Hard Drive

Time: 60 minutes

Replacing a laptop's hard drive is almost always an uncomplicated affair, and the actual swap can be done in just a few minutes. Transferring the data from the old drive to the new one requires a little more planning, and typically takes an hour or so. This simple task is likely not only to give you more storage, but also to improve performance. We upgraded a 5400-rpm, 120GB drive to a 7200-rpm, 200GB model, raising the system's WorldBench 6 score from 57 to 61.

Hard drives are usually accessible via a side panel in your laptop and held in place by screws on the bottom. Remove those screws, and then slide the drive out of the machine (as in photo 1 here).

The drive will most likely be attached to a sled. Remove the screws that are holding the drive in the sled, and remove the drive. Put the new drive where the old one was, and replace all of the screws in reverse order.

If you are reinstalling Windows from scratch, boot from your installation disc and go to town. On the other hand, if you want to reproduce your old data and programs exactly the way you had them before, consider using cloning software to make an exact copy of the old disk. We've had great success with Clonezilla (clonezilla.org), a free tool that is command-line only but is reasonably intuitive and very fast. Finally, clone your old (now external) drive to your new (now internal) drive, and boot normally. You're done.

Optical Drive

Time: 5 to 20 minutes

Would you like to graduate from an older CD-ROM drive to a DVD burner, or possibly even to a high-def drive? If your laptop has a modular optical drive bay (one that is equipped with an ejector switch of some kind), replacing your optical drive is easy. Buy a replacement drive, or salvage one from a compatible machine. With the laptop turned off, eject the old drive and then install the new one (photo 1, above right).

If your laptop does not have a modular drive bay, replacement usually remains fairly simple, anyway: Often a single locking screw holds the drive in place; you just unscrew it, slide the old drive out, put in the new drive, and replace the screw. In addition, you may need to install any drivers that came with the new drive.

A replacement drive should be designed for use with your specific notebook, so buy one directly from the system's original manufacturer if possible. The advantages? For one thing, this ensures that you'll have the correct IDE channel settings (which often cannot be changed) for the drive; for another, attaching the faceplate to the drive can be difficult, and it's easy to break the faceplate when removing the original drive. Vendors put the eject button in different places, too, meaning that with the wrong drive you won't be able to use the faceplate at all.

In many instances a new optical drive will work without additional tweaking. If yours doesn't work, however, download the appropriate driver; you may have to search on the full model number of the part if you didn't obtain the drive from your notebook's vendor.

Bluetooth

Time: 10 minutes

Many laptops come with the wiring and circuitry to support a Bluetooth card already built in, even if they don't have the card itself installed. To avoid possible compatibility problems, however, you should obtain the Bluetooth module directly from your laptop vendor.

On our Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, we found the Bluetooth connector behind an odd little door in the battery bay. We merely popped open the door, pulled out the wires, and attached the Bluetooth module to it (photo 1, upper left). On some machines, the module is located near the wireless card slot; on others, it's situated under the keyboard.

Reboot, and then download and install the appropriate driver from your laptop vendor's Web site.

Wireless Card

Time: 15 minutes

Upgrading a wireless card is usually about as easy as upgrading RAM. In fact, on some machines, both the Wi-Fi card and the RAM are located under the same panel.

The trick is to make sure that you install a compatible part. Most laptops that were made a few years ago use Mini PCI cards, while newer ones use the Mini PCI Express standard. The latter type of cards have two separated sets of connectors along the narrower side; Mini PCI cards have only one set.

Even if the card you get has the right connector, it may not automatically work in your laptop: It's unlikely that you can upgrade your old 802.11b card to an 802.11n one (since few 802.11n Mini PCI cards have been made), but it's very likely that you'll be able to find an 802.11a/b/g card that works. Also, many systems that shipped with 802.11g cards can be upgraded to meet the latest 802.11n standard. To avoid firmware incompatibilities, we advise you to get this part directly from the manufacturer of your laptop; in any case, it should be sold specifically for your computer.

Once you have the right part, the upgrade is a snap. If your wireless card is under the keyboard, as ours is, remove the keyboard (see the next paragraph), locate the card (photo 1 at left), and disconnect the two antenna wires (one white, one black) by pulling straight up on the connectors; don't pull on the wires themselves.

If you need to remove the keyboard, follow these steps:

• Remove the laptop's hinge cover by prying up the plastic.

• Detach the keyboard by taking out the two screws beneath the hinge cover that secure it, lifting it off, and then unplugging the connector.

(Reverse these steps to replace the keyboard when the new card is in place.)

Remove the old card by pulling apart the two holding clamps on the card's sides and then pulling the card straight out (photo 3, below). Insert the new card, and reattach the antennas by pushing the connectors straight down on the plugs.

If your wireless card is located on the underside of the machine, flip the notebook over, remove the appropriate panel, and follow the instructions above.