I want to make an internal hard drive into an external hard drive. how can I do this?
2007-03-01 13:09:31 · 19 answers · asked by Angel 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
I want to make a internal hard drive external. How can I do this? I have computer knolage and can format it but want to know if there is a nice way of ding this.
2007-03-01 14:40:41 · update #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.
2007-03-01 14:48:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
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.
2007-03-01 14:06:22 · answer #2 · answered by Raymond 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
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.
2007-03-01 14:44:15 · answer #3 · answered by KOKOMOJO 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
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.
2007-03-09 12:51:21 · answer #4 · answered by Gregg F 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to buy an External Hard-Drive Enclosure (worth $25-60).
You would then boot from the USB port.
2007-03-01 15:08:13 · answer #5 · answered by 3dot3dash3dot 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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.
2007-03-01 14:50:20 · answer #6 · answered by Punjabi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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.
2007-03-01 14:54:26 · answer #7 · answered by metalluka 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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.
2007-03-01 14:49:59 · answer #8 · answered by greymatter 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Internal should stay as an internal HD...Buy an External-they are buit to withstand elements outside the CPU
2007-03-05 16:09:51 · answer #9 · answered by sis79 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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
2007-03-01 14:52:53 · answer #10 · answered by Dennis L 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋