How can I change my harddrive type?

Question

I want to make an internal hard drive into an external hard drive. how can I do this?

Answer 1

I'm not exactly sure what you're wanting to do, but I would highly recommend against making an external drive into your system drive. I would also recommend against moving your system drive around too much. If you want an external drive for extra storage or something, then just go buy one.

Answer 2

You don't! You leave your internal as is. Then you buy an external and partition if it isn't already, besides formatting it. Sometimes they come pre-partitioned, often into many logical drives, which I then have to repartition into a single one. You can do all this from Disk Management in XP. This will then give you a new drive, with a new letter in My Computer.



You should keep your boot and system right on that internal one, and for heaven's sake don't mess around with the existing partition in Disk Management, unless you know what you're doing. Any data that you have there on the internal, you can then move to the external by just copy/paste. But don't try to move the OS, ie Windows, or change your active partition.

Answer 3

If you're talking about an internal drive that's already IN your machine, don't mess with it. Leave it be.



But if you're talking about buying a new internal harddrive and converting it to be an external one, that CAN be done with the purchase of a protective case that the internal drive slides into. You should be able to buy a case like this at the same place you'd buy the internal harddrive. I would think full instructions on what to do with the internal drive would come with the case.



Good luck.

Answer 4

You can buy an enclosure to turn your internal hard drive into an external hard drive. Their are all kinds of sizes and types of hard drives. You have to identify the type of drive you have then purchase the correct enclosure to match. Attached is one example of one. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

You need to buy an External Hard-Drive Enclosure (worth $25-60).



You would then boot from the USB port.

Answer 6

All you have to do is buy an External hard drive case, and put you hard drive into that case, then connect it to the pc, many type of hard drive are available in the market. USB, IDE, Serial etc.

Answer 7

you can buy external hard drive enclosures with a usb interface. that is probably the easiest and cheapest way to use the drive externally. you do not have to do anything to the information on the drive such as repartitioning or formatting.

Answer 8

Robert H has the correct answer. Do a web search for "external enclosures". They typically cost $20-40. You will also need a USB cable.

Answer 9

Internal should stay as an internal HD...Buy an External-they are buit to withstand elements outside the CPU

Answer 10

You could by buying a external enclosure. The different kind of Hard Drive enclosure depends on what size disk it is and the socket it uses. You can find the cheapest enclosures on pricegrabber.com.



http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=351/form_keyword=Enclosure/rd=1/sortby=priceA

Answer 11

I believe you can buy a dock that plugs into your pc externally through usb and holds hardrives, thus converting them to external drives. Im pretty sure this would be the only way of doing it. Try http://www.newegg.com

Answer 12

You have to buy an external drive holder with the same type of connectivity as your hard drive, .i.e SATA, IDE or UBS connection.

Answer 13

you are able to replace the complicated force with the comparable length yet as complicated force fees have dropped it may make sense to put in a bigger complicated force. For a working laptop or laptop as much as 500GB is wise make certain you get the main stunning interface - IDE or SATA, in case you get a bigger complicated force than this in simple terms make advantageous the size are the comparable as from time to time the top of the force will develop while they upload one extra platter. the different complicating ingredient is which working gadget you have with homestead windows vista and homestead windows there should not be a undertaking, in case you have homestead windows XP it could have issues recognising the bigger complicated force and likewise homestead windows XP would not have interior of sight SATA drivers. positioned up returned if that's the case and we are in a position to describe further. HTH David

Answer 14

Simple, buy an external hard drive enclosure.

Answer 15

i don't think it's a good idea - but i guess you could made it a slave drive by changing the pin in the back of a extra HD/ w longer power plug and ribbon - just as you would if you mount it in computer but with that said - static will take it out in no time at all out side of your computer - i do believe

Answer 16

Either you have SATA/PATA HDD which can only be attached to the motherboard for external use you will have to by an USB HDD.

Answer 17

do you drive fast im a hard driver

Answer 18

take it out

Answer 19

need to save this. Thanks.