External hard drive convert to portable hard drive?

Question

I have a external hard drive that requires a power supply to run, is it possible to convert it to a portable hard drive so that it no longer requires a power supply to run?

Answer 1

All you need to purchase is an external case to usb... depending on what drive you have.. Is it 3.5 inch sata or IDE?



if its 3.5 sata you need

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-3-5-inch-USB-2-0-to-SATA-HDD-Hard-Drive-Disk-External-Case-Enclosure-NEW-/370728381127?pt=US_Drive_Enclosures_Docks&hash=item5651222ac7



if its 3.5 ide you need

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-USB-to-IDE-HDD-Hard-Driver-Black-case-Enclosure-/330781487529?pt=US_Drive_Enclosures_Docks&hash=item4d041cf1a9



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These enclosures are easy to setup and converts any hard drive into an external USB drive.

Like the guy says above 3.5 needs a higher voltage this is why they include an ac adapter to run the power to the HDD. Its the cheapest way to make an external USB hard drive

Answer 2

Absolutely not.



The internal circuitry is designed to run using an external power source

NOT to receive power through a USB port.



Which means that it runs on either 9 or 12 V



A USB port only delivers a maximum of 5.25 V

Answer 3

It depends on the size of the HHD. If it's a 2.5 inch then you can get a portable hhd enclosure that uses the USB to power up the drive.

Answer 4

I should think you just need to crack it open, remove the hard drive, and put it in a caddy which doesn't require external power (will be powered by the USB connection)



Some of these would do it;

http://www.dabs.com/category/components-and-storage,hard-drives,external-hard-drive-enclosures/11270

Answer 5

nothis is completely impossible you will need to buy a portable hard drive and transfer your data to it. The 2 hard drives are completely different physically and in software