Help! Hey computer guys...

gtrjunior said:
Thanks...I'm going to run a malware detection program before any data transfer so I should be set there. The program I ran that detected the hard drive problem didn't find anything else wrong in the system and I did the extended test twice so I think the software is gtg.
The data transfer thing I posted is only $40 so yeah, seems like a no brainer.
I emailed them this morning and asked them similar questions. I just want to see what they say too, but I'm pretty sure I'll get the drive and transfer I posted above.
Do they look good to you?
Click to expand...
The hardware makes sense. I don't know about the software. I mean that I really don't know.
I'd give it a go knowing that you've still got the original hard drive. Very low risk.
 
David_ said:
You're barely going to notice the performance difference between 5400 and 7200 RPM.

Solid State Drives (SSD) are great if you're looking for a jump in drive performance. Boot times are faster, read write times are faster....people usually go "wow" when upgrading to an SSD. They cost 3 to 4 times more than a regular Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Here's an article talking about HDD vs SDD. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404258,00.asp

If I were you, I'd think about upgrading. A 5 year old laptop is old in terms of pc's, and you may have problems with other components.

You're current Dell Inspiron N5110 specs
  1. i3 2nd gen processor, 2.2 Ghz
  2. memory DDR3 1333 Mhz
  3. display resolution of 1366 x 768
A Lenovo Flex 4, 15"
  1. i5 6th generation cpu, 2.3 Ghz
  2. 8 gigs of DDR4 2133 Mhz memory
  3. 1920 x 1080 resolution
  4. 256 GB SSD
Price is $629

You could swap the SSD for an HDD and save money. Or upgrade the SSD to a larger size.

This unit doesn't come with a CD/DVD drive. I'm sure you could upgrade and get one, or buy an external one if you needed.
Click to expand...
I looked at some ssd's they are 2-3x the price of a hdd. For a computer that may last another 2-3 years I'd think it would be more cost effective to get a larger HDD and upgrade to Win 10.
Then my next computer will be a top of the line unit...idk.
 
David_ said:
You'd need to check to see if your current laptop supports SSD. The internal interface is different from HDD's.
Click to expand...

Nope, they are both serial ATA. It will be a drop-in replacement.

There were laptops that used old parallel ATA disks, but there's no way the OP's laptop is that old.
 
I like that! Saved to my watch list.
I've decided not to clone my current drive. The cable you posted looks perfect. I can just transfer the programs I want over to the new drive. And leave the ones I don't want/need.
My only dilemma now is the drive itself. I can definitely see the benefits of the ssd but for a computer that is at /near it's life's end, I can't justify the cost for the one I'd like to get. And I don't want a smaller capacity drive just because it's an ssd drive. That doesn't make sense either.
 
well, programs can't really be transferred, you need to install them from the installation media. But all you files can come over.
 
Ok...I bought a new drive and installed it. Loaded up my system recovery disks and everything booted up perfect. Just like a brand new computer.
Sooooo.....asshole me, tried to DL win 10 and it says I need a bios update. So I try to update the bios and now the computer won't boot up. I get this screen:
2979d2f2ec156e2bc9ae9716bb3f060e.jpg

Hopefully that's legible.

Now what do I do?
I should have just left windows 7 running....
 
gtrjunior said:
Ok...I bought a new drive and installed it. Loaded up my system recovery disks and everything booted up perfect. Just like a brand new computer.
Sooooo.....asshole me, tried to DL win 10 and it says I need a bios update. So I try to update the bios and now the computer won't boot up. I get this screen:
2979d2f2ec156e2bc9ae9716bb3f060e.jpg

Hopefully that's legible.

Now what do I do?
I should have just left windows 7 running....
Click to expand...


Okay, I'm going to see if I can help, but I want to make sure to fully understand the situation first. You're using a different computer now from which you can download files and write things to USB drives or disks?

You installed a new hard drive into your laptop, then used backup disks to restore your Windows 7 system to it. And then once you did, the computer booted up just fine into Windows 7 and all seemed normal.

Then, you tried an upgrade to Windows 10 (how far did the upgrade process go?) and was informed that your laptop needed a BIOS upgrade. So you downloaded and installed the BIOS update according to the included installation instructions, tried to reboot and that screen was the result.

Questions about the BIOS upgrade, which seems to be the culprit: What did the BIOS upgrade process entail? Was it downloaded and installed automatically, or did you have to manually go to Dell's support site and download/install it? * See below

Info I'm going to need: the laptop's Dell model number and service tag number, which will probably be on the bottom of the laptop. The BIOS number that you updated from (apparently A11 is what you upgraded to). Info on the hard drive that you added (though if everything was okay after restoring, that's probably not the issue).

If I can I'll help you out, mostly by knowing the relevant questions and the places to go to ask them.

* Also, tell me if anything happened while doing this BIOS upgrade, like the computer hung and someone rebooted it, or the power went out to the laptop while the upgrade was in progress, or if anything out of the ordinary happened.
 
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Thanks...
I'm not sure what you mean in you're 1st paragraph regarding "using a different computer"....if you are asking if I am using a different computer to post to this forum etc...no, I'm on my phone. As far as DLing files etc, I have a cable to move files from my old HDD to the new HDD on the laptop.
9e4e661ccd393460598fc78ac9abbc78.jpg

2nd paragraph:
You've got it.
3rd:
So I hit the DL win10 button and it placed an icon on my desktop. Which I clicked on and a checklist came up telling me wether my system could run the new OS. All was good except the current bios version.
The rest of the 3rd- you got it.
4th: I don't recall if I went to dells site but I basically googled bios update for win10 and I found a link to DL. I clicked it and it DL and automatically restarted the unit. And up popped the screen I posted.
Info you need:
Model: Dell Inspiron 15R N5110
Service tag: JJ4XVP1



I have no idea what the original bios version was but here is a link to my systems components off the Dell site.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened while updating the bios. It did say that any running programs should be closed prior to the update. I don't think I did that. Only the web was open at that time. I figured it would shit down itself....idk

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/JJ4XVP1/configuration

The new HDD:
WD 1TB 5400rpm 2.5"
SATA 3GB/sc
17516276523f52854ed6a4a655c28b99.jpg


Hope this helps....and I appreciate your helping me.
 
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gtrjunior said:
Thanks...
I'm not sure what you mean in you're 1st paragraph regarding "using a different computer"....if you are asking if I am using a different computer to post to this forum etc...no, I'm on my phone. As far as DLing files etc, I have a cable to move files from my old HDD to the new HDD on the laptop.
9e4e661ccd393460598fc78ac9abbc78.jpg

2nd paragraph:
You've got it.
3rd:
So I hit the DL win10 button and it placed an icon on my desktop. Which I clicked on and a checklist came up telling me wether my system could run the new OS. All was good except the current bios version.
The rest of the 3rd- you got it.
4th: I don't recall if I went to dells site but I basically googled bios update for win10 and I found a link to DL. I clicked it and it DL and automatically restarted the unit. And up popped the screen I posted.
Info you need:
Model: Dell Inspiron 15R N5110
Service tag: JJ4XVP1



I have no idea what the original bios version was but here is a link to my systems components off the Dell site.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened while updating the bios. It did say that any running programs should be closed prior to the update. I don't think I did that. Only the web was open at that time. I figured it would shit down itself....idk

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/JJ4XVP1/configuration

The new HDD:
WD 1TB 5400rpm 2.5"
SATA 3GB/sc
17516276523f52854ed6a4a655c28b99.jpg


Hope this helps....and I appreciate your helping me.
Click to expand...

When I asked about using a different computer, do you have another PC that you can download files to and put them onto a USB drive, or burn them on to a CD?

So I hit the DL win10 button and it placed an icon on my desktop. Which I clicked on and a checklist came up telling me wether my system could run the new OS. All was good except the current bios version.
Click to expand...

You mean you clicked the Get Windows 10 icon in the tray, kind of like this?

02-GWX-icon.jpg-136398735924402601


I don't recall if I went to dells site but I basically googled bios update for win10 and I found a link to DL. I clicked it and it DL and automatically restarted the unit. And up popped the screen I posted.
Click to expand...

So you went to Google and searched for something like "BIOS update Dell Inspiron 15R N5110"? Or you searched for something like "BIOS update for windows 10"?
 
GDSmithTX said:
When I asked about using a different computer, do you have another PC that you can download files to and put them onto a USB drive, or burn them on to a CD?
Yes I do.


You mean you clicked the Get Windows 10 icon in the tray, kind of like this?
I had an actual icon on the desktop and not in the tray. But yes I clicked it.

02-GWX-icon.jpg-136398735924402601




So you went to Google and searched for something like "BIOS update Dell Inspiron 15R N5110"? Or you searched for something like "BIOS update for windows 10"?
Click to expand...
Correct.
 
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