Hard Drive Replacement

[OtterPops]

I believe that my current harddrive is dieing. (WD Caviar Black 640) About a month ago it would start to stall and monitoring it under Performance Monitor it would show 100% activity with <=1 MB transfer rate. I tried a complete reinstall of windows and the problem still persists and has gotten progressively worse. The drive now rattles during stalls and stalls more often. I have ordered a new drive(WD Blue 640) along with a copy of Windows 7. (I was previously running the RC.)

I think I know the answer but to be safe with my data. My question is I have a second drive in this computer with my important files/media and was wondering if I need to do anything to that drive before installing the retail version of Windows 7 on the new drive. Will they be compatible/work together? Can I just replug it in after the fresh install or will I need to off load the data to some third party storage and reformat the second drive?

 

[gracefully]

The second drive will not be touched by the Windows installer. Only the hard disk/partition that you install Windows to will be touched. But to be sure, just unplug it before installing the OS. After installation, plug it back in.

 

[dfusco]

You should go into your BIOS and enable S.M.A.R.T. You can use a utility like Everest to check the S.M.A.R.T. results. It will give a better idea as to the condition of the drive.

 

[OtterPops]

Thanks for the help!