With a little work, an old hard drive can be turned into a practical external drive Photo: TECHBOOK
By Adrian Muhlroth | 13. February 2018, 5:45 pm
Virtually any old hard drive can be turned into a practical external hard drive with a little effort. These can be used not only for backups, but also as storage for pictures and movies. TECHBOOK shows how it works.
Do you have an old hard disk lying around or just bought a new one and no more place in the computer for the previous one?? Why not just make it an external hard drive? TECHBOOK shows you how to do that.
Find out the type of hard drive
Before you buy an enclosure for the hard disk drive (also called HDD), you must first check what kind of hard disk drive it is. Is it a 3.5-inch or a 2.5-inch disk, does it have an IDE or a SATA connector? 3.5-inch hard disks have been practically standard in desktop PCs for a long time and are therefore still very widespread. Even today, most mass storage devices with 2 terabyte (TB) or more storage size have the 3.5-inch format. 2.5-inch HDDs, on the other hand, were mainly found in laptops and are still often used today in entry-level notebooks. The smaller format has also found its way into desktop PCs with the fast SSD storage, but is increasingly being replaced by the modern M.2 SSDs replaced.
Since 2.5-inch drives consume less power, they don’t need an additional power supply when used in an external enclosure. In contrast to 3.5-inch HDDs, which need their own power supply, power supply via a single USB cable is usually sufficient.
Hard drive size: left 2.5 inch, right 3.5 inch
Photo: TECHBOOK
The Serial ATA connector (SATA for short) has been used since 2003 for all types of drives, including hard drives and DVD and BluRay drives. Two L-shaped connectors form the interface for data and power, with the connector for power being longer. The IDE interface is only found in very old hard disks from before 2005. It consists of an elongated connector with pins arranged in parallel, with a gap in the bottom row so that the connection cable cannot be inserted upside down. IDE hard drives draw power via 4-pin Molex connector.
2.5 inch hard drive with SATA connector
Photo: TECHBOOK Photo: TECHBOOK
3.5 inch hard disk with IDE connection
Photo: TECHBOOK
Depending on whether you have a 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drive and it has a SATA or IDE connector, you’ll need the appropriate external enclosure. Although 2.5-inch SATA hard drives theoretically fit into an enclosure for 3.5-inch hard drives, they cannot be fixed in place because there is no bracket for the smaller format. So it’s best to use only the right enclosure for the type of hard drive you have. It should also be noted that 2.5-inch hard drives can have different heights. Many older drives in 2.5 inch format are 9.5 mm high, while newer models often measure only 7 mm in height.
Select the optimal connection
Hard disk with USB 2.0 Connection
Photo: TECHBOOK
After you have found out which connector the hard disk enclosure must have, it is now a question of which connector the enclosure itself should be connected to the PC via. The most common is the USB port, but there are also exotic alternatives like FireWire, Thunderbolt and eSATA. In most cases USB is the best solution because it offers a very good price-performance ratio. But even with USB, there are big performance differences that should be considered when buying an external enclosure. There must be a difference between USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and more recently USB 3.1 can be distinguished. The differences in transfer speed between USB generations are sometimes extreme.
Hard disk with USB 3.0 connection
Photo: TECHBOOK Photo: TECHBOOK
While USB 2.0 can transfer data at a maximum of 480 megabits per second (Mbps)USB 3 achieves.0 with a maximum of 4.8 gigabits per second (Gbit/s) is no less than ten times faster. In addition, USB 2 supports.0 only hard disks with a maximum size of 2 TB. With USB 3.0 on the other hand, even larger capacities can be used.
USB 3.1 is once again more than twice as fast and can achieve data transfer rates of up to 10 Gbit/s. Above all, if you want to install a fast SSD in the external enclosure, at least USB 3 is.0 or even USB 3.1 is advisable. Enclosures with USB 2.0 connector are not recommendable because of the low speed and at most for older hard disks with low capacity still an option. Also are USB-3.0 enclosures usually only a few euros more expensive.
Select the connector type
The question of the shape of the plug is more a matter of preference. Who decides for USB 2.0 can choose between the connector type B and Mini-B, whereby the type B is more likely to be found in 3.5 inch cases, while Mini-B is mainly found in smaller cases due to its size.
Hard disk with USB 2.0 Type B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK USB 2.0 Type B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK Photo: TECHBOOK
Hard disk with USB 2.0 Type Mini-B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK Photo: TECHBOOK USB 2.0 type mini-B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK
With the USB-3.0 connection is to be distinguished between the plug type B and Micro-B. The type-B connector looks similar to the USB 2.0 connector, but has five additional contacts to achieve the higher transmission rate. The type B connector of USB 3.0 is with a type B cable from USB 2.0 backward compatible.
Hard disk with USB 3.0 Type B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK Photo: TECHBOOK USB 3.0 type B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK hard disk with USB 3.0 Type Micro-B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK Photo: TECHBOOK
USB 3.0 Type Micro-B connector
Photo: TECHBOOK
Recently, there are also hard drive enclosures with USB Type C connector. The elegant Type-C connector has the advantage that it is very small, yet delivers high transfer rates and can carry more power than older USB types. The connector is also reversible, d.h. There is no top or bottom, so plugging in always works the first time.
Select housing material
External hard disk enclosures are either made of plastic or metal. The cheaper plastic cases are lighter and therefore better for carrying around, but don’t dissipate heat nearly as well as metal cases. They are therefore more suitable for short accesses such as z.B. for backups and moving files suitable. Metal enclosures, on the other hand, are suitable for continuous operation and are sometimes even equipped with small fans in the 3.5 inch, which keep the temperature of the hard disk inside low in order to extend its service life.
3.5 inch hard disk in a metal case
Photo: TECHBOOK
When buying the enclosure, you should also pay attention to how the hard drive will be installed in it. There are enclosures into which the hard drives can be inserted without tools. However, especially in metal cases, the drives must be fixed with screws. Mostly a Phillips screwdriver is sufficient for this.
Installation
Before you even buy an external enclosure for your hard drive, it should first be tested if it is still functional at all. For this, the hard disk status must be checked via the computer, so the hard disk may have to be temporarily installed in the PC. If the hard disk is in the PC, you have several options to test its integrity.
1. Simple check with the S.M.A.R.T tool
- Type "cmd" into the Windows search bar and open the search result "Command Prompt"
- In the command prompt, enter "wmic diskdrive get status" and press Enter
- If the hard drive is functional, you will get the message "OK"
2. Advanced status check with Check Disk Tool
- Type "cmd" in the Windows search bar and right click on the search result "Command Prompt"
- Select "Run as administrator from
- Type in the command prompt "chkdsk Drive letter:" where Drive letter Need to replace with the letter of the drive that will be scanned
- After the scan has been run and everything is fine, the message "File system has been scanned, no problem detected" appears.“
Once the hard drive is in order, all that’s left to do is insert it into the case. In our example you can see how the installation works in a simple 2.5 inch hard disk enclosure.
- Unscrew cover and remove
- Remove the case shell and expose the SATA port
- Slide the 2.5 inch hard drive into the enclosure and plug it into the port
- Replace enclosure shell and screw cover back on- ready!
Alternatives
3.5 inch hard disk with SATA to USB adapter
Photo: TECHBOOK Photo: TECHBOOK
There are many alternative ways to use hard drives outside the computer. One of these is hard drive docks, into which hard drives can be easily plugged in. Some of these docks even have multiple slots for different hard drive formats. While these docks don’t protect the hard drive, they are perfect especially for quick hard drive swaps. Cable adapters, some of which even have both SATA and IDE connectors, are also good for quick swapping.