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Okay, so over a year ago, ye old laptop had a blue screen of death that it never recovered from, a hard drive that up and quit on the job.
Ever since then, the empty husk of my computer has lurked in the deepest corners of the living room with nary a stir, it's heart and brain, it's soul, dead and gone, after giving out, it was forcefully extracted and placed to the side, without even a canopic jar to keep it safe.
Now that computer has risen once more from the ashes, a new mind has been obtained from sources unknown, this new heart only working thanks to surgery and a donation from the old one.
This is the story of WINDOWS XP.
So, yeah... Anyways, after thinking about it, we decided that it'd be nice to have a computer that works fairly well, but if something happened to it, it wouldn't be a big deal, so we bought a new hard drive for my old laptop. We took the old one to Best Buy and showed it to them, and they found us one that'd work. It was $92 for a 320 GB harddrive. In comparison, the computer came with a 40 GB harddrive years ago orginally. XD
So, after a little troubles with some screws (we had left them in after taking off the cover so they wouldn't be lost, but one was in the way) we were able to see how the old one fit inside the computer originally.
We took the new one out of the box, and uh, it looked different. :| Instead of having a black connector, it just had open wire prongs. We shrugged and tried to plug it in, but it didn't do much good. If I turned the computer sideways, it'd merrily slide out. XD
Also, there were no instructions and it said we should to a professional. :|
So, to the Internets! Me and Mom looked up stuff, it took a while, but I finally found something that said, "take your old hard drive and take off the sled. Also the black connector thing." There was only one thing we found that told that. :| Essentially, you need to steal parts from your old hard drive to make the new one work.
Anyways, we couldn't get the sled off the original one (the screws were in too tight). The sled is the metal edges that surround the first hard drive that was in the computer. It keeps it snug inside and gives it more stability. Mine also has a piece at the end that you use screws to connect to the lid that keeps the hard drive inside and safe.
It took a bit to get the black thing off the prongs, it was on good and tight. The new hard drive had an empty spot where a prong should have been, and when I removed the black thing from the old one, it had an empty spot too, so all was good. :D I had problems getting it on the new hard drive, and I bent one of its prongs. :< Mom got the screwdriver and got the prong back to how it was supposed to be and got the black thing on.
Once the prong cover was on, we slid it into the computer and clicked it in. Then we turned on the laptop, and it works! :D I'm currently installing Windows XP. It took a long time to format the drive, since it was so huge.
Hopefully this might help anybody who has to put a new hard drive in their laptop computer. Number one rule is KEEP YOUR OLD HARD DRIVE.
Edit: I am using a new Western Digital PATA Hard Drive. It was getting hung up and stuck at "Setup is checking your hardware configuration" screen. I did some research online and found somebody on a forum that had the exact same problem with a hard drive from the same company. They say to format the computer using a program called Parted Magic. The Parted Magic site has downloads and information of how to work it. It's a simple process to format the computer using it. Once you're done, stick the Windows XP CD in the computer and have it restart. Install as usual from there. ^_^
Also, for now, revived computer's name is Chell. *derpderpderp*
Ever since then, the empty husk of my computer has lurked in the deepest corners of the living room with nary a stir, it's heart and brain, it's soul, dead and gone, after giving out, it was forcefully extracted and placed to the side, without even a canopic jar to keep it safe.
Now that computer has risen once more from the ashes, a new mind has been obtained from sources unknown, this new heart only working thanks to surgery and a donation from the old one.
This is the story of WINDOWS XP.
So, yeah... Anyways, after thinking about it, we decided that it'd be nice to have a computer that works fairly well, but if something happened to it, it wouldn't be a big deal, so we bought a new hard drive for my old laptop. We took the old one to Best Buy and showed it to them, and they found us one that'd work. It was $92 for a 320 GB harddrive. In comparison, the computer came with a 40 GB harddrive years ago orginally. XD
So, after a little troubles with some screws (we had left them in after taking off the cover so they wouldn't be lost, but one was in the way) we were able to see how the old one fit inside the computer originally.
We took the new one out of the box, and uh, it looked different. :| Instead of having a black connector, it just had open wire prongs. We shrugged and tried to plug it in, but it didn't do much good. If I turned the computer sideways, it'd merrily slide out. XD
Also, there were no instructions and it said we should to a professional. :|
So, to the Internets! Me and Mom looked up stuff, it took a while, but I finally found something that said, "take your old hard drive and take off the sled. Also the black connector thing." There was only one thing we found that told that. :| Essentially, you need to steal parts from your old hard drive to make the new one work.
Anyways, we couldn't get the sled off the original one (the screws were in too tight). The sled is the metal edges that surround the first hard drive that was in the computer. It keeps it snug inside and gives it more stability. Mine also has a piece at the end that you use screws to connect to the lid that keeps the hard drive inside and safe.
It took a bit to get the black thing off the prongs, it was on good and tight. The new hard drive had an empty spot where a prong should have been, and when I removed the black thing from the old one, it had an empty spot too, so all was good. :D I had problems getting it on the new hard drive, and I bent one of its prongs. :< Mom got the screwdriver and got the prong back to how it was supposed to be and got the black thing on.
Once the prong cover was on, we slid it into the computer and clicked it in. Then we turned on the laptop, and it works! :D I'm currently installing Windows XP. It took a long time to format the drive, since it was so huge.
Hopefully this might help anybody who has to put a new hard drive in their laptop computer. Number one rule is KEEP YOUR OLD HARD DRIVE.
Edit: I am using a new Western Digital PATA Hard Drive. It was getting hung up and stuck at "Setup is checking your hardware configuration" screen. I did some research online and found somebody on a forum that had the exact same problem with a hard drive from the same company. They say to format the computer using a program called Parted Magic. The Parted Magic site has downloads and information of how to work it. It's a simple process to format the computer using it. Once you're done, stick the Windows XP CD in the computer and have it restart. Install as usual from there. ^_^
Also, for now, revived computer's name is Chell. *derpderpderp*
