Dell Inspiron 1501 clicking and freezing?

RICARDO1982

Hi I was wondering if any one could give me a help out on this one, the Laptop is
clicking at the right side (hard drive area??) then freezing. i have to turn it off manually then turn it back on and its ok for a week or so. If i need to replace the hard drive what is the proper procedure and where is the best place to buy one??
Cheers in advance:)

Tech Guy Sligo

checkout this link it shows how to replace the hardrive
link

D

RICARDO1982

Cheers for that, how do i save all the stuff on the computer, if i put in a new drive can i put windows 7 on the computer straight away rather than XP which is what it has now??
Is it a sata 2 or 3 i can use, I am pretty bad with computers thanks for your help

Capt'n Midnight

press F12 to get boot menu IIRC it should have diagnostics to check the drive

IIRC it contains a SATA drive (cba looking further than http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1501/en/om_en/html/specs.htm ) and fairly easy to change out ,

it it the one that has two drives ?
anyone know if you can RAID 1 a new drive and then swap them over - if so then very easy to upgrade drives

RICARDO1982

When do i hit f12 on startup is it?? not sure if it has 2 think it only has one.

ED E

Its a base model, doubt it has two.


When you get the dell slash screen hit F2 or F8 or F12 for BIOS("Setup").

Capt'n Midnight

sorry was getting mixed up with one of the widescreen ones that have two drive bays

RICARDO1982

I done the diagnostics on startup as suggested, that showed no faults.ot It has not clicked or froze since.it usally takes up to a week to happen.What do you think i should do now?

Alanstrainor

RICARDO1982 wrote: »

I done the diagnostics on startup as suggested, that showed no faults.ot It has not clicked or froze since.it usally takes up to a week to happen.What do you think i should do now?

Back up all your files. By the sounds of it the hard drive is still in trouble. Buying a new Hard Drive is cheap, and its very eaasy to install on that laptop.

And to answer your question about windows 7, yes it will work perfectly. I have Windows 7 ultimate on my Dell 6400 which is essentially the same laptop.

Voodu Child

Yeah, definitely back up your files asap. Too many people leave it too late before thinking about backups.

The main problem with putting in a new HDD isn't putting in the drive itself, its the OS.

Nowadays a lot of PC manufacturers don't ship the re-install discs, they just put a recovery partition on the HDD. Which isn't much use if the HDD dies or even if you just want to replace it :rolleyes:

I would have a look at that and see if you have it, if so great, but if not maybe get on to Dell and hassle them for it.

RICARDO1982

Luckily enough i have little or nothing on this computer a lot of my stuff is on an external hard drive from my old laptop, can i just put in a new HDD and install windows 7 and start from scratch??? if so where is the best place to buy it?

Wolfe Tone

Had this problem with the same laptop. HD is on the way out. Back up everything and get a new HD, its easy to fit.

ED E

RICARDO1982 wrote: »

Luckily enough i have little or nothing on this computer a lot of my stuff is on an external hard drive from my old laptop, can i just put in a new HDD and install windows 7 and start from scratch??? if so where is the best place to buy it?

Drive: Try Ebuyer, Elara or Pixmania.

Win7: Are you a student/know any?