How to Replace a Virus-Infected Hard Drive
Computer viruses can cause a significant amount of damage to the files on your computer, sometimes causing your entire operating system to have to be replaced. When faced with a severe virus infection on your hard drive, sometimes it can be easier to simply replace the hard drive so that you can get your computer working again right away without a lengthy backup and formatting process. Luckily, replacing your virus-infected hard drive is easy to do and should only take you a few minutes from start to finish.
- Difficulty:
- Easy
Instructions
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1
Shut down your computer and unplug it. Press the power button once after the computer has been shut down in order to drain any power that may still be held in the power supply or the motherboard; this will help to prevent accidental shocks and possible damage to the system that could result from electrical discharge. Remove the side panel of the computer case by unscrewing the thumb screws on the back of the case. Slide the side to the case rear so that you can access your hard drive.
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2
Unplug the power (small, multi-colored cables that come from the power supply and connect to a white or black plug) and data (either a flat gray cable or a thin red cable, depending on whether your hard drive has an IDE or SATA interface) cables that are plugged in to the back of your hard drive. Move them out of the way, but make sure that they're accessible for use with the new hard drive that you'll be installing.
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3
Unscrew the two to four small Phillips head screws holding the virus-infected hard drive in its mounting bracket. Set these screws aside so that you'll be able to use them with the new hard drive, then carefully slide the old drive out of its mount. Place it somewhere safe.
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4
Slide the new hard drive into the same mounting bracket that your virus-infected hard drive was removed from. Line the threaded holes located in the sides of the hard drive up with the screw holes in the mounting bracket, then use the screws that you had previously set aside to secure the drive.
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5
Plug the data and power cables that you had previously unplugged from the virus-infected hard drive in to the new drive, aligning them by shape with the power and data interfaces on the back of the hard drive. You can now replace the side panel of the case, plug the computer back in, and install an operating system on the new drive or otherwise configure it for use.
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1
Tips & Warnings
If you have more than one hard drive on your computer, make sure that you run a complete virus scan on your system after installing the new hard drive. That makes sure that infected files aren't on the other drive as well.
