Is it possible to use external hard drives as internal hard drives

heredith

If I have a few external hard drives - all different sizes... 3 x 1TB, 2 x 2TB and 1 x3TB can these be used as internal hardrives... I figure there may be some prep work to be done, or have the manufacturers completely sealed them shut-tight?

And I figure that HDD's need to be SATA also for it be practical, though I presume most HDD's from the last few years are going to be SATA with a USB converter within them...

I suppose I would be surprised if they custom make a pure USB interface harddrive for the external products only. I figure that they are all the same and then the manufacturers put their housings around them.

I suppose, if I am looking to build a PC - I was wondering if it might be worth getting a large enough case to house all of the HDD's I have rather than having all these USB cables all over the place outside the PC like I have now.

whomitconcerns

the samsung mini passports certainly have usb direct interfaces, any others I have are just standard sata drives in cases. So you should be ok.
6 un needed external HDDs is a lot...how is the lost property office business these days :P

heredith

to be honest - they are all legitimately mine. I suppsoe they have accumulated over time. And then one or two were inherited from my brothers etc... I suppose they are all still working away at the moment, and it would be good to include them in the PC if I can... its alot of disk space that could future proof that need if I can make use of it....

tuxy

Should be standard sata hard drive when you remove the enclosure.

MiskyBoyy

Yeah they should be regular sata HDD's once you open the enclosure.

I was wondering the same thing myself, had a 500gb external HDD I got from Aldi about 3-4 years ago, currently in the middle of purchasing & building my first pc so was wondering could I use it as an internal HDD the same as yourself.

So, when I opened it, I was delighted to see it was a Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 3.5" sata HDD. Happy days

Now to just get a sata data cable!

heredith

Do I need to format the drive or anything before hand to get it to work, or will it just connect?

tuxy

heredith wrote: »

Do I need to format the drive or anything before hand to get it to work, or will it just connect?

No, just remove from enclose and connect data and power cables.

heredith

cool. thats great.

whomitconcerns

Good luck with it. Its a relatively easy job..tbh im similar myself :P have a few external hdds over years, too small to be any use to me now though. BTW dont buy sata cables in dixons or such like, they are $$$$$$$$$$$

I did the opposite before external HDDs were popular/available, and built my own with an enclosure ordered over the internet and a drive i took out of a pc

theteal

DaLad wrote: »

Yeah they should be regular sata HDD's once you open the enclosure.

I was wondering the same thing myself, had a 500gb external HDD I got from Aldi about 3-4 years ago, currently in the middle of purchasing & building my first pc so was wondering could I use it as an internal HDD the same as yourself.

So, when I opened it, I was delighted to see it was a Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 3.5" sata HDD. Happy days

Now to just get a sata data cable!

you just reminded me, I've one of those gathering dust in the parents house, I'll procure it next time I'm back, it'll save me "borrowing" one from work

uncle_sam_ie

Some of the older HDD's won't be Sata though. Instead they'll be IDE.