#im too autistic for my own good thank u for enabling me anon

[bigweldindustries]

random question but can i ask if you have any advice for upgrading a pc to have more storage space? or just upgrading computers in general, i feel like i remember you talking/rebloging a post about that kind of thing before?

YOOOOOO hey anon!! For what it's worth storage space is absolutely always the easiest thing to upgrade on any given computer, including laptops. Quick disclaimer in that I consider myself fairly casual at actually working with computer hardware (I'm the defacto computer repair guy at work but work for a tiny org with around 20 employees so my experience comes down to fixing a couple of busted laptop keyboards/hard drives/batteries/I replaced a screen once, and I built my younger brother's computer) but I'm unusually comfortable with gutting hardware due to a combination of a longtime (like a decade now, woof) hobby of fixing games consoles and having a degree in computer engineering.

putting this under a read more BC I wrote an entire guide LMAO

You've got a few options depending on your exact situation (if your motherboard has extra slots you can add another harddrive but this usually involves having to add extra data cables and power cables - I've never done this so I'm no good lol) but your best options are either to get an external harddrive or just straight up swap the drive for a bigger one.

external harddrive is the easier scenario; you just... buy an external harddrive. back when I set up mine it was cheaper to just buy a usb harddrive enclosure and regular internal harddrives than to get an out of the box ready to go external harddrive, and you can even buy multi harddrive enclosures if you wanna go all in on massive storage (I like to think of myself as an archivist as opposed to a data hoarder, but regardless I frankensteined myself a 14tb external harddrive that plays host to my personal data like every photo I've taken in almost 2 decades, but also a stockade of leaked data I find interesting, a few more obscure shows I'm worried about losing, my own lost media finds, and so on).

if you don't want to deal with external harddrives (they take up some physical space albeit not much these days, you have to deal with slower usb transfer speeds, etc.) swapping out the harddrive for a bigger one on your computer is relatively easy, but you will need these prerequisites:

-knowledge of your computer make and model. this seems trivial but it makes working out what kind of harddrive you've got easier, as well as how to get into the boot menu. if you Google "how to find computer model" there's a myriad of guides - I know it's in windows settings somewhere but I don't remember, hahaha

-the type and size of harddrive - easiest way is to Google "(insert computer model) specs" and find the official specs sheet. Size is fairly obvious, but the two important bits are 1) whether it's SATA or PCIe NVMe, and 2) whether it's an SSD, M2 SSD, or a HDD.

-being comfortable in the fact you are going to have to fiddle around in the BIOS, albeit briefly. ooga booga you can really fuck things up in the bios, yes, but all you need to do is briefly change boot order then swap it back. you are not going to poo poo out your computer by doing this, I promise you 500%

-a usb to either SATA or PCIe NVMe, to match with what you found on the specs sheet

-a usb drive that's at least 8gb (I use cheap thumb drives, more on this in a sec)

-and finally the larger harddrive to replace it. you want to look for one that "matches" the old one but is larger; for example my primary drive in my personal is a SATA SSD that's 256gb, so I'd look for a SATA SSD in say, 512gb or 1tb. As for brand it doesn't matter too much but Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital tend to be the more reliable makes; you're better off picking up one of these over a small or no brand drive that may crap out on you early!

first step. we take da pen drive. we make some boot media with it. with windows this is super fucking easy, windows give you a downloadable tool that does this for your itself. Google "create installation media for windows", download the thing, run it, make a cup of tea whilst it writes to usb, bam. you have your Magic Installing Stick. I personally am a weirdo and I like to download windows isos and make my Magic Installing Stick using a little program called Rufus, but you don't have to do this. if you're using Linux this is probably easier but I'm a scrub who dual boots Linux onto my originally-windows system and all my work computers are windows so I have no experience but the Linux community fuckin loves writing guides so one of them will have u it's all good

second step. take password off computer. I don't know if this is necessary but the final step has worked everytime when I do this so. go into user settings and delete ALL passwords and shit on your user

next step. we boot into the bios. we are once again googling with the model name of the computer and this time it's "access (insert computer model) boot menu" because computer manufacturers can't agree on how to do that. turn the computer off, then back on, then spam whatever key the Google told you. you'll get some options, and you wanna pick "BIOS setup" or something like that. you are in the bios now. every bios is ALSO different but you want to find "boot options" or something to that effect and move "usb" or "removable devices" or something to THAT effect up to the top of the list. (I literally cannot be more specific this shit is so different in each computer....) once you've done that save and shut down.

then we get THE SCREWDRIVERS OUT. open the pc. see it's guts. look for the thing that looks like the new harddrive. it's pretty much always obvious and easily accessible because harddrives are the most likely computer component to fucking die so they're really easy to spot even on laptops where they don't want you repairing and upgrading them yourself. unclip it if it's a HDD/slide it out if it's either type of SSD. stick in the new one. congrats on the more memory now it's time to put the pc back together

now it's time for Magic Install Stick. put it in. boot up. in my experience sometimes the bios wants it in one particular usb slot so if it shits itself on bootup turn off and try another slot. eventually it will boot into windows install. install da windows. make another cuppa whilst you wait. boom it's a computer again

go back into bios by key spamming on bootup again. go back to the boot options. move "harddrive" back to the top of the list. you don't necessarily have to do this but I enjoy restoring peace and harmony to my bioses personally

set up windows. grab old drive. grab usb to sata/NVMe/whatever. put stick in usb device. plug usb device in. obtain files from old harddrive. move to new harddrive.

then you have lotsa space and you can enjoy :)