My hard drive is toast.With my files backed up,how difficult is it to change a h.drive?Will all my programs go

Question

I'm worried that my programs will erase when I change to a new hard
drive.

Answer 1

if you backed up your files on a cd,dvd or other media beside your toast hard drive it will be easy. Its just a matter of unplugging the old one and plugging in the new one. I'd mention getting the right physical size hard drive for your tower, but i think they are all a standard size now. I have an old harddrive layign around that is about twice the physical size as my new ones.. anyway reinstall your operating system and copy your files from the cd to your hard drive

Answer 2

If your files are on the "toast" drive, say ba bye. In the future, and this is for everyone who owns a desktop or tower, install a second hard drive. Logic Drive 0, or the Master should be used for "programs" (and of course the OS), and logic drive 1, or the slave should be used for storage. That way when drive C (logic drive 0) crashes, you still have your important data on logic drive 1. It also is a good idea to partition logic drive 1 into several drives. ie: d, e, f, g etc. and designate them for what they contain, such as D for data, E for music, f for pictures... Now when C drive crashes, you re-install your OS and you still have your valuable files intact without worry. But it is still a good idea to back-up your valuable files on aanother medium. But remember, ZIP drives and CD/DVD's and flash drives can still fail.

Answer 3

It depends on the backup. If it is a true mirror of the drive you should be able to recover the programs as well when you restore the backup onto the new drive. However, if you just backup data like most folks you will have to re-install the programs.

Answer 4

Changing the drive is pretty easy, but that's not all there is to it.

You have to install the new hard drive, then get enough of a system up and running to be able to restore your backup. That usually means installing Windows and your backup software.

If you backed up everything, you should get all your programs back when you restore your backup.

Answer 5

Losing data on a hard drive is the worst nightmare of any computer owner. However, some hard drive problems can be easily fixed yourself by using easily available tools. I found the information at http://fixit.in useful

Answer 6

V. easy to change, but you will lose all of your data assuming that you only have 1 disk.

You need to replace the harddisk.

Ensure your cmos idetifies and works with your new drive.
(this is when you start your machine and it will say something like press f2 to enter setup)


Then re-install your application, and then restoreany backed up data.

hope this helps

Owen

Answer 7

It's not very difficult to physically change the hard drive, but everything will be lost unless you transfer it... that's when it gets a little more difficult unless you know what you're doing.

If you need everything transferred I'd suggest you seek professional help.