Upgrade NEC Laptop HD

[Graeme]

We have a NEC 2780MT laptop with 3.2Gig Toshiba HD. NEC say that the
biggest drive they have tested is 4Gig, but on-line vendors offer 10Gig &
larger drives for this machine.

This laptop is a 233MX with 96Meg RAM running under Windows Me and was built
in 1998/9 so it is a bit dated. There is one updated BIOS available. Not
sure how much this will help, but will install it anyway.

I would like to just replace the existing drive with a larger one (there are
Toshiba 20/30/40,s available locally) Otherwise, I am faced with an external
drive which is not convenient.

Does anyone know what problems I might run into in installing a larger
drive?

Will I need overlay software?

Any compatibility problems with laptop sleep mode?

Should I buy an external USB enclosure, so as to make cloning the existing
drive more easy ( I could do it over our local network). Or, I could do a
100% clean install, but I don't have drivers on disk - they were all
pre-installed.

Any help appreciated

Graeme

 

[Graeme]

Checked with local stores and they can't help - Suggest I buy drive and if
it doesn't work, take it back for a 15% re-stocking charge.

 

[Irwin]

I am not positive but am reasonably sure that the bios will not support
the drive and that you are looking at an overlay. Not that overlays are
horrible, I have used them for years, but they do introduce issues
sometime. More to the point, I would not put a penny into a machine
that old. Really, why bother? Give it or sell it to some poor soul who
can't afford anything better, and buy yourself a new one. With prices
so low these days, it probably wouldn't cost much more than the new
hard drive.

Good luck,
Irwin

 

[Graeme]

I am not positive but am reasonably sure that the bios will not support
the drive and that you are looking at an overlay. Not that overlays are
horrible, I have used them for years, but they do introduce issues
sometime. More to the point, I would not put a penny into a machine
that old. Really, why bother? Give it or sell it to some poor soul who
can't afford anything better, and buy yourself a new one. With prices
so low these days, it probably wouldn't cost much more than the new
hard drive.

Good luck,
Irwin

It is an old (but well looked after) machine - New in 1999. It is well made
and all we use it for is when we travel by car or boat. It is more than
adequate as a portable internet device and we also use it for marine
navigation in conjunction with a GPS.

I have just bought a 6Gig drive on eBay - This MAY work without the overlay
software - I will find out! The local stores could not tell me where to get
overlay software for the OEM Toshiba drives they sell, so I decided to go
with the smaller unit. Total outlay will be about US$50.00 including a USB
enclosure which I will use for the upgrade and for the old drive, so I won't
go broke on this upgrade

Graeme