Originally Posted by
Paint Horse
I use two physical drives. The C drive has the operating system and the programs. The D drive has all of the data. Just remove the D drive.
OP, it looks like, has a laptop/notebook with a DVD drive - from his followup post ... So, it's usually a bit challenging for non geek users - to replace/add a 2nd. SSD/HDD into the (usually) removable slim DVD slots (I know it's easy for me to find one for our Dell Latitude's, depending on the make/model)
Originally Posted by
Unimatrix One
... The backlight on the screen often turns off suddenly and then won't turn back on unless I restart the computer. Also, the DVD drive is broken.
I will ask the repair shop (factory authorized center for post-warranty repairs) if they need the hard drive or not ... I back up all my data files regularly but have never used one of those utilities that replicates an entire hard drive (OS and all). If I wipe my hard drive, even with all my data backed up it is going to be a huge pain to restore the OS and all the programs ...
Backlight issues on LCD/LED for the laptop can sometimes be attributed to driver issues (and its sleep settings, which I trust you've checked & verified) or needing an update.
DVD repair is simple & straight forward, locate the OEM replacement or equivalent, remove & replace, reboot & re-install device drivers if necessary - should be very simple & easy DIY, especially out-of-warranty.
OP, this is actually ideal time to do what I suggest - if assumptions are correct, pickup an external/usb DVD writer that you can connect to the laptop (unless you use it frequently to playback DVD or record media, unlikely nowadays) and install a 2nd. HDD/SSD into that infrequently used DVD slots - install & boot the OS from it, and fix/repair or replace the main HDD to use it for programs & data storage with a good partition strategy. Then, restore the saved data from the existing HDD.
As an example only (and it should be easy to find one) -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-SATA-2nd...item19d360e292