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How to Replace a Travelstar Hard Drive!

Every day, we use the hard drives within our laptop and desktop computers to save critical files. Sometimes, a hard drive on a laptop or a desktop computer can fail, requiring the need for a replacement drive. This article will describe how to diagnose, and replace a faulty Travelstar hard drive.

The Travelstar hard disk is a hard disk drive created originally by IBM. IBM sold its hard drive division to Hitachi, and as such, Hitachi is currently supporting the Travelstar drives. First, if a hard drive from Travelstar is suspected bad, it must be diagnosed as faulty. Go to: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm to download Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test (or DFT).

This diagnostic utility will test a harddrive for failure, and determine if the drive is faulty. When scanning Travelstar hard drives, be sure to use the advanced test, which will fully troubleshoot and test the hard drive for errors. Once you have determined that a hard disk is faulty, you can select the proper replacement drive or send the hard disk to a specialist for data recovery repair.

Travelstar hard disk drivess are universal in their interface type- all of these drives are IDE-based. In other words, if you match the capacity on a failed drive with the capacity of a good hard drive, it is guaranteed to work. However, with disaster often comes opportunity. A failed internal hard drive is a perfect reason for an upgrade your PC. Just because your old hard drive only held 80 GB, you are not limited to just to buy and installing a cheap 80 GB drive. Check with your laptop manufacturer to determine the maximum capacity drive your laptop will accept, and then find a drive that falls within that storage size capacity. Once you have selected your desired drive, it is time to install the drive.

Installation of a Travelstar hard disk is straightforward. First, you must determine where on the laptop the internal hard drive is located. If you cannot locate this on your own, most user manuals, or operator's guides will often detail where on the laptop the hard drive enclosure is located. Next, remove the screws holding the old hard drive assembly in place. Once this has been completed, remove the hard drive from the hard drive assembly, and insert the new drive. Next, re-insert the hard drive assembly, and screw back on the cover screws. Finally, you may power on your laptop, and re-install your Operating System. Your drive upgrade is complete!

A familiar phrase is “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. This phrase is no more true than in mobile computing. Use a backup software like Nti Backup or Backup Buddy and take data backups.  Taking care of your portable laptop, as well as your laptop hard drive, will help to prevent any future mechanical damages to your Travelstar hard drive. For instance, always turn off the laptop when you are transporting it- shocks while the notebook is running can create problems with bad sectors on the hard drive, or even create a hard drive disk head crash- which is usually unrecoverable. If you treat your new hard drive correctly, it should last for many more years.



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