Alternative point of views are welcome and even encouraged . Have you ever converted an internal to an external hard drive? If so, how difficult is it? I picked up the HD from CUSA yesterday and it didn't come with ANY installation instructions. I am also considering using it as an external drive for much the very same reason you mention. Any tips on which "kit" to purchase or the degree of difficulty of converting is appreciated.
I did not buy a kit, but rather a Maxtor one already put together. I would recommend making sure you get a USB 2.0 or firewire one for the speed difference.
I would imagine putting it in the enclosure should be pretty easy. I would also guess that the enclosure kit would come with the instructions for installing the drive in it.
I did not buy a kit, but rather a Maxtor one already put together. I would recommend making sure you get a USB 2.0 or firewire one for the speed difference.
Did the kit support bootable support, however? If I gather this situation correctly, Shawn needs to be able to do so with his new hard drive. I suspect boot support from USB/1394 is all over the map.
Also, if one goes with an enclosure, do not get a USB 1.x solution. It's just too slow.
According to the specs on the new Dell I'm getting it has 3 internal 3.5-inch storage bays for additional hard drive storage devices.
Janak, actually, I assumed it was an additional drive since he was buying a new PC from Dell and getting a new HD from CompUSA. I figured he would be booting the new PC and wanted the additional drive as an extra and as a way to get any of the old data that could be recovered onto the new machine.
Since it was a second drive, I figured external might be great.
I don't know that I can boot the the external drive. I doubt it though.
I agree that you want USB 2.0. I tried using it on my laptop that only had a 1.1 connection and very quickly bought a USB 2.0 Belking PC Card.
I don't know that I can boot the the external drive. I doubt it though.
I know it's theoretically possible, given a sufficiently modern BIOS. However, I read the post to mean that Shawn was replacing his existing drive. Based on that, I'd still suggest internal. Of course, I might be totally off the mark.
I didn't realize this thread continuted without me. I've been pretty busy. Just to clarify, Goldkey is right. My old computer got fried and I paid C/USA $99 to "image" my old hard drive. My new Dell finally came and I am going to attempt to place the imaged HD from C/USA into the Dell as a means of extracting my old data.
I'm a little dissapointed that the new HD did not include installation instructions, but that is typical C/USA. I will take Janak's (got the spelling right :wink advice and check the mfg website for assistance.
I'm planning on taking the plunge today. Keep your fingers crossed.
Ah! If you're only temporarily connecting the hard drive for the purposes of transfer, my suggestion to you is to plug the hard drive into the "secondary channel". Most machines today have two IDE channels on the mainboard. The hard drive is usually plugged into the first one, and the CD drives into the second. You can temporarily unplug the CD drives and plug the hard drive in, turn it on, copy the data off, and then restore the connections.
If you're planning to have a 2nd hard drive permanently, you either want to configure it as a "slave" and run it off the primary channel, use the secondary if there's an extra port, or use Goldkey's trick of putting it in an enclosure.
I followed the instructions in the Dell owners manual and things went perfectly. I simply moved the internal hard drive from the 1st to the 2nd bay and placed the new HD into the 1st bay (don't really know why that was necessary, but who cares?). Connected the two cables already supplied inside the computer, and WALA!
Time spent stressing about recovering old data or frying my new Dell - 2 weeks.
Time spent actually installing the drive (once I FINALLY got the courage to "Just do it") - 10 minutes.
Of course by the time the wife comes back, I will have dreamt up so many horror stories about how difficult a procedure this was and how "exhausted" I am as a result of my extensive efforts. Eventually I'll come clean, but not until she has finished pampering me for all of my work .
Oh well, it was great experience. Thanx again to all who took the time to help.
. Have you ever converted an internal to an external hard drive? If so, how difficult is it? I picked up the HD from CUSA yesterday and it didn't come with ANY installation instructions. I am also considering using it as an external drive for much the very same reason you mention. Any tips on which "kit" to purchase or the degree of difficulty of converting is appreciated.
advice and check the mfg website for assistance.
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