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General discussion

I ALREADY HAVE A HARD DRIVE

Apr 21, 2006 6:47AM PDT

I have a 80gb seagate barracuda 7200.7 serial ata hard drive. It does not fit into my computer, (the cables are wrong) I think mine is scii instead of ata. I am wondering if I could buy something that would enable me turn this into a usb 2.0 external hard drive?

Thanks

Shelley

Discussion is locked

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more info needed
Apr 21, 2006 11:28AM PDT

What is your computer make & model?

Unless your computer is an older Macintosh, it is likely that your computer has IDE cables (Ultra ATA or PATA) and not SCSI.

Your new Seagate 80GB Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive can be used internally if you add a SATA HARD DISK CONTROLLER CARD into a free PCI slot. There are also SATA external enclosures that use USB2.0.

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THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Apr 21, 2006 10:09PM PDT

Your information is most helpful.

Thanks again,

Shelley

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Can you give me an idea
Apr 21, 2006 10:23PM PDT

Can you give me an example of an external enclosure? and what cables I need? My computer is an AMD Semphrom 2400+ 1.66ghtz and 512 of RAM. I want to be able to get what I need ASAP. I have tonnes of pictures and videos to back up.

Thanks again,

Shelley

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external hard drives
Apr 21, 2006 11:20PM PDT

You want a 3.5'' EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURE that has an internal SATA connector and an external connector of your choice--USB2.0, Firewire (IEEE 1394), or SATA. (Note that 2.5'' enclosures will hold a 2.5'' notebook HD and not a 3.5'' desktop HD.)

3.5'' SATA external enclosure (USB 2.0)

NOTE: In terms of value, you can get an inexpensive large capacity IDE (ATA/100/133) HD and insert it into a $25 IDE external enclosure.

3.5'' IDE external enclosure (USB 2.0)

IDE HD Prices after instant discount or rebate:
300GB for $90-100
250GB for about $70
160GB for about $49

Today, CircuitCity has a $300GB Seagate IDE HD for $89 (after rebate). Check online computer stores and electronics stores for weekly specials.

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AGAIN THANK YOU
Apr 22, 2006 4:23AM PDT

Yes, that is what I looked up, I just wanted to make sure that is what I needed.

Thanks,

Shelley

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Do you have a CD or DVD burner ???
Apr 22, 2006 2:13AM PDT

If yes...that's a great way to store your PICs for now.
If not, you might consider getting one..the drives are attractively priced <$50...i.e. NEC3550A and the CD media holds about 700MBs, DVD media hold up to 4.7GB and Dual Layer DVDs hold up to 8.5GB.

WHatever you do, don't rely on anything as the single source for your data...always have a backup copy somewhere like a CD, DVD or external hard drive. I actually backup to a second internal hard drive and copy the backup to an external HDD.

Last...lots of good deals seen at http://www.techbargains.com

Any questions...drop us a note.

VAPCMD

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Thank you
Apr 22, 2006 4:24AM PDT

Yes, I do have a CD burner right now, but what I also wanted to do was have a place where I could put my videos so I can edit them as well, and they are not taking up a huge amount of space on my primary hard drive.

Thanks,

Shelley