Increasingly, notebook manufacturers are making it easier to remove and replace an internal hard drive. Physically, the entire process may take just a few minutes, requiring not much more than removing a screw, sliding the old drive out, and popping in the new one. Before you attempt this, though, check your notebook's documentation to get a sense of what's involved. If you don't feel comfortable following the instructions in the manual, you might want to hire someone for the job.
Of course, just physically swapping the drive isn't all there is to it. You'll need to move your OS, apps, and data over to the replacement. If you're not an upgrade sophisticate (or even if you are), consider using a product designed to facilitate the process, such as one of Apricorn's hard-drive upgrade kits, which vary in price from $39 to $289, depending on what's included and the interface you want to use for the transfer. (Apricorn also offers PC Card-based solutions.)
Here's how it works if you buy a complete hard-drive upgrade package: The new notebook hard drive arrives housed in an external drive enclosure. You attach the new drive to your notebook via a USB 2.0 port (for optimal performance) and install the data transfer software on your notebook. The software turns the external hard drive into a mirror image of your notebook's existing internal drive, transferring all your files, applications, and settings, according to Apricorn.
When the transfer is complete, remove the old drive from your notebook and the new drive from the external enclosure. Then you swap the two drives, popping the new drive into your notebook and inserting the old drive into the external enclosure. The end result is that you'll have a new hard drive in your notebook with all the settings, files, data, and applications intact from your old drive. And you can now use your old drive as an external drive for archiving or other purposes.
You may want to do yourself a favor and stop by Apricorn's online hard drive configurator first; you'll find offerings of compatible hard drives for popular notebook models. (Note: I haven't personally tested Apricorn's upgrades.)
