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In the following guide I explain how to remove the hard drive from a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (1010) netbook.
There is no easy access to the hard drive from the bottom of the netbook. The hard drive is mounted inside the case, under the keyboard.
You can use this guide for removing/replacing the keyboard and removing/replacing/upgrading the hard drive.
STEP 1.
Turn off the laptop, unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery.
Remove three screws from the bottom. These screws secure the keyboard.
STEP 2.
Insert a thin object between the top side of the keyboard and laptop case.
Lift up the keyboard and continue removing it with your fingers.
STEP 3.
Lift up the keyboard as it shown on the picture below and flip upside down on the palm rest.
STEP 4.
Under the keyboard you’ll find the hard drive assembly and wireless card.
It’s not necessary to disconnect the keyboard if you are replacing the hard drive or wireless card.
If you would like to replace the keyboard, you’ll have to unlock the connector and release the cable.
In order to unlock the connector, very carefully move the brown lock about 2 millimeters towards the touch pad.
The lock must stay attached to the connector base.
When the connector unlocked, you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.
Looking for a new keyboard for your Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook? Search here.
STEP 5.
Remove one screw securing the hard drive assembly.
STEP 6.
Slide the hard drive assembly to the left and disconnect it from the motherboard.
STEP 7.
Remove the hard drive assembly.
Now remove four screws securing the hard drive to the caddy and separate the hard drive from the caddy.
In my case I had a regular 160GB 2.5″ SATA hard drive installed. This hard drive can be replaced with a larger 2.5″ SATA hard drive.
July 17th, 2010 at 7:10 am
Thank You! Dell should be paying you for not only a great step by step guide but for being able to easily find it online!
July 17th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Tamara,
Thanks.
August 19th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Dell paying for this advice? Completly counterproductive. If people don’t know how to replace the hard-drive they will buy a new netbook
August 19th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Or take laptop to a local computer shop and pay $$$ to replace the hard drive.
Alternatively, you can use my guide and replace it yourself and pay just for the hard drive.
October 8th, 2010 at 5:56 am
This is a wonderful step by step guide to installing the hard drive.
Thank you very much it is installed. Only took about 20 minutes.
October 9th, 2010 at 6:08 am
Thank you so much I was totally lost and the Dell website was way confusing. You are the greatest.
October 26th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
From one tech to another..my thanks, & gratitude, & donation on the way….worth every penny… saved me a ton of time & headaches….now if I can just figgure out how to split the bottom case on the d620 ???
Bet you have a “how to” on that as well….thanks again Tekkie !!
October 26th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
llerks,
I have two different guides for Dell Latitude D620 notebook. Here they are:
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/remove-replace-keyboard-dell-latitude-d620-laptop/
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/remove-replace-lcd-screen-dell-latitude-d620-laptop/
If it’s not enough, check out this official service manual. It has full disassembly instructions.
October 26th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
llerks,
Thank you for the donation. Got it.
November 1st, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I cannot reinstall WinXp – Mini 10 wants me to “insert disk in Drive A” – which does not exist. What can I do to trick the net book in letting me install Win Xp? Frustrating because it loads on the external CD/DVD rom but wont take further action until this DRIVE A is used. PLease help!!! Thanks.
November 1st, 2010 at 5:46 pm
charlene,
If I understand correctly, you are trying to boot from an external CD/DVD drive but it’s asking for Drive A?
Can you enter the BIOS setup menu and load default settings. Try again after that.
Can you see the hard drive in the BIOS?
November 13th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
thanks alot !!
December 3rd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Thanks so much for this helpful guide! Saved me lots of $$$ for the holidays. I’ve had to replace the hard drive in a dell mini 10 netbook with no cd rom drive available, how can I get this loaded with an OS?
December 8th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Joseph,
You need an external USB DVD drive.
December 15th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
I have something hard under the ‘i’ key. How do I remove it to clean under it?
December 15th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Dorman,
You can use this method: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/03/20/key-fell-off-keyboard/
January 18th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
I can’t put my keyboard back on van yu plz walk me thru it
February 17th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Hey dude, thanks for posting the link to replacing keyboard keys, I couldn’t find a way anywhere else.
March 17th, 2011 at 7:40 am
My screen got wet and faded away.. Ever since that its still the same everytime i turn it on it slowly fades away snd stays blackish/grayish.. Please how do i fix this????
March 18th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Ricky,
Can you get image on the external monitor?
March 20th, 2011 at 7:25 am
No the screen just stays the same. Its like a grayish/black color i can hear the buttons when i press the keys it beeps the moniter got wet barley by like little rain drops and thats how
April 4th, 2011 at 2:05 am
What a great guide, thanks. I believe my hard drive is, for lack of a better word, f**ed. I quite experienced with the operation of computers and such, but am lacking in experience with hard drives. How would i know for sure that the hard drive is “f**ed”?
Thanks in advance
Max
April 8th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Max,
Does your laptop still boot?
If it boots, you can test hard drive with HDTune utility. Run error scan.
If the laptop doesn’t boot, you can remove the hard drive and test it on a working PC. I usually test hard drive with SeaTools utility (frim Seagate.
May 28th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Thank you so much!!! I installed the new hard drive in less than 10 minutes. A first time replacement!!!
June 19th, 2011 at 7:03 am
i have a dell mini and lost the plug. i bought a aftermarket one and it made a popping noise and arked at the wall socket, now thw computer will not boot, just a dark screen
June 19th, 2011 at 8:31 am
the soldering for where the power switch is connected to the mother board broke apart. I re-soldered it, but the two pins ended up being soldered together in one large solder as opposed to the two small ones previously. My computer won’t turn on. Do the pins need to be soldered separately?
Thanks!
July 3rd, 2011 at 5:12 pm
how can you test the dc power jack on a dell mini, we used a after market plug and it arked at the plug in wall socket, now the computer will not boot, just a black screen. the power light is on but nothing comes up. i was told it may have fried my mother board. what do you think
July 21st, 2011 at 5:03 am
Thanks a million Inside-Team
Your site is really awesome – Thumbs up 
August 17th, 2011 at 4:29 am
is this a sata I or sata II
August 29th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Where can I find a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Hard Drive? Can someone give me a link?
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:03 am
Hello. Great guide for removing the keyboard and replacing the hard drive. I have a Dell mini with a broken audio output jack. Do you have instructions on how to fix it?
December 23rd, 2011 at 6:50 pm
@ Christien Gagnier,
I don’t have this guide.
Most likely the audio jack soldered directly to the motherboard. You’ll have to remove the motherboard and find someone who can desolder the broken jack and solder a new one.
March 10th, 2012 at 1:59 pm
hi thank you for this tutorial can you make a full taking apart for this one because am having screen problems thank you again
March 12th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
@ WeWe,
Here’s service manual for this model. Should help.
June 15th, 2012 at 5:00 am
Please could you tell me how to install windows on a dell mini.
My old one dont work properly so was adviced to buy a new one, but it happens to be blank. How do i go about it, l will make a donation please. Thanks
June 15th, 2012 at 9:04 am
Tony,
Do you have Windows installation dics?
Do you have an external USB DVD drive?
January 27th, 2013 at 4:17 am
Hello!
My question was whether the Dell Mini Laptop or has no hard drive.
I wanted to see if by chance something is badly connected and up to test out the disc because it is giving error message: Operating System not found.
February 7th, 2013 at 8:37 pm
my dell mini battery shorted and damaged two adapters while trying to charge as adapter light continuously blink and finally off permanently during battery charging but lapy fine works directly on adapter without battery, pls help any solution for battery shortage problem?
February 9th, 2013 at 10:26 am
@ jiyajain,
Have you tried replacing the battery?
March 17th, 2013 at 1:44 am
wow you are awesome. thank you!!
April 10th, 2013 at 5:49 am
Dear Tony,
You can install windows on these netbooks in one of two ways.
1. External CD/DVD drive
2. Bootable USB pen drive.
with the first option, all you do is take your normal installation disk and put this into the external drive and go into your BIOS settings and boot from the external drive first.
The second option is a little more time consuming to setup. It involves copying your installation disk as a bootable ISO format and then using PowerISO, you can convert the disk files onto your pen drive, the software will also allow you to make the USB device bootable.
In either case, going onto google will be the best way to get the relevant knowledge and also the software tha you will need.
I hope this information helps you and do let e know on here how you get on.
Yours sincerely
Jianglong Wang
JIATEK SOLUTIONS