Will My Hard Drive Work With Windows 10?
Will My Hard Drive Work With Windows 10?
For the next few weeks, installingMicrosoft Windows 10 will be all the rage among early adopters, as well as users who want an operating system that’s better than Windows 8.1 on their desktop and laptop PCs. We already know the minimum specs for Windows 10 call for 16GB for 32-bit OS or 20GB for 64-bit OS, but what about beyond that?
Microsoft has a list of minimum requirements, but as seen in our upgrade stories, the requirements are actually quite low. Once you’ve established that you have 16-20GB free on your hard drive or SSD, you’re ready to start the installation process.
Since your hard drive or SSD is a storage device based on tried and true technology, you shouldn’t have to update anything for the drive itself. If you’re already running Windows 7 or 8.1 on your system (as you would for the Windows 10 upgrade), you already have all the drivers you’d need to use an internal or external hard drive.
Manufacturer Support
While most manufacturers have taken great pains to ensure that their current products are all Windows 10-compatible, you may need specific guidance for each device. Some drive manufacturers have gone through the Windows 10 certification process, while some are still in the middle of testing. We reached out to the major drive manufacturers and here’s what they had to say.
Buffalo
Buffalo Inc. is still in the middle of Windows 10 certification for some of its storage devices, but a list of certified products is here.
Seagate
“Seagate has been testing the released SDK from Microsoft and the released Win10 test versions with our direct attached external storage products and the Seagate Dashboard backup software. Seagate products are currently compatible and we are in the process of certification with Win10,” said Christina Day, Product Manager for Seagate Backup Plus product lines.
Toshiba
“Our plan is to have our Canvio external hard drive products compatible with Windows 10 after the official release. Also, we will plan on extending Windows 10 compatibility to other storage product categories in the near future. We will confirm the compatible models after we have done verification testing on the official Windows 10 build,” the company said.
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