hi, iam thinking of replacing my hdd(2.5"sata) on the notepad to a 500gb unformatted hdd. can i just replace old for new sata hdd, and boot up with win7 disk in and choose the formatt option(ntfs),let it format then continue to install windows 7. is this correct? the partitioning i can do later with paragon. i take it that the bios will remain the same as is slic 2.1. BUT i will have to put the cert and serial back in once windows has installed. thanks for any help i have never installed an unformatted hdd before.
thanks for your reply but i dont want to clone the old hdd to much clutter on there that came with it when the notepad was brought,recovery ect. its just that iam unsure if any bios oem info slic 2.1 ect is kept on the hdd or is that totally seperate?
If you have slic 2.1 in bios then it stays I believe. If you were using loader then you have to install loader again if your going to install windows 7 on new disk.
yes it came with windows 7 already installed and the bios is slic 2.1,no loader needed only cert and serial for the ultimate upgrade.
I would extract your certificate before removing the old disk - there is a fine tutorial on how to easily do this on these forums - you should know your key or if you want to change versions the keys are listed.
ok got the backup part.can the new unformatted hdd be formatted to ntfs using the windows 7 install disk and choosing the format option?
Just put the hard drive in the computer and start with the Win7 disk in the dvd drive. You do not have to choose a "format option" - install, by default, will format the entire drive for Win7 (NTFS) unless you tell it to make a smaller partition.
many thanks i will go ahead now and buy one and have a go.another issue i see is that some hdd are now sata 2 instead of of just sata will this cause me an issue,the notepad is new and latest samsung r519 so iam hoping there will be no conflict with a sata2 hdd and my motherboard. the new hdd iam looking to buy is western digital scorpio blue 2.5" 500gb sata11 around £60 $100
that model seems to have a SATA I controller. The drives usually have a jumper allowing you to configure them as SATA I so it should not be a problem. Main difference is maximum transfer rate 150 vs 300. Not an issue as you won't see much or any difference in reality with either SATA I or SATA II in a laptop with one drive.