How to upgrade laptop hard drive windows 8

If I buy and fit a new hard-drive, how do I go about installing Windows 8 on it with the licence I've just bought? Can I create a bootable disk before I take the old drive out? Or should I reinstall Vista from the original disks and re-perform the upgrade? This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.

I have the same question 6. I know how to install Windows from CD but have no idea how to safely wipe hard disk. Many thanks! Are you one of those who hold the view that deleting a file is similar to erase it? If yes, you should take a fresh look at this issue. We'll explain reasons in an easier manner. Hard drive is a kind of storage devices which is used to store digital data. Files are stored on the surface of magnetic and rotating platters in hard disk case.

Hard disk changes the magnetic property of platter surface to 1 or 0 when reading or writing data. Thus all data on hard drive will be finally stored in the form of basic binary data, for example, when system saves data like photos, music, etc.

When a file is deleted, those ones and zeros of that files stays unaffected, for only a pointer indicating the file is being deleted. Therefore, the recovering deleted files is available before file data gets overwritten or damaged. What about disk formatting? Formatting works in a similar way, as it does not actually wipe data. Formatting disk or partition looks like tearing the contents of a book without disturbing actual chapters of the book.

Recovery software is also able to retrieve lost files from formatted disk. You may wonder how disk wiping works since deletion and formatting does not work on permanently clean hard drive. Apart from physical damage to hard drive, we can completely remove data with disk wiping technology. As we've mentioned above, to completely erase disk, we should remove those binary data, which means overwriting those zeros and ones with new data. Once binary data of a file is replaced and overwritten by new data, it cannot be recovered any more.

Some professional disk eraser software is able to filling up disk with zeros or random information sector by sector, ensuring no data can be recovered from a wiped disk. Some preparatory work should be done before wiping computer hard drive in order to make sure the disk wiping can be completed without interruption or causing extra issues.

Once everything gets ready, you can start erasing computer hard drive or external disks. The rest part of this instruction will show you how to wipe a hard drive, external disk, SD card or flash drive via different ways. This method wipes computer by using the reset feature in Windows 8. This section takes Windows 10 as example to explain how to wipe computer completely. If your computer is running an older version of Windows, you can try steps in Method 2 to erase hard disk.

Here are steps to wipe a hard drive in Windows Step 1. Click " Start " menu and select " Settings " option. Step 2. Click " Recovery " option on the left navigation options and then click " Get Started " button under " Reset this PC " section.

Step 3. Select " Remove everything " option. This will remove all of your personal files, apps, and settings and start over. Step 4. Select " Remove files and clean the drive " when you are asked to whether to clean the drives too. The cleaning process may take longer time but it makes sure no one can recover erased files.

Step 5. You can also go directly to the manufacturer's website to get your laptop's manual or maintenance guide. If it's available, download the laptop's service and maintenance guide, because it will have detailed information about the specific hardware you can use to upgrade your laptop. Determine how much memory your Windows Vista or Windows 7 laptop is using.

Click the Start menu, right-click Computer, and then click Properties. Determine how much memory your Windows 8 laptop is using. On the desktop, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. Determine how much memory your Mac laptop is using. Click the Apple menu, and then click About This Mac.

For more information, click More Info , and then click the Memory tab. Determine if you have the maximum RAM or not. In the laptop manual you downloaded, check the system specifications to see if you're already using the maximum RAM or not. Method 2. Determine the kind of RAM your laptop uses. In the laptop manual you downloaded, look for the section on memory modules. If you can't find the information in the laptop manual, there are tools online that will show you the correct RAM for a specific make and model of laptop.

Click here for an example of one of these tools. Buy the RAM you need. You can buy the RAM you need in many different places.

Once you've identified the specific type of RAM you want to buy, in a search engine, type the specific RAM type, and then choose an online store where you'd like to purchase the RAM. If you're using more than one RAM memory module, you need to make sure that they're each the same size.

They'll both need to be 2 GB, for example. Before opening the computer or handling the RAM, ground yourself. Static electricity can destroy computer components. The simplest way to do this is to touch a piece of metal before handling computer components, but there are methods you can use too.

Use a screwdriver to open the RAM memory access panel. On many laptops, this panel is on the bottom of the laptop case and secured with one or more screws. Your laptop maintenance guide will have very specific instructions on how to do this. Install the new RAM memory. Method 3. Find out what hard drives are compatible with your laptop. In the user manual or maintenance guide, determine the hard drive models that are compatible with your laptop. In a search engine, search for the specific models of hard drives that are compatible with your laptop.

If the hard drive isn't the right physical size, it won't fit in your laptop. Method 4. Plugin the laptop with its power cord and turn it on. Backing up a hard drive can take more time than a laptop battery has charge. If you plug it in, you won't need to worry about how much battery life you have. Backup your laptop's hard drive.

Before installing your new hard drive, copy the contents of your laptop's current hard drive to the new one. This will save some time, because you won't have to reinstall all of your applications. On Windows 8, System Image Backup is the program you can use to backup your hard drive. On Windows 7 and earlier, it's called Backup and Restore. If you want to start fresh with your new hard drive, don't backup to the new hard drive.

Install your operating system, and then install and copy over any files that you need. Connect the new hard drive to your laptop's USB port. You can also put the new hard drive into an external hard drive case which will have a USB connection. Install the cloning software on the old hard drive. Some hard drive manufacturers include their own cloning software, which may already be on your computer. You can also use a third-party application. Clonezilla is a multi-platform, free, open source disk cloning utility.

Clone the old hard drive onto the new hard drive. Getting more storage on an SSD will be more important to most people than getting more speed. It might be worth the small price premium versus a standard hard drive. Your next step is to decide whether you want to transfer your operating system to the new drive or just do a clean installation and start fresh. There are pros and cons for each. Transferring your operating system and all your data and installed apps means not having to worry about reinstalling Windows, setting it up the way you like it again, and then reinstalling each of your apps.

The bad news is that this is a slow and tedious process. Most new drives come with tools to make it happen. You can go that way with a desktop, too, but it may be easier just to install the new drive, do the transfer, and then decide whether to leave the old drive in place for extra storage or uninstall it.

There are also advantages to just performing a clean installation of your operating system on your new drive. The big one is that you get to start fresh. You get to set it the way you want, and only install what you want.

The downside, of course, is that you have to do all that. Different laptops have different methods for accessing the storage drive compartment, if they allow easy access at all. Some business-class designs let you swap out a drive by removing a single screw, others might need you to completely remove the bottom of the machine or even take out the keyboard. You can usually find specific instructions by searching the web for your laptop manufacturer and model. That loosens the metal body plate enough to let me pull it off the computer.

You can see the hard drive in the lower-left corner. To pull the drive itself out, I need to remove another screw, pull the drive up a bit, and then slide it off of the integrated SATA connection. For this model, the drive caddy is just a thin piece of aluminum with a rubber bumper. I pulled it off, and then placed it on the new drive.

Then, I reverse the process, slipping the new drive onto the SATA connection in the laptop, screwing the caddy back down to the frame, and replacing the body panel. Again, this process is going to vary quite a lot depending upon which laptop you have. This process is a bit more involved than on a laptop, but the good news is that getting the case off and accessing the drive is typically a lot easier than on most laptops. If you built your own PC, the screws needed to install your new drive should have come with the case—I hope you kept the box of accessories.

Power down your machine and remove all cables, then move it to your work area. Most designs require you to remove two to three screws from the back side before it will slide or swing out. Set the access panel aside. Some desktops require that you take the whole case cover off rather than just an access panel. Instructions should be easy to find. Take a moment to orient yourself.