Toshiba Satellite P200 Questions -- Upgrading

I've recently purchased this notebook;

http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?lg=en&section=1&group=1&product=7030&part=6482#spectop

Except mine has a 250GB drive instead of 200.

Anyway, I was wondering about how I can upgrade the RAM

It is a dual channel 2x1GB setup, I realize I can setup a 1x2GB 1x1GB setup which would disable dual channel, but that is not much of a performance difference anyway.

Are there any guides on how to do this, exactly? I've never taken this apart before. There is also a 'expansion memory socket' (according to the manual) underneath my laptop, a compartment of sorts that I can unscrew -- is this for upgrading RAM?

Another question -- the bottom of my laptop has two more compartments, although they are physically not labeled, the manual claims that one is HDD1 and the other HDD2*, with the asterisk and everything (I have never seen anywhere that explains this asterisk)

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

 

Hi guys

For reference here is a picture of the underside of my laptop, as per the manual

 

Yes, #7 is for ram, as stated by "expansion memory socket". You open that, take out the ram, put in the new one and that's it. It should take you no more than 2 minutes.

About the asterisks, I bet it's because not all models come with a second HDD. So the manual states the bay for HDD1 and for HDD2*. The asterisks probably says "only for models with 2 hard drives installed".

 

Thanks for the response Adinu.

My laptop does only come installed with one hard drive, but I wonder if I can install another one, since there is a bay for it? Or would there be no use, as there may not even be a connector in there as it may be hollow space?

I'd like to find out in paper, before I unscrew the bottom myself

 

If you're machine has 2 hard drive bays, but only came with 1, you can put a second in there.

 

Make sure that you check under the cover to make sure that the connectors are there for the HDD before you buy another one.

 

Great, I'll check that out -- thanks guys.

Also, a future-related question, since I do have a C2D, is it possible to upgrade the CPU in the systems eventually? Is this feasible/possible without damaging components?

 

That all depends on if ur a clutz or not. It can definitely be done safely, but we don't know how comfortable you are with computers, so we can't say whether you would be able to accomplish such an upgrade. But it's doable by someone that knows what their doing.

 

I work in hardware support and build my own desktops and I'm not entirely comfortable with taking my Toshiba apart. Usually with Toshibas you have to take the entire thing apart down to the bare components to do work like that which makes it rather more daunting.