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Upgrade Guide

Common notebook upgrades, step-by-step.

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Before You Begin

1. Do some research.

Find out the amount of RAM in your notebook (watch your display at start-up or right-click My Computer, select Properties, and look on the General tab) and the size of your hard drive (open My Computer, right-click the drive's icon, and select Properties). Check the Web site of your notebook's maker to see whether it has upgrades available. Then visit the Web sites of companies that specialize in upgrades (third-party vendors are likely to be cheaper).

2. Prepare to upgrade.

It's an excellent idea (though not essential) to confirm that your notebook's BIOS is up-to-date. Visit the support section of your notebook vendor's Web site. To ensure that your old hard drive is trouble-free (you'll need to copy data from it later), run both ScanDisk (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk) and Disk Defragmenter ( Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter). Finally, completely back up your hard drive. If you don't have a tape backup for your notebook, back up your data files onto floppy disks.

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