Dell Inspiron laptop HD replacement

[Cornish Jack]

G'day to the Gurus
I need to replace/install a new or S/H HD in a Dell Inspiron laptop. Obviously, one could obtain from Dell; alternatively, if buying S/H, are there any restrictions as regards type, size (physical), connections etc? I'm quite happy doing the techie bits on desktops but laptops have, so far, been a "buy and use" area - no delving around inside - hence the query. Any advice gratefully received.
TIA

[FunkyMunky]

You should be able to use any 2.5 inch laptop hard drive. When you remove the existing Dell drive, it may have a proprietary connector on it which has a different pin layout to the one you would normally get with a drive. The new drive wont fit in the laptop without this connector, but you can usually remove the connector from the dell drive and stick it onto the new drive without any problems. Just be sure to align the Dell connector properly when you place it onto the new drive. The Dell hard drives always seem to be in strange locations to me. Rather than behind the battery or behind a hatch, some require you to unscrew the audio panel on the side and slide that out to access the drive caddy.

[Cornish Jack]

Many thanks F M
You have covered the problem area precisely!
I've found the access point and (I hope!) it should be fairly straightforward.
Again thanks:ok:

[18-Wheeler]

Done it a few times with the two Inspiron's I've had.
Piss-easy - Just pull the drive carrier out and four screws hold the drive in place.
As mentioned above there's a small adaptor to let the HD plug into the receptacle but it's just a very simple device.
It only takes a few minutes.

[SilentlyScreaming]

Don't know what size (as in Gigs), 2.5" drives go to, but might be worth checking the maximum size your laptop's BIOS can handle, before buying. You might be fine, but worth finding out first...

[toothpic]

Recently replaced a HD on a dell inspiron, dont forget you will need a copy of the operating system and drivers, ( which you dont get as standard from dell anymore.)

As mine was a warranty replacement they sent the required disks along with the new hdd...

[Cornish Jack]

Thank you for the replies.
Physically fitting the drive was quite straightforward but once in place, the BIOS didn't recognise it and, so, I couldn't FDISK it!!:{
Originally thought that the drive might be faulty - bought as new item on E-Bay. Luckily, I have another laptop and tried it in that - no problems .... FDISK'ed, formatted and installed OS. Not at all sure what to make of the Dell failure - the BIOS didn't 'see' the CD drive either. Any thoughts, please??
TIA

[FunkyMunky]

Have you checked the jumper settings on the drive? Most don't have any jumpers at all but it might be worth looking at the label on top to see if it needs to be set.

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Check the bios settings and that they are not user selected for the old hard drive - auto detect should IMHO find the new drive and voila - alternatively input the actual drive details - cyls heads etc which may be written on the drive. For my money though go for auto detect.

Cheers

[Jhieminga]

I've had the same thing happen to me on an old Toshiba laptop. Bought a new HD, fitted it but the computer couldn't make heads nor tails from it. The BIOS on laptops doesn't always have the full options to recognise a HD, in those cases the HD type is hardcoded somewhere in the machine.

I've managed to solve the issue on my laptop by switching HD brands. The drive that came out was an IBM, it wouldn't recognise a 6 Gb Toshiba, but when I switched it for a 10 Gb IBM it booted up without any problems. I did need to install a drive overlay to 'fool' the BIOS, but many HD manufacturers have this software available from their websites.

Something similar may be the case here, so if you've got the option to try a different drive (I took my laptop with me to the store and fitted it there) try getting the same brand as the one that came out. If that doesn't work, and the BIOS doesn't have any drive parameters to set, then you can probably only exchange it for the same type again.

[Cornish Jack]

Many thanks for all the help.
Just to up-date, all is now working OK - I bought another HD - Dell original, brand new, 'pulled' from another Inspiron. The caddy wasn't correct, so exchanged it for my own, popped into place and Lo and Behold! all working as advertised!! :D
Presumably the BIOS is set up to only work with Dell's own. For the moment I shall just accept that it works and leave the investigation into 'WHY' until later.