Should I put my old hard drive back in my computer

severesevere · 17 Jul 2021

Installing a new hard disk drive in windows 10 due to a failing one
thread was not answered to get it to 1tb so I am asking this question.

I tried to salvage my dell desktop but could not get it to recognize the hard disk drive that was installed.
should I go back to put back the old two drives that were not working very well, as they were getting the c disk to run at 100 usage most of the time and I had an extra hdd installed.
I really do not know what to do in this situation as I was hoping to at least use this desktop again.
I would like to make great content with a working computer.

Thanks for reading.
using windows 10 i guess.

dalchina · 18 Jul 2021

People did attempt to help you with installing a new disk.

Note you paid nothing for support- support is provided by volunteers in their own time. No guarantee is given as to whether you get an answer or the timescale of any such answer. Sometimes the relevance of ideas supplied depends on the information you give.

1. Have you ever previously clean installed Win 10?
2. Do you have a Win 10 boot disk e.g. a flash drive you have created using the MS media creation tool?

Tutorials are available for these if needed.

As to your old disks, test them before reuse. Possible ways to do that:
- connect them to another PC (suitable hardware needed)
- create a live boot disk with a suitable disk checking program on it, boot your PC from the live boot disk and thus check the disk
- put the old disk in your PC, format it as part of the clean installation procedure as shown in the tutoral, hope Win 10 installs ok, then install a disk check program and run that.

An excellent disk checking program is Hard Disk Sentinel (functional trial) - includes SSDs. Instant appraisal.
Much more basic: Crystal Diskinfo.

Note that 100% disk usage is typically not the fault of the disk itself.

Please complete your specs with make and model of your PC. About how old is it?
Compare 'My computers' below my post.

severesevere · 18 Jul 2021

as for your first part please ask that part in the original thread, there are some answers for you there.
This thread was for the fact of right now I dont have a working hdd in my desktop.
thanks for the tips on testing a hard drive, I will use those when I want to reuse those drives. one of those disks was booting so bad and dell support said was bad, so it will likely be scrapped.

Megahertz · 18 Jul 2021

How did you know that original drive was failing? Did you tested it with any program to evaluate it's health?

A new drive comes blank. On the new drive, did you cloned the old drive into it or did a clean install Win 10?

dalchina · 18 Jul 2021

Thank you for your reply. Hope you can find a drive that works so you can do a clean install.

severesevere · 18 Jul 2021

megahertz the answer might be in the other thread, this thread was just to see if the other one failed, what should I do with the old hard drives.
my old hard drive was a c drive that ran 100 percent mostly and would not clone. but if the new hard drive will not be recognized I have a big brick in my house .

Megahertz · 18 Jul 2021

You did not answered my question

On the new drive, did you cloned the old drive into it or did a clean install Win 10?

severesevere · 18 Jul 2021

could you please ask that on the the thread titled
Installing a new hard disk drive in windows 10 due to a failing one
This thread is for if I cannot install such disk
im sick today, so will do other things today.

Megahertz · 18 Jul 2021

I'm also sick...
Good luck.

dalchina · 19 Jul 2021

Unfortunately this is the sort of confusion that arises were parallel threads are open simultaneously on the same PC. It's not the best approach.