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A while back I wrote this post that explains how to convert an unused internal hard drive into an external USB 3.0 drive.
That has turned out to be one of the most popular posts I have ever written, but a lot has changed since then.
I receive hundreds of tech questions every week, and the one I seem to get asked most often is how to retrieve the files from the hard drive after a PC goes belly-up.
My answer always depends on which part of the computer has failed.
If the hard drive itself is the component that died, you’ll have to either send the drive off to a data recovery service or purchase a data recovery software utility and attempt to recover the files yourself. [Read more…]
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Question from Brad: I have a really old Dell Optiplex 745 desktop computer that I absolutely love.
This machine has an 80 Gig hard drive and it’s recently started giving me problems.
These past few days when I turn on the PC the hard drive makes clicking sounds for about 5-10 seconds, then it finally starts booting up.
I know it’s the hard drive that’s doing the clicking because I removed the cover and listened to it. [Read more…]
Question from Nancy: Rick, my desktop PC has started making a faint, but noticeable clicking sound when I first turn it on.
It only clicks for about 8-10 seconds, then it boots up normally and runs fine until I shut it down.
It’s hard to tell for sure, but I took the cover off the side of the computer and the clicking sound seems to be coming from the hard drive.
I haven’t downloaded anything recently or made any changes to the system that I’m aware of.
This machine came with Windows 8.1 but it’s been updated to Windows 10.
Do you have any idea what I can do to stop the clicking? [Read more…]
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Question from Eric S.: I’m seriously considering taking your advice about installing an SSD in my Lenovo desktop PC just to install my programs on.
I mostly just use Photoshop and Lightroom along with a couple of web browsers.
I’m not really interested in making the SSD the boot drive by installing Windows on it because I don’t feel confident in my ability to get it done correctly.
My question: Is it worth adding an SSD as a second drive just to make my programs load faster? [Read more…]