how to power up hard drive?

[NiceCold]

i have some SATA hard drive laying around. i want to confirm if it work or not.

right now i am thinking to reformat my working computer..... so this is the chance to try to confirm if the laying hard drive works or not right?

how do i go about? first i reformat y working computer then take the hard drive out? and then put in the laying hard drive and connect cables and everthing.... and then what? im all set? if the har drive works it will boot up? i dont need to do additional stuff?

after i confirmed that the hard drive works... now i want to put bakc my orifinal hard drive in... i just pull out the hard drive and put the original hard drive in and wala? or do i have to do special steps for it to work correctly since i put another hard drive in?

bear with understanding me.

 

[alaricljs]

Put the hard drive you want to test into the system as a 2nd unit after making sure the system is in a working state w/ OS. When you're done testing shut down again and remove it.

 

[corkyg]

Make life simpler. Get yourself an external case, and use the drive as a backup data drive. The external case will let you know quickly if the drive is good or not. Anyway, an external HDD case is something everyone should have in their tool box.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Also, the HDD manufacturer should have a drive diagnostic you can download and test the drive.

 

[NiceCold]

Put the hard drive you want to test into the system as a 2nd unit after making sure the system is in a working state w/ OS. When you're done testing shut down again and remove it.

ummm man i read all posts above and i dont have a clue of idea. you said use it as a second hdd? you mean like install the test-hard-drive while the working hard drive still installed?

so i just slip in the test-hard-drive in an extra slot in the case and plug in sata cable on.... ?

 

[NiceCold]

Make life simpler. Get yourself an external case, and use the drive as a backup data drive. The external case will let you know quickly if the drive is good or not. Anyway, an external HDD case is something everyone should have in their tool box.

is this what you talking about? http://www.amazon.com/Black-SATA-HAR...8189762&sr=8-4

 

[alaricljs]

Yes, you can install the test-drive as a 2nd drive into a working system to test it, or you can go corky's route and get an external drive case.

 

[stevech]

is this what you talking about? http://www.amazon.com/Black-SATA-HAR...8189762&sr=8-4

Choose the size needed for your drives: 3.5 or 2.5 in. drives.

 

[Yellowbeard]

You know you can check your drive with a DOS program or probably several Linux distros without spending any money right? The manufacturer should have a program you can pull down and run off of a bootable floppy, USB drive, CD, etc.

 

[veri745]

Use one of these. Great for troubleshooting drives or sorting through a bunch of bare drives:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812232002

Best part is you can use it for both old IDE drives and SATA drives.

 

[NiceCold]

Use one of these. Great for troubleshooting drives or sorting through a bunch of bare drives:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812232002

Best part is you can use it for both old IDE drives and SATA drives.

wow thats alot of money just to test. does it connect to the computer and we can check whats inside the hdd too? or just stand-alone test device?