by Anthony Ogg

Created on: July 18, 2009

Crash! Oh no, your hard drive has crashed, or maybe you just want to upgrade it. Either way the first step is to remove the old hard drive. It is not hard at all to remove a hard drive. Actually the hard drive is probably one of the easiest pieces of hardware to remove from your computer.

The only tools required to remove a hard drive is a screwdriver. It could be either a Phillips (the one with the little notched and rounded tip), or a flat head. All manufactures use different screws to assemble their computers, so have both of them available.

The first step to remove a hard drive from a computer is obliviously to turn the computer off. Although if you are replacing the hard drive because of failure, it is probably off anyways. Although some computers may have sata cables instead of ide cables, if you are replacing an internal hard drive turn the computer off. Just because a sata cable is hot swappable (can be disconnected with power on) there is a chance of accidentally disconnecting other cables that may not be hot swappable. So turn off the power just to be safe.

Next, remove the side panel from the case. There are usually two screws which can either be removed by hand without a screwdriver or some require a screwdriver. Remove the screws and simply slide the panel off. Make sure to remove the panel that gives you access to the motherboard and other components. Some computers have two panels, but one only reveals the frame and possibly the under side of the motherboard.

Caution before touching anything inside of the case, be sure to ground yourself to the frame. Static electricity can be fatal to your precious computer parts. If you have ever shocked yourself on a door handle, then you are aware of static electricity that can build up inside of us. A anti static wristband can also be used if yo happened to have one laying around. Just simply put it around your wrist, and attach the wire to your computer case.

Now that you have access to the hard drive, and are safely grounded you can begin the actual removal process. Now you want to locate the hard drive. It is usually mounted under the CD or floppy disk drives. Once you have located it, unplug the power wire, and ide connector. Be careful not to unplug any cables not connected to the hard drive.

Finally, remove the two screws that hold the hard drive to the frame. Gently slide the hard drive out of its frame. Presto you have successfully removed the hard drive from a computer!

Again be careful while removing the hard drive not to accidentally unplug any other cables or wires while removing the hard drive. It would be terrible if you accidentally unplugged the power wire to the CPU cooling fan. Then you would have to learn how to remove and replace a CPU.

Removing a hard drive is fairly simple. At some point if you have the same computer for a while, it is very likely that it will fail. Even if the hard drive does not fail you will likely wish to upgrade it for one that has a larger capacity. Removing a hard drive should be a task that everyone who uses a computer regularly knows how to do.

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