How to determine brand of Hard Disk Drive?

[moshe1436]

How do I determine the brand of Hard Disk Drive on my Gateway GM5472 computer? Where do I look and what do I look for?

 

[KingArcher]

If you are on windows XP
Go to Control Panel and switch to classic view [if you see only a total of 10 icons].
Find "System" and double click that.
Go to the "Hardware" tab and there select "Device Manager".
In device manager, drop down "Disk Drives" and make a note of all that are listed there.
You can either do a search with those model numbers you took down or post them here and we can help you figure it out.

Regards
KingArcher

 

[Shadow703793]

Download PC Wizard: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html#directiontouse

Look under Drives. Then click on the HDD you want. Then look under "Manufacturer". Then Google this model number.


Usually:
WDC = Western Digital
ST = Seagate

 

[moshe1436]

If you are on windows XP
Go to Control Panel and switch to classic view [if you see only a total of 10 icons].
Find "System" and double click that.
Go to the "Hardware" tab and there select "Device Manager".
In device manager, drop down "Disk Drives" and make a note of all that are listed there.
You can either do a search with those model numbers you took down or post them here and we can help you figure it out.

Regards
KingArcher

I'm sorry that I didn't mention that I'm running Vista Home Premium. Is the process the same as XP?

Thanks,

Mo

 

[KingArcher]

Here's another way that should work on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and windows 7.
Start --->Run -----> type "devmgmt.msc" and press enter.

On Vista the Run option is actually replaced by a text box which says "Start Search".
On Windows 7 it's a text box that says "Search programs and files"

 

[donedoknow]

If you find all of that too hard / complicated / annoying to do

A sure fire way to find out is, reboot computer, go into bios, and it should display it there as a code, the code has the SPECIFIC hard drive you have, IF you have trouble understanding the code, just copy it and then google it, 100% the correct drive and you dont have to worry what OS you've got, (cus not everyone uses windows, not to mention the huge number of windows OS out there)

EDIT: to enter BIOS, after you restart computer, when its loading in that black ish screen, keep tapping Delete, or F8

 

[moshe1436]

Hi to all that responded to my question about my computer shutting down unexpectedly and my question about identifying my hard drive. Some really good suggestions from everyone.

The problem was not my hard drive after all. The problem was a faulty surge protector which apparently kept interrupting the circuit long enough causing the computer to shut down but not long enough to completely shut off everything like my printer, etc. Strange problem but I discovered it after connecting an older lap top to the same surge protector and it happened with the lap top too -- thus I changed to a new surge protector and it has been fine since. Go figure!!

Thanks again I appreciated your time and effort.

Mo

 

[moshe1436]

Best answer selected by moshe1436.