In this guide I will show you how to replace your laptop hard drive easily and safely

Hard drive replacements in laptops have always been a common occurance with laptops and they will continue to be until technology moves on so that they not longer require moving parts. Luckily, replacing or upgrading your hard drive is pretty simple...

Of course this guide doesn't apply to every single laptop model, some have hard drives hidden away under the palmrest and others are even mounted to the motherboard.

Here's generally how it's done:

1. Place the laptop upside-down.
2. Remove one or more screws that hold the HDD in place, see your owner's manual for locations.
3. The drive should then be able to be slid out and removed from the laptop.
4. Remove the hard drive caddy and attach it to your new drive, if you don't do this the hard drive may not slide in properly and you may bend the pins.
5. Make sure the HDD is firmly in and then boot up your laptop.
6. Should the laptop not boot try removing the drive and re-inserting it as the pins may be misaligned.
7. Remember that new laptop drives ship un-partitioned and not formatted so you will need your recovery CD's.

I hope this guide has clearly outlined the simple steps needed and has helped you upgrade or repair your laptop. Thanks for reading.