Many PC owners sooner or later have a question about how to connect a hard drive to a computer. Your first thought may be to call an IT specialist, but this may not be necessary for this operation. Connecting a hard drive or replacing it is usually associated with the fact that free space on the existing HDD is running out, or the part has served its purpose and begins to show signs of malfunction. Every user can figure out how to install a hard drive on a computer, and first you should look inside the system unit.

HDD installation begins by removing the side panel of the PC. Then, in order to decide how to properly install the hard drive, you need to pay attention to the already installed one. By analogy, you need to insert a new hard drive into a free slot and secure it with screws. Now, in order to figure out how to connect a hard drive to the motherboard, you again need to pay attention to how the old hard drive is connected. In addition to the power cable, it is connected to an information SATA cable, of which there are usually two or more in a PC. Thus, the installed HDD must be connected with a free SATA cable and a power cable. After this, you can put the side panel of the PC back and turn on the computer.

There is one factor you need to know before installing a hard drive on your computer. Each hard drive has a jumper that closes 2 metal contacts. By moving the jumper, you can assign the HDD as the main one, or as the secondary one by closing the other 2 contacts. Another factor influencing the order of HDD connections is which SATA cable is connected to a particular hard drive. In some cases, incorrectly used variations of the set jumper and the connected cable can lead to the fact that the disk does not want to be first or completely ceases to be detected. But usually, if you simply install a hard drive and connect any of the 2 cables to it, such troubles do not occur and the hard drive connects automatically.

After installing the hard drive into the slot, you need to turn on the computer, then almost immediately you need to press the DEL or F2 key. As a result, the BIOS system will load, in which you must select the “Advanced BIOS Features” item. Inside this section, you should pay attention to the “First Boot Device” item - it is responsible for which device will boot first. In it you need to select the desired HDD. In this case, the second device and CD-ROM must be indicated in the “Second Boot Device” and “Third Boot Device” items, respectively. Next, you need to press F10 to save the new settings and exit the BIOS.

Replacing an old HDD with a new one

Replacing a hard drive on a computer means saving all accumulated information, unless there is a serious breakdown. In addition to this, you may be wondering how to replace the hard drive on your computer without reinstalling Windows. It’s not difficult to do all this; the main condition is that the old device is still “alive”.

Before changing the hard drive on your computer, you need to clone all the information onto the new HDD, including the OS, which will not need to be reinstalled. To do this, you need a special program, one of which is called “Acronis Disk Director”. Before connecting a new hard drive, you must obtain a bootable CD or DVD with this software.

The new hard drive must be installed in a free slot inside the PC. Next, you need to go into the BIOS, set the first boot device to CD-ROM and save the settings. Then you need to insert the bootable CD with Acronis Disk Director into the drive, and you can restart the computer. After the computer boots, the disk cloning program will in turn load. In the program settings, you need to select the old HDD and click “Clone basic disk”. Then, in the window that opens, you need to select a new HDD, to which all information from the old one will be transferred. Next, you need to select “Use proportional volume resizing” and immediately select “Clone NT signature”. All you have to do is click “Finish”, then “Apply scheduled operations”, after which the cloning process will begin.

Once this operation is complete, you need to turn off your computer, remove the used hard drive, and then turn on your PC again. While the computer is turning on, you need to remove the boot CD with the cloning program from the drive; you do not need to change the settings in the BIOS, since in the absence of the CD the replaced HDD will boot. If necessary, everything can be returned to its previous state. Just before connecting the old hard drive, you need to disconnect the new HDD from the computer.

Connecting HDD from laptop

Sometimes you need to connect your laptop hard drive to your computer. This hard drive is smaller (2.5 inches), but the size does not affect the volume, so such drives are used quite often. When connecting a hard drive to a computer, use regular SATA cables found in the PC. Before removing the HDD from the laptop, you need to unscrew the small panel from the bottom, then either slide it towards the slide with the HDD and remove it, or remove it immediately by pulling the auxiliary tab. You should remove the hard drive carefully so that careless removal does not lead to far-reaching consequences.

Before installing a new hard drive removed from the laptop, the part can be placed in a special case and thus made external, subsequently connecting to. In this case, you can remove the hard drive or attach it “hot” without turning off the PC. And if the laptop hard drive is connected using a SATA cable, the part must be left in the sled. In this form, it is placed in a computer, where it can be placed either on another HDD or on a CD-ROM. The fact is that PCs usually do not have a slot for a hard drive of this size, so connecting it in this way is possible as a temporary one. It is advisable not to place the HDD vertically, as this arrangement negatively affects its operation.

Further actions related to connecting a laptop hard drive to a computer are no different from the manipulations when connecting a new hard drive to the motherboard - you only need a SATA cable and a power cord. If there is a need to connect a disk from a PC to a laptop, then this will be more difficult and additional adapters will be needed.

Installation Features

During installation or replacement of a hard drive, situations may arise related to its malfunction. For example, installing a new HDD may result in the computer freezing. Sometimes the computer does not turn on or the OS does not want to start. This may be due to faulty heads on the hard drive (although the PC may freeze for other reasons), and a reasonable solution is to replace the heads or such hard drives. Some PCs began to have vertical slots for HDDs. But the fact is that operating the hard drive in a vertical position leads to rapid wear of the read heads. Therefore, for standard HDDs, as a rule, only horizontal placement is used.

A situation may arise when the server cannot be stopped, but the hard drive needs to be changed. What to do in this case, how to install a new HDD without turning off the computer, and is it even possible to do this? In this case we mean the so-called HDD hot swap; it is possible for some types of RAID arrays, but in other cases it is unsafe.

A hard drive, or HDD (Hard Disk Drive), in the slang “winchester” or simply “screw”, is a storage device that most personal computers are equipped with, used for long-term storage of data - from your music, documents and films to programs and the operating system . Its service life is on average 5-6 years, but due to careless handling, severe physical damage, and exposure to moisture, it can fail much earlier than its “brothers”

Why do you need to change your hard drive?

There are many reasons why you need to do this. Sometimes it may fail, perhaps over time you will realize that the amount of memory in your computer is not enough for you. Also, if you notice a decrease in the speed of your computer and system loading, then the cause may be problems in the operation of your hard drive. You will learn how to replace a hard drive in this article. All complex terms are explained clearly, “in Russian,” so there will be no difficulties in understanding the text of the replacement instructions.

Changing a hard drive is not difficult - this is one of the simplest operations for replacing components in a computer, and you will see this for yourself in practice.

How to replace a hard drive

Replacement is not at all difficult; all you need is a screwdriver. I draw your attention to the fact that the procedure described below is relevant only for desktop computers. The replacement process for laptops is very different from the method of computers “in the case” and requires a different approach
1.First, you need to make sure that the computer is turned off and unplugged.
2.To gain access to the “insides” of the computer, you need to remove the side covers of the case. Each is fastened with two bolts,
in total you need to unscrew four. Look for them on the back of your computer.
3.Remove the side covers and look for the hard drive. In the computer it is located closer to the front panel and is fastened with bolts, four
or six, depending on the configuration of the case.
4. Disconnect all two cables from it. They have different connectors, so it is impossible to confuse them; the main thing is to remember which wires were connected.
5.Unscrew the bolts and take out the old hard drive.
6.Unpack the new hard drive and place it in place of the old one, with the connectors facing the rear wall.
7.Secure the part by screwing all the bolts into the body.
8.Connect the two cables in the same way as they were connected before to the old hard drive
9.Put the computer case covers in place and fasten them with all four bolts.

Ready! We replaced the hard drive. It turns out that it is not as difficult as it seemed...
But, since all your data, including the operating system, was on the previous hard drive, you will need to reinstall your operating system or copy the data from the old hard drive to the new one in order to continue using the computer after the replacement

How to transfer data from an old hard drive to a new one

If the hard drive fails, then restoring data from it will be very problematic and expensive, if not impossible in principle. So, if there was no particularly valuable data on it or for you, then there is no point in restoring it
If the old hard drive is functioning and you replaced it for some other reason, then you can transfer the data along with the operating system to a new one using special programs, a huge number of which, along with detailed instructions for their use in practice, can be found in Internet. Below is a list of popular programs for transferring files between disks:
1.PickMeApp is a free application for transferring data, working with it is as simplified as possible
2.Laplink PCMover - The highlight of this program is the ability to transfer all Windows settings, both system and user
3.EaseUS Todo Backup Free is another free application from Chinese developers that allows you to completely clone hard drives, including all partitions of the original one
4.AOMEI Partition Assistant Home 5.1 is a free program that allows you to transfer all data between hard drives, or just system files. The program is available to a large number of users - the entire process can be completed by following the instructions of the wizard
Please note that there is always a chance that the data transfer will fail. First of all, this is due to hardware problems, for example, with the motherboard. Therefore, the most reliable option is to install the system on a blank disk, and then configure all other programs

Conclusion

After reading this article, you learned how to change a hard drive on a computer, and perhaps learned how to do the replacement in practice. To ensure that your hard drive serves you for as long as possible, adhere to the following rules:
1.Never download programs and games from suspicious sites.
2.Install a good antivirus program on your computer.
3. Buy only certified components from well-known brands, and do this only in specialized stores of well-known retail chains.
4. Protect your hard drive from temperature extremes, moisture and strong shocks.
5.Do not touch system files and folders unless you are sure that this will not cause system failures
Following these simple rules will help you change your hard drive less often, and will allow your hard drive to serve you for many years and delight you with fast speed and trouble-free operation.

HDD, like all computer components, may one day fail and then it will be needed replacement. And there can be many reasons for this. Of course, I’m not an expert in these matters, but it doesn’t require any special knowledge.

Almost any repair there comes down to a simple replacement of a failed unit. So, in order not to run around workshops and not hang up your phone in search of a mobile technician, let’s figure out how to do it yourself.

Repair or replacement? Where can I buy?

A broken disk, depending on the situation, can, of course, be repaired. Surely some workshop will provide you with something similar. But according to experts, a repaired hard drive still doesn’t work for a long time. Therefore, it is better to buy a new one and replace it.

You should buy it at a specialized computer hardware store. There you are guaranteed to be sold an original and high-quality disc. The components also have a warranty.

What to consider when choosing?

The capacity and manufacturer of the hard drive do not matter for the operation of the motherboard and processor. Capacity is important to the user. The larger the capacity, the more information will fit.

Carefully disconnect the cords that are attached to it. There are only 2 of them. It is not necessary to remember the location. The cords are of different sizes and the connectors for them are different, so you don’t get confused and this won’t become an insurmountable obstacle when replacing:

Carefully unscrew the bolts on both sides that secure the disk. There are usually 4 or 6 bolts, depending on your luck. Try not to lose them, because it will be difficult to find the same ones later.

Step 4: Take out the old disk. You can throw it away, or you can keep it as a souvenir. Everything is ready for replacement.

Installation

Step 5: Remove the packaging from the new one. Carefully insert it into place before. The connector sockets should be directed towards the motherboard. Screw the disk on both sides:

Step 6: Connect the cords according to the connectors:

Step 7: Gently wipe off any dust inside the system unit. Cleanliness has never harmed anyone, and it will be even more useful for a computer. Warning! Use soft cloths for wiping. You can brush away dust from the motherboard and video card with a soft bristle brush. You cannot use a vacuum cleaner!

Step 8: Reattach the side panels. We tighten the bolts.

Step 9: Attach all devices to the system unit. Turn on the computer.

Step 10: Since the hard drive is new and therefore completely clean, you will have to reinstall the system. Usually, when connected, the computer itself will ask for installation. Insert the system disc and then follow the instructions.

Unfortunately, if a hard drive fails, the data stored on it is almost impossible to recover. Therefore, if you are afraid of losing some important information, purchase an external hard drive.

This wonderful thing has the same properties as a regular (internal) disk. It communicates with the computer using a USB cable. The advantage of an external hard drive is that, when trying to save your favorite movies or music, you won’t get stuck in heaps of CDs and DVDs, and purchasing so many flash cards is unprofitable.

How to protect your hard drive from failure?

• Buy only high-quality components from well-known and trusted manufacturers. Only in specialized computer stores;
• Do not expose the hard drive to shock, high temperatures or humidity;
• If you buy a disk in winter, do not insert it immediately, wait a while before replacing it. Let it sit at room temperature for a while;
• Do not remove software from your hard drive if you are not sure what it is;
• Install a good antivirus program on your computer;
• Do not install games or games on your computer;
• It is not advisable to defragment your hard drive too often;
• To monitor the operation of the disk and eliminate possible errors or problems, use. It is very easy to download on the Internet.

If you comply with these basic conditions then replacing hard drive, it may never be necessary or will at least be postponed for a fairly decent amount of time.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the PenserMan blog.

Hello admin. I read your article about replacing the hard drive on a laptop with an SSD and I want to ask you.

I have an ASUS K50C laptop and it is so slow (Celeron 220 1200 MHz processor and 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz memory) that it’s just brutal. Do you think that in my case, replacing the HDD with an SSD will make the laptop faster? I increased the 2 GB RAM to 4 GB and nothing changed, the brakes did not disappear. I don’t play games, I work in office applications and use the Internet.

I would like from you not just words that yes, everything will work faster, but also the results of some tests. And another question, if after replacement I install the remaining HDD from the laptop instead of the drive (using the SlimDVD adapter) , then will it be detected in the BIOS and is it possible to install an operating system on it?

Hi all! I read this letter while at work and thought about where I could get a similar model, we haven’t had it on sale for a long time, and it’s not on disassembly, and then the idea crept into my head to disassemble my partner’s work laptop, just the ASUS K50C, because he I took my new laptop apart ten times and experimented with something, so today we’ll disassemble his device for the sake of a scientific experiment, I think he won’t mind

The ASUS K50C laptop we are reviewing today is a budget model and was created not for gaming, but for everyday work in office applications and the Internet.

How will it behave on a regular budget laptop? Is there any point in such a replacement? Will our laptop become faster after installing an SSD in it? We will find out about this at the end of the article!

Before replacing the HDD with an SSD, let's test the hard drive with the well-known CrystalDiskMark program, this small utility will measure the speed of reading and writing data to the hard drive. After installing an SSD solid-state drive on the laptop, we will also conduct tests and compare them with those previously obtained from a simple HDD.

Official website of the CrystalDiskMark program

http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

CrystalDiskMark is downloaded in an archive, unzip it into a folder and run executable

CrystalDiskMark writes and reads information on the hard drive in blocks (1024Kb, 512Kb, 4Kb);

Select drive C: click on the button All and it happens:

Seq: Sequential write/read test (block size= 1024Kb);

512K: Random write/read test (block size = 512Kb);

4K : Random write/read test (block size = 4Kb);

Friends, let’s remember the test results, but I especially advise you to remember what is hushed up by all hard drive manufacturers - the random write speed in 4 KB blocks (then we will compare it with SSD). In real life, a hard drive, for the most part, writes data in small blocks and inIn our case, the write speed is terribly low 0.385 (this is typical for most conventional HDDs).

Disassembling the ASUS K50C laptop

Disassembling the ASUS K50C laptop is very simple.

Turn off the laptop and unplug it from the power supply, turn it over. Remove the battery compartment cover.

Carefully press the two latches and remove the battery (this must be done).

Unscrew the first screw securing the cover.

Unscrew the four screws located on the back of the laptop, two at a time; left and right

We do not remove the back cover of the laptop, but move it.

Unscrew the screw securing the drive and remove it. We also unscrew the four screws securing the hard drive and carefully pull the silicone tab to the right to remove the hard drive.

Unscrew the four screws and remove the “sled” from the HDD.

The laptop HDD and SSD have the same 2.5-inch form factor, which means the sleds can be installed on a solid-state drive without any problems.

Where to put the laptop hard drive?

There are two options.

For a laptop HDD, you can buy a nice one and use it as a portable USB hard drive.

In short, there are many options, choose any one.

In this article I propose install laptop HDD in adapter SlimDVD instead of a disk drive, the installation process itself is described in detail in the article, the link to which I gave just above, here I’ll just note that you need to secure the HDD in the adapter SlimDVD as expected

then transfer a special mount to it from the drive

We install a solid-state drive and an adapter with HDD into the laptop.

We secure everything with screws.

Reinstall and secure the laptop cover with five screws. We install the battery and close it with the lid.

Turn on the laptop and go to the BIOS in the Boot tab, here we need the option Hard disk drives (determining the primacy of hard drives).

searching results

We enter it and see that both of our drives are identified: a regular Seagate HDD connected via a SlimDVD adapter and a Kingston SSD solid state drive, we can make any of them a priority for booting the laptop and we can install the operating system on either one. Typically, an operating system is installed on an SSD, and a regular HDD is used to store files.

We install the Windows 7 operating system on the Kingston SSD and run the drive test in the CrystalDiskMark program.

Result

Test of sequential writing/reading of information in blocks 1024- 512Kb on SSD is twice as fast as on HDD, and 4Kb blocks 20-30 times.

IN In real operating conditions of a hard drive, writing/reading small blocks will occur much more often than large ones, so the solid-state drive will work faster than a regular HDD.

Conclusion:

Friends, I do not urge anyone to urgently change their laptop hard drive to a solid-state drive, and the article is given to you primarily for your information.

If you are a computer enthusiast, I will advise you this; Install an SSD drive on your laptop and install Windows 7, 8.1 on it, work like this for several days, and then return the regular HDD to the laptop and you will immediately feel the difference in speed.

I'll show you how to change a HDD hard drive to a high-speed SSD drive. I bought a 250 GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD. and installed it on my laptop. Then I installed Windows and all programs on the new SSD drive.

I bought my SSD drive Samsung 850 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III on AliExpress . At first I wanted to order this Samsung 750 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III (it is 120 GB and cheaper), but in the end I ordered 250 GB, although I could have done with 120 GB. The Samsung 850 EVO SSD arrived after about 12 days (the fastest product that came from AliExpress).

The parcel is well packed and sealed with polystyrene foam. Inside the box is plastic, and in it is an SSD drive.

Here are the specifications of this SSD drive. My reading speed tests, notes at the bottom of the page.

1. Copy all the information you need from your disk

If you, like me, have only one hard drive space in your laptop, then first copy all the information from your hard drive to your external drive or to another computer. Or buy . So that you can then connect your removed HDD drive via USB and download everything you need from it to your new SSD drive.

Here is a visual video of this adapter.

2. Remove the hard drive and install the SSD

Turn off the laptop, unplug the laptop from all wires, turn it over and remove the laptop battery. Now on the back cover of the laptop, find the inscription HDD - this is the place where your hard drive is installed. On my Samsung NP-R560 laptop it is on the bottom left. The hard drive is closed with a cover with two screws.

We unscrew these two screws securing the laptop hard drive.

Remove the cover covering the hard drive. There should be arrows on it showing in which direction you need to pull to move the cover.

Here is the hard drive of my laptop. It has an aluminum lid to help dissipate heat and has a pull tab to make it easier to remove. Simply grab this tab and pull it to the left to disconnect the hard drive from the connector.

Done, the hard drive is disconnected from the laptop and connectors. We lift it and put it aside.

This is what a laptop looks like without a disk.

Now insert the SSD disk in place of the HDD disk.

Carefully insert it in place of the old HDD drive. I also installed an aluminum plate from the old HDD on the new SSD.

Close the hard drive cover.

Tighten the screws of the lid.

Ready. Now we turn the laptop over, insert all the wires into it, put the battery back and turn on the laptop.

3. Install Windows on the new SSD

There is nothing on the new SSD drive and there is no OS (Windows) either, so now you need to install Windows on it. You will receive this error when you try to boot from a new SSD disk that does not yet have a Windows operating system.

Partition table invalid or corrupted. Press any key to continue…

You need to insert your bootable USB flash drive and boot from it.

If you don’t have a bootable USB flash drive yet, it’s time to make one.

Here is a video on how to configure the BIOS to install Windows from a bootable USB flash drive.

Now that we have a bootable USB flash drive and boot from it, we install Windows on the new SSD. We select our SSD, it will be marked as “Unallocated space on disk 0” and click “Next” and install Windows.

The copying of Windows files will begin, then preparation for installation, installation of components, installation of updates, completion. The computer will restart several times. After the first reboot, you can remove the bootable USB flash drive.

If you have never installed Windows via BIOS, then you will find a video on this topic.

After installing Windows on a new SSD drive, change the boot priority in the BIOS so that the Windows bootloader is first looked for on the SSD drive. Although if everything loads and works, then you don’t have to change anything. I'll go to BIOS, Boot - Boot Device priority.

And using the F5 or F6 key I will move the SSD disk to the very top, so that the boot sector on the SSD disk is first searched, and then on the other disks, if it is not found on the SSD.

4. Comparison of SSD speed with HDD and USB drives

Using the CrystalDiskMark 3 program, I measured the writing and reading speed of my HDD drive even before removing it and replacing it with an SSD. The reading speed from it was approximately 100 MB/sec. when reading and writing sequentially.