ComputerWorld - Defensive Computing: Be prepared to remove the hard drive from a laptop computer

April 14, 2009
by Michael Horowitz

If you are shopping for a laptop computer let me suggest that being able to easily remove the hard drive should be an absolute requirement. Perhaps the best way to check on this is to find the user guide online at the hardware manufacturer's website.

If you just purchased a laptop, try to remove the hard disk as soon as possible. Things can go wrong.

In my consulting business, I occasionally have to replace hard drives. Twice I've been thwarted by laptop screws that were in too tight. I've also had similar screws fail me when trying to add RAM to a laptop.

The screws are very small and may not be made of the hardest metals. Perhaps a stripped screw can be removed, but who wants to deal with this on top of the situation that prompted the hard disk removal in the first place? Plus, extreme care is needed as the hard disk is right next to the motherboard and may contain important files that haven't been backed up.

Removing the hard drive on a new laptop computer means that, if anything goes wrong, the machine can be returned or fixed under warranty. This is the kind of problem you want to have before there is a serious need to remove the hard drive.

There are two reasons why you may have to remove the hard drive, not to mention just wanting to replace it at some point with something better.

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