Robert Small, The blog thereof.

This is laptop-centric, desktop users will have a far easier time in general.

I’ve just done my second hard drive replacement on a laptop, I’d never had cause to do them before and everyone who’d mentioned it had warned me it was laced with peril. It would seem that they were wrong. Both IDE* drives were replaced with relative simplicity, I’ll explain how.

You’ll need:

• A 2.5 inch IDE adapter or caddy.
• Cables which come with, usually USB.
• A blank CD.
• A dog, children, lunch, or similar distraction.

What I tested this with:

• Adapters/Caddies:
  • Generic IDE 2.5 inch caddy, USB power and data.
  • Generic SATA 2.5 inch caddy, USB power and data, only for a little data removal, no copying but should work just as well.
• Partition types:
  • ext2
  • ext3
  • linux swap (with resume image)
  • fat16
  • fat32
  • ntfs
• Operations:
  • Copy, paste.
  • Copy, paste and resize.
  • Standard checks.

So, firstly you want to burn a copy of the gparted livecd onto the CD. This CD contains the tools to do all the work we’re intending to do. Now you must take your old hard drive out of your laptop and put it in the caddy/adapter, don’t plug it in yet. Take the new hard drive and put it in your laptop, put the CD in the drive and boot to it.

You’ll be asked a few regional questions, answer them and wait for the gparted screen to show. When this shows plug in the caddy/adaptop and for some, turn it on. Tell gparted to refresh the devices, it’s under the first menu. In the right at the top of the window there’ll be a drop-down list of devices, select your external caddy (most likely the second).

At this point I should mention that when you’re copying data things might break, it’s unlikely but possible. Don’t blame me, blame Canada.

Simply right click the partitions you want to copy over (select copy) then select your new drive and paste them. When you do this you can actually resize them, a useful function as most likely you’re putting in a larger drive. Make your / or OS partition bootable using the flags dialog.

Windows users will probably want to use their install disk to ‘repair’ their installation, Linux users can chroot into their / partition and do a grub-install hd0 to create a new mbr.

There are ways to make this process slightly better/easier but I’m giving you the basics of a GUI based one for lazy people like myself, remember to read manuals and keep a computer with internet access nearby.

Kind regards, Robert.

* This process would be identical for SATA, just pick 2.5 inch SATA adapters insted of IDE.

You will need:

• Half a dozen eggs
• An adapter from your local plug layout to the one you will be staying in
• A multi socket extension, get a surge breaking one if possible
• Glue (optional)

Firstly unwrap everything, if you weren’t intending to do this in the first place then you probably shouldn’t be following this.

Secondly, pop the adapter onto the plug (the one you normally put in the wall). You now have 4/6/8/n sockets of your local plug layout which you can use wherever you’re traveling to.

Now a little warning. This does not convert frequency or voltage, you can only use appliances which will take the frequency/voltage settings from the country you’re traveling to; however, this is not an issue in most places now as most standard appliances take a range of settings, my laptop will work in Europe, England, Japan, Australia, and even the USA with a simple plug change*. What this will enable you to do is provide a reasonably wide range of appliances with power, recently I’ve seen that most charging plugs (mice, phones, speakers, pda’s, cameras, etc) are compatible with this method. If your device isn’t then it’s probably best to buy a multi-voltage/plug adapter from the target country, almost every device has voltage/polarity instructions somewhere near where it gets it’s power.

This method does NOT provide any inbuilt protection from power surges, so I’d advise the purchase of a surge breaker within the power socket extension, this may be extra cost now but replacing everything is an extra cost later. Do not over load this little set up, if you do you will probably be in pretty big trouble from whoever owns the establishment which you’re living in; this is not suitable for running CRTs or kettles off, buy a proper adapter or just a new kettle. Who takes a kettle in their suitcase anyway?

If you decide to use this constantly you may wish to glue the apparatus together to prevent it falling to bits, some two-pin layouts are less than secure.

The only other thing I can say is, don’t do this unless you accept full liability for when you break it. I mean if you break it…

Kind regards, Robert.

* It may work in other places but I haven’t checked this.