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modifying internal hard drive to work as external


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23 replies to this topic

#1 Red Dragon/Mushu

Posted 11 July 2006 - 09:04 AM

as the title says i have a spare internal hard drive from when my old lappy broke they were kind enough to send it back since i said it held confidential info
no i would like to use it as a back up for all my info and stuff so my question is what will i need to do / buy in order to achive this?

#2 DerRaucher

Posted 11 July 2006 - 10:54 AM

Best one, buy an Kit for maybe 20$. So you have a ext. hdd with usb.
But you said that is the hdd of your laptop?...

#3 Why Two Kay

Posted 11 July 2006 - 11:06 AM

There are 2.5" to 3.5" kits/adaptors, that let you use laptop hard drives as a standard hard drive internally. I assume something exists externally too.

#4 pest control

Posted 12 July 2006 - 11:15 AM

there are external drives cases you just put your HDD in and it works like external harddrive

clicky

it would be good if it has a firewire or at least USB 2.0 for speed. make sure it supports your HDD port aka IDE or EIDE or SATA...

#5 Why Two Kay

Posted 12 July 2006 - 12:06 PM

there are external drives cases you just put your HDD in and it works like external harddrive

clicky

it would be good if it has a firewire or at least USB 2.0 for speed. make sure it supports your HDD port aka IDE or EIDE or SATA...


Well, the thing is that he has a 2.5" drive, because it was in a laptop.

#6 Animal Mother

Posted 12 July 2006 - 05:11 PM


there are external drives cases you just put your HDD in and it works like external harddrive

clicky

it would be good if it has a firewire or at least USB 2.0 for speed. make sure it supports your HDD port aka IDE or EIDE or SATA...


Well, the thing is that he has a 2.5" drive, because it was in a laptop.


Most of the "better" brands have brackets to fit most any size HDD or CD/DVD drive

#7 ¡PooN!

Posted 25 July 2006 - 07:25 PM

i bought an ATA hard drive, but didn't realise that my freaking computer only support SATA....unreal. so now i gotta find a way to convert this one to external. i've been looking around for kits but i don't wanna make another mistake on this. do you guys know what i'm supposed to look for?

#8 Why Two Kay

Posted 25 July 2006 - 07:26 PM

i bought an ATA hard drive, but didn't realise that my freaking computer only support SATA....unreal. so now i gotta find a way to convert this one to external. i've been looking around for kits but i don't wanna make another mistake on this. do you guys know what i'm supposed to look for?


You mean you have no PATA ports? How do you attach CD-Rom drives? That's the same connection.

#9 FMFDOC2

Posted 25 July 2006 - 08:10 PM

This is what you want.

http://www.addonics....closures/#35ide

Look at the different models.

#10 ¡PooN!

Posted 25 July 2006 - 08:38 PM

idk wut pata is....all i know is that it takes this thin red chord, and no scsi chord. plus the hd simply says "Serial ATA"

and for the website...I just look at the 3.5" IDE/ATAP section right? or is it somewhere else?

Edited by ¡PooN!, 25 July 2006 - 08:40 PM.


#11 FMFDOC2

Posted 25 July 2006 - 08:45 PM

idk wut pata is....all i know is that it takes this thin red chord, and no scsi chord. plus the hd simply says "Serial ATA"

and for the website...I just look at the 3.5" IDE/ATAP section right? or is it somewhere else?


PATA is parallel or other wise known as IDE. The small cable is SATA.

If you look at this model, read the description. One is for SATA drives and one is for IDE drives. IDE and PATA are the same thing.

http://www.addonics....aturn/aesed.asp

#12 Why Two Kay

Posted 25 July 2006 - 08:45 PM

PATA = Parallel ATA = IDE

That's how all CD-Rom drives and 99% of older hard drives (not SCSI) connect.

This image shows:

Parallel ATA -------------------------------- Serial ATA

Posted Image

Do you have a CD-Rom drive? Does it use a large cable like on the left? If so, you have a IDE/PATA port. 99% of motherboard include 2, which means a total of 4 devices.

#13 FMFDOC2

Posted 25 July 2006 - 08:50 PM


idk wut pata is....all i know is that it takes this thin red chord, and no scsi chord. plus the hd simply says "Serial ATA"

and for the website...I just look at the 3.5" IDE/ATAP section right? or is it somewhere else?


PATA is parallel or other wise known as IDE. The small cable is SATA.

If you look at this model, read the description. One is for SATA drives and one is for IDE drives. IDE and PATA are the same thing.

http://www.addonics....aturn/aesed.asp


Also keep in mind that some of the drives on the website are external design and some are internal hot-swap removable hard drive in a 5 1/4" bays. You simply pull it out of you comp.

#14 ¡PooN!

Posted 25 July 2006 - 09:51 PM

PATA = Parallel ATA = IDE

That's how all CD-Rom drives and 99% of older hard drives (not SCSI) connect.

This image shows:

Parallel ATA -------------------------------- Serial ATA

Posted Image

Do you have a CD-Rom drive? Does it use a large cable like on the left? If so, you have a IDE/PATA port. 99% of motherboard include 2, which means a total of 4 devices.

yea, i have a cd rom drive. it uses the big ata cable in the pic, but there's only one port. i looked on my mobo for another slot but couldn't really find one.

also, if my mobo is set for SATA, doesn't that mean i can't use ATA at all? or if i have the slots is it still compatible?

#15 Why Two Kay

Posted 25 July 2006 - 09:59 PM

Hmm, you must have a very new motherboard if it only has one. It looks like you are going to have to use the SATA port for any hard drives that you want to put in. Couldn't you return the IDE/PATA and get a SATA?

#16 ¡PooN!

Posted 26 July 2006 - 12:11 PM

I bought it online at thetechgeek.com and I don't think they have an exchange policy. They have a return policy but since I ripped the sticker of the package, I probably have to pay a 25% restocking fee. So I figure it's probably just worth it to buy a kit/adapter.

But finding an adapter isn't so easy. So on the previous sites, do I buy the IDE type ones? I don't understand the difference in the names of IDE, or ATA...r they the same or different?

#17 Why Two Kay

Posted 26 July 2006 - 12:20 PM

IDE = Wide Cable

Also called: PATA, ATA

SATA = Small Cable

You need a PATA --> SATA adaptor, or you could get a PCI addin card to allow you to plug in the ATA hard drive there, but that can cause issues if it is used as your boot drive.

#18 ¡PooN!

Posted 26 July 2006 - 12:36 PM

i c....so i can get an adaptor that will just allow me to stick it in?...where can i get one of those?

because i was thinking of getting one of these enclosures
http://www.newegg.co.....e 3.5&Ntk=all

but then again, i don't wanna buy some p.o.s. enclosure that's gonna break on me.

#19 FMFDOC2

Posted 26 July 2006 - 01:05 PM


PATA = Parallel ATA = IDE

That's how all CD-Rom drives and 99% of older hard drives (not SCSI) connect.

This image shows:

Parallel ATA -------------------------------- Serial ATA

Posted Image

Do you have a CD-Rom drive? Does it use a large cable like on the left? If so, you have a IDE/PATA port. 99% of motherboard include 2, which means a total of 4 devices.

yea, i have a cd rom drive. it uses the big ata cable in the pic, but there's only one port. i looked on my mobo for another slot but couldn't really find one.

also, if my mobo is set for SATA, doesn't that mean i can't use ATA at all? or if i have the slots is it still compatible?


No no no. You'll only find one IDE slot on the MOBO. It's the IDE cable that allows two CD-Rom drives. A lot of MOBO's allow you to run both PATA(IDE) and SATA at the same time. What kind of MOBO do you have? Model?

#20 ¡PooN!

Posted 26 July 2006 - 01:30 PM

It says Motherboard Name: MSI MS-7046 (Medion OEM)
It's from a MEDION PC.


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