Replacing Your Hard Drive Properly

Beyond hearing the noise of a failing drive there is a still few things you can do to detect a failing drive. Check the process event logs.

[Start -> Control Panel -> Process & Security -> Event Viewer -> Administrative Tools -> View Event Logs]

 Once you launch the event viewer application you need to pick [Windows Logs -> System] to see the various events. Plenty of them will be informational but what you need to look for is the yellow warning or red events & views the details. When your hard drive is failing you may even see things like block write errors or read errors.

On receiving a BSOD (blue screen of death), there will be a mistake cease code that you need to write down & search on the net for the common causes of that cease code. There are several that will point to the hardware & hard drive as being the root cause.

Now that they have identified the defective hard drive now they can go about replacing it.

[Start -> Accessories -> Method Tools -> Method Knowledge -> Storage -> Disks] Notice the [Model] item. It ought to give you a model of the hard drive like ST31500341AS ATA Device. You can Google the model number & get the details fundamentally. Most drives today are SATA (Serial Advanced Expertise Attachment) drives in case you have a comparatively new computer.

In case you are walking SATA you can get drives up to 3TB (terabyte) these days with 2TB drives for $100 or less. Shop on the net for a new drive or drop by your local computer store & pick up. Now you require to open up the computer. Depending on the model it may have a side panel (usually the left side facing the front) or the whole case to gain access to the hard drives. Locate the hard drive as it is usually mounted near the CD/DVD drive. There will be cables connected to the back of the hard drive. The smallest notched (so it only goes in way) cable is the SATA knowledge cable. The other cable next to it is the SATA power. Remove these cables & mount your new hard drive. Watch out for drive cages that may must be removed from the method in order to mount the new drives. Don't forget to reconnect those cables before you close up your method. On method start up you will notice your method identify your drive model & size (usually VERY quickly so you may not see it).

Now you require to make use of your operating method installation disk. On boot you ought to be able to hit the [space bar] to boot from CD/DVD. If it doesn't work you will require to get in to your BIOS & change the boot sequence setting the CD as first bootable device. Install the operating method. In case you have the CDs from the video driver, printer driver, etc. go ahead & install them now. Don't fret in case you don't have them use the generic ones & download the drivers from the net. A lovely suggestion is to download the drivers you may require to a USB device. Now reload your applications & restore your backup.

SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Know-how) was designed by IBM to foretell drive failures. There are a lot of applications you can search for to monitor drives using SMART such as Pass mark’s Disk checkup product (it is the right cost... free). These packages will have common elements like a heath flag on each item in the document. If the hard drive is beginning to fail you will notice the alerts here first probably even before you see them in the Windows Event Viewer.

It ought to go without saying, that prior to installing your new hard drive you ought to backup your knowledge either locally or remotely on the net (cloud). There are a lot of remote backup application services that usually let you save a maximum amount before charging you. Other important point is to stock what application you have installed on the hard drive & make positive you have the serial numbers & various CDs so you are not scrambling later.