How To Remove Laptop Hard Drive

Wondershare Recoverit Authors

There could be any number of reasons why you would want to remove a hard drive from your laptop, and master among them is the need for an upgrade, isn't information technology? And since hard drives aren't indestructible, they tin become damaged and will need to be replaced. The steps you'll accept to take to remove your bulldoze will be written out for you in detail in the subsequent pages.

Part one: Is information technology Safe to Remove Difficult Drive from Laptop?
Part ii: How to Remove Hard Drive from Laptop
Part 3: How to Recover Lost Data from Hard Bulldoze Removal?
Part iv: Overview of Laptop Difficult Bulldoze Parts

Part 1: Is It Safe to Remove Hard Drive from Laptop?

Yes, yes, it's very safe. There may be some chance involved but information technology's very minimal (if y'all follow the advisable steps). Removing your laptop's difficult bulldoze, every bit yous would await, has very niggling to practise with software. You will be handling hardware throughout the process. Information technology entails doing a lot of screwing and unscrewing, and so ready to channel into your inner handyman.

Removing a hard bulldoze simply means opening upward your laptop and taking out the drive or drives information technology runs on, regardless of how many of them the laptop is uniform with. But the process of removing the drive itself should be handled with intendance.

For one, NEVER remove it while the system is however on and the bulldoze is functioning. If, for some casuistic reason, y'all do determine to remove it with the power still on, exist aware that y'all expose the drive static electricity, which could electrocute your drive's contents to death (no joke!). Your body can easily transmit static electricity to the drive's fragile electronic components. In essence, yous could fry the sectors on the drive and lose valuable information without even realizing it! Does it seem too surreal? Well, it's non; just fact.

The aim is not to scare you here; information technology's only a warning because there are times when removing your drive becomes a necessity:

You're running out of space and need more, and installing a drive with larger capacity is the but solution.
The drive is damaged and needs to be replaced.
Your system has several hard drive slots and y'all desire to install more i.e. most modernistic laptops come with both SSD and HDD slots.
Yous desire to use the drive in your system as a backup drive, so you remove it and supplant it with another bulldoze.
Y'all simply want to upgrade to a newer and more advanced bulldoze.

Part 2: How to Remove Hard Drive from Laptop

Alright, it'south finally time. Equally the old maxim goes, "nothing ventured, nothing gained". You can read up as much every bit you want nearly removing a hard drive just until you put all that theory into practice, the knowledge will be of very niggling value.

Even though different laptop models place their hard drives at different positions, the drives are more often than not accessible through the admission panel below the laptop. All you need to become to piece of work are your hands and a screwdriver (become a set of Jeweler'southward screwdriver because they are compatible with screws in any kind of laptop).

jeweler's-screwdriver-set

Step ane: Have Out the Bombardment

Since you lot accept neither the efficiency nor precision of a auto, you have to be actress cautious for transmission work like this.

Take out the laptop'southward battery if it's not inbuilt. The simple reason you should exercise this is that even if your system is turned off while you're working on its inner components, as long every bit it'due south all the same connected to a power source (battery), the power might come back on due to a curt or mechanical jolt.

Oh, and disconnect all the cables attached to the laptop besides. Printing and hold downwards on the power push for almost xv seconds to bleed any remaining electricity the laptop may exist harboring. The majority of batteries have two release latches that you lot either pull or press to take the battery out of the bay.

take-out-battery

Stride two: Remove the Screws of the Main Access Panel

Look below the laptop to locate the access panel. Sometimes, it's at the side of the laptop. On rare occasions, y'all could observe out that the hard drive is located nether the motherboard of your laptop. Removing that kind of bulldoze is considerably more than difficult, and so you are advised to consult someone with a bigger brain (an expert) in such a case.

remove-panel-screws

Step iii: Remove the Bulldoze Mountain

In all likelihood, your drive has a hard bulldoze amount which further helps to go on it in place. There volition be screws belongings the mount down then yous take to unscrew them too; on certain laptops, it'southward a button you press to release the drive.

remove-drive-mount

Step 4: Pull Out the Drive from the Connectors

Gently pull the drive abroad from its connectors and out of its bay (a flat-bladed tool can come in handy here). Exist conscientious and try not to harm the connectors. Without them, there'southward no other way to insert an internal drive into your laptop.

pull-out-drive

Step v: Take it out from the Bracket

Even after pulling it out, the bulldoze may nonetheless be fastened to the subclass. There are normally two screws on either side of the bracket property the difficult drive to it. Unscrew them and your hard drive is finally free.

remove-from-bracket

See how easy it is to remove the bulldoze? Now read the tips beneath to make the process fifty-fifty safer and smoother.

Backup your data because though a hard drive is replaceable, many of your files are not. Y'all can't buy your files in a shop like you tin can exercise a bulldoze.
Put the hard drive back into your laptop by reversing the steps yous took to remove it.
If you're putting in a new bulldoze into your laptop, the start footstep is to format the drive once you lot install information technology.
Never try to remove the battery while the laptop's power is on.

Part 3. How to Recover Lost Data from Difficult Bulldoze Removal?

There is a slight chance that you may lose your files after you remove your hard disk drive. How? Peradventure after removing and replacing your bulldoze with a newer one, yous format the old 1 and make up one's mind to use information technology as an external, merely before backing upwards the files in it.

Recoverit Data Recovery is a premium data recovery software specifically meant to tackle issues like this. The software'southward sole purpose is to recover files yous lose in several ways. Best of all, anyone can use it. You don't need to be a whiz or geek to get it to work for you.

Footstep 1: Cull a Location

If the drive you want to recover data from is an external, connect it to your PC and launch Recoverit. On the other mitt, if the drive is the default one your PC is running on, merely kickoff Recoverit and cull it from the software'south first window.
Naturally, whatsoever external drive will be under the "External Devices" category while "Difficult Disk Drives" will show y'all the internal drives. Select the right drive and click "Outset."

select-a-location

Step 2: Scan the Location

The scan for lost information will commence. To make the recovery process more convenient for you, Recoverit offers features that permit you to select file filters. For example, if you wish to only recover "jpg" and "physician" files, you can merely tick the checkboxes corresponding to the said file types.

scan-the-location

Step three: Preview and Recover Information

Tick all the checkboxes of the files you lot want Recoverit to recover. At that place's a "select all" button just y'all just need to practise this if you desire to recover EVERYTHING you lost and not just particular stiff.
Click the "Recover" button and the files y'all selected volition be taken out of your drive and dumped wherever you lot want. Be wary of where you save the files; don't recover them dorsum to the drive they were lost from.

recover-file

The simply matter y'all need to worry about when it comes to data loss is to ascertain whether the fault stems from hardware impairment or not. If information technology'southward not the latter, Recoverit is your one-stop solution to not just recovering lost data, just also formatted and deleted files.

The software was congenital to drill through difficult drives and drag out lost data from each sector of the drives it'southward hiding in. Recoverit is user-friendly and so effective you tin almost say information technology'south adept at data recovery.

Part 4: Overview of Laptop Hard Bulldoze Parts

This is the role where things get a little more technical and confusing, and then caryatid yourself. A hard drive, too known as a hard disk and abbreviated as HDD, is a non-volatile memory device that stores and retrieves data on a arrangement. Earlier you lot ask, "non-volatile" means memory which is saved even if your estimator is powered off.

Are y'all clear on all that? Good. A hard drive is made up of several components, simply explaining them all here would exist pointless. Honestly, unless you're a hard bulldoze manufacturer, don't bother yourself with knowing every office and how they function; there's too many of them, so simply the four main ones volition be highlighted hither.

overview-laptop-drive

Platters

These are the large circular discs where your files are stored. Platters are arguably the most important component of your drive, so it'due south crucial yous don't damage them; don't even scrape them. Never be hasty when removing the drive from your PC.

Spindle

This is what rotates the platters and keeps them in position. The rotating speed of the platter is parallel to how fast data tin be read and written from your drive. Effort not to break the spindle when y'all're removing your bulldoze considering, without information technology, the bulldoze'due south platters will but fly all over the identify.

The Read/Write Arm

This little guy is in charge of how the read/write heads move; the heads are the components that read and write on the platters. So, what happens if the arm breaks off because you yanked the bulldoze out besides fast or hard? The answer is obvious, isn't it?

Actuator

Yous can recall of the actuator as the "manager" within your drive. It's a small just powerful motor that listens to whatsoever instructions your drive's circuit board gives information technology, like decision-making how the read/write arm moves and managing how data is transferred to and from the platters.

In a nutshell, the actuator makes certain the read/write head is perpetually in the position it's supposed to be in. Be extra conscientious when removing your drive considering the actuator is quite sensitive.

It's finally fourth dimension to circular up this post. You've been taught all you'll ever need to know when it comes to removing or replacing difficult drives. Every bit you have seen, it's a simple and straightforward process. Fifty-fifty though you'll be opening your laptop, there are zero risks if you exercise equally follow the instructions exactly.

If things don't become as planned and y'all lose your files along the way, Recoverit tin step in and cater to that little problem; it may not be such a little result for other information recovery software but Recoverit, information technology's merely another unproblematic job that needs to be done.