Identifying which HDD to pull out

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mackle

Active Member
Nov 13, 2013
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Background: I've got a windows 7 PC that contains 3x1TB drives all of the same model and I want to pull one of them as I'm downsizing that computer. I don't want to be offline for too long; I'm swapping out the PSU (also downsizing) so I'm going to take the opportunity to pull the drive.

I've wiped the one I want to pull. What is the easiest way to identify which of the 3 physical drives it is that I need to unplug?
 

TangoWhiskey9

Active Member
Jun 28, 2013
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You can see the drive serial number from the OS. If you can't find it in Windows properties then you can get a 3rd party tool like HDTune, CrystalDiskMark or one of those HD utilities. Once you get the serial number of the drive that was wiped you can turn off the PC and pull the drive that matches the serial.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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You can see the drive serial number from the OS. If you can't find it in Windows properties then you can get a 3rd party tool like HDTune, CrystalDiskMark or one of those HD utilities. Once you get the serial number of the drive that was wiped you can turn off the PC and pull the drive that matches the serial.
Seems like a reasonable way to do it.

@mackle I also keep a spreadsheet with all of the installed drives numbered and mapped to slots.
 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
2,644
1,496
113
I have a batch file to collect system information, software installed, and disk drive information and save the output to my local fileserver

del C:\%COMPUTERNAME%.txt
systeminfo > C:\%COMPUTERNAME%.txt

%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noninteractive -Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -command C:\Utils\Sbin\CheckInstallSotware.ps1 >> C:\%COMPUTERNAME%.txt

C:\Utils\Apps\CrystalDiskInfo\Diskinfo.exe /copyexit
copy C:\Utils\Apps\CrystalDiskInfo\Diskinfo.txt C:\%COMPUTERNAME%_DISK.txt
copy C:\%COMPUTERNAME%.txt \\Spot\Mario_Misc\ComputerInventory\
copy C:\%COMPUTERNAME%_DISK.txt \\Spot\Mario_Misc\ComputerInventory\

timeout /t 5