how to make internal hard drive into external?

Hi. I'm looking to convert my hard drive in my z70v to an external one. What are the cheapest components/method to do this? Being able to purchase all the necessary stuff off newegg would be best.

Thanks!!

 

Just buy an external enclosure and bang it in there

 

what about the cord that connects from the external hard drive to the new laptop? basically i want to transfer my files..

 

Just to clarify do you just want to copy everything on your current hard drive to an external(usb, firewire etc.) hard drive or do you want to connect your current hard drive up to another computer?

 

Oops, should have made it clear..

I want to transfer files from z70v's hard drive to my new u6vc's hard drive. I want to make z70v's hard drive an external hard drive for new u6vc I would have simply copied files using a crossover cable, but the z70v has a broken LCD screen..

z70v's hard drive interface is ATA-6.

 

The hard drive in your Asus Z70V is a 2.5" IDE interface, hence any of THESE can turn it into an external hard drive. All of the external enclosures will come with the necessary USB cables, some even comes with a small screwdriver.

 

Then an external enclosure is probably the best solution.

This one looks like a good deal to me; has both 2.5" and 3.5" slots for small(notebook) and large(desktop) hardrives

Edit: But Davids look cheaper so go with his

 

Check this.

 

Thanks, everyone!

 

I still have yet to make a purchase.

Does this model allow an IDE hard drive to use e-sata to transfer files?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392010

 

From the newegg pictures and the user's manual on Vantec's website it looks like the external interfaces are only USB and internal SATA (note that the SATA connectors are the L-shaped internal connectors and not the I-shaped eSATA connectors). So if you are transferring from notebook to notebook, I think you are stuck using USB.

 

Mine external hard drive enclosure has arrived! unfortunately I keep getting the "you do not have permission to access this folder" message when I try to copy files from the hard drive. how do I fix this? I had password protected windows xp

 

If you're using Vista, make sure you're running as the administrator and have UAC disabled.

 

I am logged in as administrator already!

 

Do you have UAC disabled?

 

Yes.

The pop up says: "You don't currently have permission to access this folder."

 

I haven't personally tried this, but this is what I found from researching your issue:

Right click to Properties on the folder you want to copy > Location and select "return to default"; it will then ask if you want to copy your files from the original location -> selec "Yes" if possible, but if it doesn't allow you, just select "No". After that setp, you should be allowed to access the folder, but with no files in it. You then have to set the Windows Explorer options to show hidden folders, then manually drag the files from an obscure system folder ($INPLACE.~TR\Machine\Data\Documents and Settings\user_name\My Documents\...) into whatever folder you desire on your local hard drive.

 

I right clicked to properties, but I don't see "copy > location"

??? i'm also researching how to solve this problem too. so far no luck

 

Ok, try this:

- Click Start
- Type: cmd
- Right-click cmd when it appears
- Click Run As Administrator
- Change location to the folder you need access to (e.g. cd e:\folder)
- Type: takeown /F . /R /A /D Y > NUL
- Type: icacls . /grant USER OI)(CI)(F) /L /T /Q
(Where USER is your username - you will only have access from your
XP and Vista machine in this case)
(Or, replace USER with Users if you want anyone [on any computer
your hard drive is plugged into] to have full access to these files)

 

I saw that when I googled. Unfortunately I got stuck on this part:

"- Change location to the folder you need access to (e.g. cd e:\folder)"

Couldn't change the directory to the external hard drive when I typed cd f:\

 

YAY! Found solution.

For other people who may encounter the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

I followed the directions to grant folder permission to the whole drive.

 

Nice job. Glad everything worked out for you

 

thanks! now to copy 70gb+ of data

 

for some reason the data isn't being continually copied... it is freezing up at 34.8 MB

 

You could try dividing up the files into several chunks and copying them one by one.

 

Yeah I did that but still freezing. Just restarted computer and it froze again

Can it be the external hard drive enclosure?!

 

Okay. This hasn't changed since my last post.

http://img22.imageshack.us/my.php?image=problemqdk.jpg

It is just stuck there!

 

this is driving me CRAZY. why don't things work the way they should!?

it's NOT copying it.

 

What controller chip do you have in your enclosure? I encountered a similar issue with the nForce4 Ultra in my desktop being incompatible with the controller chip in a USB enclosure that I still have and use. Reading was no problem, but writing anything larger than 10 MB or so was a problem. The OS didn't matter, the same thing happened in XP and Linux. I solved the problem by getting a $10 PCI card with an NEC USB chip. So if the enclosure uses a lousy controller chip, it can have compatibility problems.

 

Controller chip?

Hm.. here's the one I purchased.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816002

Maybe I shouldn't have gotten a cheap one =(


I tried to disk check the hard drive but it only got up to another 20% overnight, and then my computer hibernated..

 

okay. so I let tried transferring the files from external hard drive to my laptop. went to class, got back and this message popped up

http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=copyxad.jpg

 

this is driving me nuts. I just tried to backup some files in the external hard drive into my XP desktop at home and failed. there are files on the hard drive that I cannot even replicate again and need to back them up, but the process of transferring files will freeze! help me!!

 

If your HDD is SATA and you have a desktop with a SATA connection, just plug in the hard drive directly, the connectors should match.

Otherwise, I suggest a different enclosure. The time spent to fix this issue costs more than a new enclosure, almost surely. You could try to return the old one if it's worth the effort.

 

Can you recommend me a good external hard drive enclosure that will work? (IDE drives)

 

I have the Vantec Nexstar 3, it's been flawless and it's well designed. I can't guarantee that it'll work in your particular situation, but it's definitely a good enclosure.

Also, have you managed to test the hard drive somehow? See my Tips and Tricks, "has my HDD gone bad". Of course, testing the HDD is difficult if the only way to connect it is via an enclosure that you don't trust it works well... But there exists the possibility of this being a HDD problem instead of an enclosure problem.

 

Ok. I think it is a hard drive problem. I happened to buy two external enclosures of the same type, just used my second spare external hard drive and it transferred files flawlessly.

Now that I know it is the hard drive problem, what can I do? I REALLY need those files!

 

How about if you transfer the files one at a time?

 

At this point, if the files are really important, I would suggest you STOP from using that hard drive ASAP, and transfer the issue to a professional data recovery company. Since they will almost surely be able to recover your data. That's a costly option though.

If you can afford to lose the files but you would nevertheless like to tinker some more to obtain them, you could try David's suggestion. Or maybe the HDD is not liking being in an enclosure in which case you could get one of those boards for transferring the 2.5 PATA pin layout to a 3.5 PATA pin layout, and using that board, connect the HDD directly to a desktop.

Or, instead of copying files one by one, you could try to make an image of the entire hard drive using software such as Acronis True Image, and then mount the image as a virtual partition, or write it to a new HDD. I can't see that this will work if copying doesn't, though -- unless the trouble is in the file system and not in the HDD.

 

I used David's method and I managed to recover 95% of my files. What a battle it was! I had to keep plugging and unplugging the external hard drive every time it found a bad file and froze.

thanks for the help everyone!

 

Great! I'm glad you finally solved (most) of the problem.

 

Okay I think something is terribly wrong with my external hard drive .

I did a complete reformat of the hard drive. I have no trouble copying files to the hard drive, but when I want to copy files off the hard drive, the transfer process stalls. Why?!

 

I'm guessing the drive has physical errors. Try doing a low level scan of the drive using a diagnostic tool from the manufacturer's website.