I usually hibernate my laptop due to several programs running simultaneously with lots of unsaved data in each programs. Usually I use hibernate option when going to the next class and going back to my apartment, because its more convenient for me instead of turning it off which takes a lot of time specially during heavy load of programs.
One day, there is a dialog message saying that my hard drive needs to be backed up, I ignored the warning because I thought it was just an ordinary windows action center message but a day after I booted up my laptop I was alarmed by the warning message I saw, the primary hard drive SMART* reported an error about the health of the HD and suggested an immediate backup.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.
still I do not have an action about the problem, but I have an assumption in replacing the hard drive because I also experience this before and repair is not a worth. After days using my laptop I barely experience lagging, and frequently freezing on explorer when accessing files. By that time I decided to buy a new hard drive and replace the original. Had to visit the local store for 2.5" hard drive for laptop and it cost around PHP3200, but something come to my mind about buying an external hard drive which is also contains same 2.5" hard drive inside. I planned to remove the mini HDD inside and replace it to my laptop old hard drive. I look for the cheapest external hard drive on the internet and found this Seagate Slim 500GB Portable hard drive with USB 3.0 support on www.lazada.com in just PHP2900 compared to naked 2.5" HDD.
I had an idea to swap the new Seagate Slim HDD to my Laptop Old Toshiba HDD (wonder why sony uses toshibe HDDs).
Now time for hands on.
Note** do this with your own risk. There maybe possible damages that can bring to your device, you must know what your doing, or consult first to a technician, your data can be damage when HDD is not taken care properly. I use Seagate Slim HDD 500GB with this one, it maybe different with other brands, but the concept is still same.
Unboxing External HDD
Super Slim
USB 2.0/3.0 mini - type A cable
Tool required: small flat screw driver
Remove cover
Partly opened cover
I can barely see the 2.5" HDD inside
Top cover removed
Remove HDD inside
Remove Control Board
Pretty small IC
On laptop, locate the disk placement part
I got mine from the lower left with my laptop facing down
Unscrew and remove the cover
Remove HDD case
Swap the 2.5" hard disk
Place back the hard disk with the case, ensure that the pins
are properly inserted.
Place and screw the cover
See BIOS to determine if new hard disk is detected
Ready to install Operating Sytem
After installing the Operating System. Place the Old laptop hard drive to the
new external hard disk cover (swap them) and make it like an ordinary
external hard drive. In that way it is easy to restore files from old hard drive.
Easy to transfer data from old disk to new
I hope this post would be useful, im using my new hard drive for about couple of days now and it work so fast. Just try to keep the system cool and use proper ventilation, avoid hibernate all the time, and as much as possible backup important files on cloud.
