dv7-4177nu - Replacing Hard Drive

[CCSFl]

Hello - I have an HP Pavillion dv7-4177nr that's giving the HDD SMART DRIVE error.  Per a forum's suggestion, can I replace the original hard drive (Samsung Model HM640JJ, 640GB) with a suggested drive of Seagate Model ST9500325AS, 500GB?

I've created the recovery disks (all 5 of them) and am comfortable running the Factory Recovery.

Will I encounter any problems if I get this smaller drive?  Does the Recovery Disks know what drive originally came in the laptop not work if it sees a different drive?

Thanks for any help!

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Replacing the original HDD with a smaller drive can often cause problems with the Recovery Process, so I would suggest replacing it with something like the drive on the link below.  Your Recovery Discs should have no problem reinstalling the OS on an equivalent ( 640Gb ) or slightly larger HDD.  You are not restricted in any way to a particular drive manufacturer.

750Gb Notebook Hard Drive.

Regards,

DP-K

[CCSFl]

Thanks for the quick reply, DavidPK.

And thanks for that info.  What are the kinds of problems that can be encountered when recovering to a smaller drive?  Also, what are the chances of the reinstall going correctly on a smaller drive?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

The main problem is that the installation will continually fail, often with an error message relating to the fact that the HDD is smaller than the original.  Looking at the Model No. of your notebook, the version of Recovery Manager that you would have used to create the Discs commonly produces this error.

If you wish to reinstall Windows to a smaller HDD, there is a fairly straight forward work-around detailed below.

Before trying the following, make sure you can still read the Activation key on your Windows COA label ( 5 blocks of 5 alpha/numeric sets ).

Create a Windows 7 installation disc yourself using another PC - just download the correct ( this must be the exact same version that was originally on your notebook ) Disc Image from the link below and use an application such as ImgBurn to burn the ISO correctly to a blank DVD - a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here.  These Images are clean and from a well-respected source, however there are only limited versions available.

Windows-7 sp1-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit

Use the disc to perform the installation on your new HDD, enter the Windows activation key found on the COA Label when requested and when the installation has completed, use the 'Phone Method' detailed in the link below to activate the OS - this method supported by Microsoft and is popular with people who just want a clean installation of Windows 7 without the additional software load normally bundled with OEM installations.

http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/how-to-activate-windows-7-by-phone.aspx

Any additional drivers you may need can be found starting Here.

Regards,

DP-K