hard drive Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: If I remove a computer’s hard drive will any data be left behind?

Posted on August 29, 2026

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Karen: I have several old computers in my basement that I want to recycle.

I’ve always heard that you need to destroy a computer’s hard drive before you recycle it to prevent someone else from maybe getting your files.

My question is will removing the hard drive from a PC completely eliminate any possibility of someone finding my old files.

[Read more…]

Q&A: How can I transfer photos from a dead PC to a new one?

Posted on August 18, 2026

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Barbara: Rick, my two year old computer wouldn’t come on the other day so I took it to the Geek Squad to have it checked out.

Long story short, they said the motherboard was bad and that it wasn’t worth fixing, so I bought a new computer.

The problem is I have literally thousands of photos on the dead PC’s hard drive that I desperately want to get off of it and onto my new computer. [Read more…]

Q&A: If I replace Windows with Linux will I need to replace the hard drive too?

Posted on July 27, 2026

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Marla: I have an older HP desktop PC that got really slow over the years so I bought a new laptop and put the old desktop in a closet. Well, the laptop’s screen just went bad and I don’t have the money to buy a new computer right now.

I took the old desktop out of the closet and hooked it up, and to my great surprise it still works. The problem is it has Windows 7 on it and I know it’s unsafe to use now. [Read more…]

Q&A: Do SSDs need to be defragmented?

Posted on June 29, 2026

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Question from Roger: Rick, I followed your advice and replaced the hard drive in my laptop with a solid state drive (SSD).

I’m absolutely blown away by how much faster the laptop boots up and how much faster my programs load.

I do have one question though. I read in another forum that SSDs don’t get fragmented and they never need to be defragged. Is that true? [Read more…]

Q&A: Will my PC need a new power supply if I replace the hard drive with an SSD?

Posted on May 25, 2026

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Question from Oliver: I just read your article about replacing a hard drive with an SSD and I have a question about it.

I remember hearing that upgrading the graphics card in a computer can sometimes require a power supply upgrade as well because the newer graphics card will draw more power than the old one.

My question is do I need to be concerned about the power supply if I replace the hard drive in my computer with an SSD?

[Read more…]