How do I find out what make of HDD I have installed on my computer

jp_bl_68 · 22 Mar 2011 at 16:52

A bit embarassing, this. I've just switched from Mac OS X to Windows 7 and I'm a little lost. I've used XP for a while so Windows isn't completely alien to me.

I want to find out which make of HDD is installed on my notebook. How do I go about doing this?

bledd · 22 Mar 2011 at 16:55

Go into Device Manager

-Right click 'Computer', properties, Device Manager

Expand 'Disk Drives'

rpstewart · 22 Mar 2011 at 16:55

Device manager will give you a clue but the most reliable way will be to take it out and read the label.

bledd · 22 Mar 2011 at 16:57

^Not to say that device manger will give you unreliable info mind

SiriusB · 22 Mar 2011 at 16:58

Right-Click the Computer icon and click Manage.

In the window that opens click on Device Manager. Under Disk Drives should be all the installed HDDs and SSDs. If you are lucky it will have an obvious name. However you may see some of the following, where x's are serial numbers:

STxxxxxxxxx - Seagate
WDC WDxxxxxxx - Western Digital
HDxxxxxxxx - Hitachi

If you still aren't sure, you could give Speccy a try.

EDIT: As an aside, you could also just look at the HDD itself. On most notebooks the HDD is usually easily accessible.

jp_bl_68 · 22 Mar 2011 at 17:02

Under Disk Drives I have 'Volume 0', there's no additional info in properties either.

bledd · 22 Mar 2011 at 17:09

Can you go into the BIOS? -try Speccy as said above

Not running some kind of raid is it ? (I know it's unlikely in most laptops)

Failing that, which laptop is it? Most are fairly easy to get into the hard drive compartment

jp_bl_68 · 22 Mar 2011 at 17:13

MSI GX660R, 2 x 500GB RAID 0. I don't know what RAID means.

I want to see if it's got one of the dodgy WD drives installed.

bledd · 22 Mar 2011 at 17:18

You'll have to look in the bios

Don't change any raid settings mind

Raid 0 means it splits each file in two and stores half of each file on either drive, so when it reads, it reads it twice as quickly (in theory)

Make sure you keep extra vigilant on the backups, as if you lose one drive, all data is down the pan.

jp_bl_68 · 22 Mar 2011 at 17:22

Thanks bledd.. I'll give that a try.

I feel like such a noob