Removing the hard drive from the computer is a relatively straight forward process. However, before you start working inside of the computer, you need to be aware of ESD (electrostatic discharge) as it could damage hardware components.

In the following sections, you’ll see the steps required for removing most computer hard drives. First, you need to remove the side panel from the computer case.

Remove the fasteners securing the side panel, and carefully pull it off. Once the panel is removed, you can see the inside of the computer.

In most computer cases, it’s located towards the front at the bottom of the case, as indicated in the image below.

Also, disconnect the IDE (integrated drive electronics) or SATA (Serial AT Attachment) cable, which is next to the power connector. The hard drive is secured in place by two to four screws, as is shown in the picture below.

With the securing mechanism loosened, gently remove the hard drive.

If you you are building a desktop PC for the first time or upgrading your storage space for the better, installing a new hard drive can prove to a daunting task for some. While most users these days install SSDs in their PCs, a hard disk drive (HDD) is still one of the most popular storage devices for those who want high capacity at an affordable price.

The process is straightforward and sees you mount the HDD, plug in the cables, and format the drive to make it usable on your computer. We will go through these steps one-by-one, so keep reading.

Internal hard disk drives (HDDs) are designed for internal use in desktops and come in two form factors. You can get 2.5-inch HDDs, like Seagate BarraCuda, or 3.5-inch HDDs, like this popular WD Blue drive.

For a small-size ITX Build, a 2.5-inch HDD is ideal. The internal HDDs in laptops are usually the 2.5-inch kind as well.

Note: In 2022, you should not use a hard drive as your main boot partition for Windows. Using a modern OS such as Windows 10/11 on a hard drive tends to be an unoptimized experience.

Instead, check out the best NVMe and SATA SSDs you can consider in 2023.

Your workplace should be clean, and you must ground yourself before touching your PC components. An anti-static bracelet is a great tool to avoid electrostatic damage.

First, you must open up all side panels of your case and set them aside to gain access to the motherboard. In this guide, we expect you have already installed the power supply (PSU) and the motherboard with its various components in your PC.

We will require it while mounting the hard drive in the PC case as well. Next, locate the 3.5-inch drive mounting bay in your PC case.

Depending on your case though, the drive bay might require you to screw in the drive. Once you find it, position your hard drive in the bay and start to screw it in with the Philips Head screwdriver, and the relevant drive-mounting screws provided with your PC case.

In our installation, we didn’t need any screws, and the HDD simply rests inside the 3.5-inch drive day with nubbins that go inside the screw holes. The hard drive itself rests firmly in place inside the dedicated drive bay of our Cooler Master ATX case.

Note: If you have a 2.5-inch HDD, simply install it in the 2.5-inch drive mount location in your PC case in this step instead of the 3.5-inch one. The other steps in this tutorial will remain the same.

Next, plug in one end of the SATA cable to the HDD. You will notice notches on the SATA port and the cable itself, which align in a specific orientation.

Then, route the cable toward the drive bay of your case, and plug in the SATA power connector to the hard drive.

You can refer to your motherboard manual in case you need help in finding the port. If you have a big graphics card installed, it becomes quite hard to plug in a SATA cable as the ports are usually positioned around the PCI-e slot area where you plug in the GPU.

You hard drive Installation is now complete. We can now move to the next section, where we make our new storage device ready for use.

Boot up your PC and enter the BIOS setup. On most motherboards, the key to enter the BIOS is F2 or Delete.

The POST screen, which shows up when you first start your PC, also lists the keys you can press to enter the BIOS.

The model number and capacity should be listed here. Then, you just need to format it in the next step, which will make it ready for storing data.

Usually, when you install a new hard drive, Windows 10/11 asks you to format the storage device before you use it. When you boot into the Windows OS, there will be a pop-up that asks you to format the drive.

In the rare case that you do not get the pop-up, follow these steps to make your hard drive ready for use. Press the Windows key and type “Create and format hard disk partitions” in the search bar at the top.

In this case, it should show up as “Unallocated Space.” Right-click on your drive and select the “New Volume” option. After that, follow the steps in the wizard to format the drive.

It also includes other alternative methods for formatting a storage device. That’s pretty much everything you need to know about installing a hard drive in your PC.

While there were a few things to keep in mind, and the installation mostly involved mounting the hard drive and plugging in the cables. It wasn’t too hard, right.

It has some free utilities mentioned as well. For further storage expansion, buy one of the best external HDDs listed in this guide.

Hard drives are slightly difficult to install, but it mostly depends on your PC case and whether you have the required SATA cable and power connectors on hand. Some PC cases are designed with hard-to-reach drive mounting locations, so installing a hard drive can be especially time-consuming in these cases.

Installing another hard drive in your PC depends on how many SATA ports you have. You can check this in the motherboard’s manual and make sure to confirm how many SATA power connectors you have available.

HDD is only better for your PC if you have a massive need for storage space. While SSDs cost more, they are more reliable and do not break as often.

While most desktop PCs will accept both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch HDDs, there are a few small cases and mini PCs that will probably only accept 2.5-inch HDDs. Not every HDD can fit in any PC, and you must confirm the compatibility with your PC case manual.

Hard drives can be thought of as a series of precise mechanical components that work together to store digital information with magnetic charges. These charges are stored on disks, referred to as platters, and each platter has a set of heads that flies across its surface to read and write data.

Of course, hard drives are not simple devices, and this definition leaves out quite a bit of important information.

Hard drives gained popularity because they offer relatively high maximum storage capacities at a low price as compared to NAND flash and other storage technologies.

This means that you have a terabyte of free space from the moment you plug the drive into your computer – but not in the way you might think.

It is very important to note that since the beginning of the consumer hard drive industry, manufacturers have defined a kilobyte as 1,000 bytes (called the metric prefix) while software developers have defined a kilobyte as 1,024 bytes (the binary prefix). This is an important designation, because it directly affects the usable capacity of a hard drive.

A 2 terabyte hard drive will only have 1.82 terabytes of usable data. The larger the storage device, the bigger the disparity between the reported capacity and the usable capacity.

When you purchase a drive, make sure that the device will have enough space for your software, documents, videos and other files while still leaving about 30 percent of the space free to ensure optimal operational efficiency.

Many of these numbers can be useful when diagnosing hard drive performance issues.

Hard drives communicate with computers through a printed circuit board (PCB) outfitted with an appropriate interface, which is sometimes referred to as a bus type. Each interface type has different characteristics, especially in relation to data transfer rates.

The most common hard drive interface types include:. Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or SATA is by far the most common interface for newer hard drives.

SATA also has relatively small transfer and power cables as compared to PATA. Also known as EIDE, IDE and by several other acronyms, Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) was commonly used through the early 2000s.

PATA’s maximum data transfer speed was 133 megabytes per second. While PATA drives are still manufactured, SATA is a superior technology and a better option for most computers.

SAS uses SATA-like connections, and many computers with SAS capabilities can also read and write data from SATA drives. SAS offers transfer speeds of up to 12 gigabytes per second.

Introduced after SCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) is usually used for storage area networks (SAN). It offers fast transfer speeds, but contrary to the name, it does not use fibre optics to transfer data at the disk level.

External hard drives typically use one of the interfaces listed above, but add an external USB or Firewire port that allows them to connect to computers easily. These ports include USB, eSATA, Thunderbolt and IEEE 1394 (FireWire).

Desktop hard drives are 3.5-inches in length, while laptop hard drives measure at 2.5-inches (they are also much slimmer on average). While laptop hard drives can be used in desktop computers with special mounting hardware, they are relatively expensive as compared to 3.5-inch drives, so there are few reasons to mount a 2.5-inch drive in a desktop computer except in special circumstances.

Server hard drives usually have the same 3.5-inch form factor, but have additional features (such as SAS connections) that make them ideal for constant operation in demanding applications. They are typically more expensive than standard desktop hard drives.

SSD technology offers several performance advantages over traditional hard drives, including faster read/write speeds and resistance to damage from physical shocks and vibrations.

Unlike standard hard drives, they do not store magnetic charges, and they do not have mechanical components. However, they cannot offer perfect protection against data loss – the NAND flash memory used by solid-state drives can wear down over time, which is why most newer drives employ wear-leveling technologies to extend operating life.

The other major disadvantage of SSD is that it is expensive as compared to traditional hard drives, and storage capacities are much lower. Many computer users choose to use SSD for their operating systems and software and HDD for long-term data storage, which can provide the advantages of both technologies.

These drives only spin their platters to access data when absolutely necessary, which should theoretically extend the operating life of the drive while reducing energy consumption and improving data access speeds.

This usually requires a special piece of hardware called a controller, but software can act as a controller for smaller multi-drive configurations. Some external hard drives with large capacities actually consist of several hard drives linked together with a hardware controller.

Most computers that use multiple hard drives use a configuration called RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks). There are several RAID levels, which offer different benefits in terms of performance and redundancy (the term “redundancy” refers to the array’s ability to withstand hard drive failures without losing data).

Some of the most popular types of RAID are listed below.

Data is written to all of the drives in the array at the same time. In a two-drive RAID 1, if either drive fails, the other drive has the same set of data.

RAID 0 is not technically a RAID, since it does not provide any redundancy. Data is striped across the member disks, so each drive has an equal amount of the information.

However, because there is no redundancy, a single hard drive failure will result in data loss. This is the most common RAID configuration used for web servers and larger storage systems.

a RAID 5 can sustain a hard drive failure without losing any data. A RAID 5 requires at least three hard drives.

Similar to RAID 5, but with another parity block. This allows for more redundancy.

The added parity block may mean reduced performance, but RAID 6 can be just as fast as RAID 5 depending on its implementation. This term refers to RAID configurations that combine two implementation technologies for improved performance and redundancy.

This allows for fast write speeds with some fault tolerance. Other common nested RAID levels include RAID 50 (combines RAID 5 and RAID 0) and RAID 01 (the opposite of a RAID 10, a mirror of striped drives).

Businesses rarely use JBOD, since it does not offer performance improvements or redundancy, but it can offer a simple way to store large amounts of data in some applications. Some manufacturers have their own proprietary RAID configurations, which ma.

­ Before we start the process of adding a drive, we need to do a small amount of research inside your machine. The goal of the research is to find out if it will be easy or not so easy to add the new hard drive.

You may be able to do this research by reading through your computer’s manuals, but it is far easier to simply open the case and look inside. The first question to answer is: How many hard disk drives have already been installed inside the case.

After you open up your computer’s case and look inside, you will probably find one optical drive (a CD or DVD drive), a single hard disk drive and perhaps a floppy disk drive. The optical and floppy drives will be easy to find because you can see them on the outside of the case.

If you have no idea what a hard drive looks like, look at the photo above. Advertisement.

A hard drive traditionally uses a set of spinning metal platters. Each platter has a head that moves rapidly back and forth across the platter, using magnets to read or write data as needed.

Perhaps more accurately, a hard drive would look like a stack of small phonographs because virtually all hard drives are composed of a set of platters. Each platter can only hold so much data, so hard drive manufacturers increase capacity by stacking platters in the same drive.

It’s worth noting that while this description accurately describes a hard disk drive (HDD), people often refer to solid-state drives (SSDs) as hard drives as well. So while as a general rule, a hard drive is a mechanical storage device that relies on a spinning platter, informally, a hard drive can mean an HDD or an SSD.

First and foremost, a hard drive is a relic of an earlier age, when the best way to store massive amounts of data was to use a mechanical system with moving parts. The hard drive is virtually the only moving part left in modern computers (aside from laptop hinges and power buttons).

It’s sometimes worth the risk, though. A hard drive can store a lot of data at a very low cost, which typically adds up to a low price-to-performance ratio.

For more information, read our article on how hard disk drives compare to solid state drives.

HDD Remains Dominant(. ).

While the HDD market is falling, the current pandemic has created a demand for large-capacity hard drives, which are ideal for large-capacity and long-term data storage. Desktops and laptops can use multiple external HDDs to expand space, like 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and more.

Content Outline: What Is HDD in A Computer.

HDD Troubleshooting: Common Hard Disk Errors. A storage device is a must-have hardware on a computer to install operating systems, programs and save other files.

Save, save, save, the ever-expanding volume of data drives us to find safe ways to store it. People need a permanent storage device like HDD to hold critical data.

It consists of one or more spinning disks, called platters, that are coated with magnetic material. The platters are connected to a spindle motor that rotates the disks at high speed.

HDDs are larger and slower than solid-state drives (SSDs), but they store more data and are less expensive.

Data is stored on the disk platters in concentric circles called tracks. The tracks are divided into sectors, each of which can hold a certain amount of data.

✔ HDD Size: HDDs are available in various sizes, from small portable drives to large enterprise-class units. They can also be used in different form factors, such as 3.5-inch desktop and 2.5-inch laptop drives.

The standard storage capacity range from 16GB to 2TB and more. See which storage fits your need:.

What else of the uses of a hard disk drive on a computer. There are many different uses for HDD on a laptop, but some of the most common uses include backup, data transfer, and space increases.

Data transfer is the process of moving data from one place to another, and it is often used when upgrading to a new computer or when sharing files between different computers. Space increases refer to the use of HDDs to increase the storage space available on a computer.

Should I get a large HDD or a smaller SSD. Regarding computing, there are two primary storage devices: hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs).

[Further Reading] HDD vs SSD. HDDs are the older technology, and they store data on spinning disks.

They’re better suited for storing large amounts of data that isn’t accessed often, such as media files or backup copies. SSDs are newer and faster than HDDs but are also more expensive.

However, they have less storage capacity than HDDs. They’re best suited for storing frequently-used files such as the operating system, applications, and games.

It depends on your needs. If you want speed and don’t mind paying more, go with an SSD.

Relate articles about HDD and SSD: An HDD, or hard disk drive, is essential for any computer.

Without it, you wouldn’t be able to do anything. Of course, without installing it, it is no way to use it.

The first step is to shut down your computer and disconnect all cables. This includes the power cord, USB cables, and Ethernet cable.

Inside, you will see the existing hard drive and a few empty slots. Find an empty slot and carefully insert the new hard drive.

Once everything is reconnected, you can turn on your computer. It should automatically detect the new hard drive and prompt you to format it.

Now that you know how to install a new hard drive, you can easily upgrade your storage capacity or replace an old drive with a new one. Follow the in-depth, step-by-step tutorial:

Further Reading. Check details images of how to install a new hard drive on a Windows computer.

Once you initialize the HDD, you can then format it and use it to store your data.

Each method has its benefits and drawbacks, so choosing the one that’s right for your needs is essential.

It’s user-friendly but doesn’t offer as much control as the Command Prompt. The Command Prompt, on the other hand, gives you a great deal of flexibility when initializing your hard drive.

For more advice, if you’re looking for an all-in-one quick way, you may need to use a more effective method to set up your HDD.

It is friendly software for beginners and experts.

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master and got to Partition Manager.

Right-click the target disk – HDD or SSD and select “Initialize to MBR” or “Initialize to GPT”. Click “Execute Task” and “Apply” to save the changes.

0:19-0:44 Initialize to GPT.

Also, the initializing can be done via the Windows Disk Management tool and command prompt in a few simple steps. Follow the outlined method in the article to initialize the hard drive.

Full Guide. Get more methods to initialize SSD or HDD.

First, if you just installed the drive and it’s not showing up in Windows, and second, if you’re reformatting the industry and want to start from scratch. In either case, initializing the HDD is a necessary step.

For one, it can help to keep your files better organized. You can also use partitioning to create a separate area on your hard drive for storing sensitive data.

If something goes wrong with your primary partition, you can boot from the secondary partition and still have access to your data. Finally, partitioning can improve the performance of your computer by separating frequently accessed files from those that are not used as often.

[Further Reading] – Disk Partition. To partition a new hard drive with Disk Management: Right-click unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume”.

To partition an existing hard drive: Right-click the partition. Select “Shrink Volume” and adjust the partition size.

You might need a professional and free partition manager if you want to manage your hard drive for advanced purposes, like to erase hard drive, format partition, etc.

LEARN MORE. Still, have the problem.

At some point, every computer user will need to replace or upgrade their hard drive. Maybe you’re running out of space or want to improve performance.

Here’s a quick guide on how to replace and upgrade your hard drive. First, you’ll need to purchase a new hard drive.

Once you have the new drive, back up all your data from the old one or only transfer OS from HDD to SSD. It is important.

Better safe than sorry.

Open up the case and find the old hard drive. It will usually be mounted in a particular bracket or cage.

Now carefully install the new drive in the same spot. Make sure it’s properly secured and connected before moving on.

Once it’s up and running, you can restore your data from the backup you made earlier. And that’s it.

Follow to learn HDD error check and repair: There can be.

A hard disk drive (sometimes abbreviated as a hard drive, HD, or HDD) is a non-volatile data storage device. It is usually installed internally in a computer, attached directly to the disk controller of the computer’s motherboard.

Data is written to the platters using a magnetic head, which moves rapidly over them as they spin. Internal hard disks reside in a drive bay, connected to the motherboard using an ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment), SCSI (small computer system interface), or SATA (Serial AT Attachment) cable.

Examples of data stored on a computer’s hard drive include the operating system, installed software, and the user’s files. A computer requires an operating system to allow users to interact with and use it.

To install a computer operating system, a hard drive (or another storage device) is required. The storage device provides the storage medium where the operating system is installed and stored.

When downloading files to your computer, they are permanently stored on your hard drive or another storage medium until they are moved or uninstalled. In the past, earlier computers didn’t have a hard drive because they were not yet invented or were too expensive.

Computers used today that don’t have a hard drive are known as diskless workstations and are often found in work environments. Without a hard drive, a computer can turn on and POST (power-on self-test).

For example, if the USB (universal serial bus) device is listed in your BIOS boot sequence, you can boot from a bootable USB flash drive in a computer without a hard drive. Examples of bootable flash drives include a Microsoft Windows installation disk, GParted Live, Ubuntu Live, or UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD).

Modern computers often use an SSD (solid-state drive) instead of an HDD as the primary storage device. HDDs are slower than SSDs when reading and writing data but offer greater storage capacity for the price.

For example, the primary SSD may contain the operating system and installed software, and a secondary HDD could store documents, downloads, and audio or video files. New computer users may confuse RAM (random-access memory) with their disk drive.

See our memory definition for a comparison between memory and disk storage.

On the back of a hard drive is a circuit board called the disk controller or interface board. This circuit is what allows the hard drive to communicate with the computer.

All primary computer hard drives are found inside a computer case and are attached to the computer motherboard using an ATA, SCSI, or SATA cable. Hard drives are powered by a connection to the PSU (power supply unit).

A hard drive can store any data, including pictures, music, videos, text documents, and any files created or downloaded. Also, hard drives store files for the operating system and programs that run on the computer.

Older hard drives had a storage size of several hundred MB (megabytes) to several GB (gigabytes). Newer hard drives have a storage size of several hundred gigabytes to several TB (terabytes).

If you are trying to find the physical dimensions of a hard drive, their physical sizes are either 3.5″ for desktop computers or 2.5″ for laptops. SSDs range from 1.8″ to 5.25″.

This device tells the hard drive what to do and how to move its components. When the operating system needs to read or write information, it examines the hard drive’s FAT (file allocation table) to determine file location and available write areas.

Because files are often scattered throughout the platter, the head must move to different locations to access all information.

After completing the above steps, if the computer needs to read information from the hard drive, it reads the magnetic polarities on the platter. One side of the magnetic polarity is 0, and the other is 1.

For the computer to write information to the platter, the read/write head aligns the magnetic polarities, writing 0s and 1s that can be read later. Although most hard drives are internal, there are also stand-alone devices called external hard drives or portable hard drives that backup data on computers and expand the available space.

The Drobo is an example of an external backup device that supports multiple hard drives. External hard drives come in many shapes and sizes.

External hard drives can be very useful since they usually offer more space than a jump drive and are still portable. The picture shows a laptop hard disk drive enclosure from Adaptec.

SSDs (solid-state drives) have started to replace HDDs (hard disk drives) because of the distinct performance advantages they have over HDDs, including faster access times and lower latency. While SSDs are becoming popular, HDDs continue to be used in many desktop computers largely due to the value per dollar that HDDs offer over SSDs.

IBM introduced the first hard drive on September 13, 1956. The hard drive was first used in the RAMAC (random-access method of accounting and control) 305 system, with a storage capacity of 5 MB and cost about $50,000 ($10,000 per megabyte).

In 1963, IBM developed the first removable hard drive, having a 2.6 MB storage capacity. The first hard drive to have a storage capacity of one gigabyte was also developed by IBM in 1980.

1983 marked the introduction of the first 3.5-inch hard drive, developed by Rodime. It had a storage capacity of 10 MB.

Seagate also introduced the first 10,000 RPM hard drive in 1996 and the first 15,000 RPM hard drive in 2000. Both “hard disk drive” and “hard drive” are correct and mean the same thing.

The term “hard drive” helps to distinguish it from an SSD (solid-state drive), which contains no platters, disk-shaped components, or moving parts. Computer acronyms, Hard drive terms, Hardware terms, Hybrid hard drive, Storage device, VHD.

Your internal hard drive is necessary for storing information on your computer system. To effectively operate your system, you need to understand hard disk partition recovery, how to back up hard drive, why you need hard disk utilities, and where to find defrag software.

When you boot your computer, double click to open Internet Explorer, or another browser, or open a file with Microsoft Word, you are using the drive. All of those actions, and more, start by getting the data they need from the hard disk.

Applications today have expanded beyond computers into video cameras, PDAs, cell phones, and video game consoles. The need for permanent storage on these devices has helped to develop the market for internal drives, which has pushed research in new directions.

Computer internal hard drives today come in a wide variety of types, speeds, and capacities. When you are looking to purchase a drive for either a new system, or looking to simply upgrade your storage capacity, there are a few things to take into consideration before you make the purchase.

The first thing you will need to figure out is if you need an IDE or SATA hard drive. This is going to be determined by your motherboard.

The SATA interface is preferred for its speed, but if you do not have a SATA connection, then it’s not something to get worried about, IDE will still perform well. First thing to do is to look at your motherboard.

You will be looking at something similar to this….

First we want to look at the type of cable that is connected to your drive. If it is a wide flat cable or a round one about as thick as your finger, then we are looking at IDE.

Next, you’ll need to look at the motherboard to determine if you have room for another hard drive. If you follow the existing cable from your hard drive to the motherboard, you will see where it connects.

SATA connections are usually found in banks of 2, 4, or 6. If you only have a single drive, and it is SATA, chances are you should have at least 2 more open connections.

If you have an open slot or 2, then you are good to go for installing another.

If you have a single internal drive and a DVD/CD player, you may see a single cable connecting the two of them and then into the motherboard. If this is the case, look for a second IDE connection directly below or above the one that is being used.

If you have an open connection on the motherboard, then you are good to go for installing another. If not, continue on….

If you do, but only have one internal hard drive and one DVD/CD player, then you are still ok to install another drive. When you do the install, you will just need to set a jumper to designate which drive is the master drive.

If you have 2 connections on the motherboard that are both used, then you need to count drives. Count all hard drives, DVD drives, and CD drives.

However, do not despair – you should still be able to install an external hard drive. If you only hit 3, then you are ok and can still install another drive.

There is a third interface that you may rarely have, SCSI (Small Computer System Interface – pronounced “scuzzy”). Most home computers do not have SCSI interfaces as the drives are much more expensive.

Since it is so rare in home computers, I am not going to go into any detail here, but if you are interested, you can read more here. More information on installing a hard drive.

Hard drives come in many sizes these days. Anywhere from 8GB all the way up to 1TB (1 Terabyte = 1000 Gigabytes).

Keep in mind also that the more storage space on the drive, the more expensive it will be. Things you may be using the drive for….

The key is to plan ahead and figure out before hand how much space you think you’ll need. There have been a few times when I did not plan things out correctly and ended up filling my new drive pretty quickly.

The final consideration is the speed of the internal hard drive. Speeds these days range from 7,200 to 15,000 RPM’s.

By far the most common is 7,200 rpm, and that is what most computers have installed. Reasons why you might want a faster one include….

As an example, a 500GB 7,200 RPM drive will cost you about the same as a 150GB 10,000 RPM drive. And if you go higher than that, expect to pay about the same for a 36GB at 15,000 RPM.

Because of the importance of the internal drive to your system, you need to ensure that you are practicing preventative hard disk or drive maintenance. Set up regular back up hard drive procedures.

All are tools and practices to use to ensure that you don’t lose or corrupt the information on your hard drive.

I have used all of them except for Fujitsu, so cannot speak to the quality of their drives, but they are a major manufacturer. They are….

My personal favorite is Seagate. But keep an eye on the others and compare prices and warranties when shopping.

Return to Computer Drives. Return to Build Your Own Computer Home Page.

The hard drive is like the filing cabinet of a computer. It is a data storage device that allows you to store digital information that can later be accessed, copied, and deleted from the system.

The data is read in a random access manner, meaning it does not need to be read or retrieved sequentially.

they became the dominant secondary storage device for computers in 1960. The most significant properties of a hard drive are its performance and capacity.

The performance is determined by the time it takes the actuator head to move to a file, and the speed at which the file is transmitted. ​ A hard drive contains one or more metal disks with a very shiny magnetic coating called platters.

Several platters are stacked on top of each other, and long, narrow aluminum arms, float less than a millimetre on top of each disk. The tips of the arms transmit binary code to and from the computer.

The head moves back and forth rapidly to magnetize small sections of ferromagnetic material on the platters. This stores the information in a format of ones and zeros.

How a hard drive works. How a hard drive works.

Inside a hard drive, there are 3 main components. The spinning platters, the actuator and the actuator arm.

The actuator is a permanent magnet containing a moving coil positioned between two magnets, that are sandwiched between two metal plates. When an electric current is sent into one side of the magnet, it shifts the actuator arm over.

for example, 22 back and forth movements in a quarter of a second.

The hard drive is typically located beneath the dvd/cd drive in desktops, and underneath the. keyboard, and to the back of a laptop.

RAM works in conjunction with the hard drive as the temporary holder of information. This process can be viewed as an analogy of a desk.

When you close the program, it is taken off the desk, and returned to the cabinet.

There are more than 200 companies that have manufactured hard drives, however, the main contributors to the hard drive market today are Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba. In 1994, there were 11 primary hard drive manufacturers, but over time, Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba bought out the smaller companies.

For example, a Seagate Barracuda hard drive with a 3 terabyte storage and 64 mb cache costs roughly $140. While a Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive, with a 4 terabyte storage and 64 mb cache costs around $280.

Timeline of how the 3 companies took over.

The present state of HDD’s have already come along way since they were first introduced in. Diagram of how HAMR technology works.

Other than basic hard drives with spinning platters, we’ve advanced to a helium filled hard drive in 2013. These devices allow the platters to spin more freely, without the friction and fluttering of air filled drives.

HAMR uses a new material for making the platters which allows heat sensitive recording. The data can be written by increasing the temperature of certain parts of the platter, that can be read by a magnetic field.

In contrast, by 2050, we may see the extinction of the hard drive because of newer developed technology. By then, cloud storage and flash technology, will have made the hard drive too slow and bulky.

Ultimately, buying from larger companies guarantee their quality and years of experience. If you are an average user that uses their computer for everyday tasks, such as checking email, or surfing the web, a smaller and cheaper hard drive is the best choice.

However, if you are an active user that likes to watch movies and game, or you have a career that consists of creating large files, then a larger capacity hard drive is for you. For example, a 4 terabyte, Seagate constellation hard drive which costs $400.

What does HDD stand for.

b) Hard Drive Disk. c) Hard Disk Drive.

What does a hard disk drive do.

b) runs programs. c) creates disks.

Which company introduced the first hard drive.

b) IBM. c) Western Digital.

Which of the following are not in a hard drive.

b) Action Arm. c) Platters.

True or False. The hard drive is located beneath the CD/DVD drive.

b) False.

The actuator is a permanent magnet containing a _____________ positioned between two magnets. a) moving coil.

c) metal arm.

What technology does HAMR use.

b) heat technology. c) magnetic technology.

True or False. When an electric current is sent into the actuator, it turns the platters.

b) False.

A Seagate Barracuda hard drive with a 3 terabyte storage capacity and 64 mb cache costs roughly _____. a) $345.

c) $140.

In 1994, there were ___ primary hard drive manufacturers. a) 3.

c) 11.

Sources: – – – – -.

A failed hard drive is one of the more common reasons why a computer may stop working. Make sure this does not happen to you or your business by knowing how to perform hard drive maintenance.

Whenever you download a program or application on your computer, be extra careful when installing software and make sure it is from a trusted source. Be careful not to continually download large applications as they slow down the hard drive.

To prevent virus problems, you must install an anti-virus program. Keep it up to date and running all the time.

Don’t delay when you get a notification to update. The system update is crucial to ensure the device runs well and helps eliminate any potential HD failure.

Are there any unused programs. It can be common to have programs left unused for some time.

Once you identify applications you do not want to use, delete them to free up space on your hard drive and make it easier to navigate your computer. To remove a program, go to “Control Panel.” Choose from the list of programs and right-click to choose “Remove or Uninstall Program.”.

It is the hardest working component of your computer. When you install a program, it uses up the first empty space available.

So, not all of the empty spaces are utilized fully. This requires more work for the computer to access the stored files or data.

It is recommended to defrag on a weekly basis. The process of cleaning the hard drive is not just about the software.

For example, you need to dust it off regularly. This will help to get rid of any debris.

When there is proper airflow, overheating is prevented. It also helps to keep other computer components in good condition so they function normally.

The process of shutting down and booting up demands a lot of work from your hard drive. You need to minimize this process as much as you can.

Experts recommend that you minimize the amount of time that you boot up and shut down your computer. The general rule is this: shut down your computer if you are not going to use it for a day.

It is a simple trick but can go a long way as far as hard drive maintenance is concerned. It is important to have a solid backup plan when it comes to securing your data and files.

It is recommended to keep a copy of all of your files. You can even use a cloud service to store those files.

A power surge is one of the main reasons why hard drive failures happen. Power surge occurs when the voltage spikes up above the normal level.

However, it can cause damage to any electronic device, which includes your computer. Even a one-time surge can fry your hard drive.

You can also invest in surge protectors. Hard drive maintenance is an important aspect of keeping your computer in tip-top condition.

If that doesn’t solve the issue, contact HelloTech for computer repair and explain your issue. Was this article helpful.

Thanks for your feedback, add a comment here to help improve the article.

What is a hard drive. It’s a common question and one that we’re more than happy to answer.

We’ll explain everything and give you tips on which hard drive properties are essential. The hard drive is where a computing device stores data for the long term — not just the things you save, but all the code required for the operating system, the framework browsers use to access the internet, drivers for accessories, and everything else.

Every hard drive has a specific amount of space. Some of that space is automatically consumed by the OS and backup installations.

Hard drive space isn’t as important now as it once was. That’s because cloud-based software doesn’t require local storage.

This cloud-based dependency — which relies on remote servers and their hard drives in data centers — originally fueled Google’s Chrome OS platform. Chromebooks have very little physical storage space due to their reliance on streaming and cloud solutions.

Reynold B. Johnson developed the first real hard drive at IBM in 1956.

However, his team discovered ways to store information (in the form of bytes) on metal, magnetic disks, which could overwrite with new information as desired. This led to the development of an automated disk that read itself like a record player — except much larger.

Later, IBM developed floppy disks in the late 1960s to easily load code into their mainframes. These disks initially measured 8 inches in diameter, packing read-only data.

Overall, these two parts — the automated magnetic disk and the smaller, transferable “floppy” disk — became the backbone of the early hard drive. For many years, the method of storing data remained the same, while great improvements were made in how the hard drive could store, read, and eventually write data on the disk.

Internal means a hard drive is located inside a computing device and directly connects to the motherboard, but it’s not always upgradable. For instance, a desktop side can be easily removed to disconnect the old drive and connect the new drive.

On laptops, however, the upgrade process may not be quite so simple. Typically there is a door along the bottom providing access to the drive.

Read the specifications on the manufacturer’s websites on how to change a laptop’s drive properly. External means a hard drive is located outside the PC and typically connects through a USB or Thunderbolt cable.

Besides internal and external, a hard drive can be a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD). There’s a huge difference between the two that we explain in a separate article, SSD versus HDD.

HDD: Hard drive disks use a spinning magnetic disk that holds information inscribed in very tiny tracks — a bit like a record player. This requires moving parts, specifically heads to read and write data to the disk as needed and propulsion to spin the disk.

SSD: There are no moving parts in SSDs. Instead, these drives use semiconductors that store information by changing the electrical state of very tiny capacitors.

SSDs are why modern PCs boot up so fast. Speed: The speed of a hard drive depends on how fast it can read or write data.

A poor connection can bottleneck the data flow and, ultimately, impact the machine’s performance. For mechanical hard drives, the spin speed is also essential: 7,200RPM drives, for example, are faster than 5,400RPM drives.

Physical security: Hard drives need to be able to resist the occasional jolts and bumps. That’s what physical security is all about — your device’s resistance to damage that could result in data loss.

Environmental factors, such as extreme heat or cold, are an essential consideration. Also, some manufactures include features that help prevent hacking or discourage theft.

Check out our guide to know more about SATA. Make sure you know your computer connection types.

Different hard drives affect speed differently. An external solid-state drive connected to an old port will significantly restrict data flow by 60 megabytes per second.

Installing an internal hard drive is one of the more straightforward upgrades out there—and is often a better option than using external drives that may be dropped or misplaced.

Still, there are a few things you should know to make installation as smooth as possible.

If you’ve opted for a solid-state drive, be sure to check out our companion guides explaining how to install an SSD in a desktop and a laptop. SSDs tend to offer much faster speeds than hard drives, but hard drives offer significantly more capacity at lower prices.

All three spin at 7,200 revolutions per minute (RPM), the fastest speed available in consumer hard drives. Now let’s get this hard drive installed in your computer.

Placement and orientation of the cages or bays will vary from case to case. The most common location is at the lower front, near the intake fans and away from other components.

Screws are the best way to secure your hard drive into your case’s drive cage. Magnet-tipped screw drivers can help keep you from dropping screws in difficult-to-reach places.

In enthusiast-class cases, it’s becoming more common to see the drive’s connectors facing the right side, making it easier to route and hide cables behind the motherboard tray. Some enthusiast-class also cases give users the ability to remove drive cages or to mount them in different positions to optimize air flow and simplify cable management.

Securing the drive to a cage usually requires four screws on the sides or bottom of the drive. Many cases—especially enthusiast cases—use tool-less trays that hold the drives with simple pins and clips.

However, these brackets are often less secure than traditional screws. Using screws is the more robust mounting method, but tool-less trays are fine for systems that won’t be moved around much.

Seven of the 10 screw holes are circled in red, while SATA power and data connections are circled in blue and green, respectively. Drives last longer when they stay nice and cool.

Positioning the drives directly in front of an intake fan also helps. Once the drive is mounted, connecting it to your system is quick and easy.

SATA uses simple cables that are keyed to fit on the drive and motherboard connector one way. Connect one end of the SATA cable to the drive, and the other end to an available SATA port on your motherboard, and you’re halfway there.

You may find the SATA cables included with your new drive or motherboard feature different connectors: straight ends or right-angle (L-shaped). Some may have metal retention clips, while others do not.

I like to use SATA cables with right-angle connectors on the drive side, provided there is adequate clearance between any drives in the system. Using right-angle connectors on the motherboard side will will result in blocked ports, because the connector may overlap adjacent ports.

Most SATA 3 (6-gigabit)-compliant cables will usually come with the clips. The SATA power cable connection looks similar to the data cable, but is longer.

When you’re done connecting the SATA cable, you’ll have to connect the drive to your power supply unit (PSU). The SATA power cable from your PSU, like the SATA data cable, is keyed to fit onto the drive one-way.

Once you’ve mounted and connected the drive, power up your system and enter the BIOS/UEFI. You can usually access the BIOS/UEFI by pressing the DEL or F2 keys right after powering up the system.

In the BIOS, go to the standard System Settings menu or the Integrated Peripherals > SATA menu to see all of the drives installed in the system. If all of your drive controllers are enabled and the drive is properly connected (and functional), it should be listed in the BIOS.

If the drive isn’t listed, shut down your PC. Double-check all of the connections, boot into the BIOS and check again.

The UEFI BIOS will show all hard drives that are connected correctly and detected by the system. BIOS and UEFI interfaces can differ based on the motherboard make and model, so check your motherboard manual or manufacturer website for details.

In Windows 10, right-click the Windows button on your desktop and select Device Manager. Check for the drive in the Disk Drives section.

When you boot into Windows after installing the drive, you may see the New Hardware Found wizard pop up if the drive is detected. The last thing you need to do is partition and format the drive.

If you split the drive up into multiple partitions, you should see several drives appear in File Explorer, each with its own drive letter and label.

A hard drive is the storage component of a computer or laptop. It is, therefore, responsible for keeping data such as media and document files on your PC.

Hence, the location of a hard drive in a laptop may differ from one to another. Some are located at the bottom of the laptop.

No matter the location of your hard drive, it is essential to carefully handle the hard drive regardless of the need to remove it.

In contrast, the external hard drives are connected to a laptop via Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable. Sometimes, they are connected via a Firewire connection.

For instance, internal hard drives are faster to use because they work directly with the motherboard rather than a cable.

Again, compared to buying a quality external hard drive, internal HDDs are more affordable, especially when you consider the fact they come along with purchasing a laptop. Since the HDD is built into the laptop, it is almost at a discounted price with the laptop or desktop computer.

What Laptop Hard Drive Size Should I Use [2023 Explanation]. What size of a hard drive do I need to choose for my laptop.

The 2.5-inch hard drive is typically designed for laptops, while the 3.5-inch is for desktops. External hard drives perform the same functions as internal hard drives, yet they possess some peculiarities.

Also, they can serve as backup to the laptop’s internal HDDs, precluding any possible loss or theft of your important files. If you duplicate your files by backing them up on your external hard drive, you can be assured of the safety of your documents.

External hard drives also have huge storage capacity, saving many documents, images, videos, and more. Depending on the model and the drive manufacturer, it is possible to increase the.

The internal hard drive of a laptop can be located in different parts of the laptop. Some are mounted under the laptop, some are installed on the front of the laptop, yet, some are located by the side of the laptop.

A bottom-mounted hard drive is usually posited beneath the laptop, and you can locate it by turning your laptop over. You will find a small section, usually rectangular, that indicates the location of the internal hard drive.

Please go through the same process to replace it. Front-mounted hard drives are posited by the front side of a laptop, opposite the user’s viewpoint.

However, you must be conscious of the delicate components of the laptop, like the screen, webcam, and flex of the laptop, since this is a front-mounted hard drive. After unscrewing the casing, carefully push to detach the hard drive.

Mounting an internal hard drive by the side of the laptop is now very common. Side-mounted HDDs are usually fixed beside the CD ROM.

Unscrewing this section will reveal the hard drive. Carefully detach the hard drive.

Therefore, you must handle it carefully when you want to remove it from the laptop. The following is the step-by-step guide to removing an internal hard drive from a laptop.

Backup your important files. This article has earlier stated the importance of backing up your files (to avoid the loss of any of your files).

Step 2. Disconnect the laptop from any power source or your battery.

Else you will be vulnerable to electric shock. Also, ensure you disconnect the laptop battery before you unscrew anything on the laptop.

Ensure the laptop is shut down. Step 3.

The access panel encloses the hard drive mount, which serves as a covering for the hard drive. Hence, carefully unscrewing the access panel and hard drive mount is important to remove the hard disk.

Step 4. Carefully detach the HDD from the connectors.

Sometimes, you may need a flat tool to achieve this. After this, carefully place it on a neat, stable, dry surface.

Whether you want to replace your internal hard drive or not, it is expected to know where it is located on your laptop. This may inform the way you handle your laptop.

Whether you are an engineer or own a laptop, this information has helped you.

A traditional computer hard drive is the storage pot for your files, operating system, and more. Learn more about this important PC component here.

You’ll need to decide what type of CPU you want, how much RAM you need, and what size hard drive you require. What is a computer hard drive, exactly.

What size hard drive should you get, and how can you tell what size hard drive you already have.

A hard drive (also known as a hard disk drive or HDD) is a computer storage device found in many computers. A hard drive is intended for long-term data storage.

Hard drives were once part of almost every computer. The rise of solid-state drives (or SSDs) has started to make the classic hard drive obsolete in modern PCs, thanks to their faster read and write speeds.

Somewhat confusingly, the term hard drive might be used to refer to a solid-state drive if it’s being used as a catch-all term for your long-term computer storage. While this isn’t strictly accurate, it’s important to be aware of this usage of the term.

When you use your computer, the relevant information is passed from your hard drive to your computer RAM. The CPU (the brains of your computer) can then quickly access this information from RAM, as it can be read much faster from RAM than it can from your hard drive.

Traditional hard drives use a magnetic disc to store information. This disk is divided into billions of tiny sections—each section can be either magnetized or demagnetized.

The way that the hard drive reads and writes these tiny areas is similar to a vinyl record. The disk spins, and a movable head can move back and forth across the disk to read from or write to the disk.

As mentioned above, the term ‘hard drive’ is often used interchangeably for both classic hard drives and modern SSDs. These are two very different pieces of kit, however, that have significantly different strengths and weaknesses.

A classic HDD uses a magnetic disk to store information. This offers a lot of benefits, one of the most important of which is that HDDs can offer high storage capacities at relatively inexpensive prices.

To access information on the disk, the head needs to move to the correct place on the disk before it can read it. If data is spread across a number of separate locations, the head must visit them all in turn.

In comparison, an SDD has no moving parts. All of the data is stored in millions of transistors that are turned on or off.

Since retrieving the data doesn’t require any physical parts to move, SSDs can work significantly faster than classic HDDs. The payoff is that an SSD is much more expensive than an HDD of the same capacity.

On the flip side, HDDs tend to last longer than SSDs do. The type of drive you will need will depend on what is most important to you.

If speed isn’t a huge issue, but you really need a lot of storage space, a classic HDD is a much more cost-effective option. The size of the hard drive that you need depends on how you use your computer and the amount of data you need to store.

Your operating system and any apps that you choose to install will take up some of the space on your hard drive. The rest of the space in your hard drive is available for saving files.

This means that if anything goes wrong, you can restore everything from your backup. Hard drives usually offer gigabytes or terabytes of storage space.

To give you some idea of the size of the hard drive you’ll need, these are some rough approximations of the sizes of different types of files: As you can see, how much you can fit on your hard drive depends entirely on the type of information you’re storing.

You will also need to factor in the amount of space that your operating system and apps will take up, which can be 50 GB or more. Your needs may vary, but as a rule of thumb, up to 500 GB should be sufficient for light use, up to 1 TB will meet the needs of most users, and if you’re a heavy user, you might need multiple terabytes of storage space.

If you think your hard drive may be too small, you can check how large it is and how much of it is in use. You can see information about the size of drives on your computer through File Explorer.

To find the total size of your physical hard drive, you can use the Disk Management utility. To find your hard drive size on Windows:

To find your hard drive size on Mac: Your computer hard drive is one of the most important parts of your computer.

That’s why it’s important to look after your hard drive and also be sure to have backups in place. You can head off problems before they occur by checking if your hard drive is going to fail.

If things go wrong, it may be possible to recover data from a hard drive that won’t boot. It’s always wise to keep a full system backup in case the worst does happen.

you could also consider backing up your data to the cloud. Awesome, share it:

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Welcome to the first edition of PC Build Advisor’s How To guides. Today, we’ll be covering how to install a SATA hard drive.

This guide will teach you how to: Install a new SATA hard drive in your desktop computer.

After you finish your installation, you’ll need to configure your hard drive. We’ll cover how to do that in a separate guide.

If you want to find out more about how to install a new hard drive (as in, replace your current hard drive), you can still use this guide, however you’ll need to first remove your existing hard drive before installing the new one. Simply unplug it and then use the same cables to plug in your new hard drive.

Optional extras are:.

Turn off and unplug your computer before opening the case. Also, take a print out of these instructions or have a separate device (phone or laptop) to view them on for easy reference while you are working.

(You don’t need to do this if you are replacing your existing hard drive). You should also check to see if you have an available SATA port on your motherboard where you can plug in the new hard drive.

Keep in mind that some pf the SATA ports may already be in use by existing hardware, like your existing main hard drive, and your optical (DVD/CD) drive. Ensure you have a spare port to connect your new hard drive into.

Turn off your computer and and unplug it from mains power before you begin. Once unplugged, you can open your computer tower by unscrewing the screws which hold the side panel in place.

Be sure to ground yourself by touching some exposed metal on the computer case. This will prevent the risk of static from damaging your internal components.

Or, you may prefer to work with the computer standing in it’s normal upright position. Slide off the side cover of your computer and put the side panel aside.

Your hard drive should look something like this once it’s all connected up: The power cable connects your new hard drive to the computer’s power supply.

If you have an older power supply it might only have a ‘molex’ style power connector and not the SATA one shown above. Look for a spare SATA power connector coming from your power supply first, but if you can’t find one then see if you’re dealing with a molex connector instead.

The two different types together look like this: Once you’ve connected up power, it’s time to connect the data side of things.

One end of the SATA cable will plug into your new hard drive, and the other needs to go to a SATA port on your motherboard.

Slide the hard drive into a spare slot in your computer’s drive mounting section, as shown in the image below. You can then secure it in place using screws installed through the outside of the mounting rack into the side of the hard drive.

You’re pretty much done with the hard drive installation. Time to close up your case, power on, and get to configuring your new SATA hard drive for use.

How To: Configure SATA Hard Drive. In this guide we’ve covered how to physically install a new SATA hard drive into a tower/desktop computer.

The next step is to configure the new hard drive in your operating system so that you can actually use it. This involves powering your computer on, and clicking a few buttons in software.

Update: Part 2, How To: Configure SATA Hard Drive. Have you replaced or installed a SATA hard drive before.

We’d love to hear your feedback.

As a PC gamer, you know that storage is important. You need enough space to store all your games, save your progress, and maybe even download a few mods.

If you’re not sure, don’t worry – we’re here to help. In this blog post, we’ll be breaking down the differences between hard-disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) so that you can make an informed decision about which one is right for you.

They’ve been around for decades and are usually the most affordable option. HDDs work by storing data on a spinning disk.

This isn’t a big deal if you’re just opening up a Word document, media such as photos or moviews, or browsing the internet. But if you’re trying to game, those few seconds can make a big difference when it comes to loading screens, entering new zones, and more.

Instead of storing data on a spinning disk, they store it on interconnected flash memory chips. This has a few advantages over hard drives.

Because there’s no disk to spin up, data can be accessed almost instantaneously. This can be a big help when you’re gaming or working with large files.

Plus, M.2 SSDs are very easy to install because they just slot into your motherboard. Which makes building a PC a much easier task.

That being said, they have come down significantly in price over the years. So, which storage option is right for you.

The additional speed from an SSD during gaming sessions alone makes it worth the extra cost. You can always get a traditional hard drive (if you need more storage) for mass sotrage of files & games you don’t access as often.

This article will tell you how to take out a hard disk from a computer properly and connect it to a laptop or another PC, and how to recover data from such disk. Quite a typical task: transfer a large number of files from a desktop hard drive to a laptop drive, or connect it to another computer in order to recover data from there.

This is what this article is about. We are going to study one of the simplest and all-purpose variants to use.

Windows 10 Can’t See a Hard Disk – How to Connect One. 💻⚙️🗄️.

The matter is that depending on the interface through which your disk is connected (IDE or SATA) different boxes will be needed to make connection possible. That is why instead of guessing what kind of interface your disk has it is best when you first take it out of the system unit and have a look at the interface.

The procedure itself is quick and easy. Then have a careful look at the disk interface.

If your disk is old, it can have an IDE interface. Computers usually have “big” 3.5-inch disks, while laptops have smaller ones of 2.5 inches (1 inch is 2.54 cm).

The height of all modern 3.5” HDDs is 25 mm. it is known as “half-height” in comparison to older models.

In 2.5” HDDs things are different as their original height of 12.5 mm was replaced by the 9.5 mm one which can contain up to three platters (nowadays there are also thinner disks than that). The height of 9.5 has actually became a standard for most laptops but some companies still produce 12.5 mm hard disks based on three platters.

For actual connection we will need a special BOX. They can be of various types:

Usually this box opens at the rear side and an HDD is put inside. In fact, after you have done all that you need to connect a power supply (adapter) to this box and use a USB cable to connect the box to another PC or a laptop.

In this case, you may need two steps. Check if you have drivers for your box.

To begin with, launch Device Manager and see if there are drivers for your device and make sure there are no yellow exclamatory marks. Go to Disk Management in Windows (in order to go there in Windows 10 right-click on START button) and check if you can see the connected HDD there.

There is a dedicated article on this topic in our blog. In a modern system unit, a CD/DVD drive and HDD should be connected via SATA interface.

In fact, the only thing left to do is to disconnect cables from the disk drive and connect them to the other HDD. Then you just turn on the computer and copy all necessary information or scan it with the help of data recovery software.

you can work with it as an ordinary local disk. If you want to just have this HDD permanently connected to your PC, the only thing you have to do is to fix it properly.

Basically, that’s all. If you want to transfer many files from a PC to a laptop (and you’re not planning to use a desktop HDD with the laptop all the time), then you may like the other way: connect the PC and the laptop to a local network and just copy the files you need.

How to Move Windows From One Computer to Another, or From HDD to SSD 💻 ➡️ 💻.

When you’re selling, donating, or recycling a computer, it’s critical that you ensure you’re not accidentally giving someone else access to your personal and private data stored on the computer. One way to do that is to thoroughly wipe (not simply erase) your old hard drive — for details on how to do that, see our article on fully wiping your computer’s hard drive.

You can go further, though. For the ultimate personal security, you can remove the hard drive from your computer before you give it away and destroy the drive.

You don’t need much to disassemble and ruin a hard drive: Start by removing the hard drive from your PC.

Look for the hard drive, which will be inserted in a drive bay or screwed to the side of the chassis. In most cases, you can simply disconnect the power and data cables and slide the drive out of the computer, but it might be screwed in place, in which case you’ll need to use a Philips head screwdriver to get it out of the PC.

If you’re in a hurry, you can damage it in a way that only a dedicated hacker will be able to recover any data. 1.

Use a Torx driver to unscrew the circuit board using the four Torx screws. 3.

Now you can recycle the hard drive knowing that someone can’t simply connect the drive to another PC to read its data, so it’s safe from casual users.

Remove the Torx screws around the outside edge of the top plate on the hard drive case. 2.

Feel around with your finger for a depression and then use a flathead screwdriver to tear the label away. Then use the Torx driver to remove the final screw.

Pull the top plate off. You’ll probably need to pry it off with the flathead screwdriver.

Now you can see the hard drive platters – there might be several of them stacked atop one another, each with its own read/write head which looks sort of like a phonograph’s tone arm.

Continue to disassemble the internal components by removing the tone arm and the platters themselves. There will probably be about three Torx screws on the spindle holding the platters in place.

At this point, the very act of exposing the platters to air and handling them with unprotected fingers has almost certainly destroyed the data on the drive. To be thorough, use a flathead screwdriver to scratch the surface of each platter.

A hard disk drive is basically a data storage device in your computer that is used to store and retrieve digital data. In simplest words, to save files/data on your computer, you need a hard drive.

So, if you wish to know how much a new hard drive costs and how much it costs to install it on your computer, this blog is for you.

A 1TB hard drive can cost around $50, whereas an 8TB hard drive cost anywhere around $300. The cost of a hard drive from 2TB to 6TB might range anywhere between $66.99 to $240 approximately.

It usually takes an hour’s labor in a computer workshop to install or replace a hard drive. If your old hard drive is damaged, and you are willing to get it replaced by a new hard drive, it might cost a lot more if you need to recover the data of a failed drive, a bit more if the data can be transferred using a USB drive caddy to hold either drive while it is being done.

copying it involves a few mouse clicks and doing something else while you wait for it all to happen. Considering all these factors, you get a brief idea of how much will it cost to install a new hard drive on your computer.