Just been told the hard drive needs replacing on my sons laptop. How much is a reasonable price to pay?

What sort of size does he need?

Hi Turnip - I have no idea. Its a pretty good laptop with Blu-Ray and he watches films etc - I have no idea about computers hence my silly response! lol!

If buying new, 60 for hdd. 30 for installation and 40-50 if you want installation with windows installing and all his old files and folders copied over.

This is from a company perspective and I'm sure a friend could do it all a lot cheaper.... (I'm not a company by the way)

Thanks very much. I have been quoted £120 but they have asked if he wants files saving but haven't said about windows etc so I think I need to ask the question.

Just check to see how much of an install they do. Some places just run the Windows disc, install the drivers and leave you with several hours of updates to download and install at home.

If the old drive is still working but is either too small or has bad sectors then copying across his "My Documents" folder with pictures and files in it is fairly straightforward.

Installing drivers for printers or scanners that you have at home is usually your job, as the shop won't know what you have.

TheComputerLab is about right, £60 for the drive should get you a decent capacity one plus £40 for the install plus all the updates, drivers and copying pictures etc from a working drive.

Thanks Dr. I don't think he has much on it to be honest, he mainly watches films etc. Think he will need it now though for sixth form.

What was the reason given for it needing to be replaced ?

I don't know Mark, I think it just wouldn't load up. You know I'm not computer literate lol!!!

If its a straight swap and the original drive is mechanically sound and the OS working then it would be quicker and easier to a disc to disc clone. That would take about five minutes.