Ginger Will

not?

I have a Dell 6400 with a 50GB Hd. It is basically full and is slow as fryer tuck. I am considering as a short-term solution swapping the hd for a 250gb version. possibly a 7200 rather than a 5400.

Before anyone tells me its crap; I know it's crap and I intend to upgrade when funds allow.

So:

A) Will it speed it up much?

B) I don't have am OS cd as it was a factory install, so what are the options to migrate the data? Ideally free or cheap. I am only looking to spend £35.

C) any info on the reliability of this:


Any help would be appreciated

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

What's it full of? Stuff you use regularly? If not i'd be tempted to bung it on an external drive. I got a 1tb from comet a little while ago, it was around 50 quid.

Acidburn

as above, use the money to get an external drive that way you won't have to mess with nothing major.

alistairolsen

If you're upgrading anyway, go for a solid state drive. Do you have an original windows key on a sticker somewhere on the machine?

Ginger Will

Funnily enough I have removed all kinds of shit and transferred some data such as all the music off onto an external hd from another dead laptop, but it seems to be the programs bunging it up!

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

Go in to add / remove programs, sort by highest capacity then see if there's any you can do without. Do a defragment after and it should run a bit better.

Eagle

iTrader: (2)

a. if you have no space left then yes it will improve, the 7200 will help access times.
b. erm .... http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ to find your registration key for windows, then you need to find a "version" of what you have as that key will only work for that "version" ..
or put the new one in a dock and use a disc clone software to move all the information over to the new one.
i know that most major manufactureres supply something on their sites to allow you to do this.
however a fresh install can do wonders for a long running system...
c. ermmm no ...

Ginger Will

Thanks for all of your input guys.

Eagle, I would definitely like to do a full new install so that link will be most beneficial; thanks.