How do you replace a hard drive?

Answer 1

== == For illustrated pictures depicting how to remove and install a hard drive

see: http://www.fonerbooks.com/r_hard.htm

by Ranger22 You can also click on the Web Link to the left of this answer, below the blue section. It's not that hard to install a hard drive if you are handy with tools and repairs. But there are a few things you need to know. Depending upon whether you are keeping your old hard drive, and will now have two hard drives, or if you are getting rid of your old hard drive and will only have one hard drive, determines where you plug in the IDE cable and how you set the jumpers. Of course you might have bought a new CD burner and a second hard drive and want to install them both. So there are a variety of possibilities. No matter what your case may be, the two most important things are how the IDE plugs and jumpers are configured. The power supply cable can only go in one way, so that's easy. The power supply is a 4 pin connector.

IDE Interface cable: (Also called "Ribbon Cable") * The IDE cable is flat, usually gray, about 2" wide and has three plugs on it. The plugs are 40-pin connectors. One end plugs into the motherboard, and might be blue. You don't have to worry about that end, just leave it where it is. At the extreme other end of the IDE cable, opposite the mother board is the PRIMARY DRIVE (MASTER) connector. Then there is a plug in the middle that is the SECONDARY DRIVE (SLAVE) connector. The MASTER connector on the end might be black, and the SLAVE connector in the middle may be gray. Make sure the MASTER connector is plugged into the Master drive, and the SLAVE connector is plugged into the slave drive. The most important thing to understand with the whole Master/Slave thing, is that the hard drive that boots up your computer must be set as the MASTER. The second thing to understand is this: If there are two drives on one IDE cable, then there must be a Master and a Slave, or both drives must be set to "Cable Select". * If there is only one drive on the IDE cable, then it must be plugged into the end plug, which is the Master plug. Jumper Block, Jumper * At the back of the drive, along with the power supply slot and the IDE slot is the Jumper Block. The Jumper Block has a little, tiny plug in it that connects two of the pins. That little plastic plug is called the jumper. Depending upon where the jumper is plugged into, determines whether the drive is set up as the Master or the Slave. There are 4 possible jumper settings. The jumper setting depends upon how many drives are on the IDE cable and whether the drive is a Master or a Slave.

The 4 settings are: * Cable Select - (Usually the default setting) The jumper plug is usually all the way to one side nearest the power supply plug. If your system supports "Cable Select", then the system determines which will be the Master and which will be the Slave. If one drive on the IDE cable is set to "Cable Select", then the other drive must also be set to "Cable Select". You can't have your Master drive set as "Cable Select" and the other drive set as the Slave. If you aren't sure whether you system supports Cable Select, then you can use the standard jumper settings described below. * Master - For when two drives share the same IDE Cable. The hard drive that is booting up your computer must be the Master. Master is also denoted by "Single" on older hard drives. * Slave - Also for two drives * Single - The jumper plug is not present. For one drive on the IDE Cable. MASTER/SLAVE

How many drives? * The computer probably has two IDE cables, with two drive plugs on each cable. This gives you the option of having up to 4 different drives, in many different configurations. * You could have 2 hard drives and 2 CD drives. Most computers come with one hard drive on one IDE cable, and a CD drive on the other IDE cable. * People often put an extra CD drive in so they can burn from one CD to another CD. You could have the hard drive on one IDE cable and the two CD drives on the other IDE cable. * Having a second hard drive is really the way to go for backing up your data. Depending upon how many drives you have in your computer, will depend on how you need to set the jumper , you will need to: plug. And as explained above, there are a few different possibilities.

1) No matter what the new configuration is: * Unplug all the cords at the back of the computer. * Remove the cover on the side of the computer * Make a note of how your IDE cables are plugged in. 2) If you are removing a drive:

Unplug the power supply from the drive (The 4 wire connector)

Unplug the IDE cable (2" wide, flat, gray)

Unplug any other wires (Sometimes a 2 wire plug on CD drives)

Remove the screws on both sides of the drive

Slide the old hard drive or CD drive out.

If you are simply putting a new hard drive in place of the old one, check the old hard drive for where the jumper plug is. Check to see if the new hard drive is set the same. If you are saving the old hard drive or need to copy data off it, then

you will need to install both hard drives. When I bought a new Western Digital hard drive, my old hard drive was still working, and I installed the new hard drive as the slave. The Western Digital hard drive came with software to copy everything from my old hard drive to the new hard drive, and make the new hard drive bootable.

If you need to retrieve data off your old hard drive, and the computer won't boot up, then go to the question: How do I get data off my hard drive?

You will need something like tweezers or something very small to get the jumper out. The jumper is usually a little piece of white or black plastic, and it's very small.

Sometimes the hard drive will have letters stamped into the metal to indicate which slot is the Master and which slot is the Slave. 3) Make sure the jumper on the drive that will boot the computer is set to Master or Cable Select. Cable Select can only be used if BOTH drives are set to Cable Select. If you just bought a new computer and are putting an old hard drive into the new computer, the hard drive in the new computer will already have the jumper plugged into the Master slot or Cable Select. 4) Put the old drive into an open slot in the new PC and secure it with screws

5) Connect the open connector from the same cable as the existing hard drive of the new PC. Most computers have two IDE cables. Each of the cables has two plugs on it.

6) Boot up the new PC

7) In Windows Explorer you should see your old drive now as a different drive letter. I have two hard drives on one IDE cable and two CD drives on the second IDE cable. In my computer, my second hard drive shows up as F: drive. My two CD drives show up as D: and E: drive. My original hard drive shows up as C: drive. 8) In Windows Explorer you can copy or move files to your new drive. I like to right click the Start button, and choose "Explore" as a fast way to get into Windows Explorer.