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    Home made external hard drives

    Discussion in 'Accessories' started by tears_for_fears, Jul 27, 2006.

  1. tears_for_fears

    tears_for_fears Notebook Consultant

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    First, I have read the big thread about making your own. Its a great idea, but I stil have a few questions.

    I have two extremely crappy computers in my basement. Both probably have 30+ gb hard drives. I would love to have this extra space, as my hard drive isnt that big.

    1. Would the USB enclosure have to be compatible in any way with the HD? How do I know what is compatible?

    2. How do I completely erase everything from the HD?
     
    tears_for_fears, Jul 27, 2006
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  2. Gautam

    Gautam election 2008 NBR Reviewer

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    All usb enclosures work on HD's that fit them - so 3.5" for large desktop HDs, and 2.5" for notebooks.

    Erasing the stuff off the HD is done via a format. You can do this via Windows...
     
    Gautam, Jul 27, 2006
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  3. wearetheborg

    wearetheborg Notebook Virtuoso

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    I would throw away the old 30GB HDDS:
    1.Old, so nearing end of lifetime.
    2.New HDDS with much bigger capacities had be had for cheap
     
    wearetheborg, Jul 27, 2006
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  4. mZimm

    mZimm Notebook Evangelist

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    I agree with wearetheborg. You can get 3.5" Hard Drives so cheap these days I wouldn't even bother with the 30GB drives.
     
    mZimm, Jul 27, 2006
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  5. kidA

    kidA Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    Also concerning the hard drive and enclosure compatibility, make sure the interface matches too. This pretty much only applies to 3.5" drives, but most of the drives are SATA now but few external enclosures are. The greater majority are IDE. Just make sure that they're the same or you'll end up having to ship one of the two back :p
     
    kidA, Jul 28, 2006
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