The hard drive replacement on all Acer laptops is fairly simple.
The hard drive on an Acer laptop is hidden underneath the laptop, behind a big plastic cover that covers the CPU, RAM, hard drive, and wireless card.
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The first thing to do is to get a Philips screwdriver and unscrew the screws holding the cover to the laptop. There can be 5 screws or more in this area and different length screws. Remember which length screw goes in which place. Proceed to take off the lid. The hard drive caddy is usually fitted with a few screws. Unscrew them and slide the hard drive caddy to the side and then take it out. Unscrew the screws holding the caddy.
Why drives fail on Acer laptops
You will notice that the hard drive is placed in a aluminum bag. This is the main reason why hard drives on Acer laptops overheat. Furthermore, notice that the hard drive is located next to the I/O controller chip. This makes hard drive working conditions difficult, as this micro chip is extremely hot all of the time. Do not put the hard disk into the bag when assembling together. If you would compare temperatures with and without the bag, then you would notice a drop in temperature. For example, Toshiba does not use any bags or caddies on its laptops. Just a simple metal plate and a piece of fabric to pull the drive out.
As on other modern laptops, there are either SATA or IDE hard drives fitted. IDE drives have a wide connector with many pins. Sometimes, the IDE or SATA hard drives are connected through an adapter.
The SATA drive has two connectors that are power and data and the power connector is wider.
Source the replacement hard drive and assemble everything back together as described above, but in reverse order. Do not put the hard drive into the aluminum bag.
Operating system restoration, drivers and your data
Restore the operating system from the system restore disk that came with the laptop. Or use the windows installation DVD disk and activate it with the key that is printed underneath on the label. Make sure you use the same Windows version because if you don’t, the key may not work. For example, if the label says Windows 7 Home Premium, choose the Home premium version during the installation process.
Make sure that you update the drivers afterward as Windows drivers are basic and will not use all the hardware potential. Typically, on an Acer laptop, Windows drivers produce a lower sound as compared to the original drivers from Acer. Download and install audio drivers from the Acer website.
Get the data from the old hard drive, by using the SATA/IDE drives to the USB adaptor. If the disk surface is damaged, then windows Explorer may not copy all the data. Download and install Total Commander. Total Commander will copy all the data skipping files that it can’t read.
Replacing HDD on a netbook
Hard drive replacement on Acer netbooks. This process on Acer netbooks is more difficult. The replacement starts with needing to open the netbook by removing the bottom lid. The bottom lid is held by usually two screws, the next step is to slide the lid to the side.
On some netbook models, it is necessary to almost disassemble the laptop as the hard drive is behind the top lid.
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