Upgrade storage on a Dell Inspiron 3502 laptop

[Nath911t]

I'm probably over thinking this.

I've seen the video on the Dell website to increase storage and it looks straight forward enough. Current one is 128GB and I keep getting the low storage message with hardly much saved on it in the way of files, music, pictures, etc and I'm now thinking of changing it to 1TB. Specs in the picture. Question is what upgraded one do I get as there seems loads of them? Is it a simple case of copy what I do have on my current laptop (I've a separate storage device), change over then copy it back to the newly installed one? TIA

[the-norseman]

You would be best getting a bigger SSD of exactly the same type you have, cloning it and then installing that SSD as the boot device and removing the 128GB.

I personally would also look into at the same time, if the machine is capable of supporting more than 4GB RAM as 4GB in todays standard is very low.

[rodericb]

Whoa that's light-on for a couple of years old laptop. I see that they come with either a 2.5" hard disk drive or a M.2 drive. If the M.2 slot is spare you might be able to whack a 1TB drive into it. Then it'll be a D drive or whatever is spare.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

That is a very low spec laptop, personally I would just buy a new one with a non celeron processor.

4gb of ram must be painful for windows, 8gb is the minimum really these days and I would recommend 16gb.

Also are you sure that the hard drive and ram are not actually soldered to the board and hence cannot be upgraded?

[Mr Pointy]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

That is a very low spec laptop, personally I would just buy a new one with a non celeron processor.

4gb of ram must be painful for windows, 8gb is the minimum really these days and I would recommend 16gb.

Also are you sure that the hard drive and ram are not actually soldered to the board and hence cannot be upgraded?

Indeed. I would question the wisdom of spending any more on such a low end laptop.

[biggiles]

Agreed. Also note that these days it's not a simple process of switching drives, there is loads of tedious security built-in to BIOS & Windows etc. these days. Be prepared for a bit of faff. If you're not confident taking the back off your laptop generally, you might want to engage some local help in doing the upgrade for you.

[MustangGT]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

That is a very low spec laptop, personally I would just buy a new one with a non celeron processor.

4gb of ram must be painful for windows, 8gb is the minimum really these days and I would recommend 16gb.

Also are you sure that the hard drive and ram are not actually soldered to the board and hence cannot be upgraded?

And another from me.

[Panamax]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

That is a very low spec laptop, personally I would just buy a new one

+1

My attempts at upgrades have never been worthwhile. Replacing the weakest link in the chain just exposes the next weakest link in the chain. I've concluded the makers design these things as "balanced" systems where the various bits are happy working with each other. Change one bit and the balance gets upset. No, I'm not a tech guru and am currently staring at replacement of an ACER i5 PC that's only 5 years old for this very reason. The prospect of trying to get the old one changed from Windows 10 to Windows 11 fills me with dread so I'm just going to replace the whole thing.

[xeny]

Panamax said:

The prospect of trying to get the old one changed from Windows 10 to Windows 11 fills me with dread so I'm just going to replace the whole thing.

Just run the update. Functionally the 10->11 upgrade process is very similar to the periodic Windows 10 Feature Updates. We've done literally thousands of them at this point.

I suppose in the unlikely event it fails then buy a new one, otherwise that money could be put in a globally diversified equity fund.

[Nath911t]

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

I was basing changing it over on this video by Dell:-

https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-in/videos...

But, like others have said I'll need to see what else is involved. It runs fine for the use it's been used for and going from W10 to W11 it states the storage isn't there at the moment.

[richhead]

Whenever i feel the need to upgrade part of a computer i go to the crucual website where they check what will fit, and suggest upgrades, they have never been wrong, and there is no need to buy from them, but ive always found their prices competitive.
A few quid on some memory and a drive often can get you a few more years out of a machine, Remember alot of us dont really push a computer that hard, i certainly dont.

[Panamax]

xeny said:

Just run the update. Functionally the 10->11 upgrade process is very similar to the periodic Windows 10 Feature Updates. We've done literally thousands of them at this point.

I guess that must be worth a go so long as I make sure the old one's properly backed up first.

xeny said:

I suppose in the unlikely event it fails then buy a new one, otherwise that money could be put in a globally diversified equity fund.

I like your thinking, or perhaps direct into Microsoft.

[Panamax]

richhead said:

Remember alot of us dont really push a computer that hard, i certainly dont.

Mine seem to trip over on 100% disk usage.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

Panamax said:

Mine seem to trip over on 100% disk usage.

My 4 year old Lenovo Legion Pro Ryzen 7 5800h running in whisper mode twiddling it's thumbs. As I said earlier, this laptop is not worth upgrading, just get a new one.



Those poor cores, with literally nothing to do.

Edited by ThingsBehindTheSun on Monday 15th September 17:24

[wyson]

OP’s laptop needs to go in the bin!

Why polish a turd?

Edited by wyson on Monday 15th September 18:53

[Condi]

People are being a bit negative about that laptop. No it's not the most modern thing in the world, but it's not expensive to upgrade some bits and make it faster and with bigger storage.

The HD is an M2 NVMe SSD, for about £30 the OP can put a 480GB replacement in
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crucial-e100-480gb-...

Or for £62 a 1TB drive
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crucial-p310-1tb-m....

And for another £15 or so he can upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Integral-DDR4-2400MHz-SoD...

Edited by Condi on Monday 15th September 22:31

[xeny]

wyson said:

OP s laptop needs to go in the bin!

Why polish a turd?

Edited by wyson on Monday 15th September 18:53

For some people, limited budget is a thing,

[the-norseman]

Surprised nobody has recommended the OP forks out £999 for a Macbook Air yet.

[richhead]

Condi said:

People are being a bit negative about that laptop. No it's not the most modern thing in the world, but it's not expensive to upgrade some bits and make it faster and with bigger storage.

The HD is an M2 NVMe SSD, for about £30 the OP can put a 480GB replacement in
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crucial-e100-480gb-...

Or for £62 a 1TB drive
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crucial-p310-1tb-m....

And for another £15 or so he can upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Integral-DDR4-2400MHz-SoD...

Edited by Condi on Monday 15th September 22:31

This was the point i made above, alot of people just use a computer for emails and browsing.
If for £50-£60 it can be upgraded to last a few more years then why not.

[wyson]

xeny said:

wyson said:

OP s laptop needs to go in the bin!

Why polish a turd?

Edited by wyson on Monday 15th September 18:53

For some people, limited budget is a thing,

Have you seen his garage?