Topic: Laptop replacement

[Clive]

Mrs Clive's aging Dell Studio 1745 laptop has been on its last legs for some considerable time.  When it boots up it gets as far as the DOS screen which states the hard disk is knackered and wants to be put out of its misery.  However, pressing F1 allows a full boot to Windows 10 and the computer can be used perfectly OK.  The error message has appeared for over two years and the battery is flat so it only works on mains.  My dilemma is whether to get it refurbished (she really loves the machine) with a new HDD and battery or just buy her a new laptop.  She only uses it for photos and Word so she's not too bothered about performance.  However, she insists on a 17.3"  screen.  She turns her nose up at a refurb. 

[Simon]

How about doing what Gill did and replace the HDD with a new SSD?  If you didn't want to tackle it yourself, I'm sure a local computer shop would be able to do it for you, and it would work out a fraction of the cost of a new machine.  You wouldn't lose Windows or your programs as the existing drive can be cloned to the new SSD.

[Clive]

I think that would be a popular decision Simon.  I'm sure they could fit a new battery too. 

[Simon]

A new battery is peanuts, and a monkey could fit one, so even if you just got someone to upgrade the hard drive, you could do the battery yourself, but I guess while it's in the shop they might as well do that as well.

[GillE]

There's loads of guides to replacing a HDD with a SDD on YouTube.  If I can do it, anyone can!  I bought a disk mounting kit as well as the SSD but I'm sure you could canibalise redundant hardware and do the job easily for less than £60.

[Clive]

That sounds like a plan Gill.  I'll have to wait until we return from London until we get it sorted.  Mrs Clive wants to delete lots of stuff off it too before the new drive goes in.