Summary: Replacing a hard drive is not terribly difficult, but if you're worried about losing data, then perhaps replacing the hard drive isn't all you should do.
My son's hard drive is having serious problems. I was wondering how hard it is to install a new hard drive and copy files from the old hard drive. My husband is an electrical engineer and has installed a hard drive on one of our computers before. The main thing I don't know about is if we will be able to copy his files from the old hard drive. He has a lot of music files that he has recorded and doesn't want to loose them.
Replacing a hard drive isn't terribly difficult, and I'll point you at a couple of articles I've found on line with step by step instructions.
But your question raises a couple of important issues that I want to touch on first, that I think everyone needs to be aware of.
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You haven't been backing up, have you?
It actually frightens me how many people - or even businesses - use their computer(s) and simply assume it'll always work. Or that data will always be recoverable.
As someone who's spent many, many years working with this technology please trust me when I say: it doesn't always work, and data is not always recoverable. And that's as true today as it was 25 years ago. Perhaps even more so.
So why do I jump on you about backing up?
Because if you had been backing up, you wouldn't have needed to ask the question.
Besides not having to worry about losing files in general, a good, up-to-date backup is one way to transfer data from one drive to another.
So let's kill two birds with one stone.
Go out and purchase a USB external hard drive. They're big, they're not particularly expensive, and they often come with really good backup software included. I happen to have three Maxtor drives that I'm very happy with.
Then:
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Plug that drive in to your computer as it exists today, still with its old failing hard drive, and copy everything you want to save to the external drive.
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Now, unplug that external drive, and set it aside.
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Go ahead and replace the internal hard drive with a new one.
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Build out your machine once again using your new internal hard drive. That means installing Windows, and your other applications, as needed.
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Plug in the external drive once again, and copy over whatever files you wanted to retain. In your case, copy back all those music files.
You're Not Done
Now, install that backup software that came with the drive (or get a good backup package, see the links below), and set up a daily or weekly backup of your computer to your external hard drive. Once that's in place, your computer could die completely, and without warning, and you'd still have all your data.
Regardless of exactly how you do it, though, please start backing up. You won't regret it.
Note: I should also mention that one could leave the old failing drive installed, and move it to be the secondary drive. Then you could copy directly from it to the new drive without requiring the external drive. I avoid that here because the drive is failing - I don't want to risk messing around inside the computer until the data has been copied off and safe on the external drive. And of course the failing drive is no good as a backup drive after we're done, because it's failing. Getting that external drive is an important step to staying backed up in the future.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - What backup program should I use?
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Helpwithpcs.com - A guide to installing an IDE hard drive
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PCMechanic - Installing A Hard Drive - Step by Step
Article C2756 - August 16, 2006
TW: No - Don't microwave it if you like your microwave...
But the data recovery places charge a pretty penny for what they do. If all you want to do is discourage prying eyes, a .22 long rifle (err... in the drive, not the prying eyes) will probably do it.
But neither a .22 nor a campfire seems to clean a drive beyond OnTracks recovery... for that, it appears you need special equipment like a cross-country UPS truck with no padding in the packaging. [Page 2: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1911132,00.asp ]
A blacksmith'd probably do... probably just a little "quality time" with a sledgehammer will work just as well.
Me, I just put it in the trashcan with the garbage and cat litter (used). If the want my secrets that badly...
Posted by: Thor Johnson at August 21, 2006 6:51 AMI use a drill press and drill a few holes through the device, making sure to hit the platters. Voids the warrantee though :-).
Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at August 21, 2006 9:09 AMThe last time I replaced a hard drive with a new one I had a problem with windows and some other programs in the process. WD has a program that said it would transfer everything from one hard drive to another and it did, but windows and some other programs still needed to be re-installed. Don't want to go through this hassle again. Is there a way to just copy and use the new hard drive?
Posted by: Alan at November 6, 2006 1:08 PMAlan, if your hard drive is failing then it might not be a good idea to ghost it, but ther is an option if you dont want to install any programs over again. Symantec Ghost is a good example of a program that creates a image of your hard drive. It can then be completely restored on a new hard drive or even on a whole new computer. Im too lazy to give u a manual, but google it and ull get alot of hits :)
Posted by: Molle at April 18, 2007 6:19 AMWill backing up also back up the programs or just files? I have several old programs that I no longer have the install disc. I would like to copy my old drive to a new drive ...OS, programs, files. Is it possible?
Posted by: Alex at June 19, 2007 10:05 AMWill backing up also back up the programs or just files? I have several old programs that I no longer have the install disc. I would like to copy my old drive to a new drive ...OS, programs, files. Is it possible?
Does leo know about XSS attacks?
Posted by: anonymous at May 6, 2009 11:31 AMWorthless advice. Replacing a hard drive should not involve reinstalling Windows - it should involve copying an image of the old drive to the new drive. Otherwise, even with backups, you will have literally days of reconfiguring to do to get the computer back to its original state.
Yes, we know about backups. Different topic.
Posted by: Jim at May 30, 2009 4:23 PMSTEP 1 ABOVE SAYS, "Plug that drive in to your computer as it exists today, still with its old failing hard drive, and copy everything you want to save to the external drive." BUT IF YOUR HARD DRIVE DOESN'T WORK, HOW EXACTLY DO YOU GET THE FILES TO TRANSFER OVER? DOES IT JUST AUTOMATICLY TRANSFER ALL THE FILES? I'M ASKING BECAUSE I HAVE A HARD DRIVE THAT GOT SPYWARE ON IT AND IT DOESN'T ALLOW ME TO LOG IN.
19-Jun-2009
Posted by: BRENT at June 18, 2009 12:27 PM
I did the same thing to backup my computer but now I have a new problem. I can tried to restore all the information to my new internal hard drive and I can't. It just sits in my new drive as a complete file and I can't find it on my computer. I have have links, pictures, password and other restore that just sits in my new hard drive. What do I need to do now?
Posted by: Toni at June 22, 2009 9:23 PMJust connect the broken hard driver and new driver (with the fine OS) into the same PC (most PC support the two hard driver), then copy the file.
Posted by: Jack at August 17, 2009 12:11 AM