Upgrade Hdd In Laptop

[martinjr]

I'm aware that the BIOS controls limits for hard disk drive etc but I cannot find the info from my own laptop. I have a Toshiba Satellite L550-113 which came with a 500GB hard disk as standard. I just want to know if this laptop will accept an upgrade to 1TB (or higher) disc? I can then clone it from the original disk. I don't want to go to the expense of buying a disk that won't run on the laptop.

[bhg481]

There is no problem increasing your HDD for any computer built this millenium.

How do you intend to clone your current HDD - a straight clone probably won't work. If you have Windows 7 (probably Windows 8 as well, but I don't know) you can create a system image on external media. You also need a bootable CD/DVD.
Having created your system image you swap out the HDDs, restart your computer from the bootable CD/DVD and then restore your computer from the system image.
It's a straightforward job but takes a fair amount of time (hours).
The alternative is to put your new HDD into the computer and then re-create your system but then you'll have to re-install all your personal software and copy your data from the old HDD to the new one.

[martinjr]

I intend using Acronis True Image and my understanding is that this works perfectly for both laptop and desktop systems, just a slight difference in the methodology. However, you may be correct - I haven't done any great research on this other than actually performing a similar operation on adesktop disk a couple of years ago and this system is still operating very well. Perhaps 'clone' is the incorrect description? And yes, I take backup images weekly so there is that option, as you suggested, also but it tends to take longer than above mentioned. I'll be guided by consensus.

[bhg481]

When I upgraded my HDD recently I tried using a cloning program (Reflect, I think) but it didn't work, so I resorted to the method I described earlier - no problems. I used the same system to put my old HDD into my wife's laptop - again with no problems.
Good luck, whichever system you use.

[Noe-schitt]

This May help with regard to size

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/i-have-a-3-tb-drive-windows-7-ultimate-wont-format/b1cc3811-f25f-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5

I use "EaseUS To Do" to clone a partition and it gives you the option to enlarge the partition on to a larger hard disk

[VHG]

The real question you need to ask yourself is do you really need 500Gb of data on your hard drive (assuming it is nearly full as you want a larger one)?.

500Gb is a huge amount of data and I cant believe you "need" it all on your laptop.

Why not buy an external hard drive (or two) and move some of the data onto those external hard drives.

That will free up space on the current 500Gb hard drive, so you wont need to upgrade it to a 1Tb drive.