SimonD

The hard disk on my Dell PC is showing signs of impending failure. Running slowly and much fragmentation + I've lost sound because XP cannot find the software - presumably corrupted files on the disk.
I'm copying the contents of my PC hard drive to a USB external drive but am wondering how easy it is to replace the hard disk on my PC rather than go out and buy a new PC.

Anyone have any advice/suggestions as to what kind of hard disk to get and whether the job is feasible for a non-techie?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Simon

ScuuBdoo

Very easy job to do.
Open up the PC and its just a matter of removing some screws on the side(as if you where unscrewing a headunit out of a car) and unplugging the cables at the back of the hard disk.

But, wear an anti-static wrist band so you dont fry any of the chips on the motherboard. You might accidently touch them.

andys

Make sure you buy the right type of new disk though, IDE, SATA SCSI are just some of the formats

Iain Young

Plus, ensure you have your operating system and driver discs to hand as you'll need to reinstall all that stuff as well.

PeteBrant

You might be able to Use a thrid party utility to do a sector by sector copy of your disk (as opposed to a file by file copy which wont work as a direct replacement). Many drive manufacturers offer these utilities for free - For example, the Maxtor (now owned by seagate) one is called "max Blast".

This will mean all drivers etc will be intact, as will the operating system. However, so will all the rubbish you have on the hard drive, and the no doubt bloated XP registry.

So you have the choice of starting again with a fresh install (which in some cases can mean you notice a 50% speed increase) and have to re install all your apps and OS, as well as backups of any important files - Or you can have a direct copy of what you already have.

Heres the link to max blast.

Seagate Technology - Knowledge Base

SimonD

Thanks for the replies. I've replaced CD/DVD drives, memory cards, graphics cards before but the thought of starting from scratch with a new disc made me nervous. I've looked at the BIOS before and always thought that it was something better left alone!!!!

I assume that any new disc will come with decent instructions or should I expect that kind of thing in my Dell stuff? ......assuming I can find it!!

I will go with a fresh install as I still don't know why the original disk only lasted for 3 years or so. I had similar problems on my last PC and ended up losing all of the data.
What causes hard disks to fail?

PeteBrant

General wear and tear. Hard disks are one of the very few components that still rely on moving parts. Anything with moving parts will be more susceptible to failure than solid state components.