Dell Inspiron 6000 HD Swap

It shouldn't be to hard to replace the hd. I doubt you will run into a hd thickness problem in a dell  
Make sure that you get some restore discs with that machine before swapping the hd. I've been noticing some dell notebooks coming w/o any restore discs (if you want to start over they have some system restore garbage on there). That would make getting a new hd going pretty much impossible. If it didn't come with one they probably offer it for aditional charge if you call them  

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

"restore discs???" you don't mean floppies do you? "system restore?"

I have XP Pro on my desktop now. It has system restore. is that what you meant? My plan was to install the new HD immidiately upon receiving the new notebook, so it is my plan to do a clean install of winxp pro (which it will come with) on that.

Another interesting question is if they make something that is external that will allow me to turn that notebook 30 gig HD that I will take out into an external HD for storage. Do they make something that you can just slip it into and then connect via USB???

K8T Neo FIS2R
Athlon 64 bit 3400
2 X 256 Corsaire
Maxtor 40, 120
Western Digital Raptor 74 Gig
ATI AIW Radeon 9700 Pro
NEC LCD Monitor 1760NX
Antec Tru Power 550
Windows XP

The restore disc that usually comes with a laptop is basically a modified windows install disc. It was just modified to only work on that system  
Some of the newer dells I've seen do not have this disc and simply rely on system restore to revert back to the way it was out of the box. That of course won't work so hot if you replace the hd  

There are 2.5" external enclosures avaliable. Many are powered by usb as well so you don't need to haul around an ac adaptor.
You can find a whole bunch of them on newegg.com. I'd put a direct link but it isn't letting me.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

right, but I don't want to restore it to anything. I assume that they will have a disc with the drivers for the vga display, chipset, and video on a CD-rom. I guess. I also assume I will get a copy of Winxp pro on a floppy (OEM) that I can use to reinstall windows at any time, like on a desktop . . . except that more times than not you have to call microsoft to get a new key number!!! now that said, I am pretty sure all of the drivers for their products are at the web site. The new HD I am going to get I am sure will come with a low level format. I will choose boot from CD and install and format/partition the new HD. I can't see why "restore" needs to even come into this since I am just trying to get it back to factory settings . . default settings. If I can't, then I'll put the original HD back in and send the whole thing back.

K8T Neo FIS2R
Athlon 64 bit 3400
2 X 256 Corsaire
Maxtor 40, 120
Western Digital Raptor 74 Gig
ATI AIW Radeon 9700 Pro
NEC LCD Monitor 1760NX
Antec Tru Power 550
Windows XP

Sry I'm making it so confusing. I'm just saying that the notebook might not come with a windows install disc, drivers, etc. You might not get any disc of any kind with it at all. That is what I've been seing lately.
If the drivers are avaliable online then you shouldn't have to much trouble using a windows xp disc of your own. See if the licence on the notebook will work on it though, just to avoid the call the microsoft.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

well Dell will lose this customer if they fail to provide me with discs with drivers on them!!



K8T Neo FIS2R
Athlon 64 bit 3400
2 X 256 Corsaire
Maxtor 40, 120
Western Digital Raptor 74 Gig
ATI AIW Radeon 9700 Pro
NEC LCD Monitor 1760NX
Antec Tru Power 550
Windows XP

Some unexperienced users are dependent upon the restore options provided by the manufacturer to return the system to its original condition.

Some manufacturers provide restore CDs, some use a floppy and a hidden partion on the hard drive etc...

Since you are obviously capable of installing Windows XP and the correct drivers yourself, you have nothing to worry about.

thank you. I have built my own desktop systems from scratch so I figure notebooks can't be much harder. I looked at Dell's site and all of the drivers you need including chipsets are .exe's there for you to download.

K8T Neo FIS2R
Athlon 64 bit 3400
2 X 256 Corsaire
Maxtor 40, 120
Western Digital Raptor 74 Gig
ATI AIW Radeon 9700 Pro
NEC LCD Monitor 1760NX
Antec Tru Power 550
Windows XP

As of January 18, 2005, the fresh order of laptops we purchased for our company execs (Inspiron 8600, Inspiron 700m, and an Inspiron 600m) all shipped with the Windows XP CD, Driver CD, and all applications on various CD's.

Noodle with Dell's support page. They have step by step instructions on how to replace the hard drive that includes nice little pictures and diagrams.

The only thing that can be remotely considered difficult is removing the Palmrest Ribbon cable from the motherboard, and even that's a snap so don't worry  

I can't see why you would feel the need to do that!
You just unscrew 2 screws in the HDD Bay and it slides out. Then you unscrew 4 screws (holding the HDD to its mounting bay), remove the Pin-Tab Adaptor (is a tiny little attachment which converts the HDD connector from pins to a tab to prevent damage during insertion of the HDD), stick it on the new drive, repeat the procedure - and away you go - it really is quite simple; and no fiddling with ribbon cables.

No delving into the depths of the notebook - just remove, swap, insert - and you're done.

With most dells, you have a modular bay known as a D-Bay which you can swap batteries, CD-Roms, and modular hard drive attachments so that you don't have any externals - but unfortunately the 6000 does not have a D-Bay so you'd have to get an external enclosure.

Regards,
RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?