Upgrading a Notebook

Desktops have been long known to be upgrade-able in terms of memory and hard drive space but little is known about upgrading notebooks.

The first thing to consider is the notebook itself. It must have expansion slots for extra sticks of RAM if you wish to upgrade memory. This can also be done by replacing the current stick of RAM but this method is not cost effective.


To upgrade a notebook the bottom cover must be removed. When doing this any warranty the notebook has will become void so if you choose to upgrade your notebook, you must be prepared to forfeit the warranty.

Upgrading RAM on a notebook is no different to upgrading RAM on a desktop. If your notebook has additional RAM slots you simply need to purchase some more RAM and install it in the empty slots. If your notebook doesn’t have expansion slots you will need to replace the existing stick of RAM. If you had a 256mb stick of RAM, you would replace it with a 1GB or 512mb stick.

Replacing the hard drive is a lot easier but complicated at the same time. Replacing the actual drive is quite simple. You simply disconnect the existing drive and replace with the new one. The complicated part is recovering all your drivers and so forth from the drive. Without your drivers the hardware in your notebook will not function correctly. It is important to make sure you have all the original driver CD’s that came with the notebook.

In the case of data files you have on your notebook, you can simply back up to DVD’s and CD’s, but if you do not have a burner, you can simply buy an external case for a notebook drive and use that to store your files.

Upgrading a notebook, although not as easy as with a desktop, can still be done.