for the newer drive is whether it is 9.5mm or 12.5mm. Most notebook don't take the thicker one, not sure about yours.

If you have an external USB enclosure and don't mind booting up a linux(Arcronis etc.), you can even save the step of imaging and do a direct image clone.

 

I unfortunately have Windows Vista (32-Bit), however I do plan on upgrading to Windows 7, but for now how would I go about doing this within Vista, I don't mind having to read an instruction manual, I manually changed my screen today, so I feel like the superman equivalent of the tech world right now...lol. But yeah, how would be able to do this without upgrading to Windows 7?

 

I don't know if your Vista has this back system image then restore option. Mine don't.

I was doing it the geek way. Boot a copy of ubuntu live CD(on USB) then just in the command prompt:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

where sda is the current primary drive, sdb is the new drive in a USB enclosure. and wait.

then switch the drive and I am done.

software like acronis has a prettier front end to this but is basically doing the same thing. not sure if you need to pay.

edit:
just make sure you don't have them reversed or else you would WIPE everything out of your current installation.

 

The Inspiron 1520 only takes 9.5mm 2.5" SATA drives. I would do a clean install, just my forte.

 

The reason why I want to clone/copy things over is that I'm afraid that I won't be able to access like a factory restore if I needed to, as I have had to restore this laptop once before, I don't want to run into a problem so I'd prefer some type of security blanket just in case. Are there programs out there that would supply this kind of protection?

 

I would do the same, and make sure I did 64-bit so I could get 4GB RAM in that piece asap.

 

same here. My vista is OEM copy that comes with the machine with its own recovery mechanism all on the HDD. One of the reason why I don't want to reinstall a new W7. Everything is intact as if it is a factory machine, except a larger HDD.

 

I'm not sure of how I would be able to use DOS or etc, I was wondering is there a way I can hook up the internal to my machine and just load the image on there? I'm very new to this, please bare with me...I haven't really done anything like this ever.

 

Dell branded discs are probably the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even if your recovery partition is hosed (happens alot on new Dells for some reason) you can still have an activated Windows with the Dell branded discs, and just redownload your drivers from support.dell.com. Yes you don't get all the software, but Dells for the most part don't come with very much.

 

this is what you need:

1. you notebook must be bootable from USB device(I don't want to deal with CD)
2. a bootable USB key(don't try those freebies handed out in conference, they are usually not bootable)
3. go to here UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads
4. download and install it and follow the instruction to load a copy of ubuntu on to the USB key
5. have a USB enclosure to hold your new drive
6. boot with the USB ubuntu (with the enclosure plugged in)
7. start a command shell

You would need to at least get to (7) then we can proceed on how to do the transfer. If you found the above too scary, see if you can get a copy of acronis free.

 

Or, you may want to try making a bootable USB key with this:

See:
Install Ubuntu 9.10 to a Flash Drive from Windows | USB Pen Drive Linux

When you run this small program, it will give you the option to download the ISO you choose from the drop down list.

Very, very cool.

 

that would work too. usually, it is creating a bootable linux USB from windows that is the hardest part

 

Thanks for all your help, truly appreciated!