laptop repair - Hard drive swap
2014-07
Sachin Kainth
I broke my company laptop (I'm clumsy) and I have had the hard drive checked and it still works. My boss is kindly buying a similar laptop for me. My question is what would happen if I took out the hard drive from the new laptop and replaced it with my old one? Could I just continue working with my data without changes or is there some id that gets stored somewhere that must match with the hardware being used? The laptops are both from HP and the OS was Windows 8.
Traveling Tech Guy
Generally speaking, if both laptops have the exact same hardware, the OS should boot successfully. It may decide to "find new hardware", or download some drivers, but basically will just treat the whole event as if you just changed hardware after shutting down.
Several registry values contain specific machine and hardware IDs (like network interfaces MAC address, Bluetooth IDs etc.) but they should update well.
Your only challenge would be if there's a different BIOS that does not recognize the drive as a boot drive - but that can be overcome as well.
So I'd give it a try.
ProfK
I'm trying to remove the DVD drive from my Acer TravelMate 6592G, but it has two lock 'switches', one of which seems stuck. I'm very nervous about pushing it any harder, as I know too well how easily plastic casings etc. break. Is there anything I can do to help free it?
Bonus points: I would actually like to open up the whole machine, but it seems this is stopping the back/bottom cover from coming lose. After removing all screws, including those inside battery and memory bays, is there anything else I should do?
since you didn't mention a model number, try this web site, plenty of guides how to disassemble various Acer Travelmates.
How to Upgrade, Repair, Disassemble an ACER Laptop or Notebook