How To Install A New Hard Drive Pc
A difficult drive upgrade is ane of the easiest ways to ameliorate your PC, whether yous're looking for more storage or the speed boost an SSD provides. Here's how to choose and install your new bulldoze.
Step 1: Choosing Your New Bulldoze
Choosing a drive that fits your budgets and does what y'all demand is the first stride. These days, your nearly important pick is between a traditional hard drive or a solid land bulldoze (SSD). But in that location are few other things to recollect nearly, likewise.
Should You Get Regular Drive, an SSD, or Both?
Here'southward the question to ask yourself: do you want more speed or more than storage?
RELATED: What Is a Solid State Bulldoze (SSD), and Do I Demand One?
Mod SSDs are amazing, and are a worthy upgrade to just about any organization. Moving from a regular drive to an SSD improves speed across your system. You PC volition start faster, load apps and large files faster, and subtract load times in most games. The problem is, one time you lot go past a terabyte of storage infinite, SSDs kickoff to get prohibitively expensive.
Alternately, conventional hard drives are slower, but offer huge amounts of storage relatively cheaply. You can observe desktop drives that hold four terabytes—plenty to satisfy all only the most demanding of media hoarders—for nether $100 USD.
You can also combine the strengths of SSDs and hard drives. If your desktop tin can handle more than than one drive (and well-nigh of them can), you lot can install your operating organization on the main SSD for speedy admission to programs and essential files, and apply a large chapters traditional drive for storing files. This makes an SSD an particularly attractive upgrade if you already have a hard drive, since you tin can move the operating system over and "demote" the difficult bulldoze to storage duties.
If coin is no object—or if you're express to a single bulldoze connectedness in your laptop—you can spend quite a lot to go a multi-terabyte SSD. Only for most people, a smaller SSD combined with a larger difficult drive is a great compromise.
What Physical Size Should the Drive Be?
Hard drives typically come in 2 sizes: 2.five″ and three.5″. The three.five″ drives are also known as "total size" or "desktop drives." Pretty much every desktop PC out there has room for at least 1 (and sometimes many) 3.v″ drives. The possible exception to this are the super-pocket-sized form factor PCs that can only handle a 2.5″ drive.
2.5″ drives are traditionally meant for laptops, but will too fit just fine in a desktop PC. Some desktop PCs have congenital in mounting points for 2.five″ drives. If yours doesn't, you'll demand a mounting bracket like this one. Note that these are usually labelled every bit "SSD mounting brackets." This is because all SSDs in the traditional hard bulldoze class are 2.v″ drives. That's what size you'll apply whether y'all're mounting it in a desktop or laptop.
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And speaking of SSDs, there is one more form factor to talk most: the M.two standard. These drives actually look more like a stick of RAM than a hard bulldoze. Instead of connecting to your motherboard via a SATA cable the way regular drives practise, Grand.2 drives become plugged into a specialized slot. If you're interested in the M.ii drives, you'll have to decide whether your PC supports them.
I other notation nearly laptops. As they've gotten smaller and sleeker, laptops take also gotten harder to upgrade. Most laptops that aren't super-tiny however use 2.5″ drives, but they may or may non have a user-accessible bulldoze bay for upgrades. Cheaper, bulkier laptops, and few business-class designs like Lenovo'southward ThinkPads or Dell'due south Latitudes, however allow access adequately hands. Other models might need some all-encompassing work to go to the drive bay, or may not have access at all, especially if they've moved to the expensive M.ii standard. Upgrading those drives will probably void your warranty, and you'll demand to look for a model-specific guide, like this one on iFixIt.
What Connection Do I Need?
All mod 3.5″ and 2.5″ drives use a SATA connexion for power and data.
If you're installing the drive into a desktop PC, the SATA power cable is a xv-pivot cable that runs from your PC'southward power supply. If your PC only offers the older 4-pin Molex cables, you tin can buy adapters that work just fine.
The SATA data cable requires that your motherboard back up a SATA connection (all modern PCs do). You'll find them in slightly dissimilar configurations. Some (similar the 1 pictured beneath) take a straight plug on one end and an L-shaped plug on the other finish. The L-shaped plug makes information technology easier to fit into jacks that are closer to other components. Some SATA cables take straight plugs or Fifty-shaped plugs on both ends. You should go SATA cables with your hard drive, merely if yous're working in a specially tight space, be enlightened that these other options exist.
If you're installing into a laptop that allows user access, things are easier. Yous'll usually be able to plug the drive right into a slot that already has the ability and data connections ready—no cables to connect.
I other word on SATA drives. The latest revision to the SATA standard is SATA 3.iii, and drives and cables are backwards compatible with older versions. On desktops, you'll want to make certain that the drive y'all're ownership is as fast or faster than the connection that your motherboard accepts—almost motherboard SATA connections from the last 5 years have at least 3.0 back up. The same goes for the SATA cable y'all purchase. Laptops don't use SATA cables, so just brand sure that the drive y'all're upgrading to uses the same SATA revision or newer than the drive information technology's replacing.
How Much Storage Exercise I Demand?
This 1's easy: whatever fits your upkeep. More than storage costs more coin, no matter what blazon of bulldoze you're looking at.
How Fast Does My Drive Need To Be?
The default answer here is "as fast as y'all can afford." That said, if yous're upgrading from a hard drive to an SSD, you lot're going to be blown away by the speed increase no thing what. And then you lot might non desire to splurge on the fastest SSD you tin get. Getting more storage on an SSD will exist more important to most people than getting more speed.
If y'all're buying a regular drive, speed is by and large expressed in RPM—the revolutions per infinitesimal of the spinning information platters. 5400 RPM is a typical speed for cheap drives (especially in 2.5″ form factors), with 7200 RPM drives also being quite common. Some high-operation hard drives are offered at x,000 RPM, but these accept been mostly superseded by faster SSDs.
In that location's another option hither, if your choice is limited to a conventional hard drive. "Hybrid" drives combine a large, standard hard drive with a modest cache of flash storage. This won't magically make your hard bulldoze as fast equally an SSD, but the file caching tin can make a considerable improvement if you're constantly accessing more often than not the same programs and files. It might be worth the pocket-size price premium versus a standard difficult drive.
Footstep Two: Decide Whether to Transfer Your Operating System or Perform a Clean Installation
You've purchased your new drive, and you're ready to install information technology. Your next footstep is to decide whether you want to transfer your operating system to the new bulldoze or just do a clean installation and kickoff fresh. There are pros and cons for each.
Transferring Your Operating System
Transferring your operating system (and all your information and installed apps) means non having to worry almost reinstalling Windows, setting it upwards the way you like it once again, and then reinstalling each of your apps. The downside is that information technology'south a pretty slow and tedious process.
RELATED: How to Upgrade to a Larger Difficult Drive Without Reinstalling Windows
If yous're upgrading from only i drive to some other (equally opposed to only installing an additional drive in a desktop), you'll probably desire to transfer your operating system to the new bulldoze instead of installing fresh. The bad news is that this is a boring and tedious process. The adept news is that it isn't likewise hard to do. About new drives come up with tools to make it happen. And if yous didn't become a free tool, there are other means to upgrade to a larger difficult drive without reinstalling Windows.
If you use a laptop, you'll need to apply a USB-based SATA adapter or enclosure so that you lot can accept both drives hooked upward at once. You tin can become that way with a desktop, too, but it may be easier merely to install the new drive, exercise the transfer, and then decide whether to exit the one-time drive in place for extra storage or uninstall it.
Performing a Clean Installation
RELATED: How to do a Make clean Install of Windows x the Easy Fashion
At that place are besides advantages to just performing a clean installation of your operating system on your new bulldoze. The big i is that you get to offset fresh. No old program installations hanging effectually; information technology's a fresh copy of your Os without the clutter. You get to fix it the way you want, and only install what you lot want.
The downside, of course, is that you have to practise all that. While it typically goes faster than transferring your Bone to the new drive, doing a make clean installation does mean that yous'll take reinstall the apps and games you want, and restore your personal files from backup (or copy them from the new bulldoze). You'll also demand make sure yous have access to your applications for reinstallation. If y'all installed them from DVD or downloaded the installation files, you lot'll need to find those—along with any necessary activation keys.
Footstep Three: Install Your New Drive
The steps for installing (or replacing) a drive differ a bit, depending on whether you're installing the drive in a laptop or desktop PC.
Installing Your New Drive In a Laptop
Different laptops accept different methods for accessing the storage drive compartment, if they allow easy admission at all. Some business-class designs allow you swap out a drive past removing a single spiral, others might need you lot to completely remove the lesser of the machine or even take out the keyboard. You can usually find specific instructions by searching the web for your laptop manufacturer and model.
For this example, we're swapping the drive in a ThinkPad T450s. The design is a few years old now, but it's pocket-size enough that it requires the entire bottom to be removed, which is fairly typical among designs that allow a hard drive upgrade.
To access the drive, I have to remove the battery, and then take out eight different screws.
That loosens the metal trunk plate enough to let me pull information technology off the computer. You can run into the hard drive in the lower-left corner.
To pull the drive itself out, I demand to remove another screw, pull the bulldoze upwards a scrap, and and then slide information technology off of the integrated SATA connection.
For this model, the bulldoze caddy is just a sparse piece of aluminum with a rubber bumper. I pulled it off, and then placed it on the new bulldoze.
Then, I reverse the process, slipping the new bulldoze onto the SATA connection in the laptop, screwing the caddy back downward to the frame, and replacing the body console.
Again, this procedure is going to vary quite a lot depending upon which laptop y'all have. If yous need a pace-past-step breakdown for your model, Google is your friend—y'all'll generally find at least a few users who want to exercise the same affair, and perhaps an article or video if you're lucky.
Installing Your New Bulldoze in a Desktop PC
This process is a bit more involved than on a laptop, but the good news is that getting the example off and accessing the drive is typically a lot easier than on most laptops.
You lot'll need a standard Philips-head screwdriver and a SATA cable. If you're completely replacing a single drive, you tin use the SATA cablevision that's already in place. Your power supply probably has a free SATA power connectedness—multiple plugs are often available—merely if non, you'll need an adapter cablevision. If you lot're working in an area that'south specially prone to static electricity, you'll want to employ an anti-static bracelet too. If y'all congenital your own PC, the screws needed to install your new drive should have come with the instance—I hope you lot kept the box of accessories. If not, you'll need to get some replacement screws. Finally, you lot'll want a basin or a cup to hold screws.
Power down your machine and remove all cables, then move it to your piece of work area. This should be a cool, dry spot that'due south easy to access, preferably without carpet below you. If you know the configuration of your figurer'south internal parts, feel costless to place information technology at the most accessible angle. If you don't, but get out information technology upright—you may have to take multiple panels off for a full installation.
Remove the access console from the primary side of the case—that's the one on your left if you're looking at your calculator from the front. Most designs crave y'all to remove ii to three screws from the back side before it volition slide or swing out. Set the admission panel aside. Some desktops require that you take the whole case cover off rather than just an access panel. If you lot're unsure, await up your desktop model or example on the spider web. Instructions should be like shooting fish in a barrel to find.
Have a moment to orient yourself. If you're working on a conventional desktop yous're probably looking at the motherboard, with the boxy power supply either at the top or the bottom of the case. You should be able to see your figurer's storage drive or drives mounted towards the forepart of the instance. A SATA information cable should be running from the motherboard to the drive. A SATA power cablevision should be running from the ability supply to the bulldoze.
Note: If you tin can't see either a larger 3.5-inch drive or a smaller ii.five-inch drive, it might be mounted in an alternate spot. In newer designs this is frequently backside the motherboard itself—remove the opposite access console to cheque.
If you're not keeping your old bulldoze in your organisation for actress storage, now's the time to take it out. You can besides get out the cables fastened to the motherboard and ability supply and and so simply connect them to the new drive after installing it.
First, unplug the information and power cables from the dorsum of the old drive. There's nil likewise complex about this: only pull it out. Some cables have a niggling tab locking mechanism you'll have to squeeze first.
If the drive is on a sliding caddy, remove it (and annotation that some sliding caddies are screwed into place). Now, just use your screwdriver to remove the screws from the drive, whether information technology's in a caddy or affixed directly to the example. The screws come in many sizes and lengths—some including silicone spacers for sound damping—and might be mounted to the bottom of the drive or the side, depending on your case's blueprint. It doesn't actually affair: just remove them, set them bated in a spot where you won't lose them.
Your old drive is now free! Ready it aside. Be careful with information technology, but don't worry besides much—they're pretty sturdy.
To install the new drive in place of the old one, y'all'll just reverse the process. Put the new drive into the caddie, and and so slide it into place on the example (and secure information technology if necessary).
Now, plug the cables into the new bulldoze. Information technology's easy to figure out—they but fit one way.
If you lot're calculation a new hard drive and leaving the former one in place, it's a bit more complicated. You'll need to mount the new drive to the example (sliding information technology into an actress caddy that should have come up with your case, if necessary). And, you'll demand to plug in boosted cables.
Plug one terminate of the SATA data cable into the back of the new hard bulldoze and the other end into your motherboard. The motherboard slots are mostly on the side closest to the forepart of the PC, normally in a cluster of two to six. It doesn't peculiarly thing which plug y'all use, though you might desire to plug it into the elevation-left i (which is the "0" drive) or the closest 1 in sequence, merely for the sake of arrangement.
Now plug the SATA power connectedness from the ability supply into the new drive. If you lot already had a drive installed, check the ability cablecoming out of it, considering they more often than not have more ane plug and tin be used for multiple drives. If your power supply doesn't accept any free SATA power connections, yous'll demand to utilise an adapter or a splitter.
Later on that, your bulldoze should exist ready to go! Double check your connections, make sure the cables aren't touching any heatsinks or bumping up against cooling fan blades, and so replace the access panel on the case. Movement your PC back to its original position, reconnect all your accessories and power cables, and fire it up!
Image source: Amazon, Amazon, Amazon, Amazon, Newegg, iFixIt, Lenovo
Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/345988/how-to-upgrade-and-install-a-new-hard-drive-or-ssd-in-your-pc/
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