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General discussion

Internal Hard-Drive to External Hard-Drive

Jan 16, 2007 12:11PM PST

I have a Fujitsu MHS2060AT internal hard drive from an old Dell laptop. I was wondering if anybody knew how to hook it into an Intel MacBook so that I could use it as an external hard drive, I don't know where to start so any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Discussion is locked

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In one line.
Jan 16, 2007 8:07PM PST

Put it in an USB drive enclosure.

Bob

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(NT) Or even a Firewire Enclosure
Jan 16, 2007 8:45PM PST
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My bad.
Jan 16, 2007 8:47PM PST

I thought that 200 milliseconds after I clicked "post message."

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(NT) I thought it strange when I saw it
Jan 17, 2007 5:35AM PST
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I agree with the others... BUT
Jan 17, 2007 7:19AM PST

the Fujitsu 60 gig drive isn't very large and if removed from a laptop, that means its been running and has aged... the external FireWire case will likely cost around $50 (USB cases will be cheaper, but USB cannot sustain data speeds like FireWire does. For $140 you could get a 300+gig new hard drive in a case... with warranty.

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4562417?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

If you need to do this to transfer data, then that is a good idea - otherwise, this is a bit of an odd investment of $50... in my opinion...

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Ahh, missed the fact that it was a laptop drive
Jan 17, 2007 9:26AM PST

this will need yet another device to convert the IDE cable to a suitable size for the small HD.

I got one as a door prize once and that, coupled with a firewire board (no case, just the board)and regular IDE cable has saved data from a number of laptop drives.

That 300 GB looks like a decent deal. I'll have to check that out


P

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(NT) 300GB not available!
Jan 17, 2007 9:29AM PST
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bummer
Jan 17, 2007 9:42AM PST
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Going To Try
Jan 17, 2007 11:11AM PST

The laptop the HD came from died a while ago and I figured I might as well use the HD, so I think I will go with a macally phr-250A, http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/storage_device/phr_250a.html, with a USB connection because that is the cheapest at 20$. I don't really need a new HD, justdon't want to waste the old one, so spending more wouldn't make sense. Thanks for the feed back.

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That's cool... it will work...
Jan 17, 2007 11:31AM PST

But remember, hard drives are electro-mechanical devices measured using MTBF - mean time before failure. Since you said the laptop that it was in was old (and died), I would actually be wary of the hard drive that was in it as well (though I don't know how the 'puter died).

It will work - that case you selected will be fine - the issue is how long it will last since it already has some time on it... and you *may* get lucky and it *could* be one of those drives that - for some reason - goes for ever. But in my book, as a former IT manager, that falls under the "hope" category - and "hope is not is good strategy"...

You would be wise to have a good back-up process in place.

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Cause of Death
Jan 20, 2007 4:15AM PST

Im not really sure why it died, I think viruses and spyware, but all I know is that is took hours to do anything at all, even turn on, while computers that where just as old took far less time. If it did get a virus, I assumed that I could hook it into the Mac and format it without risk of infecting my macbook, what with the, "no viruses for mac," line that I hear all the time. Do you think there some risk to my mac, or will formating it take care of any bugs?

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Fomatting will take care of ALL of the files and
Jan 21, 2007 1:33AM PST

everything on the drive... Best you boot from OSX and format that drive using the bundled Apple Drive Utilities app.

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Thanks
Jan 21, 2007 1:52AM PST

That what I wanted to hear.