laptop help

So my father gave my younger brother his old laptop that he bought from Walmart. Its a Dell Inspiron(don't remember model, will have to look when I get home tonight). The problem is, the hard drive they put in it is junk and my dad had to warranty replace it 7 times. So is there a better hard drive I can have my brother buy that I can install in it, rather than waste the time trying to track down an official Dell one, or is it pointless to even mess with it?

It's recommend an SSD over spinning metal any day. Even the cheaper ones on Amazon will run circles around a regular hard drive, and they'll last a lot longer.

Its an Inspiron N5050. So a normal 2.5 inch SSD, like a Samsung evo? I would just need a window's license/no adapters needed? I have never swapped out a drive in a laptop before.

Rainsmercy wrote:

Its an Inspiron N5050. So a normal 2.5 inch SSD, like a Samsung evo? I would just need a window's license/no adapters needed? I have never swapped out a drive in a laptop before.

Yes indeed. There are guides online for drive replacement (here's iFixit's), and there are even youtube videos. It does look like it takes a bit of work to get to it, but doesn't look especially difficult. If you're not confident, might you have a friend who could assist?

You will need a copy of Windows. Preferably one from Dell for that machine. Did your brother get one during his many drive replacements?

I just got handed the laptop bag and asked if I could help, lol, haven't had time to look through the bag. I have built desktops, but never messed with the guts of a laptop.

And thank you for your help!

Hehe... you're welcome. A laptop and a desktop use the same basic principles, just a lot more screws to remove! The drive in that is a 2.5" SATA. Same size and connection as an SSD. Personally I think with the guides and videos out there you'll be fine if you go slowly. Especially since you have some hardware experience.