# Possible to replace a hard drive with one ready to go?



## WhatInThe (Mar 10, 2022)

Have a 10 year old computer/windows 7 that won't boot up. Was thinking if I could get a new hardrive ready to go ie install and use with little downloading if price right. I havent used it in about 8 years but it has the specs of many new chromebooks. 

Anyone ever replace a hard drive themselves? Is this possible?


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## shedevil7953 (Mar 10, 2022)

To boot on, try holding ESC key + Power On key?  See if you can then get to safe mode.


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## Judycat (Mar 10, 2022)

Yes I have replaced a hard drive several times but it requires a bootable copy of your computer's operating system.


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## Knight (Mar 10, 2022)

Googling what you want to know is probably your best bet. If nothing else deciding if you want to replace it with an SSD, or something like a Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB or even an external hard drive. A ton of information is possible to look up.
 Video's that can talk you thru how to also there. 

Heck you might even want to upgrade to win 11


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## dseag2 (Mar 10, 2022)

I have not replaced a hard drive myself, but I took my Apple Macbook to the Geek Squad at Best Buy because it was extremely slow doing everything and apparently had a virus that even they couldn't eliminate.  They replaced my hard drive and it boots up and does everything almost instantly now.


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## Tommy (Mar 11, 2022)

WhatInThe said:


> Have a 10 year old computer/windows 7 that won't boot up. Was thinking if I could get a new hardrive ready to go ie install and use with little downloading if price right. I havent used it in about 8 years but it has the specs of many new chromebooks.
> 
> Anyone ever replace a hard drive themselves? Is this possible?


Just curious, W.  What makes you feel it's a bad hard drive rather than some other component that's failed?


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## Judycat (Mar 11, 2022)

You will also need a good anti-virus program ready to install. The last time I installed my computer's hard drive, it automatically connected to the internet to download needed drivers and all this malware descended upon it immediately locking up the computer. It was kind of amusing. I bought a copy of Malwarebytes from Walmart and installed it. Worked great and all the files downloaded just fine then.


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## Bellbird (Mar 11, 2022)

Would someone please inform me on how you would replace a hard drive. I thought it would have to be a technicians job.


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## Judycat (Mar 11, 2022)

Bellbird said:


> Would someone please inform me on how you would replace a hard drive. I thought it would have to be a technicians job.


You replace your own hard drive when you can't afford to pay a technician.  There are plenty of easy to understand instructions available on the internet. I have always done better reading instructions rather than watching someone do it so I download and print them out for easy reference.


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## Bellbird (Mar 12, 2022)

Thank you, I prefer to do things myself rather than pay someone else.


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## JustinCase (Mar 12, 2022)

WhatInThe said:


> *Anyone ever replace a hard drive themselves? Is this possible?*


*Yes* - https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/how-to-replace-a-hard-drive-and-reinstall
I would install a Linux distro rather than muck around trying to get Windows installed.
*Here* - https://www.systranbox.com/how-to-install-linux-on-wiped-hard-drive/


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## WhatInThe (Mar 17, 2022)

shedevil7953 said:


> To boot on, try holding ESC key + Power On key?  See if you can then get to safe mode.


Thanks. It gave me something.

It worked giving me 'Replace Hard Disk 1 Rent test item'. code 10008.
Tried one more thing then got a 303 code-Start Up Failed.

 Also Memory tests 'ok'

A computer maintenance disk/software from that period not doing anything.


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