Hitachi External HDD - can I replace the drive inside?

[Nebster]

Bought a Hitachi Simple Drive 500GB external drive, used it for about a year and then it fell of my table and stopped working.

My question is can I replace it with any SATA 2 HDD?

The case is perfect, since it fell on a soft surface, but the drive got shocked when it hit the floor.
The drive inside is HDS721050CLA362... the 1 TB versions use drives with a 32MB buffer, but mine was 16 MB.
There is a good deal in a shop near me for a SAMSUNG 1TB ECOGREANF2 SAHD103SI which is half the price of the 1TB Hitachi, and about 15% cheaper than the 500 GB Hitachi.

I wouldn't want to throw the case away. Looks nice and is very good quality. No point of buying another or a completely new external drive.

 

[DeadRam]

The HD inside is probably a standard SATA drive but I would open it before purchasing a new HD. It's currently dead so you have nothing to lose. Good luck.

 

[djscribbles]

I agree. Crack it open, you've got nothing to lose; they usually are standard USB->Sata converters, and the ports on sata drives are in always (as far as I've encountered) in the same positions.

 

[Nebster]

Thanks for your help!

So fitting a Samsung SATA 2 drive in a Hitachi SATA 2 (yet to see) enclosure should not be a problem.

 

[Nebster]

I have successfully opened the enclosure. The HDD inside is a Hitachi HDT721050SLA360, and the sticker says 5V 420mA.

It has a normal SATA 2 connector. Basically it is a standard HDD enclosure, nothing special, just that it's high quality and aluminum.


Are all the desktop HDD the same voltage and specs?
I will be fitting a Samsung 1TB or a WD drive.

 

[eXistenZ]

I have one of those. It would always shut down and then I had to turn off/on to get it to work again. Pain.

Current build was right when HDD prices increased. I opened the SimpleDrive and took that 1 tb out and used it as my main drive. No problems. Internal drive. Isn't a bad drive at all once you take it out of there. Bought WDB as main and use Hitachi as second 1tb. But I have kept the case for when HDD prices go down, will have external housing (but USB 2).

So anyway. I took the drive OUT and used it fine, so one would expect that, yes, you could put any appropriate drive IN.