Upgrading or replacing the hard drive in your Dell Latitude 5400 can breathe new life into your laptop. Whether you're swapping out a failing HDD or upgrading to a faster SSD, you can find everything you want to know from this guide.
Before you start replacing the hard drive in your Dell Latitude 5400, it’s essential to prepare properly. This ensures a smooth installation process and minimizes the risk of data loss or hardware damage. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Check Compatibility and Choose a New Drive
The Latitude 5400 supports 2.5-inch SATA hard drives and M.2 NVMe SSDs. Check your user manual to find out what type of disk your laptop is using. Buy a new drive of the same type (2.5-inch or M.2).
2. Back Up Your Data
Before making any hardware changes, always back up your data to prevent loss. You can make a backup on an external drive or cloud drive for better protection.
3. Gather the Necessary Tools
To open your Dell Latitude 5400 and replace the drive, you’ll need:
Now you are ready for Dell Latitude 5400 hard drive replacement. In the sections below, I’ll show you detailed steps in different cases:
👉Case 1: Dell Latitude 5400 replace hard drive with SSD
👉Case 2: Dell Latitude 5400 SSD upgrade
Upgrading your Dell Latitude 5400 from a traditional HDD to an SSD is one of the best ways to enhance your laptop’s speed, boot times, and overall performance.
To avoid reinstalling your OS and applications after hard drive replacement, you can clone your existing drive to the new SSD using AOMEI Cloner. This tool provides reliable disk cloning with advanced features, ensuring a seamless migration.
💜 Disk Clone: Duplicates an entire HDD or SSD, including the OS, applications, and files, onto a new drive.
💜 System Clone: Transfers C drive to new SSD for a seamless OS migration.
💜 Intelligent Clone: Copies only occupied sectors, skipping empty space for a faster and more efficient cloning process.
💜 SSD Alignment: Enhances 4K sector alignment to improve SSD performance and longevity.
💜 Partition Resizing: Automatically adjusts partition sizes during cloning, ensuring optimal disk space utilization.
Download AOMEI Cloner now and then follow the instructions below to replace HDD with SSD on Dell Latitude 5400.
Easiest HDD/SSD clone software for Windows PC & Server
Step 1. Transfer data from HDD to SSD
1. Connect the new SSD to your laptop via the USB-to-SATA adapter you prepared.
2. Install and run AOMEI Cloner. Then click Clone > Disk Clone.
3. Select your HDD as the source disk and choose your new SSD as the destination disk.
4. On the Operation Summary page, check the information of the source and destination disks.
5. Enable SSD Alignment to optimize the target SSD performance and click Start Clone.
Step 2. Swap HDD for SSD and boot
1. Shut down your Latitude 5400 and unplug the power adapter. Remove any connected peripherals (mouse, USB drive, microSD card, etc.).
2. Remove the base cover.
3. Remove the battery.
4. Remove the hard drive.
5. Install the new SSD.
6. Replace the battery and base cover.
7. Reconnect any external devices you need and the power adapter. Turn on the laptop.
8. Press F2 during boot to enter BIOS. Ensure the SSD is set as the primary boot drive.
9. If any changes are made, press F10 to save changes and exit. Your Latitude 5400 should now boot from the new SSD.
Note: If your laptop doesn’t boot as expected, please refer to this article: cloned SSD won't boot.
If your Latitude 5400 is equipped with an M.2 SSD and you want to upgrade it to a larger one, here’s how to do it:
Step 1. Transfer data from old SSD to new SSD
First, connect the new M.2 SSD to your laptop via the M.2 NVMe enclosure you prepared. Then, clone M.2 SSD to larger M.2 SSD via AOMEI Cloner. The steps are basically the same as in Case 1, and you just need to choose the corresponding source and target disks.
Step 2. Swap two SSDs and boot
1. Shut down your Latitude 5400 and unplug the power adapter.
2. Remove connected peripherals, base cover and battery as mentioned in Case 1.
3. Remove the old M.2 SSD.
4. Install the new M.2 SSD.
5. Replace the battery, base cover and external devices. Turn on your laptop to boot from the new M.2 SSD.
By following this guide, you can ensure a smooth Dell Latitude 5400 hard drive replacement, boosting your laptop’s speed, efficiency, and storage capacity. The best part is that you can transfer everything from your old HDD/SSD to a new SSD using AOMEI Cloner, eliminating the need to reinstall Windows and all your applications. Just give it a try!