The hard drive went out on my computer. I am wondering how to buy a replacement drive. For instance, how do I know the one I get will work with my computer?
Why don't you open your computer up, and buy one of the same make and model?
It's probably SATA, but if it's really old it might be IDE. Once you open your computer and locate the drive you'll see which type your computer uses.
If you check the drive's label you can google the model number to see what its current capacity and speed is so you can find a comparable replacement.
Laptop's use a 2.5" form factor drive but they can also be SATA/IDE.
You may also want to consider upgrading to a solid state drive for an extra speed boost.
1. Remove unneeded or rarely used programs. This will improve the capacity of the memory. Check the installed programs in the Control Panel and start uninstalling the programs that are not used anymore.
2. Hard Drive cleanup- If there are unused files like music, videos and documents, these should be deleted to make space in the hard drive. Internet cookies should also be cleaned from the computer.
3. System Defrag- This will compact the files and organize it to make it easier to launch when opened. Go to Local Disk in My Computer and click Tools and follow the instructions.
4. Increase RAM- Check the capacity of the RAM. This can be increased either by buying a new RAM or setting it to maximum. RAM can also be increased by not running too many programs simultaneously.
5. Cleaning the Computer Registry- Regularly cleaning the registry avoids invalid keys from getting into it. Invalid keys from uninstalled programs cause various errors on the computer and can get a computer very slow.
Registry cleaning software can be downloaded from the internet for free. It will regularly make scans on the registry and clean it if any error is detected. Maintenance of the registry is a must because it can easily
How old is the computer? Maybe the time has comeā¦
Do some price checking. You might be pleasantly surprised.
You need only the right connection type as explained with skear. Hard drives are highly compatible, any purchased in the last 10 years will work.
What is the unenviable task ahead of you is installing Windows and installing all those programs you previously had.
If you have any data, like emails, photos, music, movies on the old defunct hard drive, that data can be retrieved by data capture experts, but they are extremely expensive.
Best of Luck SirDent.
Got my new hard drive, installed and formatted it and now my computer is good as new. Thanks for the help everyone.
by readytoescape 15 years ago
The hard drive on my laptop completely crashed the other day and will not boot up at all. Is there a way to connect to another computer (Desk Top) to retrieve data from the C drive. All my HP backup and research was on this computer. HELP.
by futurenetads 15 years ago
by Michael Willis 14 years ago
I thought I was buying the whole Windows 7 from Dell when I wanted to upgrade from Vista. I now find out that this is just an "Upgrade" which means that Vista is still on my hard drive, just with Windows 7 running. I have to keep Vista for 7 to work. Dell tells me that Vista is still...
by Michael Willis 14 years ago
OK, I have written about my computer issue with Dell for the past 2 weeks.New Hard drive, New OP system, New memory upgrade, new Motherboard on Friday......and a few hours ago...A TOTAL CRASH!!! Now they say my NEW hard drive has crashed!!!!!!Even would not boot up!Called Tech and I let them have...
by DawnsWatch 13 years ago
Cleaning up now that my youngest is off to college, another mom suggested Spotmau to get the "virtual dust bunnies" off my computer. Here is the link, - - - <snipped link> - - - Problem is I have more than excessive games there is also a Canadian Pharmacy lurking that...
by Mark Shulkosky 12 years ago
How do you destroy a hard drive from an old computer?How do you destroy a hard drive from an old computer so that no one can ever retrieve information from it?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |