subject: Replace Your Failing Laptop Hard Drive [print this page] Replace Your Failing Laptop Hard Drive Replace Your Failing Laptop Hard Drive
Is your laptop locking up or running extremely slow? Does it blue screen or report missing files during the boot up process? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be an issue with the operating system or in many cases the hard drive. One way to diagnose a failing drive is to run the manufacturers diagnostics utility. Most major brand laptops include diagnostics tools built in for testing the health status of a drive. They are usually accessible during the boot up process by pressing a designated function or standard keyboard key (F8, F12, Delete, etc). As an alternative to any built-in utilities, you can easily download the same or similar utilities direct from the manufacturer website.
Replacing a failing or failed laptop hard drive is usually pretty straightforward. On most laptops purchased within the last few years, you can easily locate the drive slot and bay by searching for a designated symbol (usually stacked plates), abbreviation (HD) or full label (Hard Drive) on the side or underside of the laptop. Most drives for laptops are secured within a tray then inserted into a slot. The tray is then secured to the laptop underside with 1 or 2 screws. The purpose of the tray is to protect the drive and to interface it with the laptops motherboard.
Once you find the tray, remove the mounting screw or screws then pull out the tray. Remove the hard drive from the tray and match it with a replacement drive. The easiest thing to do is to take it with you if you are shopping locally to make sure the replacement is of the same type. Laptop hard drives will either be Parallel ATA or Serial ATA and the designation should be printed on your existing drives label. Once you have your replacement, attach it to the tray, insert tray into drive bay and replace the screws.
The last step is to reload the operating system and restore your data if you have a backup. If the old laptop hard drive still spins up, then you might be able to connect it to an external USB hard drive case to extract your data.
