The most common location is at the lower front, near the intake fans and away from other components. Drive cages/bays will most often be mounted perpendicular to the bottom of the chassis, while drives mounted in the cages usually sit parallel to the bottom of the case. Placement and orientation of the cages or bays will vary from case to case.

This will show a This PC icon on your desktop, letting you jump right to the interface. On the resulting menu, check the Computer box under Desktop Icons and hit OK. Internal 3.5-inch hard disk drives are typically mounted in a drive cage or in an available drive bay. Head to Settings > Personalization > Themes and click Desktop icon settings in the right sidebar. Now let’s get this hard drive installed in your computer.

WD Black: 1TB for $70, 2TB for $100, 8TB for $250, more sizes available.

Toshiba X300: 4TB for $95, more sizes available.

Seagate BarraCuda: 2TB for $55, 4TB for $90, 8TB for $140, more sizes available.

All three spin at 7,200 revolutions per minute (RPM), the fastest speed available in consumer hard drives. Before we dive into the nitty-gritty details, if you’re looking for a hard drive to install in your computer, these are some highly regarded options.

Show hard drive on desktop