Switching Harddrives?

Question

I have a Dell Latitude D600 laptop that seems to have a dead hard drive. One of my friends gave me a Inspiron 600m with a broken screen that I could maybe use with a monitor or something. Anyway, my question is, could I take the good hard drive out of the Inspiron and put it in the Latitude? Or is that some sort of mad Dr. Frankenstein of computers type idea?

Answer 1

You could do that if you know your way around the inside of a computer and if the hard drive is from the same type of computer you are putting it into (Desktop to desktop, laptop to laptop, a laptop to desktop won't work and a desktop to laptop won't work).  If you do, I suggest it as long as the hard drive is in good condition.  If the hard drive has many files on it, be sure to delete them.

Answer 2

The answer is yes and no.  You have to remember that a hard drive is like a car engine.  Like any car engine, it's designed for certain models of cars although all cars have engines.  Hard drives are configured the same way.

So yes, you can install that hard drive from the Inspiron and you will get it to work.  However, because it's in a Latitude laptop with with different configurations, different video card, network card, etc than that of the Inspiron, you'll probably develop errors if it'll even boot up correctly.  The best choice is to format the Inspiron HD in the Latitude laptop as if you were starting over from scratch.  Then you won't have the problems and everything configured on the HD will work with the Latitude.

Answer 3

No, this should work providing you have your original Restore disk for the Dell. You may have to get the drivers you need from the internet at the Dell site. Otherwise, you will need a CD with an operating system to install. Swapping the hard drive is easy, just open the door on the bottom of the case and pull out the dead drive. Replace with the new. Disk in the CD drawer, boot up and follow the wizard.  

Answer 4

Yes you can, remove it and insert it in the Dell.

You will need use the restore disk that came with the laptop to put windows back on.  

Answer 5

As long as the connections are the same (pata/sata/ide/etc) then it should be a pretty easy swap out.  Just remove the old one and replace it with the new one.

You might want to have your OS disk ready though to reinstall windows/Linux/mac OS because if your hard ware is significantly different between the computers it wont just "boot right up" with out a reformating and reinstall of the OS