Hi,

I have an ASUS F3Jr laptop and it currently has a 120Gb hard disk in it. My question is, are hard disks of laptops upgradeable? I plan on getting a bigger hard disk if possible. Here are a few questions I hope you guys/girls can help me answer:
1. Is the dimension of hard disk for laptops standard? I mean, if I go out and buy a laptop hard disk of any other brand, will it fit into my laptop?
2. Are the pin connectors standard as well?
3. How do I transfer the recovery partition on my 120Gb hard disk to the new hard disk? Is this possible? The format of the recovery partition seems to be different.

1. Modern drives...with small variations that still fit most bays, yes they are standard.

2. Yes. But you need to know whether the drive is SATA or IDE before getting a replacement.

3. Easiest...get an external enclosure and place the original drive in it. Then using drive imaging software make an image of the entire drive. Replace the original drive with the new one in the enclosure and then restore the just made image to it. (this way you don't have to try and work around Windows running while imaging/cloning the drive).

A variation would put the new drive in the enclosure, connect it to the laptop and then boot to a CD that will do the cloning.

3. Easiest...get an external enclosure and place the original drive in it. Then using drive imaging software make an image of the entire drive. Replace the original drive with the new one in the enclosure and then restore the just made image to it. (this way you don't have to try and work around Windows running while imaging/cloning the drive).

A variation would put the new drive in the enclosure, connect it to the laptop and then boot to a CD that will do the cloning.

Thanks for the info MJC.... I just got a bit confused... I had initially thought that the way to do it would be:
1. Get an external enclosure and put the new drive into the enclosure.
2. Create an image of the original drive.
3. Restore the image into the new drive (in the enclosure).
4. Replace the new drive to the laptop (taking out the original drive from the laptop).

Will this work? Or is it flawed?:p

Yep...that's pretty much it.

1. Get an external enclosure and put the new drive into the enclosure.
2. Create an image of the original drive.
3. Restore the image into the new drive (in the enclosure).
4. Replace the new drive to the laptop (taking out the original drive from the laptop).
1. Get a new 2.5" SATA drive (http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=5szNLZMXBJ1nm5CN&content=specifications) and a 2.5" SATA enclosure or USB-to-SATA converter cable.
2. Put the old drive in the enclosure (or attached to a converter cable) and the new drive in the PC.
3. Boot to software such as CopyWipe (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php) or the HDD manufacturers own utility software and copy the old to the new. DON'T COPY/CLONE THE WRONG WAY ROUND.
4. Boot to the new drive.

If any problems then you still have an untampered-with original drive. If not all of the new drive is utilised then the partitions can be moved and/or resized afterwards.

1. Get a new 2.5" SATA drive (http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=5szNLZMXBJ1nm5CN&content=specifications) and a 2.5" SATA enclosure or USB-to-SATA converter cable.
2. Put the old drive in the enclosure (or attached to a converter cable) and the new drive in the PC.
3. Boot to software such as CopyWipe (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php) or the HDD manufacturers own utility software and copy the old to the new. DON'T COPY/CLONE THE WRONG WAY ROUND.
4. Boot to the new drive.

If any problems then you still have an untampered-with original drive. If not all of the new drive is utilised then the partitions can be moved and/or resized afterwards.

HI Paul, thanks for the clarification... it helps a lot.

Just wondering why step 2 should be done the way it is where the new drive should be put into the laptop before copying and not the other way around... what is the difference and what is the impact if copying is done from laptop to external rather than external to laptop?

Apologies for all these questions, I'm someone who just wants to understand really well even with very small details. Hope you don't mind...

Also with copywipe, seems like a very very nice tool... i assume i should get the DOS version and create a bootable CD with it.

I like CopyWipe because of its simplicity and because it is only designed to do two tasks. The DOS version from CD or floppy is the way to go.

Yes you can clone from the laptop as is and then swap drives afterwards; its six of one and a half dozen of the other which way round the drives are. Just ensure that you choose the correct destination drive for the new data from the software.

An USB enclosure is good coz you can use your own current drive for backups. If you want the versatility to access 2.5, 3.5 IDE as well as SATA drives in the future then there are adapter cables (http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-USB-DSC5-3-5-Inch-Converter-Adapter/dp/B000HJ99DI/ref=pd_cp_e_0?pf_rd_p=413863501&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000A1A874&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0S81N513PN6FTEX5FWAG).

Thanks Paul.... yep, read thru the manual and this is definitely the sofware I need. Already downloaded the dos version. Also found out that my 120Gb is on SATA so I'll have to buy another SATA laptop drive as well as an external casing....

Thanks again! Big help!