replacing the hard drive on my pc - questions for you computer guys

[hugh jass]

So I have a relatively new HP Pavilion desktop at home and the hard drive recently started producing errors. I called HP and they sent me a replacement hard drive but very few directions to go on. They said I could basically

1. replace the hard drive
2. use my recovery disk set (Windows Vista) to get the computer running again
3. hook up the old hard drive as a second hard drive and transfer my data over to the new drive
4. send old hard drive back

Is this it? Do I just take out the old hard drive, put the new one in, insert the recovery discs, and then blammo? I've never really done this before.
Thanks.

[Restoman]

I depends on if you have anything you created that you want to keep. I just burn everything important to a disk. Make sure all of your programs can be downloaded again.

[kronus]

That's basically the instructions you want. Switch out the drives, use the recovery disk (which should walk you through the process of getting Vista onto the new drive), put in the old drive as a secondary drive, and copy the stuff you need over. back

I suggest that you make an OS partition for your Vista install. That way, you can reformat just that partition if you want to reinstall the OS, and keep all your files.

Another good idea is to backup to hard media (like Restoman suggests) and/or use an offsite backup service like www.getdropbox.com to get your most important files backed up reliably.

[hugh jass]

Thanks guys. I'm currently creating a set of back up discs and also have an online backup service via carbonite.com

[hugh jass]

How do I create a partition on the hard drive? Can I do it after I install Vista on the new hard drive?

[EN318isPDX]

How do I create a partition on the hard drive? Can I do it after I install Vista on the new hard drive?

You format the drive, than you can create seperate partitions. You can make partitions in windows via the disk management utility

[hugh jass]

Nice. Fuck the PC websites. I'm coming here with all my tech questions!

[EN318isPDX]

Nice. Fuck the PC websites. I'm coming here with all my tech questions!

lol np man. i do it all day while i browse these forums ;)