I've been a Windows user since 1992, and I've seen the operating system experience some major ups and downs. I feel very confident that with their latest installment, Windows 7, Microsoft will hit a new high note. The upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is relatively seamless, but it isn't without its problems. One repeating issue that I've observed, particularly with Toshiba notebooks, is a message during the Compatibility Check portion of the upgrade which reports that the process can't continue until "Toshiba HDD Protection" is removed.

For those of you who have Toshiba HDD Protection installed on your machine, but don't know what it does, it alerts you when your hard drive vibrates, tilts, or moves off balance to prevent mechanical damage. Although it's a somewhat helpful service, Windows 7 doesn't find it to be up to snuff. It gets kind of annoying anyway. Although the removal process is relatively simple, it can take you a while if you don't know where to look, so I'll break it down for you. You'll need to be a local administrator to properly pull this off (you need to be one to upgrade to Windows 7 anyway).

First, you need to get into Device Manager. You do this by opening up the Control Panel and navigating to System Devices, where you'll find a Device Manager link in the left menu pane. Once in Device Manager, locate and expand the System Devices list. From System Devices, select Toshiba HDD Protection, and select uninstall. Once the uninstall is complete, open up explorer and navigate to WindowsSystem32drivers. In this folder, locate "thpdrv.sys", and delete it. Now, just restart your PC, and carry on with your Windows 7 upgrade!