You use this information at your own risk, period.

Remove the two screws located on the front of the megabay holder. Gently slide the cover backwards while slightly wiggling the cover and lift the lid upwards. Be careful here because that lid has 3 little latches in it’s design and you don’t want to break or crack any of them! There isn’t a glue in existence, including the 3M stuff that some refer to as gorilla snot, that will allow you to repair broken plastic.

Remove four screws using a high grade Phillips screwdriver with a long shaft that will allow you to introduce more torque, with more pressure evenly on the screw without stripping it. You don’t want to strip these screws. Once the screws are out you can lift the drive upwards and kind of flip it over so that you can get at the header strip that attached to a flexible printed circuit cable. It’s a little tricky getting the header off the pin with an even force over the length of this connector. Don’t try pry just one side because you could bend the pins. Once it’s off examine it closely so you can see the orientation of the strip so you’ll know how to reconnect the replacement. Once you’re done look at it again and notice that there’s a pin missing which acts like a key way. You can’t re-insert the header incorrectly but you can attempt to force it on backwards and you want to avoid that.

Put the case aside and pickup the hard disk that is mounted in a carrier with 4 screws. First check the orientation of the carrier to the drive, and then remove the screws. Carefully sit the drive aside.

Open the box that the new hard disk came in and remove it from between the foam padding. It’s in an antistatic bag. Carefully break the seal on the bag without damages or scratching the new hard disk. Orient the new hard disk within the carrier. One end of the carrier is closed and the other has an opening where the pins on the hard disk protrude so you can attach the header cable. With the hard disk properly oriented, you’ll have to take care lining up the holes for the 4 screws and you will have to press down slight on the hard disk because there’s an anti-shorting pad inside the carrier. This pad also serves as a bit of shock protection for the drive. DO NOT remove it to make things easier. Once you’ve got all 4 screws started into the drive and carrier begin tightening them in a sequence. Don’t do one all the way and proceed to the next. The alignment is tight and it’s critical. Also as you line up the screws twist the screwdriver in the reverse direction until you hear and fell a little clicking. This will help you to line them up properly and help to prevent stripping them or the internal thread in the hard disk. I can not over emphasize this. YOU DO NOT WANT TO STRIP THE THREADS ON THE HARD DISK.

Next place the bottom part of the case on the right side of your work area and the hard disk on the left side with the Drive label facing down and the bottom of the carrier facing up. You’re doing this step because it will correctly orient both pieces to the header strip that has to be connected back to the new drive. Remember, one pin is missing in the group, which acts as a keyway. Gently and evenly along the length reattach the header. Once you’re satisfied it’s completely on gently flip the drive over onto the foam pad in the bottom o the plastic carrier. Exercise care doing this because you don’t want to stress the printed circuit cable any more that you have to. You need to line up the plastic carriers screw holes with the metal carrier that the hard disk is attached to and then inset and start all 4 screws. You may have to press down slight onto the foam to get the screws to catch. Don't exert hard pressure on the cover of the hard disk. Then tighten each screw gradually in a sequence until you're done. Don’t over tighten any screw. Just snug them up. If you left them loose or forget to tighten any of them One could come loose later inside the case. You don’t want this happening.

Orient the plastic cover over the bottom of the case and side it into the closed or lock position. Be very mindful of those hinged tabs in the cover. You don’t want to break one off.

A word of caution regarding the screws if you lose one you have to replace it with an identical screw of identical length. If you use a longer screw you could tighten it too far into the frame of the hard disk and possibly stress the framework. You don’t want to do this for obvious reasons!

This concludes the exercise in swapping a mini hard disk in a Dell Inspiron MegaBay.

Swapping the internal hard disk in the bottom of the Dell Inspiron is pretty straightforward and there’s information in the reference and trouble-shooting guide that comes with the Dell Inspiron 7500 notebook. Specifically on page 2-21 Dell outlines the removal and insertion procedures. Just be careful once you remove the two screws that hold the unit in place that you completely unscrew them so that the plastic tab can be lifted upwards otherwise you won’t be able to slide the drive forward so that the tabs or grooves along the length of the modular drive unit unhinge properly for removal. Then lift it upwards!

Removing the hard disk from the metal and plastic carrier frame involves the removal of 4 screws. Once you’ve done that the hard disk is free to be removed. Again notice the orientation of the header strip, which has to be removed from the drive. Simply reverse the process for reassembly and don’t over tighten those screws.

This concludes the exercise in swapping the internal hard-disk drives.

Best regards to all… even Dell :-)