Changing Hard Drive in Desktop PC

[allsquare]

I want to change over the hard drive in my desktop pc.

Is it just a case of take one out and pop the other in and away you go or am I just over simplifying things?

 

[Faevilangel]

way over simplifying e.g.

you will lose your windows install, you need to do a new install (you got a backup / reboot cd?)
what do you want to do with all the data on the old drive, have you got a backup (I use dropbox to do this for me).

 

[Scalloway]

You can clone the old drive if you want to keep everything as it was. I used Drive image XML to do this a few years ago.

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

You need a USB drive big enough to take the whole contents of the old drive for backing it up.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

You can clone the old drive if you want to keep everything as it was. I used Drive image XML to do this a few years ago.

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

You need a USB drive big enough to take the whole contents of the old drive for backing it up.

Drive Image XML is very good but you will need to create a bootable CD as once you put the new drive in there won't be a copy of windows on it to boot from until you restore your backup.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-live-cd.htm

Another option is to install the new hard disk alongside the old one, then boot windows as normal, use Drive Image XML to make the copy from disk to disk. The remove the old drive and you should be able to boot windows from the new one keeping all your existing data/programs.

 

[allsquare]

Ah, maybe I should have made things clearer.

The hard drive i want to install has all my data on already from an old machine and the existing hard drive is to be destroyed.

Does this make a difference?

 

[Scalloway]

Is there an operating system already on the new drive and is it bootable?

 

[allsquare]

Is there an operating system already on the new drive and is it bootable?

It's time to call in the professionals

 

[leemason]

If you're looking to replace your desktop hard drive it might be a good opportunity to upgrade to something like an SSD (Solid State Disk). Kingston provide what they call an "SSD upgrade kit". This is good because it includes the replacement hard drive, 3.5" mounting brackets, an external USB case, and most important some disk cloning software.

All you do is:

1. Pop the new SSD into the USB case.
2. Plug the into a USB connector on your desktop PC (PC should be powered off)
3. Turn on the PC and put the cloning software CD in the CD drive
4. When booted from the CD drive follow the instructions to clone your existing system
5. Once finished shutdown
6. Replace your old driver with the new one
7. Finished - you have a new SSD drive in place of your old disk drive

I just did this with my laptop and it works great. SSD is so much faster than traditional hard drives (but is more expensive).

Alternatively take a look at the Seagate Hybrid drives: http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/intern...-hard-drives/laptop-solid-state-hybrid-drive/

They are a good compromise between performance, capacity, and price. They combine a small SSD with a larger hard disk on one package. Giving many of the performance benefits of SSD without the much higher cost. And capacity is greater at up to 1TB on a 2.5" drive.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

It's time to call in the professionals

When you buy a new hard disk from a shop (or online) it will be blank, so won't contain an operating system such as Windows.

So if you just pop it into your PC when you switch the computer on it won't have anything to load and will give you a "missing operating system" or similar message.

If you have a copy of the Windows disk you can stick this in and it will boot from that instead and install Windows, however you will then have to install any programs etc you currently have.

If you clone from your old drive to the new one using something like Drive Image XML this will make an exact copy of your current version of windows including any programs and you will be able to boot from your new drive.

 

[leemason]

Remember that when doing anything like this you should always ensure that you have good backups of your data. Sometimes things can and do go wrong so never undertake any such work without making a full backup of all of your important stuff!

 

[stender]

makes ure you check the connection on your pc. If it's fairly old the drive may be ide whereas newer pc's are sata.

 

[FantasticCleaners]

plug it alongside the old drive, install new OS to the new drive (manage the free space well) , transfer all the important data, unplug the old drive, boot through the new drive, enjoy.

 

[Advanced - Repair]

Hi There

you have to make sure you are ESD safe before you attempt to change you hard disk drive ,

Electro static can be very dangerous when in come to computer hard ware and components.

im Pretty sure you can buy a cheap anti static wrist strap from your local Pc repair center .

or to save costs you can also touch you your computer case to spread you electricity out of your body.

 

[Raw Rob]

or to save costs you can also touch you your computer case to spread you electricity out of your body.

You need to touch a bare metal part of the computer, and the computer needs to be plugged in (but not turned on) to get the earth connection for this to work.

 

[Advanced - Repair]

@Raw Rob off course you are completely correct.

 

[LeoHarris]

I doubt you will be able to simply plug in the old drive where windows was configured for different hardware into a new pc. Unless it was a similar make and model. I'd try to go for a fresh install and copy the data over.

 

[senses]

Put in new HDD, take out old one.
Then try and install windows and go from there.

As old HDD is out, you cant make a mess of things!

 

[Steve_FusedCube]

I doubt you will be able to simply plug in the old drive where windows was configured for different hardware into a new pc. Unless it was a similar make and model. I'd try to go for a fresh install and copy the data over.

That's true and you may also fall foul of Windows activation!

I use Redo backup / restore to backup entire PC's as it's bootable from CD or USB, you just boot it up, tell it what you want to backup and where to copy that data to. When you're ready, you just boot into REDO again and restore that data to the new disk.

Make sure that your backups are working before you destroy your old hard disk, people often overlook the need to check that they can restore data from the backups they've been taking for years!

And make sure you destroy your old disk correctly, just formatting it will not destroy any data. There are plenty of tools out there to do it, but again I use a bootable tool called DBan.

I can't post links yet, but google REDO or DBAN and you'll find the web site and downloads.

Steve

 

[senses]

On your re-install use 'ninite'

 

[Steve_FusedCube]

On your re-install use 'ninite'

Just looking at this, looks pretty good. Can't believe I've never seen it before!

Thanks for the link.

Steve

 

[drdialeruk]

yeah its a good idea You can clone the old drive if you want to keep everything as it was. I used Drive image XML to do this a few years ago.

 

[javismiles]

yes pay attention to the static electricity issue

 

[Sam Cowley]

You need to be careful with static electricity, if there is a shock when your taking it out or putting it in, it can completely fry the chip causing it to either not work or malfunction later on.

If you are wanting to change your hard drive then I HIGHLY SUGGEST backing up your previous hard drives memory. If you don't it will be permanently gone and deleted into micro files. I also suggest having a backup of your operating system. I have a backup just in case I want to change my hard drive (which I wont for a while) but its best to have a backup.

If you aren't bothered about your previous hard drives memory and you are wanting to have a completely new hard drive, remember to use the operating system CD or USB. And I tend to separate my hard drive into partitions (C: - D: - E: etc) And have 1 partition just for my operating system so if you ever need to get to your operating system files quickly you can easily go to that partition (It's also helpful when finding root kit virus's in your operating system folders)

Hope this helps.