Replacing my hard drive

[jmt356]

I am considering swapping out my hard drive for a bigger one with more storage capacity. I called Best Buy Geek Squad to ask their price for swapping it out for me. This is what they told me:
A. $49.99 to physically replace the old internal hard drive with the new one
B. $130 - $200 to install windows on my new hard drive. The range in cost depends on the disk that I have (which I believe I still have) .. they said they need to look at my laptop to give a firm price for this.
C. $150 to transfer all the data from the old hard drive to the new hard drive

What are B and C two different figures? If they clone my old hard drive using Acronis, and then write the image (clone) to the new hard drive, the new hard drive have Windows be installed along with all of the data on the old hard drive?

[StuartR]

They are NOT quoting to copy an image from your old hard drive to the new one. They are quoting to completely reinstall windows on the new drive, and then to copy specific data from the old drive to the new one.

[agibsonsw]

Seems a lot of money, probably a lot more than the disk itself.

I think I would attempt it myself. Installing the disk itself is normally fairly painless, as long as the drive bay is accessible. But I would, personally, need to do a bit of research before attempting it. I would want to obtain and print clear instructions for "kick-starting" the drive and installing Windows. But if you intend to clone your old drive, which I assume would be a much easier process, then you already seem aware of the steps involved.

But perhaps you don't have the time or the interest to do this? Andy.

[John Gray]

I called Best Buy Geek Squad to ask their price for swapping it out for me.

In the UK, we have equivalent people at (perhaps) equivalent stores, which prey on the technically incompetent and illiterate; the sort of firm which sells a 2m / 6' USB cable for £35 ~= $55.

It is quite straightforward to do the work yourself, by buying a ~$10 external USB hard disk caddy, and using a trial version of Macrium Reflect (which I used for my recent laptop hard drive upgrade) or HDclone, which I didn't. Or similar Windows or Linux utility. All you need is some time and some patience... Here's the MR Technical Article (which doesn't tell the full story, BTW!)

[agibsonsw]

I apologise in advance for piggy-backing, but is it possible to clone a disk to DVDs and then cause this to auto-install on the new disk? I'm kinda assuming that it must be possible.
Andy.

[John Gray]

About the only way you could do this that I can think of would be to convert your current hard disk partition(s) to ISO file(s), and then burn it/them to DVD(s).

My other reply is, "No"!

(Remember that DVD format is not NTFS...)

[agibsonsw]

About the only way you could do this that I can think of would be to convert your current hard disk partition(s) to ISO file(s), and then burn it/them to DVD(s).

My other reply is, "No"!

(Remember that DVD format is not NTFS...)

..then we would need a piece of software that would install/convert the ISO without the benefit of an OS! But then, as you say, a USB disk caddy is only $10.

(10 USD = 6.18 GBP - in theory but tech (and books) never seem to obey 'normal' currency conversion.) Andy.

[John Gray]

For disk caddies, it seems to work the opposite way! I think my 2½" one was £18...

[ChrisGreaves]

... their price for swapping it out for me.

I can supply the names of at least two of my friends who can tell you that the price of handing your drives over to a (generic) geek squad is the loss of all your data.

BEFORE you trust anyone, trust yourself to make a complete backup of your hard drive.
This does NOT mean dragging a copy of "Documents and Settings" (or whatever it is called) to a CD.
It DOES involve (a) buying the largest external USB drive you can lay your hands on and (b) using RoboCopy or similar to copy the entire contents of your hard drive; you never know what vital little parameter file is lurking there.

Once you are satisfied that the backup is made, that external drive does NOT leave your office/house.

And once you've backed up everything, feel free to replace your existing drive with a new one, install Windows from your legal CD, then RoboCopy back those folders you think you need.
If you're worried about opening your laptop, have the geeks do the physical business of unscrewing/screwing the hardware.
Just don't let them screw your data.

It's nowhere near as difficult as I make it sound.
Honest!

[jmt356]

The 250 GB disk is $55.

Stuart, why would they completely reinstall windows on the new drive, and then copy specific data from the old drive to the new one? Wouldn’t it be much easier to just clone my current hard drive and then copy the image to the new one? If they did that, wouldn’t Windows be installed on the new drive? If so, are they trying to do more work in order to drive up the price? If that is their strategy, wouldn't it be easier to just clone the disk to the new drive and keep the price just as high?

[StuartR]

My guess is that they prefer reinstalling Windows because they KNOW that this will work. They have no idea what kind of mess your current Windows installation is in, and don't want to find out!

[Bigaldoc]

I can supply the names of at least two of my friends who can tell you that the price of handing your drives over to a (generic) geek squad is the loss of all your data. <snip>

And, from THAT "geek squad" I can add at least three more "casualties" of complete loss. I wouldn't trust them with my trash bin let alone my valuable data. Sorry, I just had to say it!

[jmt356]

You all don't inspire much confidence in the Geek Squad.

When I copy the clone to the new disk, Windows and all of the other programs that were installed on the old drive will be installed on the new one, right? I know I asked this same question on my backup thread last November last year but just want to confirm.

[StuartR]

...When I copy the clone to the new disk...

Assuming that this really is a clone, created with software such as Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect, then the clone disk will have identical content to the original including Windows and all of your applications and data.

[agibsonsw]

If you are creating the clone yourself then I suppose you could just employ the Geek Squad to swap drives over for you?

But if the cloning failed (for some unknown reason..) then you might employ them to repeat the cloning process. I'm assuming they would be willing to do this for you

[BobH]

Geek Squad wants to maximize their revenue. They were purchased by Best Buy. If that doesn't speak volumes to you, you are naive. I've ever only had bad experiences with that organization. I gave them 3 tries all of which they screwed up beyond all recognition.

Turn 180 degrees from Geek Squad and run for your life (and to preserve your assets - both money and data) is my advice.

Having warned you away from BB and GS, let me assure you that opening the case of most laptops should not create trepidation. It is easily done. Google the web site of the manufacturer of your device and look to see if they don't have an article that tells you exactly how to proceed with the hardware change out. Read it and you should find that the physical swap out is a very simple task - certainly not worth the charge suggested by GS.

Having read that article, you should be somewhat more confident. Reinforcing what Chris said, invest in a USB hard drive of sufficient capacity to back up your data, back it up, and verify it. When I went though this process, I already had 2 USB hard drives. I used one for the data backup and one to create a clone of the replaced hard drive. After 1) backing up, 2) cloning the hard drive (using Acronis), I removed the old HD and installed the new one then restored the image from the backup drive. Bob's yer uncle.

Search the web (google is sometimes your friend) for how-to's on installing larger hard drives on laptops. There are many out there. I haven't searched recently and some of the articles might be dated. Forewarned is forearmed.

Finally, becoming comfortable with this process is an excellent learning experience. Become proficient at back ups first. Then become proficient at cloning. The actual physical hardware change out is very easy and straightforward. For what less than GS proposed that you spend (probably), you will wind up with 2 USB hard drives, Acronis, and a lot of confidence.

[tedshemyers]

Create an Image of your HD with a good 3rd party app (Acronis True Image Home or Macrium Reflect are 2 such apps.) Once you have the Image, make the bootable rescue disk that you will use to boot into the app. Install the new HD and boot to the rescue disk you created and restore the Image to the new HD. You can use DVD's with either of these apps, BUT:

I would purchase an Ext HD to store the Images on since I would also create new Images whenever you make a change to your system (i.e. updates, install or uninstall apps, etc) The Ext HD will cost much less than what you are talking about spending with the Best Buy Geek Squad and will give you a lot of future capabilities.

This is a very easy job. The Geek Squad are trying to earn their bonuses on you! Replacing the HD, either in a desktop or laptop (I don't believe you say which you have) is also very easy to accomplish. The are numerous sites that will walk you through the process (Google provides just a sampling of this)

[jonwallace]

Seagate/maxtor have software here designed to smooth the way through installing a new hard drive. (Only one of the drives has to be a seagate/maxtor, the other can be anything (not an oatcake...))

Western Digital have similar here

I can't find anything for Samsung, and I'll leave toshiba and fujitsu to you

[BobH]

Replacing the HD, either in a desktop or laptop (I don't believe you say which you have) is also very easy to accomplish.

Good catch, Ted! If the upgrade in question is for a desktop and it has only one drive, chances are very good that there is an empty bay and available idle cable. One would only have to install a new HD and cable it up and let the OS find it.

I made the leap of logic that the computer in question was a laptop because upgrading a desktop HD is so simple as to be no issue, provided there is an extra bay or there is an HD without the OS.

[John Gray]

Line 5 of the initial post refers to "my laptop". Hence I somewhat doubt that a PC is being referred to...