External HDD trick!

#1 Cheesezilla

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Posted 07 September 2009 - 12:16 AM

Some of you may already know this. But im sure there is someone out there who doesn't.

I was talking to my friend today and we got talking about external hard drives.

He was telling me the other day that he took one apart just to see what was on the inside.

Turns out, all an External HDD is, is a regular Hard drive (IDE,SCSI,SATA) with a USB thingy connected to it.

So really all a External HDD is is, is a normal HDD with a casing on it.

All i did was remove some screws, take out the HDD and remove the USB attachment. and WALA i not only a hard drive i can put in my computer, but its also faster!

My friend told me that the transfer rate or speed ( can't remember ) is slowed down by USB because only so much can travel through the cable.

Hope this helps!

#2 Andrew

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Posted 07 September 2009 - 02:26 AM

Not only that, but you can make your own external drive from a standard hard drive by using an IDE/SATA to USB adapter (which are pretty cheap!)

Your friend is right when he said that USB isn't as fast as a PATA or SATA connection. A USB 2.0-connected drive will realistically achieve a maximum data-transfer rate of about 40-50 MBps (megabytes per second) An old PATA connection, by comparison will hit between 66MBps and 80MBps while newer SATA drives get up to near 150MBps.

USB 3.0 is coming out soon, though, and purports to reach speeds of up to 512MBps. I can hardly wait!

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#3 chrisatbluescreen

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Posted 25 October 2009 - 07:19 PM

dide he say 512! :thumbsup:

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#4 batya7

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Posted 13 December 2009 - 05:52 PM

@Amazing Andrew -

I need to reformat my 5 year old computer because it is so slow on startup I can take a walk around the block before it's ready for use! I also want to upgrade fro 512 M RAM...

So I was looking for a cheap external HDD, then you come along and say how "you can make your own external drive from a standard hard drive by using an IDE/SATA to USB adapter (which are pretty cheap!)."

HOW???

I just want to be able to back up all my fun files and programs and lobotomize my old guy.

Or, do you have an even better (and cheap) way?

This post has been edited by batya7: 13 December 2009 - 05:53 PM

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#5 tg1911

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Posted 13 December 2009 - 11:36 PM

batya7, on Dec 13 2009, 04:52 PM, said:

HOW???

By combining a harddrive with an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, or you could go the harddrive/enclosure route, which can usually be built cheaper than a pre-built external harddrive.

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#6 garmanma

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 10:57 AM

I would just like to add that getting an enclosure with a fan and it's own power source are better choices

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#7 Guest_RadioNorthsea_*

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Posted 20 May 2010 - 07:31 AM

Quote

USB 3.0 is coming out soon, though, and purports to reach speeds of up to 512MBps.

If that so, than I hope that Usb 2.0 will be supported.
When is that not the case and everything will be working with Usb 3.0, than have I a problem.
Because, I have 2 external Hd.'s with support Usb 2.0 and if I said, when Usb 2.0 will be not supported anymore, than I will be not happy.

:thumbsup:

#8 strolln

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Posted 20 May 2010 - 07:39 AM

RadioNorthsea, on May 20 2010, 05:31 AM, said:

Quote

USB 3.0 is coming out soon, though, and purports to reach speeds of up to 512MBps.

Since USB 2.0 is backwards compatible with USB 1.0 & 1.1, it stands to reason that USB 3.0 is also backwards compatible. A USB 2.0 device plugged in to a USB 3.0 interface will work fine, albeit at USB 2.0 speeds. In order to take advantage of the speeds USB 3.0 is capable of you will need a USB 3.0 device and a USB 3.0 interface to plug it in to.

This post has been edited by strolln: 20 May 2010 - 07:40 AM

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#9 BeachBumLI

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Posted 09 December 2010 - 03:38 PM

tg1911, on 13 December 2009 - 11:36 PM, said:

batya7, on Dec 13 2009, 04:52 PM, said:

HOW???

By combining a harddrive with an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, or you could go the harddrive/enclosure route, which can usually be built cheaper than a pre-built external harddrive.

The adapter for the power plug on my girlfriends laptop broke, and she managed to snap one of the chips off the mother board while we were attempting to re-bend the pins and resolder it back into place. She bought one of the adapters and turned it into a cheap external hard drive, works great and was certainly better than scrapping it!

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#10 jaydeee

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Posted 19 December 2010 - 06:17 AM

cool!
I myself like customizing my usb drives.
Additionally I observe that most of pre-built usb drives are smaller than market available drives, so customizing is cool for me.