Search
  • For Individuals
      « Back
    • Windows Data Recovery

      Recovers lost or deleted Office documents, emails, presentations & multimedia files.

      Free Standard Professional Premium

    • Mac Data Recovery

      Recovers deleted files, photos, videos etc. on Mac.

      Free Standard Professional Premium

    • Photo Recovery

      Recover photos, videos, & audio files from all cameras and storage on Windows.

      Free Standard Professional Premium

    • Video Repair
    • Photo Repair
    • iPhone Data Recovery
  • For Business
      « Back
    • Email Repair & Converter

      Repair for Exchange Converter for EDB Converter for OST Converter for NSF Converter for OST MBOX Repair for Outlook

    • Database & File Repair

      Repair for MS SQL Repair for Access Repair for QuickBooks Software Repair for Excel Extractor for Windows Backup Repair for MySQL

    • Data Recovery & Erasure

      Data Recovery Professional Data Recovery Technician Mac Recovery for Technician Virtual Machine Recovery File Erasure Software Mobile Erasure Drive Erasure File Eraser Software File Eraser Software for Mac

    • Toolkit

      Exchange Toolkit Outlook Toolkit File Repair Toolkit MS SQL Toolkit Data Recovery Toolkit

    • Forensic

      Email Forensic Exchange Auditor Log Analyzer for MySQL Log Analyzer for MS SQL

  • Store
  • Partners
  • Services
  • Offers
  • Support

 

  • For Individuals
    DIY software for anyone who works with data.

    Windows Data Recovery Recovers lost or deleted Office documents, emails, presentations & multimedia files

    Free Standard Professional Premium

    Mac Data Recovery Especially for Mac users to recover deleted documents and multimedia files from macOS

    Free Standard Professional Premium

    Video Repair Windows Mac Repair multiple corrupt videos in one go. Supports MP4, MOV & other formats.

    StandardPremium

    Photo Recovery Windows Mac Recover photos, videos, & audio files from all cameras and storage on Windows.

    Standard Professional Premium

    iPhone Data Recovery Windows Mac Recover deleted photos, videos, contacts, messages etc. directly from iPhone & iPad

    Recover Erase Toolkit

    Photo Repair Windows Mac Repair multiple corrupt photos in one go. Supports JPEG & other formats.

    Standard Professional Premium


  • For Business
    • Email Repair
    • Email Converter
    • File Repair
    • Data Recovery & Erasure
    • Toolkit
    • Forensic

    Exchange Repair Repair corrupt EDB file & export mailboxes to Live Exchange or Office 365

    Outlook PST Repair Repair corrupt PST & recover all mailbox items including deleted emails & contacts

    OLM Repair Repair Outlook for Mac (OLM) 2011 & 2016 backup files & recover all mailbox items

    Exchange Toolkit Repair EDB & Exchange backup file to restore mailboxes, convert OST to PST, & convert EDB to PST

    Active Directory Repair Repair corrupt Active Directory database (Ntds.dit file) & extract all objects in original form

    EDB to PST Convert online & offline EDB file & extract all mailbox items including Public Folders in PST

    OST to PST Convert inaccessible OST file & extract all mailbox items including deleted emails in PST

    NSF to PST Convert IBM Notes NSF file & export all mailbox items including emails & attachments to PST

    MBOX to PST Convert MBOX file of Thunderbird, Entourage & other clients, & export mailbox data to PST

    OLM to PST Convert Outlook for Mac Data File (OLM) & export all mailbox data to PST in original form

    GroupWise to PST Convert GroupWise mail & export all mailbox items - emails, attachments, etc. - to PST

    EML to PST Convert Windows Live Mail (EML) file & export mailbox data - emails, attachments, etc. - to PST

    Office 365 to PST Connect to Office 365 account & export mailbox data to PST and various other formats

    DBX to PST Convert Outlook Express (DBX) file & export all mailbox data - emails, attachments, etc. - to PST

    SQL Repair Repair corrupt .mdf & .ndf files and recover all database components in original form

    Access Repair Repair corrupt .ACCDB and .MDB files & recover all records & objects in a new database

    QuickBooks Repair Repair corrupt QuickBooks® data file & recover all file components in original form

    MySQL Repair Repair MyISAM & InnoDB tables and recover all objects - keys, views, tables, triggers, etc.

    Excel Repair Repair corrupt Excel (.XLS & .XLSX) files and recover tables, charts, chart sheet, etc.

    BKF Repair Repair corrupt backup (BKF, ZIP, VHDX and .FD) files and restore complete data

    Database Converter Interconvert MS SQL, MySQL, SQLite, and SQL Anywhere database files

    PowerPoint Repair Repair corrupt PPT files and restore tables, header, footer, & charts, etc. like new

    File Repair Toolkit Repair corrupt Excel, PowerPoint, Word & PDF files & restore data to original form

    Data Recovery Windows Mac Recover lost or deleted data from HDD, SSD, external USB drive, RAID & more.

    Technician Toolkit

    Tape Data Recovery Retrives data from all types and capacities of tape drives including LTO 1, LTO 2, LTO 3, & others.

    Virtual Machine Recovery Recover documents, multimedia files, and database files from any virtual machine

    File Erasure Permanently wipe files and folders, and erase traces of apps and Internet activity.

    Standard Corporate

    Mobile Erasure Certified and permanent data erasure software for iPhones, iPads, & Android devices

    Drive Erasure Certified and permanent data erasure software for HDD, SSD, & other storage media Windows Mac

    Exchange Toolkit 5-in-1 software toolkit to recover Exchange database, convert EDB to PST, convert OST to PST, restore Exchange backup, and reset Windows Server password.

    Outlook Toolkit Comprehensive software suite to repair PST files, merge PST files, eliminate duplicate emails, compact PST files, and recover lost or forgotten Outlook passwords.

    File Repair Toolkit Powerful file repair utility to fix corrupt Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents created in Microsoft Office. It also repairs corrupt PDF files and recovers all objects.

    MS SQL Toolkit 5-in-1 software toolkit to repair corrupt SQL database, restore database from corrupt backup, reset database password, analyze SQL logs, & interconvert databases.

    Data Recovery Toolkit Software helps to recovers deleted data from Windows, Mac and Linux storage devices. Also supports recovery from RAIDs & Virtual Drives.

    Email Forensic Advanced email forensic solution for cyber experts to audit, analyze, or investigate emails & gather evidences.

    Exchange Auditor Exchange Server monitoring solution to automate audits, scans and generate reports ìn real-time.

    Log Analyzer for MySQL Analyze forensic details of MySQL server database log files such as Redo, General Query, and Binary Log.

    Log Analyzer for MS SQL Track & analyze MS SQL Server database transactions log files.

    STELLAR EMAIL FORENSIC

    Advanced email forensic tool to analyze and collect the mailbox data of email clients

    Learn More arrow


    All Products

    All Products

    All Products

    All Products

  • Our Partners
  • Lab Services
  • Trending Searches

    Data Recovery

    Photo Recovery

    Video Repair

    iPhone Data Recovery

    File Erasure Software

    Exchange Repair

    OST to PST

    PST Repair

    Raid Recovery

    MS SQL Repair

  • English Deutsch Français Nederlands Italiano Español 日本語 简体中文
  • Support
Windows Data Recovery- Professional 3 minute read

Is it Safe to Remove Hard Drive from Laptop by Yourself?

Updated on May 27th, 2021
Satyeshu Kumar
Written By
Satyeshu Kumar
Rohit Arora
Approved By
Rohit Arora

Removing hard drive or replacing any hardware part in computers, especially laptops, requires some level of technical skills and should be done by authorized personnel only to avoid any damage. This statement stands more valid in case of laptops, as it contains much smaller & fragile components. Removal of the hard drive from a laptop is usually done to upgrade the storage with more space, increase the data read-write speed using faster SSD, or replace the damaged or failed hard drive with a new one.

Contents

  • Is it safe to dismantle a laptop hard drive?
  • Why is Removal of Hard Disk from Laptop Not Safe?
  • Recovering Data in case of Hard Drive Failure & Corruption
  • Conclusion

Is it safe to dismantle a laptop hard drive?

Removing a hard drive is not an arduous task as long as you are careful while dismantling the hard drive from your laptop. However, taking off the laptop’s hard drive without prior experience and without knowing the consequences, which may arise during or after removal of the hard drive from a laptop, is definitely not a good idea. Therefore, read this blog before you go ahead and start unscrewing your laptop.

Why is Removal of Hard Disk from Laptop Not Safe?

One should not remove the hard disk drive from a laptop without proper tools and equipment that are required to perform any operation on the hardware part of the laptop. These tools are usually not available to home users. Therefore, chances of damage to the laptop and hard drive are too high. Once the hard drive is damaged, data stored on it can be permanently lost.

Other than the above mentioned, following are some more reasons as to why hard disk removal from a laptop by an unauthorized person is not safe.

1. Laptops are Compact Machines

Replacing the hard disk from a laptop is much more difficult than a desktop, as a laptop is more compact and densely packed. Also, these parts are fragile and even a bit more of excess force can damage the hard disk connector or any other part of the laptop. Therefore, it requires precaution and patience.

For a proper guide on removing the hard drive from the laptop, you should contact your laptop manufacturer.

2. Voids Warranty

Disassembling your own laptop voids the manufacturer warranty in most cases. However, there are some exceptions to certain laptop models by the manufacturer. Therefore, check with your manufacturer before disassembling your laptop. They might also assist you in upgrading or replacing the laptop hard drive.

3. Static Charge

You should never remove a hard drive that is working normally. However, if you decide to proceed, make sure to touch a grounded metal object before touching your laptop’s internal parts with your bare hands. This helps avoid transmission of static charge to the fragile electronic components of your laptop including the hard drive. The static charge, if transmitted, can harm your laptop’s motherboard or damage the hard drive, thereby resulting in a permanent data loss scenario.

4. Removing Hard drive Makes Laptop Useless

The hard drive contains all the OS files that are required to run/operate a laptop. Removing the hard drive from a laptop without replacing it can make your laptop useless. This doesn’t actually damage the laptop in any way but does make it inoperable.

However, removal of a failed, corrupt, or inaccessible hard disk drive from the laptop is an absolute necessity, as it makes the laptop function again. Although such hard drives can be repaired by formatting, it erases all the stored data. Therefore it’s important to first recover the data from the hard drive before fixing it.

Recovering Data in case of Hard Drive Failure & Corruption

Data can be recovered from a logically failed, corrupt, and inaccessible hard drive with the help of a reliable data recovery software such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows. The tool uses ‘Deep Scan’ that searches for the files based on file signatures and helps in precise data recovery from such hard drives.

Free download

You can choose to remove the hard drive from the laptop and use a SATA to USB converter cable or enclosure to connect the drive with another working Windows PC. Then after installing Stellar Data Recovery Professional, you can proceed with the data recovery process.

Additionally, you can choose to recover data from deleted partitions, which might have been deleted due to hard disk failure. After a successful recovery, you can format the faulty hard drive and then move the recovered data to it.

Conclusion

Removal of the hard drive from a laptop is safe only if you have proper knowledge, tools, and equipment; otherwise, it can lead to a data loss scenario due to hard drive failure or cause permanent damage to your laptop’s motherboard.

Therefore, it’s important to be very careful while getting inside your laptop’s hardware to replace, remove, or upgrade it. However, the world’s best data recovery software i.e. Stellar Data Recovery Professional is here to rescue your data from any corrupt, inaccessible, formatted, or deleted/lost hard drive.

About The Author

Satyeshu Kumar

Satyeshu is a Windows blogger and data recovery expert. He is having good technical knowledge and experience in Windows data recovery. He writes about latest technical tips, Windows issues and tutorials.

Best Selling Products

Stellar Data Recovery Premium

Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Window

Read More

Stellar Data Recovery Technician

Stellar Data Recovery Technician intelli

Read More

Stellar Data Recovery Toolkit

Stellar Data Recovery Toolkit is an adva

Read More

BitRaser File Eraser

BitRaser File Eraser is a 100% secure so

Read More

8 comments

  1. Sheldon Bowen says:
    November 14, 2018 at 10:30 am

    I really thanks for the advice. It really makes life of hard drive better.

    Reply
    1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
      November 15, 2018 at 4:47 am

      Hello Sheldon,

      Please check our other information blogs also.

      Reply
  2. Lorenzo Mcdonald says:
    September 27, 2018 at 2:14 am

    The facilitates for creating a working copy of your hard drive by ‘Create Image’ is really notable when the original hard drive is taking long time to scan or having so many bad sectors.

    Reply
    1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
      September 27, 2018 at 3:32 am

      Hey Lorenzo,

      We feel glad that you like the software feature. It is really helpful in case of dying hard drive.

      Reply
  3. Rita says:
    July 12, 2018 at 6:40 am

    I dropped my laptop some time back and to make sure that the the hard drive is not broken I removed the Hard drive of the laptop.But unfortunately there is a small crack in the hard drive.Is it still possible to recover lost data with the software?

    Reply
    1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
      July 16, 2018 at 6:05 am

      We recommend not to use the drive further if it is physically damaged. There are high chances that the platter or disc gets severely damaged making it non detectable in the system.

      We suggest to avail the data recovery services for the failing hard drive

      Reply
  4. Henry Goley says:
    June 6, 2018 at 3:38 am

    Thanks for really informative blog to increase the life-span of my Seagate hard drive. I have seen people dismantle quiet frequently and thus invite data loss horrible situations. Please keep writing more such stuffs.

    Reply
    1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
      June 8, 2018 at 5:22 am

      Thanks for your motivational words.

      Reply

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

8  +  2  =  

Table of Contents

  1. Is it safe to dismantle a laptop hard drive?
  2. Why is Removal of Hard Disk from Laptop Not Safe?
  3. Recovering Data in case of Hard Drive Failure & Corruption
  4. Conclusion

Categories

Related Posts

resolve-windows-update-failed-issue-for-windows-11-error-0xc1900101
Windows Data Recovery- Professional

How to Resolve Windows 11 Update Failed with Error 0xc1900101?

Stellar Author Ashutosh Kumar April 22, 2022 Read More
Windows Data Recovery- Professional

Best Solutions to Fix Windows 10 Not Shutting Down Issue

Stellar Author Ashutosh Kumar February 25, 2022 Read More
Windows Data Recovery- Professional

How to Fix Windows 10 Preparing Automatic Repair Error? (Best Solutions)

Stellar Author Mansi Verma December 29, 2021 Read More

Stellar Official Website

Stellar Data Recovery Inc.
48 Bridge Street Metuchen,
New Jersey 08840,
United States

ALSO AVAILABLE AT

About

  • About us
  • Career
  • ISMS Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • License Policy
  • Refund Policy
  • End User License Agreement

RESOURCES

  • Blog
  • Articles
  • Product Videos
  • Knowledge Base
  • Case Studies
  • Whitepapers
  • Software Catalog

NEWS & EVENTS

  • News
  • Events

PARTNERS

  • Affiliates
  • Resellers
  • Distributors

Useful Links

  • Contact Us
  • Support
  • Special Offers
  • Student Discounts
  • Awards & Reviews
  • Downloads
  • Store
  • Sitemap
Follow Us

Stellar & Stellar Data Recovery are Registered Trademarks of Stellar Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. © Copyright 2022 Stellar Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. All Trademarks Acknowledged.

DMCA.com Protection Status
We use cookies on this website. By using this site, you agree that we may store and access cookies on your device Read More Got it!