external to internal drive

[Joseff]

Hi! So, I have an old laptop that I wanted to salvage and make into a Ubuntu machine but, the hard drive is already dead, so I was wondering if I can disassemble a external hard drive laying around so I can use to to replace the dead one on my laptop, is it possible? Thank you for any help! -Joseff

 

[Lutfij]

By disassemble you mean to tear it down to it's bare components all the way down to it's spindle and then reconstituting it within another disk as repair parts? If so unless you know what you're doing, then no it's not a good idea.

If you're asking about breaking apart an external HDD enclosure to get at the HDD within to drop into the laptop, then it depends, if it's a 2.5" drive then perhaps it'd be possible. I say perhaps because an external HDD will logically contain important files which will be erased when you format and create partitions on it.

^ Best you just buy a 2.5" HDD and get that laptop up and running. Speaking of laptop, what is it's make and model?

 

[MisterMeow]

Well it depends on the hard drive you want to swap. As long as it's the right size and uses SATA, it should work.

Not sure what you mean by disassemble an external hard drive, though. I don't recommend disassembling any HDD unless you know what you're doing, otherwise you'll more then likely kill it.

 

[Max1s]

I think the OP just means cracking the casing apart on the external hard drive and getting to the actual "internal" hard drive inside. This is definitely possible, there will be a SATA hard drive inside, which has some kind of bridge from SATA to USB. It will probably be easier on a bigger external drive, but should still be possible for smaller ones too.

 

[Joseff]

By disassemble you mean to tear it down to it's bare components all the way down to it's spindle and then reconstituting it within another disk as repair parts? If so unless you know what you're doing, then no it's not a good idea.

If you're asking about breaking apart an external HDD enclosure to get at the HDD within to drop into the laptop, then it depends, if it's a 2.5" drive then perhaps it'd be possible. I say perhaps because an external HDD will logically contain important files which will be erased when you format and create partitions on it.

^ Best you just buy a 2.5" HDD and get that laptop up and running. Speaking of laptop, what is it's make and model?

I was just gonna get the HDD and discard the enclosure so I an use the drive for my laptop. And the lapop is a Sony VAIO and it's a late model running Windows Vista so I'm planning to convert it into a Ubuntu one. Thank you for the help!

 

[Joseff]

Well it depends on the hard drive you want to swap. As long as it's the right size and uses SATA, it should work.

Not sure what you mean by disassemble an external hard drive, though. I don't recommend disassembling any HDD unless you know what you're doing, otherwise you'll more then likely kill it.

I was just gonna get the hdd inside. Thank you for the help! )

 

[Joseff]

I think the OP just means cracking the casing apart on the external hard drive and getting to the actual "internal" hard drive inside. This is definitely possible, there will be a SATA hard drive inside, which has some kind of bridge from SATA to USB. It will probably be easier on a bigger external drive, but should still be possible for smaller ones too.

Exactly what is what I'm implying! Thank you very much!