Can i upgrade my computer's hard disk memory without losing the files in it?

Answer 1

Most hard drives you buy come with three things in the box - the new drive, a new cable, and a CD.

Simply put, the easiest thing to do is:

1) Open the computer case and find the old hard drive. It will have gray "ribbon cable" coming out the bakc the plugs into the motherboard. There are also a couple of screws that hold it in place. Some cases also have a carriage that the hard drive(s) sit in that make it really to take out. There is also a red/black/yellow set of wires that plug in for power.

2) Once you have locate all this, gently remove the drive, and disconnect the cables. You will notice that the gray ribbon cable has a red stire on one side, as well as a notch on one of the long sides of the plug.

3) Replace the old ribbon calbe with the new one that came with your hard drive. (If by chance your new drive did not come with one, then check to see if your old cable has a second plug on it, about 6 inches from the end.)

4) Install the new drive at the END of the cable, and then put the old drive in the MIDDLE of the cable. The other end of the cable plugs into the motherboard. When you attach the cables, look for that notch in the plug to line up with the space on the drives. Also, the red stripe is always closest to the power plug.

5) VERY IMPORTANT!!!! There is usually a tiny plastic jumper that spans two pins on the back of the drive. Many times it is between the power and gray ribbon cable. Make sure that your NEW drive (at the end of the cable) is set to MA (or Master) and the old drive is set to SL (or Slave). If you forget to set the jumpers, your computer will probably give you a failure notice when you try to boot.

6) Install both drives back into the case and make sure you secure them on the sides with the screws.

7) Start your PC and quickly put the CD in, this should allow you PC to boot from the disk. If you wait too long and get an error that there is no OS, then just Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart from the CD.

8) Depending on the CD that came with the drive, you just follow the instructions on screen to prepare your new drive. Remeber, you are going to copy FROM your OLD drive (should list as slave if you followed the above) TO your NEW drive. Select your new drive as the boot drive.

The copy process will take anywhere from 1-5 hours or more, depending on how big the old drive is and how fast your machine is.

Once this finishes, you can restart windows and make sure that you are using the new drive. You can tell you are if the new drive shows up as the c: drive.

You now have two options:

1) Leave the old drive in as D: and format it. This will clean everything off it and you can use it as a spare drive for storage.

2) Remove the old drive and put it in the bag and box the new one came in. This way, if the new one dies, you at least have an immediate backup of what your computer looks like as of today.

Answer 2

You are actually talking two different things in your question. Do you want to increase your memory which is where running programs are stored when your pc is on or do you need more storage space on your hard drive?
You can add RAM at any time as long as you have slots on your motherboard or replace ones with bigger ones.
To upgrade your hard drive you can add it as a second drive which is easiest or you will have to move your files to the new drive somehow.

Answer 3

Doing this for your primary drive will take some effort. Can you get away with just adding a second drive to the system and moving data (not applications) to that disk? That would be your simplest thing to increase your disk space.

Answer 4

Are you buying another drive? If so, you can copy your files from the old one to the new one with Partition Logic (it's a free program too).

Answer 5

Just plug your new hard drive in with your old one there should be an empty slot right beside it........its real easy take cover off puter and take a look...ps unplug it