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2 July 2021  Amanda J. Brook  Senior Product Manager
 

Summary
The increasingly used computer gradually consumes the performance of the hard drive. The running speed and the memory space may not make you satisfied. To improve the running performance and enlarge memory space, we will talk about how to replace a hard drive in this essay. Besides, we will tell you the do's and don'ts and show you how to back up the data.



CONTENTS

back up iconPart 1: Do’s & Don’ts When Replacing a Hard Drive
back up iconPart 2: How to Replace a Hard Drive
how to replace a hard drive

Part 1: Do’s & Don’ts When Replacing a Hard Drive

1. Compatibility between Hard Drive & Mainboard

Since the model, the brand and the external dimension are different, you should select the specific hard drive for your device. Therefore, you should learn about your computer’s physical parameters.
2.5-inch hard drive is the common choice for most of laptop brands, and 3.5-inch hard drive is for the desktop computer. Besides, you should check the external dimension, the memory capacity and the port. Please ensure that the new hard drive is compatible well with the computer. You can get the information from the product page, or ask for the customer services.

2. Capacity of Hard Drive

The memory capacity is the critical parameter for a hard drive. The capacity of a hard drive is measured in MB and GB. 1GB is equal to 1024MB, and 1TB is 1024GB. In fact, the hard drive suppliers cannot completely reach to these values, but take 1000MB as 1GB. Therefore, the actual hard drive capacity is smaller than the value marked on the product page.
how to replace a hard drive
Besides, we should consider the storage per disk. With the increase of storage per disk, the number of track in per unit area also increases. And this slows down the seek time of the hard disk, but also save production cost. You should carefully consider your need in using hard drive and then select a cost-effective hard drive with adequate capacity.

3. Features of Hard Drive

The hard drive is divided into 3 types, mechanical hard drive, solid state disk and hybrid hard drive. You should learn about their features and select the suitable hard drive.
① Mechanical hard drive is the data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage and one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. If one of the accessories is faulty, the entire hard drive will be scrapped. If you want to change another/new mechanical hard drive, you should format the hard drive. If you want to replace a mechanical hard drive with a solid state disk, you can get the tutorial to learn about how to clone HDD to SSD.
Advantages and disadvantages of mechanical hard drive:
Advantages:
  • Large size, low price, stable technology and long storage duration

Disadvantages:

  • It reads and writes data much slower than solid state disk does. It is not safe when it has a crash.

② Solid state disk is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is made of control unit and storage unit. The specification, function, usage and external dimension are similar with the traditional hard drive. To learn about how to select, install and maintain a SSD, click here to get much information.
Advantages and disadvantages of solid state disk:
Advantages:
  • Silent, resistant to physical shock, quick to read and write data, power-saving and light

Disadvantages:

  • The capacity is not larger than that of HDD and the price is relatively expensive.

③ Hybrid hard drive is combination of mechanical hard drive and solid state disk. It uses a faster storage medium to speed up the reading process.
Advantages and disadvantages of hybrid hard drive:
Advantages:
  • Less power consumption, much energy reduction and faster system response

Disadvantages:

  • It is not resistant to physical shock, and the read-write time of the flash particles is limited. The data cannot be retrieved once the flash module fails to process data storage. The cost is high.

Before replacing a hard drive, you should back up the old hard drive. You can refer to this article and follow the steps. But if you want to transfer the system from the old hard drive to the new solid state disk, you can refer to the followings.

Part 2: How to Replace a Hard Drive

If you want to speed up the system, it is a good choice to transfer the system to the solid state disk with Renee Becca. Here are more details.
What is Renee Becca?
Renee Becca is the software specializing in backing up and restoring system/drive data, such as programs, system configuration, emails, photos, videos, documents and bookmarks. With the application of the incremental/differential backup technology, it can save time and disk space. Besides, it can back up partition, disk, folder and clone disk.
Professional Data Backup & Restore Software - Renee Beccadata bacup software Renee Becca

Provides multiple functions like backup, restore, clone, system migration.

Clone all data (including system) in HDD to smaller SSD or larger HDD. Disk could boot PC after clone finished.

Supports to migrate Windows to SSD with a few clicks.

4K alignment will be processed when clone disk, migrate system, restore disk or system.

Backup & restore system/disk/folder. Auto backup plans are available.

Provides functions like backup, restore, clone, system migration.

Clone all data (including system) in HDD to smaller SSD or larger HDD.

Backup & restore system/disk/folder. Auto backup plans are available.

Compatible with: Windows 10 / 8.1 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2008 / 2012(32bit/64bit) / Server 2008

Free TrialFree Trial

5000 people have download and make the disk clone successfully!

How to transfer system with Renee Becca?
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Download and install Renee Becca. Then, open the software and select [Clone] – [System Redeploy].
clone windows to ssd with Renee becca
Step 2: Please select the original disk which saves Windows system and the target disk. Then click [Redeploy] to process the system migration.

Note: You should replace the solid state disk with a larger one. When the data is transferred to the new SSD, all data will be emptied. Please back up data beforehand.

select a destination to redeploy system with renee becca
Step 3: Click on [OK] as the process is finished. Then, you should set the new disk as the first boot order in BIOS and get into the system.
TipsRenee Becca can help you clone disk. Also the size of the new disk should be larger than the used space of the disk that is to be cloned.