Back Up!

Long story but here's the short(ish) version.

My daughter called to ask my opinion on an SSD upgrade for her laptop, I said I would do it but she wanted to get it done herself, I told her before she does anything to install Macrium and back it up to an external . She called again last night to say that something had gone wrong with the new drive and she couldn't get into Windows, lots of supporting docs for her Uni course sat on her old drive. Luckily she'd listened and did what I asked and backed it up so we got it back up and running over the phone so another +1 for Macrium (or whatever program you use) and the absolute necessity of backing stuff up.

That is all

Backup, backup, backup!!!!

CornishRattler said:

Long story but here's the short(ish) version.

My daughter called to ask my opinion on an SSD upgrade for her laptop, I said I would do it but she wanted to get it done herself, I told her before she does anything to install Macrium and back it up to an external . She called again last night to say that something had gone wrong with the new drive and she couldn't get into Windows, lots of supporting docs for her Uni course sat on her old drive. Luckily she'd listened and did what I asked and backed it up so we got it back up and running over the phone so another +1 for Macrium (or whatever program you use) and the absolute necessity of backing stuff up.

That is all

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I would never work on a laptop.. I would take it to a shop and have them do all of the work. After I made a backup.

BunnyJ said:

I would never work on a laptop.. I would take it to a shop and have them do all of the work. After I made a backup.

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Not much option around here

I have used laptops for years now. I had a few desktops way back. The first thing I usually do to a laptop is a drive upgrade and a ram upgrade. Most cheaper laptops come with a small drive. Especially today. They also come with a low amount of ram. It is not hard to work on them although I do like ones that offer an extra slot for an extra drive, it is not always offered. My Matebook X Pro only offered one slot and had only a 256gb drive and I opted to replace it with a 500gb. Todays light and thin laptops do not offer many options.

CornishRattler said:

Not much option around here

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Crap.. I do have to go into Knoxville but it's worth it..

Most modern laptops are very thin and not easy to work on -- although usually the hardest bit is getting the case open without damaging it. If you can open the case then usually you are OK -- the hardest thing is probably detaching the lid / screen from the laptop which is usually required when modifying modern laptops before you can get at the "rest of the bits" inside. Even replacing a battery can be a nightmare.

These days TAKE PICTURES of any thing you do before removing / disconnecting components or if you are "Old school" engineering take plenty of notes and diagrams.

Unless you are reasonable with handling small precision tools I'd leave this sort of stuff to experienced repairers --there's usually a few around if you look at local traders etc unless you are out in the middle of nowhere.

Older laptops are more "Battleship built" variety and are much easier to disassemble.

I'd advise though these days for anybody looking for new laptops to go for minimum 512GB SSD or increasingly NVME, 16GB RAM and whatever screen size fits your purpose -- external monitors can always be attached - HDMI is pretty standard. Look also for a decent number of USB ports.

With increased and permanent more remote working the demise of laptops was grossly over exaggerated !!! even if people do a lot more on phones and tablets. Laptops are definitely not dead at all these days.



Cheers
jimbo

BunnyJ said:

I would never work on a laptop.. I would take it to a shop and have them do all of the work. After I made a backup.

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I upgraded a CPU on my old Acer. It worked well, but as with everything I seem to take apart, I had some extra screws! Hard drives aren't too hard to upgrade on a laptop, though. Neither is the RAM. Now, the CPU... you have to remove the monitor and keyboard on most of them. (Probably all of them.) Oh, and I was living on the edge - no backup!

Uni course work should be on her One Drive as well as backing up.

BunnyJ said:

Crap.. I do have to go into Knoxville but it's worth it..

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I'm nowhere near Knoxville

z3r010 said:

Uni course work should be on her One Drive as well as backing up.

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It's her notes for her course work, she stuffs it all in local folders as One Drive is crap apparently as it's 'monitored' Her words not mine

I would take the Huawei to a shop for certain things. New screen, keyboard, etc. It would be an absolute nightmare to work on that way.

humbird said:

Todays light and thin laptops do not offer many options.

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Depends on your funds really, the Alienwares and Legions, if fact most gaming laptops are very upgradeable, CPU aside

True but being single and retired my funds dictate cheaper, lol. I am not a big gamer anymore either cause my hands don't cooperate with fast paced games. :)

humbird said:

True but being single and retired my funds dictate cheaper, lol. I am not a big gamer anymore either cause my hands don't cooperate with fast paced games. :)

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I hear ya!

jvickers said:

I upgraded a CPU on my old Acer. It worked well, but as with everything I seem to take apart, I had some extra screws! Hard drives aren't too hard to upgrade on a laptop, though. Neither is the RAM. Now, the CPU... you have to remove the monitor and keyboard on most of them. (Probably all of them.) Oh, and I was living on the edge - no backup!

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Hi there
You've never tried obviously to take apart those NVME things on really thin laptops e.g those Ultrabook type of laptops.
Old ACERS etc -- no problem -- a lot of modern laptops are all but impossible to even open far less start replacing components.

I've just finished upgrading an old SONY VAIO laptop which was really easy to get at everything -- although I couldn't install USB3 on it. I replaced the DVD slot with a 1TB SSD -- so now the laptop has 16GB memory and 2 HDD's and it's fine for an emergency backup too. While internal screen is only 768 X 1366 (720p) it does have 1920 X 1080 HDMI output.

cheers
jimbo

I recently bought an acer laptop which is still upgradeable. It has an extra slot for a ssd which I happen to have laying around. I also ordered extra ram at the same time which I have already installed. Most Acers are pretty easy to work on. The trick on Amazon when searching for a laptop that you can upgrade easily is to search through the traditional laptop section. It is still thinner and lighter than they used to be but has many more port offerings. It even has an ethernet port which I do prefer to use. I had to add a dongle to the Huawei for ethernet.

Upgradability is something you have to pay for I have a dell XPS17, (my Computer 2 in my specs), Laptop that is extremely modifiable / Upgradable as it has a completely removable base but it was not a cheap option. I got a great deal on the device and still paid around £ 2500 stirling

Another thing that did worry me was that it did not come with conventional ports, Just two Thunderbolt3 Ports on each side of the laptop. I purchased a few different "dongles" and have found that the laptop will handle anything I throw at it ( I use it as a mobile desktop and image processor ), so it's not your normal small lappy

My Alienware laptop is pretty much maxed out, I like laptops but I couldn’t get one that was locked down that much you couldn’t do some upgrades.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
You've never tried obviously to take apart those NVME things on really thin laptops e.g those Ultrabook type of laptops.
Old ACERS etc -- no problem -- a lot of modern laptops are all but impossible to even open far less start replacing components.

I've just finished upgrading an old SONY VAIO laptop which was really easy to get at everything -- although I couldn't install USB3 on it. I replaced the DVD slot with a 1TB SSD -- so now the laptop has 16GB memory and 2 HDD's and it's fine for an emergency backup too. While internal screen is only 768 X 1366 (720p) it does have 1920 X 1080 HDMI output.

cheers
jimbo

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No, my Acer is probably 15 years old. Still, it was a pain to take apart. I really don't have use for a laptop anymore, and the MacBook Pro I have that boots into Windows is perfectly fine. It's from my work, so I maxed it out. I'll not be taking apart any new laptops.