How to Change a Hard Drive

Video Transcript

"I'm James MacGregor, the Computer Hardware Training Coordinator for InterConnection, based out of Seattle, Washington, and right now I'm going to show you how to change your hard drive. First thing we're going to do, we need to get through our hard drive. In this computer's case the hard drive's in the cage. You take this one screw out that locks it in place, rotate this handle, popped right on out. You want to unplug everything to free the hard drive. Typically, these are just going to be held in by Phillip's head screws. Now, with your old hard drive you're going to have some screws, and with your new hard drive you're going to have some screws. Typically, it really doesn't matter which ones you use. There is those two. Now we have two more on this side. And when we get the final screw you really may want to be careful, because there's going to be nothing holding this hard drive in. And you may might may still have data on here that you want to keep, so you don't want to drop your hard drive. Here is your old hard drive. Same connectors, serial ATA, your power for your serial ATA. So, we're going to set our old hard drive aside; grab our new hard drive and insert it. Important thing to keep in mind; these are your connectors. If you install it with the connectors facing inboard you're not going to be able to plug in your hard drive. Just keep an eye that you have those facing the same way that they were on the old hard drive. So we're going to insert this right on in here. We're going to have some holes for the screws. On this one it's these three. They're uniform on all hard drives. Just give these a final turn to tighten em'. Keep in mind these screws are made out of steel. The casing of this hard drive is made out of aluminum. Steel is much stronger than aluminum, so do not over-tighten these; otherwise, you'll strip these fine little holes out. We're going to install this back into the computer. Then we just push this tab; locking it in place, it's locked. This is your power connector; only fits in one way. This is your serial ATA connector; also only fits in one way. You just installed your hard drive. I'm James, Computer Hardware Training Coordinator for InterConnection."