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Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement

What you need

  1. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement, Battery: step 1, image 1 of 1

    • Flip your laptop over to view the bottom and locate the two locks.

    Edit

  2. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 2, image 1 of 1

    • Slide the two locks away from each other.

    • Sliding these locks will loosen the battery to allow removal.

    Edit

  3. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 3, image 1 of 2 Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 3, image 2 of 2

    • Pull battery out of the laptop.

    • Your laptop's battery should be completely removed.

    Edit

  5. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement, Keyboard: step 4, image 1 of 2 Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement, Keyboard: step 4, image 2 of 2

    • Flip the laptop right side up. Open the laptop.

    • Gently press in the four retaining tabs along the top of the keyboard with a spudger, one at a time.

    • After the first tab is released, gently lift up on the keyboard so it doesn't lock again. Finish the other three tabs while gently lifting up on the keyboard. The keyboard will hinge up along the bottom.

    Edit

  6. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 5, image 1 of 3 Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 5, image 2 of 3 Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 5, image 3 of 3

    • Gently flip the data cable latch away from the data cable with flat side of spudger.

    • Lift the cable up and out.

    • When reinstalling cable, there are two retainer wings on the sides of the cable that the cable that lock onto the bottom of the cable latch area. When these are in place the cable is properly inserted.

    • For removing the optical drive you don't need to disconnect the keyboard ribbon cable.

    Edit

  7. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement, Upper Case: step 6, image 1 of 1

    • Close the lid, flip the laptop bottom side up with the battery at the top.

    • Remove the 11 screws holding the upper case to the lower case.

    Edit

  8. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 7, image 1 of 1

    • Flip the laptop over and open the lid.

    • Remove the two screws from the upper case.

    Edit

  9. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 8, image 1 of 3 Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 8, image 2 of 3 Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 8, image 3 of 3

    • Gently unplug the power cable.

    • You lift up on the dark gray latch.

    • Pull the blue ribbon up.

    • Gently unplug the touchpad cable.

    • Lift up on the dark gray latch.

    • Pull the blue ribbon up

    Edit

  10. Dell Inspiron n5050 Hard Drive Replacement: step 9, image 1 of 1

    • Grab the metal frame of the upper case and gently pull it away from the lower case. Disconnect the cable that says MB before removing the palmrest.

    • Work your way around the perimeter of the upper case.

    Edit
Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

43 other people completed this guide.

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Tyler

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10 Comments

Awesome guide! Thank you so much for posting this.

Chris Baines - Reply

My issue was that hard drive slipped out of it connector. Snapped it back in. Works! Thanks for great instructions.

Joe B - Reply

Thanks for your help - now reformattting in a different laptop

rosen220462 - Reply

I've replaced my drive as described above.

Can anyone tell me what comes next?

*I turned it on, got dialog on the drive recognized, but I couldn't get it started.

I did try the dell drivers & utilities that came with it with no luck.

I looked into the options under F2, F8 & F12.

No luck there.

I'm still digging through e-how links.

Sage - Reply

A new hard drive normally doesn't have Windows installed on it. Hopefully you have created the dell recovery dvds when you first obtained the laptop. If you don't have that you can try and download the dvd image from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-....

Tyler -

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