How to install a hard drive. How to insert a disk into a laptop? Useful recommendations for using disk drives. Among the subspecies presented on the market there are

How to install a hard drive yourself?

Before you decide to purchase and install a hard drive, new or additional, I advise you to read the Computer76 blog articles “” and “Is your hard drive faulty? " In the first, you will learn how to choose a hard drive, in the second, how to determine whether your hard drive has really died completely or whether it can be revived. The last article will also be useful if you have suspicions that the on-call master is deceiving you (or not deceiving you on occasion), forcing you to buy an expensive device with all the ensuing expenses.

So, the question of the need to buy a hard drive is no longer raised, let's start the installation.

To install a hard drive yourself to replace one that has become unusable, you will have to think through a plan for installing the operating system. Before purchasing, you will have to decide on the interface of the connected drive. More on this below.

For laptops, the installation scheme is simplified, although it all depends on the model. Often the HDD replacement scheme is very simple, since manufacturers do not hide the disk far away; it can be removed and installed in a few movements using a small Phillips screwdriver. Installing an additional HDD in a laptop is rarely possible (except perhaps in place of a broken disk drive), so we have little choice.

With desktop computers, those on tables or under them, in principle, everything is not difficult. And we will consider exactly the option when, I repeat, you have finally made the decision to purchase and install the disk. For software diagnostics of existing equipment and the possibility of installing additional equipment, there are free utilities that you can confidently use before mechanical work on your computer and laptop. I will focus on exactly what awaits us inside.

REFERENCE

Desktop users often have questions about how to orientation hard disk affects work and life expectancy. I was able to collect information in the form of direct answers to a direct question to various hard drive manufacturers. You can read them in the blog article ““.

Let's divide the process of installing a hard drive yourself into several stages:

Removing the cover and visual inspection.
Checking the necessary connectors and cables (purchase if necessary)
Setting priority for BIOS (if you install an additional hard drive)
Installing (replacing) a disk

To install the hard drive yourself, we need:

Connection cables to the motherboard (more on this below)
crosshead screwdriver
fastening screws (where you buy the hard drive, feel free to ask; 4 pieces are enough).

How to install a hard drive yourself. Removing the cover and visual inspection.

Before purchasing, open the side cover of your computer. You need to remove the one that blocks access to the insides of the computer. The second side cover often simply serves as a symmetrical counterpart. The ventilation hole on the lid will serve as your guide. Where the grill is, we’ll remove that cover.

Unfasten the clips. Usually there are two.

Unscrew the fastening bolts. Move the cover slightly towards the locks and fastening screws and remove it to the side.

As you can see in the photo, two disks are already installed in the system (in the dust). I'll increase them:

But upon closer inspection, you can see which one was installed upon purchase, and which one appeared later. It (the one below) was clearly installed as an additional one. And it's not a matter of order. Take a closer look at the interface:

sorry, it came out blurry

Take a closer look at the photo as much as possible. The top of the drives is connected to the motherboard with a narrow red cord, the bottom is connected to a wide one. gray with blue connector.

Let's start from this point in more detail. What do we need to know about this.

How to install a hard drive yourself. Checking the necessary connectors and cables.

How are hard drives connected in general?

Hard drives are connected by different cables and wires to:

Motherboard

Power supply

motherboards Available for two types of hard drives. That is, these cards have two types of connectors. These are already familiar to you IDE(old) and SATA(new). The IDE connector began to disappear from both motherboards and hard drives. But it may happen...

Let's look at a specific example. Namely on our board. I clicked its name:

I found a beautiful photo of the board online. Let's look at him.

Do you recognize? Yes, it is on the computer. You have your own, but the meaning will be clear. To connect drives on the board we are interested in:

Red connectors (small), for SATA:

Wide with two rows of connectors for IDE(there may be two connectors on older boards).

The color and location may not match what is on your board, but there are not so many of them on the motherboard... You are unlikely to go wrong.

Accordingly, there are different cables for connecting different drives. In the first photos, I repeat, they are clearly visible. And here's what they look like in the store:

For SATA drives

For IDE drives.

Before purchasing, decide which cable you might need. They cost pennies, but inserting them correctly is not difficult.

Once you have decided on the cables, you need to study how the drives are connected to the power supply.

Everything is already ready here and you hardly need to buy anything. There are many connectors coming from the computer power supply, but we are interested in:

For SATA and for IDE

Attention! If you are going to add a new hard drive rather than change it, make sure that:

The cable from the power supply to the new hard drive is long enough

There is a free power connector from the unit to the future hard drive

The second problem, by the way, can be easily solved using adapters like:

Attention! If you are installing an additional hard drive, you will have to set the priority jacks (shorts) on the additional drive. Otherwise, the system may not understand which disk it should boot from and will generate an error. So that everything is fine...

How to install a hard drive yourself. Setting priority for BIOS

This is what you need to do, and it’s very simple. If you lay the hard drive flat on a table, you will see a picture that explains how to short...

...so that the disks in the computer do not interfere with each other. See:

We are interested in the diagram for installing a jumper at the end of the hard drive, where its connectors are located. The jumper is shown as solid black. I'll enlarge the picture:

3 connection options are shown. In this case, we are interested in only two:

Slave– “submits”, as additional (jumper second from bottom)

Master– “main”, main, with the system (you don’t have to install a jumper at all)

Since we are installing a hard drive in addition to the existing one, we select the option Slave and put a short as in the picture. This is what happened:

That's all. Just take your time and don't try too hard. Insert the drive into the 3.5″ connector so that the mounting slots match the screw slots on the hard drive itself:

Tighten the screws tighter. Now you can make an effort:

And alternately insert the connectors for the motherboard and the power supply, as in the photo:

The hard drive, as you remember, has an IDE interface. So there are connectors for it. You may have your own (for SATA).

So it's easy to install the hard drive yourself. Good luck

Very often, new computers are sold without a pre-installed operating system. And if you are the happy owner of such a computer, then you are faced with the task of independently Windows 7 installations. This task is further complicated by the fact that the new computer has a new hard drive, which, as a rule, is not divided into partitions.

You need to create at least one partition on the new hard drive in order to install the operating system on it. I always create at least two partitions on my hard drive ( drive C And drive D). I don’t see the point in creating too many sections: two or three are just right.

Why do you need to split the hard drive into several logical drives?

Firstly, it is recommended to set aside a separate partition for installing the operating system and necessary software and not store personal data on it. Plus, there must always be free space on the system disk for Windows to work correctly.
Secondly, in case of reinstalling the system and formatting the disk C– all information on it will be destroyed. And everything that is on other partitions of the hard drive will not be affected.

So let's get started installing Windows 7, during which we will divide our new hard drive into several partitions. To install, we need a boot disk or bootable USB flash drive with the operating system.

Having turned on the computer, the first thing we do is go to BIOS and set up booting from a disk or from a flash drive (how to do this is described in detail). We insert our media into the computer, save all the necessary settings in BIOS and reboot.

The Windows 7 installer shell will appear on the screen. The downloading of the necessary installation files will begin:

After a while, a window will appear in which you need to select the system language and click “Next”:

To start the installation, click the “Install” button:

In the next window, accept the terms of the license agreement by checking the appropriate box and click “Next”:

Then select the installation type “ Full installation”:

Because we install Windows 7 on absolutely new hard drive, then a similar window should appear in front of us:

In order to divide the hard drive into partitions, press the “ Disk setup" In the additional options that appear, select “ Create” and enter the required partition size in the box next to it. Please remember that the size is indicated in megabytes. In my example, the size is entered 81920 Mb. Having indicated the required size of the future logical disk, click the “ Apply”:

After this, Windows will ask you to create an additional partition for it. Don't be alarmed, it will only take up 100 MB of free disk space and will be invisible in the installed system. Click “OK”:

After this, we will return to the screen for selecting a partition for installing Windows.
As you can see, there have been changes here. Now we have: 1) a section reserved by the system for its own needs; 2) the section we just created; 3) remaining unoccupied space:

You can create additional partitions from unallocated disk space in the same window. This is done in the same way that we used above. I highlighted this line and pressed the “ Create” – and, without changing the size, pressed “ Apply" Here's what happened:

After that, select the partition of the disk on which we are going to install the operating system and click “Next”.

The system installation process will begin, during which files will be copied and unpacked, components and updates will be installed:

During installation, your computer will reboot several times - at this point, do not click anything, just watch the installation progress.

After the installation is complete, several Windows 7 initial setup windows will appear in front of you one by one. Go through them and you will see the Windows 7 desktop:

That's all: this completes the installation of the operating system.

Disk– removable storage medium. It may contain programs, text, graphic and music files, videos. Usually the user has no problems inserting the disc into computer, but there may be nuances.

Instructions

In order to insert a disc into a CD or DVD drive, press the Eject button on the system unit case or on the remote control (translated from English as eject, push out). Place the disc on the ejected deck so that the side with the information is facing down, press the Eject button again or lightly push the deck towards the body computer A.

If you can't insert a disc, make sure the device is physically connected. If the cables are in the correct sockets and you have no doubt about the correctness of their connection, use the “Device Manager” component. The CD/DVD-ROM settings for this equipment may be set to “Disabled”.

Press the Windows key or Start button and open Control Panel. Under the Performance and Maintenance category, select the System icon. Another option: while on your desktop, click on the “My computer» right mouse button. Select "Properties" from the context menu. You can also immediately select the “Device Manager” item in the drop-down menu (the same can be done by accessing the component through the “My computer" in the Start menu).

If you called the “System” component, go to the “Hardware” tab in the window that opens and click the “Device Manager” button in the group of the same name, an additional window will open. If you initially selected the “Device Manager” item in the context menu, the desired window will be available immediately.

Find the DVD and CD-ROM drives branch in the list and expand it by clicking on the “+” icon. Right-click on the name of your disc reader and select “Properties” from the drop-down menu. In the properties window, open the “General” tab and use the drop-down list in the “Device Usage” group to set the value to “This device is in use (enabled).” Confirm your choice with OK and close the windows.

To avoid making mistakes when choosing a new hard drive, you must follow certain rules. Naturally, you need to be able to correctly connect the hard drive to the computer. Otherwise, you can damage not only the hard drive, but also other PC devices.

You will need

- IDE-SATA adapter.

Instructions

Start by identifying the connectors that are used to connect the hard drives. These can be IDE and SATA ports. Turn off the computer and open the cover of the system unit. If your hard drive is connected via a narrow channel, then purchase a new SATA drive. If you use a multi-core wide connector to connect the hard drive to the motherboard, then you need a hard drive with an IDE port.

Pay attention to the power type of the hard drive. This can be a white quad port or a black wide connector. Some motherboard models allow you to connect both types of hard drives at the same time. Typically, in such situations, the IDE channel is intended to connect a DVD drive, but it can also be used to work with a hard drive. Buy a special SATA-IDE adapter if you need to connect a hard drive of a certain format.

Install the hard drive into the designated slot. Secure the device with screws. Connect the required connectors. When working with new motherboards, it is better to connect the main hard drive to the SATA1 channel. Turn on your computer. Open the BIOS menu. Go to Boot Options. Make sure that the boot will be performed from the hard drive on which the operating system is installed. If you use different types of hard drives, make sure that the SATA/IDE Mode item is active. Otherwise, one of the disks may not be detected. Restart your PC.

After logging into the operating system, open the “My Computer” menu. Wait for the connected equipment to be automatically detected. Format the new hard drive. This is necessary for the correct operation of the device.

After purchasing a computer, as a rule, there is enough free disk space for everyone. However, sooner or later the space runs out and the question arises of how to install the hard drive. Installation is a simple process that anyone can handle.

In this article I will try to describe in as much detail as possible the installation of a hard drive with a SATA interface. All modern hard drives are equipped with just such a connection interface. Therefore we will consider.

Let us remind you that before performing any actions with the system unit, you must completely disconnect it from the power supply.

Let's start installing the hard drive

The first thing you need to do is open the side cover of the system unit. To do this you will need to unscrew several screws.

Now that the system unit is open, you can begin installing the hard drive. Carefully install your hard drive into one of the 2.5 inch bays. The video card or other components connected to the PCI slots may be interfering with your problem. Therefore, you need to be very careful not to scratch the boards with the sharp corner of the hard drive. The disk must be installed with the iron cover facing up (stickers facing up). After the hard drive is inserted, secure it with two bolts.

Hard drive bay

If the disk is inserted and secured, you can begin connecting the cable and power cable.

SATA cable and SATA connectors on the motherboard

SATA drive power cable

Since the power connector of the SATA drive will be closer to the motherboard and it will be more difficult to reach it, it is better to start connecting from there. After the power cable is connected (from), you can connect the cable from the motherboard (red oblong cable). Connect the cable to the connector on and to the hard drive.

Connected SATA drive

That's it, after the hard drive is installed and connected, you can close the cover of the system unit and connect the power. After installing a new hard drive, you may have to select the drive to boot the operating system.

After loading the operating system, you can perform it or simply if division into several logical partitions is not required.

In this article you will learn how to properly install Windows 7 on your computer or laptop. In addition, I will tell you how to prepare for this process so that everything goes without negative consequences. Follow all the steps, be careful and you will succeed.

Before you properly install Windows 7, you need to make sure that everything is ready for this. Four requirements must be met:

You must have a reliable installation disk with Windows 7 or a bootable USB flash drive with it.
Make sure that the local drive on which the system will be installed does not contain important files that you need. This drive will be formatted and all data will be deleted.
Make sure you have the necessary device drivers at your disposal or before installing Windows 7.
Make sure you have installation files for all the programs you need. They will need to be installed after successful installation of the system.

How to install Windows 7 correctly

The installation is divided into three stages:

BIOS setup;
Hard disk preparation and installation;
Completing Windows installation.

Let's look at each of these stages.

BIOS setup

Before you install Windows 7 correctly, you need to understand that a disk or flash drive with the distribution kit is not enough. You also need to configure the computer to boot from this disk (or from a flash drive), and not from the hard drive. By default, most computers are configured to boot from the hard drive.

There are many BIOS versions, and setting the boot order of devices is different everywhere. You can find out how popular BIOS versions are configured for booting from external media.

Start installation

Finally got to installing Windows. When your BIOS is configured to boot from the required device, connect this same device (that is, a disk or flash drive) and restart the computer. Booting from removable media should begin.

If you are installing original Windows, then before booting the message “Press any key to boot from CD...” will appear. While it is lit, you must press any key to start the installation. If you don’t have time, the normal download from the hard drive will begin. If you are installing some build of Windows, then such an inscription may not appear. Instead, there may be a menu where you need to select the installation of Windows 7.

The installation begins. The first step is to select various language options and then click “Next”.

Choose language

After this a window appears. Click Install.

Start installation

Before you properly install Windows 7, you need to choose which version you will install. This is done at this step. You need to select the desired OS version from the list. The system capacity is also determined here. After selecting the version, you need to click “Next”.

Select Windows 7 version

Now check the box that you agree to the license and click the “Next” button.

Agree to the license

Now you need to choose: update the system or perform a full installation. To install Windows 7 correctly, select the full installation.

Select full installation

Before you properly install Windows 7, you need to work with your hard drive. Click Disk Setup.

At this stage of installation, you will have a utility at your disposal with which you can operate hard disk partitions. So, using the buttons you can delete, create and expand partitions, as well as format them.

Click "Settings"

Select (or create) a partition on which Windows will be installed and click the “Format” button. A warning will appear stating that now everything will be deleted from this section - we boldly agree, because we have prepared for the installation and have saved everything we need in another place.

Format the drive

Once formatting is complete, click Next.

And wait for the process to complete. This may take a long time.

Wait for the installation to complete

Completing the Windows installation

When everything you need has been copied and unpacked, Windows 7 will prompt you to enter names for the user and computer. Enter these details and click “Next”.

Enter your username and computer name

Now, if necessary, you can create a password. You can leave all fields blank and click Next.

Enter a password if required

You may then be asked to enter your Windows activation code. Enter and click Next. If there is no code, then you can skip this step and activate Windows later.