Which hard drive to buy?

[Bryan Harmon]

My son's laptop slowed down to unusable recently. I took it in and the guys at the computer store told me the hard drive had gone bad. They told me it would be about $400 - $500 to fix it. I started looking online at hard drives and I can get a 250 gb SSD for not too much. I called and asked them how much to install it and they told me between $40 - $70 depending on where its located. These numbers add up to way less than what they quoted. Only problem id I don't know which hard drive to buy. Thx

I'm trying to post a pic of the specs. It's an Asus gaming laptop model# G751JY

 

[gasaraki]

So 'most' laptops, especially ones that are more than 2 years old use 2.5 hard drives, 7mm. All the ssds you buy should fit in laptop that take a 2.5 inch drive. Now some new thin laptops use either, mSATA or M.2. slot drives and those you have to get the proper drive. If you tell us the model of the laptop we could tell you what drive you need.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the EXACT model number of the laptop as it is found printed on the sticker located either on the bottom of the unit or on the case under the battery in the battery compartment.

"Most" laptops might, but not all do. It would sure suck to buy one and then find out that your unit ONLY used an M.2 SSD of some kind, which is nothing like, and not compatible with, a SATA SSD. It's also kind of nice to know if your unit supports only SATA drives or PCI M.2 NVME as well.

 

[Barty1884]

You can post pics to places like
https://imgur.com/
or
https://imgbb.com/
and link them here.

Realistically, unless it's an overly complicated teardown process of the laptop, you should be able to replace it yourself easy enough.

 

[ikaz]

For $400-500 you could probably buy a new and better laptop lol, anyway as suggested please list the exact model of the laptop it could be as easy as removing the back and pulling out the old and installing the new HD.

 

[theyeti87]

$400-$500 is way overkill for replacing a hard drive. Wow.

 

[Bryan Harmon]

What is the EXACT model number of the laptop as it is found printed on the sticker located either on the bottom of the unit or on the case under the battery in the battery compartment.

"Most" laptops might, but not all do. It would sure suck to buy one and then find out that your unit ONLY used an M.2 SSD of some kind, which is nothing like, and not compatible with, a SATA SSD. It's also kind of nice to know if your unit supports only SATA drives or PCI M.2 NVME as well.

I've updated the OP with the model # of the Asus. I can not get the imgur image to post. It's a gaming laptop that's a little over 3 years old. Maybe about 4 years now. It didn't have an SSD but I thought it may be best to upgrade to one while fixing it.

 

[gasaraki]

What is the EXACT model number of the laptop as it is found printed on the sticker located either on the bottom of the unit or on the case under the battery in the battery compartment.

"Most" laptops might, but not all do. It would sure suck to buy one and then find out that your unit ONLY used an M.2 SSD of some kind, which is nothing like, and not compatible with, a SATA SSD. It's also kind of nice to know if your unit supports only SATA drives or PCI M.2 NVME as well.

I've updated the OP with the model # of the Asus. I can not get the imgur image to post. It's a gaming laptop that's a little over 3 years old. Maybe about 4 years now. It didn't have an SSD but I thought it may be best to upgrade to one while fixing it.

So for that model, any 2.5" SATA SSD will work. And replacing it looks like it should take 10 mins. Remove the small plate at the bottom of the laptop, then there's the spot for 2x 2.5" inch drives and the memory. Take the drive out, put the new one in. Profit.

Oh don't forget you have to reinstall Windows and transfer your data over.

 

[Barty1884]

On those laptops, the HDD is literally under a flap on the underside of the laptop. An easy replacement:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Asus+ROG+G751JL-BB17T29+Hard+Drive++Replacement/73507

Backup any data you can (to an external drive), switch in the new HDD/SSD and reinstall Windows.

FWIW, for the money you were quoted for install (plus the cost of a 250GB SSD), you could buy/install a 1TB SSD for your son..... and would take a couple hours of your time, maximum -- and 90% of that time is installing/updating Windows.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: ADATA - ULTIMATE SU650 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($132.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $132.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-07 12:46 EST-0500

Not the best SSD in the world as far as speed, but it's solid enough AND a huge step up from a mechanical HDD.

 

[Bryan Harmon]

On those laptops, the HDD is literally under a flap on the underside of the laptop. An easy replacement:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Asus+ROG+G751JL-BB17T29+Hard+Drive++Replacement/73507

Backup any data you can (to an external drive), switch in the new HDD/SSD and reinstall Windows.

FWIW, for the money you were quoted for install (plus the cost of a 250GB SSD), you could buy/install a 1TB SSD for your son..... and would take a couple hours of your time, maximum -- and 90% of that time is installing/updating Windows.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: ADATA - ULTIMATE SU650 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($132.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $132.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-07 12:46 EST-0500

Not the best SSD in the world as far as speed, but it's solid enough AND a huge step up from a mechanical HDD.

Awesome! Thx so much for your help!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, you don't have to reinstall Windows unless you want to. You can use Macrium reflect, a free download, to clone the existing drive and all it's partitions to the new drive IF your laptop supports more than one drive being installed at a time.

Otherwise, if you have access to a desktop computer you can pull the drive and install it and the new drive in the desktop and use Macrium reflect to clone the drive to the new drive then install the new drive back into the laptop.

If you purchase a Samsung drive you can use their cloning software, Samsung data migration tool, to do the clone. Other brands probably have their own version of the data migration tool as well.

 

[geofelt]

Here is a nice link as to what is inside:
https://rog.asus.com/articles/g-series-gaming-laptops/gallery-g751-upgrade-guide/

If you have a m.s ssd, that is where the os will normally reside and replacing the 2,5" hard drive is trivial.
The m.2 device is the size and shape of a stick of gum.
The drive would be any sata 2.5" drive of the capacity you want.

If you had a configuration where windows is on the failing drive, that is more complex, requiring a reinstall of windows.

If your windows drive is on either drive but is still operable, buy a Samsung evo replacement of equivalent size or larger.
You should be able to move the C drive to a Samsung ssd using their free ssd migration app.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, guess I should have stated that even though it seems obvious. If the drive is shot, obviously you can't clone it.

I don't generally trust "the guys at the computer store", any computer store, especially if it's one like Best buy or Microcenter where the "tech support" guys are stepping it up since their last job at Taco Bell. That drive might not be faulty at all, it might just be a corrupted installation.

 

[Bryan Harmon]

Actually, you don't have to reinstall Windows unless you want to. You can use Macrium reflect, a free download, to clone the existing drive and all it's partitions to the new drive IF your laptop supports more than one drive being installed at a time.

Otherwise, if you have access to a desktop computer you can pull the drive and install it and the new drive in the desktop and use Macrium reflect to clone the drive to the new drive then install the new drive back into the laptop.

If you purchase a Samsung drive you can use their cloning software, Samsung data migration tool, to do the clone. Other brands probably have their own version of the data migration tool as well.

Fortunately this laptop is not a primary computer so wiping everything is no big deal. Thx for the info though. Will come in handy with another computer at some point.