1 of 7

Write now Article Tools

Can you save your old hard drive? In one word.possibly!

Before you can answer that question you have to ask a number of others. First and foremost, why are you getting rid of it in the first place. If the old drive was faulty, then the costs involved in getting it repaired far outreach the normal benefits of keeping it. A decent repair will cost you around 3 times the cost of the new drive you've already bought, and may only last a few months before it fails again. So if it's a faulty drive. Then my answer would be no, you can't save it.

If however there is nothing wrong with the old drive, normally when you've bought a new machine, or replaced the old drive for a new big shiny drive, then it becomes reasonable to look at keeping the old one, either as extra space or to remove the need to transfer all your old files and data. If you have just changed the drive, then you shouldn't have any problems as you will by default have bought a compatible drive.

If however, you have a new machine then you may have problems. As machines have evolved, so too have then methods of connecting them to your machine. Hard drives have abbreviations such as SCISI, IDE, ATA, SATA and others, which all stand for the individual method of connecting your drive to your motherboard and power. If your old drive is different to the connections of your new machine then as above, the difficulties in connecting them far outweigh the benefits. If your manual and drive don't have the connection type written on, then the easiest way to tell if they will fit together is to look at the actual cables that connect drive to motherboard. Each standard has a different connection, and should be obvious if they are a match. If you're unsure, then please take professional advice as to compatibility, as they can be delicate and if you try and force things then you could potentially damage your machine. Also remember if it is a new machine then adding the drive could potentially void any warranty on your new machine. A lot of shop bought PC's have stickers over some of the case screws, and would not repair a fault if these have been damaged.

OK. So assuming everything matches you can just go ahead and plug that old drive back in yes? Of course not. This is a computer, and nothings that simple. There are a couple of steps before you can go ahead, although none of them too difficult. First you need to open up your case and look at how things are set up. Normally you would have a hard disk and a cd-rom connected

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Can you save the hard drive of your old computer??
We want to hear your view. Write now!