Hard Drive Repair

In this instructable, you will learn how to take care of and fix different types of Hard Drives.

Step 1: What Is a Hard Drive?

A hard drive can come in many different forms but they all do the same thing. Hard drives will store data for your computer, laptop, and phones. The most common drive in a computer is a HDD or hard disk drive, while in laptops and phones it is a SSD or Solid State Drive.

HDD - The most common drive found in computers, it can contain 1 TB per inch squared.

Step 2: The HDD

The Hard Disk Drive has a few distinguishable parts

Platter - The disk where all of the information is stored

Read/Write Head - The top of the actuator arm, is used to read the magnetization on the platter and change the magnetization if you are writing to the HDD

Actuator Axis - The axis where the actuator arm is turned about

Spindle - The center of the disk that spins to get the Read/Write head to the correct spot on the disk.

Spindle Motor - The motor that will spin the disk/spindle

Actuator - Moves the Actuator arm slightly, cannot move it that far but is still necessary for exact placement of the Read/Write head.

Step 3: Taking Care of a HDD

HDD are fairly easy to take care of:

- Don't drop HDD when transferring

- If planning to move the computer, take out the HDD in case of dropping, if you take it out, it won't suffer harm but if it is still in there, you could have memory loss and need to transfer your data immediately.

- If you're experiencing a slow response time when opening files

Problems with HDD:

- If you hear a clicking noise whenever you are doing something on your computer like saving or opening a program, this is a sign that the platter is dirty and the read write head is bouncing up and down and not staying the perfect range away. Immediately take out HDD and take it to a recover store and pull data off if you want to keep your data.

- If your computer says "No boot device", this is a sign that your windows files have been corrupted, you can take a known good HDD (like one from a friend) and try it on your computer. If it works with his, your HDD is messed up and it is not the computer. If it still doesn't work, it could be your cable (most likely SATA) that is the problem.

Step 4: Fixing a Hard Drive

When booting up your device, you may see this screen, which means your windows files are corrupted or the hard drive cannot read itself. To fix this, follow this simple tutorial.

Step 5: Cabling

First you have to find your HDD and how it is plugged in.

Unblug all cables from the computer while the computer is off.

Step 6: Testing

After you have safely removed your HDD from your computer, take a known good HDD (one that you know for sure works) and plug it into your computer. If you do not have another computer, you may need to ask a friend for theirs.

Step 7: Loading the Desktop

If your friend's HDD allows you to boot to Windows, then you know that your HDD is the problem, if it still doesn't work, make sure everything is plugged in in your computer and try again. If that still doesn't work, then there is another problem in your computer that could be many other things.

Step 8: Transferring Data

Now that you know that your HDD is the problem, transfer your data onto a new HDD so you can keep all of your data. Once you plug in this new HDD, you will be able to use your computer again for a low cost.

Step 9: It Works!

Your computer should be working after this, windows should be on the new HDD so it can boot and you can use your computer again