Apricorn EZ-UP-UNIVERSAL EZ Upgrade Universal Hard Drive Upgrade Kit Reviews

• Allowed me to recover a laptop that was about to fail

  
  By A2SDD5VXYSSGF5 on 2006-05-01
  The Apricorn EZ Hard Drive Upgrade Kit easily saved me a day's worth of work. Since the hard drive in my Compaq laptop was reporting a SMART error that predicted imminent drive failure, Windows XP was taking about 20 minutes to boot. Worse, the system would not stay alive long enough to backup the data files, let alone all the applications that I had installed with updates. However, with the EZ Upgrade hard drive kit, I was able to boot from the included CD and then directly copy the old hard drive to the new drive in under an hour. After which, it was a simple matter of replacing the old hard drive with the new hard drive. Once done, the system booted perfectly. I wholeheartedly recommend this product to anyone else that faces a similar situation.
  
  

• 'EZ' is appropriate

  
  By A221YYK5GAI4LK on 2007-04-15
  I just upgraded my Dell from the original 40 gig 5200 rpm drive to a 100 gig 7200 rpm drive using the EZ Upgrade Kit. Took about 1 hour from start to finish. Smooth and fast. I hate computers, so when something actually works as advertised I'm very happy.
  
  

• works as advertised

  
  By A2LNDUKZZJBNWM on 2007-09-11
  This product worked as advertised. Upgrading my hard drive was literally an EZ process.
  
  I have a Thinkpad T40 with a 40GB internal hard drive (with two partitions) I wanted to upgrade. I bought a Hitachi TravelStar 160GB internal hard drive separately (obviously not included).
  
  The process took three steps and less than thirty minutes:
  
  Step One: Installed new hard drive into upgrade kit enclosure (this was very easy)
  Step Two: Ghosted my original hard drive to the new hard drive (this took about thirty minutes and again, was very straightforward even with my partitions)
  Step Three: Installed my new hard drive into my laptop and my old hard drive into the upgrade kit enclosure. (five minutes total time)
  
  NOTE: I installed the software on the included CD-ROM onto my computer and ran it from there rather than booting from the CD-ROM directly.
  
  The enclosure itself at first seemed flimsy, but after securing the hard drive with the included screws, it seems like a pretty solid unit. I am using my old hard drive as a bootable backup, not as an external hard drive, so I can't comment on that.
  
  So after about thirty minutes of processing time, I booted up my computer, and lo and behold, it looked exactly as before, except with a greatly expanded hard drive.
  
  I would recommend this product.
  
  

• easy as 1, 2, 3

  
  By A2WGZ3QZ6Y5OPT on 2007-05-27
  If you are thinking about upgrading your hard drive then this is the product you want. I don't care if you have never been inside your computer or if you have rebuilt it 10 times, the EZ upgrade is the way to go. You won't go wrong with this kit, it's a sure WINNER!!!!!
  
  

• Pretty awesome product for the technically inept

  
  By A12CAHGMPILEOD on 2007-08-04
  I bought this to replace my 40GB drive on my Averatec laptop. I followed the instructions the LED lit up, but my laptop would not recognize the 100 GB drive I bought. I was fuuumminggg! I was cursing every living thing near me until I reopened the case and shoved the drive as far as I could into the universal interface. Then and only then did I realize I had not pushed the pins far enough in my attempt to be super delicate with my new drive. Please, save yourself some heartache and ensure the pins are seated correctly. I cloned the drive through Windows and it worked perfectly. Upgrading my HD from 4200 to 7200 has made a great difference in performance.
  
  
• Nice neat portable backup
  By A1C1ZBV82MIKW3 on 2007-07-20
  I use the Upgrade Kit primarily as a portable backup. As such it works fine for me. The original harddrive was slower than the replacment drive and so I'm not sure whether it's the drive or the Upgrade Kit -- but access is really slow. I've given it 5 stars because it is small and compact and installation is really very simple and easy. Support from Apricorn was good as well. There might be some persons who would want to synchronize their old drive with the new one, but I wanted a clean install so I can't comment on the synchronize characteristics. The backup software allows the user to create, explore and restore exact images of the harddrive and it actually works well.
  
  
• Great tool!
  By A2X9W2JZGBDL61 on 2007-09-09
  This item was so easy to use, I had and old laptop with win. XP and a 20 Gig Hard Drive and the instructions were so simple to follow on the manual. It took me about 20 minutes to set it up and leave it running. I do not know exactly how long it took because my USB ports are 1.0 not the like the new ones 2.0 so I think it took a few hours to complete the transfer, but when it was done it finished I had an exact copy of EVERYTHING I had on my old drive onto to my new 60 Gig drive. Awesome!!!
  
  
• Not compatible with Toshiba MK163GSX
  By A11JXS9PB728PD on 2007-11-17
  The 160GB 5400 RPM 2.5 SATA HD from Toshiba does not fit or align with this device. And I can't return it... I will remember to read the fine print in the future. On the other hand, a disk migration maybe something people do once... and then return the device, so this non-return policy has some merit.
  
  
• Not just for upgrades, also great for creating drive images
  By A2WM1KL9DQSQ18 on 2007-12-24
  This product does everything that I needed from Norton Ghost. And it costs half as much as Norton Ghost. Plus it includes a nice laptop compatible drive enclosure.
  
  It can easily move existing hard drives to image files stored on USB drives. It does this much better than Norton Ghost 12, which often crashes in the middle. The CD-ROM is bootable, so it copies outside of windows. The bootable disk worked fine with all USB drives that I used.
  
  I use it to upgrade hard drives as well as create sector level backups of my Windows computers.
  
  
• Apricorn Rules on this one!
  By A1M3M18GKNLB4J on 2007-05-23
  Apricorn EZ Upgrade Universal Hard Drive Upgrade Kit ( EZ-UP-UNIVERSAL )
  Have you ever dealt with a technically convoluted problem?
  Try cloning or upgrading a dying HD in a laptop.
  Then try it with this tool!
  Awesome difference!
  Great product, reasonable price, Amazon provided maximum distribution skills and perks. Thanks to all.
  
  
• Apricorn Hard drive kit
  By A1SW7QVY3L8D2Q on 2007-08-13
  very good product. Simple, easy to follow instructions. I was amazed at how simple it was to copy one hard drive to another then install the new one into my laptop and immediately use the computer.
  
  
• A Product That Actually Does What the PR Says It Will!!
  By A2HOT34Z8K9AMV on 2007-12-03
  I was having problems with my ZD7058 HP Notebook. It took forever to do anything, and sometimes it couldn't boot up. I had been nursing the hard drive along by marking the bad sectors and moving the data for some time.
  
  I ordered this Apricorn product to attempt to recover the old drive to a new and slightly larger drive (80gb to 120gb). Thanks to Norton's Go Back I was able to get my PC to a bootable configuration and started the Apricorn software. Follow the instructions with the unit. I was a little apprehensive while it was running because it made slow progress (3 or 4 hours) for an 80gb drive.
  
  The biggest surprises were after it finished. What had occupied 49gb of space on the old drive only occupied 36gb on the new drive. Boot up is much faster and everything runs faster than it had before. I hadn't realized how bad the old drive had become. I have not detected anything missing/lost by the transfer and the speed increase is like buying a new PC.
  
  FIVE STARS for doing what it says it will do. It's now been more than a month since the cloning, and still nothing missing or corrupted. As my title says "A Product That Actually Does What The PR Says It Will!!".
  
  DISCLAIMER: Does not come with a new drive. You must buy that seperately. The Apricorn EZ Upgrade Kit will do the rest.
  
  
• Possibly the best computer purchase I have made...
  By A343GRUJH6R44A on 2007-12-13
  Steps:
  1. Install the software.
  2. Put a blank harddrive in the provided enclosure.
  3. Run the software (note that you do not need to have a CD drive connected to the computer to do this part).
  4. Swap the hard drive in the enclosure for the one in your laptop.
  
  You are done! The whole process (for a full 40GB harddrive) took about 1 hour. The old drive can now be used for storage with the enclosure.
  
  
• Stupid Amazon Return Policy
  By A380K16Z7SPOBW on 2007-06-01
  Amazon won't take back the item, even if it is UNOPENED. Even if I pay for return shipment. What a second rate retailer...
  
  
• Apricorn Upgrade Kit
  By A2SHYU5Z9CS3AR on 2007-08-29
  This kit has everything you need to upgrade or back up your hard drive, except the new hard drive of course.
  
  I am not extremely computer literate and thought I would have to take my laptop into a service shop to get the hard drive replaced. Apricorn helped me through it without a snag. I was able to copy my entire old 40 GB hard drive to the new 160 GB, smooth as silk. Worked the first time, unlike the competitor which I bought first and had to return.
  
  I highly recommend the EZ upgrade kit.
  
  
• If you want a larger laptop hard drive - you need this product
  By A25WAM3H14G17E on 2007-09-05
  Absolutely fabulous - it cloned my existing hard drive (60G) and put the clone on the new drive (120G). Piece of cake, worked perfectly. Just make sure you do your research first to see what hard drives you can use to replace in your laptop.
  
  
• Love it
  By A2W9L33242PR3V on 2007-11-07
  I was able to clone my Dell's hard drive to a new, bigger drive without any loss of data. It's pretty much plug an' chug software so no steep learning curve needed. Upgraded from 40 GB to 80GB in only about an hour total. It did the formatting and partitioning and delivered me a new laptop drive with no fuss.
  Be not afraid.... it works.
  
  
• Great update product!!!
  By A37KNYBGKUVZV1 on 2007-12-14
  This upgrade product rocks! I used this kit to upgrade my 3-year old Gateway M320 40gb hard drive to WD 120 Scorpio. Total time (after reading the instructions carefully) from chkdsk and defrag old drive to swapping in new drive and successful bootup--2 1/2 hours. An anxious moment when the initial bootup takes a while, then joy to see this product did exactly what it says it will do!! Looking forward to try the other features of the software, and using the old drive for backups and extra storage!!
  
  
• Fast and Easy
  By A394R4TS2I805O on 2008-01-14
  I bought this product to upgrade my 40gb laptop drive to a 120gb drive. I have to admit I was a bit hesitant because it sounded a little too easy. I started it early on a weekend morning, expecting to monitor it for hours while it cloned my drive. I was pleasantly surprised when it completed in about 40 minutes. From the time I opened the package to the time I was back to work on the new drive was less than an hour. No problems or errors, and no need to re-install the OS or any programs. Just pop in the new drive and everything's back to normal. Very impressive. I would highly recommend this product to anyone planning to upgrade hard drives.
  
  
• Worked fine AFTER...
  By A2L3CH9L7GWODC on 2008-02-29
  This product worked just as advertised only AFTER I located a power supply for the hard drive enclosure. I was able to use an old cell phone charger that had the correct plug and voltage output. I upgraded to a Seagate ST9160821A-RK 160 GB Ultra ATA 2.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive for my HP Pavillion Media Center dv5140us. Perhaps the Seagate requires more power than the USB port puts out. I seem to be the only one that has had this power problem though, and Apricorn does sell a power supply for the enclosure at their website.
  HP tech support told me it was not possible to upgrade my laptop to a larger hard drive, but thanks to Amazon and Apricorn HP was proven wrong!
  
  
• No Support
  By A2E2770YMAC949 on 2008-02-29
  Ordered despite seeing reviews cautioning about poor documentation and situations where product does not work. Attempts to contact Apricorn via phone (800# on product for example) or email were waste of time.
  
  One review found via Google suggested a situation similar to my experience and possible solution/workaround. Cannot find the article again. Have to wonder why Apricorn cannot provide same info.
  
  The reviews noting poor support were correct.
  
  
• Works once you get the correct software version!!!
  By A1CEXMJWBBJUK9 on 2008-09-09
  Product gets a 4, Apricorn Support gets a 1!!
  
  This product ships with a CD that is version 2 of the EZ GIG software. It does not work with laptops that have a separate partition for system recovery, but Apricorn support does not have a clue to that issue.
  
  Once you get Apricorn to give you the key to the latest version, which is version 8, and create a install cd for it the software works fine.
  
  Get the latest version before you start your upgrade. You will save yourself many hours of frustration.
  
  
  
  
• Nice idea, but beware if you have a Dell with Media Direct!
  By AKX394QNQVSLJ on 2008-10-08
  This is a great item that should have made upgrading my notebook's hard drive really easy. However, there is a known issue with this product on a Dell computer with Media Direct. I WISH THIS HAD BEEN NOTED IN THE DIRECTIONS! The problem can be avoided just by not copying one particular file. However, if you run through the whole installation without the extra steps you will get the blue screen of death and the upgrade doesn't work.
  
  Once I called technical support, they sent me an email that explained how to fix the problem. It took me a lot of extra time to "fix" what I could have avoided in the first place.
  
  [...]
  
  In summary, this product did work, and I was able to use it to upgrade my hard drive. However, I wish I had been told before hand that it needed and extra step to work with my Dell computer.
  
  
  
• BEWARE of PITFALLS
  By A7O4MX023XHDU on 2008-10-24
  This kit offers an easy way to replace the hardrive in a laptop, but there are a few pitfalls that one needs to watch out. Apricorn offers little or no help to the users.
  
  (1) Many people with pre-XP system have trouble because they're not equipped with USB 2.0 ports. The old USB 1.1 ports are about 40 times slower and it also doesn't supply enough power to run many external drives. So some people complain about the disk copying process take forever and some couldn't get the drive to respond at all. The power problem can be solved by adding an external power supply that plugs into the enclusure. The data rate problem can be solved by getting a PC card that provide USB 2.0 ports on the old machines.
  
  (2) Many users, including myself, experienced a problem using the newly cloned drive: an error message upon removal an USB flash drive or hardrive. After getting no help from Apricorn, I did find a solution on the web. It is caused by some bugs in the cloning software, but it's unclear why it happens to some people and not all. If you have this problem, see message #69 at this URL for the fix.
  [...]
  
  I deducted 2 stars in the rating because (1) the cloning bug has been known for at least 18 months but it's still in the kit I bought 2 weeks ago; (2) it is misleading to advertise the kit for older systems running Win2000 without telling people some extra parts are needed, e.g., an extra power module or a USB 2.0 PC card. For people who don't run into these problems, it's a 5-star product. For those who do, it's a 1-star.
  
  
• Works like a charm!
  By AE6DDIKFMC2RY on 2006-08-15
  The 20 GB hard drive in my wife's notebook PC was almost full and we wanted to upgrade to a larger drive while preserving all of her programs, data, settings, etc. I did a search and found EZ Gig to be the preferred notebook hard drive upgrade/replacement solution.
  
  It comes with excellent instructions and everything you need to get the job done (except the new drive which is purchased separately). It took less than 30 minutes to install the software and hardware, make a backup image of the old drive, start the cloning process, and install the new drive in the notebook PC. Obviously, the copying process can take a few hours, but that can be done at night or on the weekend when the PC is not in use.
  
  This is an outstanding product and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to upgrade/replace the hard drive in their notebook PC.
  
  
• Cannot use with a HP Pavillion ZV5340us drive
  By AAF2SYGZ2YKSI on 2007-09-15
  This upgrade kit works flawlessly. It's very easy to clone data from one drive to the other. Just beware if you have a ZV5340us that you're trying to switch out. The Hp drive of this model will not connect to the enclosure due to some plastic molding they have across the pins.
  
  
• Dell Inspiron 6000 HD upgrade
  By A1YB5HMJD0GASP on 2008-02-08
  Purchased this upgrade kit to clone my OEM Hitachi 60G 5400 RPM HD data to a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100G 7200 RPM HD and highly recommend this kit for this purpose. Very easy to use and had my new drive cloned and installed in about 1.5 hours. Note: Follow the instructions in the manual and don't forget to remove pin adapter from old drive (if applicable) and install on new drive as I did or panic will set in due to the drive not being found. The HD caddy now houses my old drive as a backup, is made of aluminum and appears very durable and well made.
  
  
• a must have item
  By A110YXIJFHJA7L on 2008-03-30
  It saved me tons of hours by cloning my old drive to the new drive in less than 2 hours, super fast and easy to use, installation is simple and user friendly, I would highly recommned this to everyone, this is one of the must have items.
  
  
• Leap of faith
  By A34U1JV9VCVYZR on 2008-04-19
  This product does work, but there are absolutely no instructions (except the 1-2-3 printed on the package), and even Apricorn's website takes you to a blank page for instructions.
  As others have noted, it does not come with a power cord, but when I got it hooked up with only the USB cord provided I could feel the drive running when I put my hand on it. However, since my computer couldn't 'see' the drive, I too hooked up an old cell-phone charger. Still no changes, I could feel it running but could not locate it. I was about to call the support number when I decided to give it a shot. And it worked. A couple reboots and two hours later I had a cloned drive installed.
  I would rate this 5-stars were it not for the total lack of instructions. Still, I would highly recommend this product. And for anyone who purchases this in the future, before you buy or hook up an external power source, see if it runs without it first, and if so, post a review so we all know...
  
  
• Excellent unit, great disk cloning software, highly recommended
  By A3DYO45K4VC9UU on 2008-05-20
  Bought this to swap a 250GB Western Digital Scorpio PATA/IDE disk into my wife's HP DV1000 notebook. The existing 60GB disk was struggling under the burden of digital content that a 10MPixel digicam can produce!
  
  As the defacto IT department for my household I'm reasonably technical and there were a few options for transferring the partitions between the two disks, but I value my time and wanted a quick and easy solution.
  
  Total time invested in the disk upgrade was 20 - 30 minutes, including reading the documentation. This product really lives up to its name. Cloning the contents of the old disk to the new one took less than 1.5 hours, but once it set off I walked away and left it so I can't be too precise.
  
  Two thumbs up!
  
  

• Logitech Alto Connect Notebook Stand

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• Western Digital WD 250GB 2.5" 5400RPM SATA Bulk/OEM Hard Drive WD2500BEVS
• Seagate ST9160821A-RK 160 GB Ultra ATA 2.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive