SSD As External Drive

[betterley]

Hi all, recently my Sandisk Ultra SSD went bad. I need my PC up and running ASAP, so I'm going to purchase a new SSD (Intel?) while I wait for the RMA process on the Sandisk. Once the drive returns, I'm planning on using it as an external drive via a SATA 3 to USB 3.0 converter.
Heres my question: Will I have to partition the new drive before I can do this, or will windows recognize it as a USB storage device automatically?

Thanks

 

[Hawkeye22]

You will most likely need to use disk management to initialize the drive like you do with any new hard drive. This will allow you to partition and format the drive.

 

[betterley]

Thanks for the reply.

I also have a 250 gig secondary drive with an old windows image partition. Once I get windows installed on my new SSD, is it pretty simple to overwrite the old image with a new one?
Also, will I need to use disk management to get my PC to recognize my second drive, which already has a partition on it?

 

[WyomingKnott]

If you install Windows on the SSD with USB 3.0, you will have a problem once you move the drive into an internal bay. The wrong low-level drivers will be there, and it probably won't boot. You will have to do a repair. Unless, of course, you re-build when you get the new drive.

The Win7 install process will partition and format a blank drive for you. The thing is, the install process is designed not to install to a USB drive. I'll look over at sevenforums.com to see if they have a tutorial on the subject.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Thanks for the reply.

I also have a 250 gig secondary drive with an old windows image partition. Once I get windows installed on my new SSD, is it pretty simple to overwrite the old image with a new one?
Also, will I need to use disk management to get my PC to recognize my second drive, which already has a partition on it?

Any cloning software should be able to image the drive for you. If a drive already has a formatted partition on it, windows should recognize it and assign it a letter automatically.

 

[betterley]

If you install Windows on the SSD with USB 3.0, you will have a problem once you move the drive into an internal bay. The wrong low-level drivers will be there, and it probably won't boot. You will have to do a repair. Unless, of course, you re-build when you get the new drive.

The Win7 install process will partition and format a blank drive for you. The thing is, the install process is designed not to install to a USB drive. I'll look over at sevenforums.com to see if they have a tutorial on the subject.

I'm going to put windows on the new internal SSD I get.
I'm going to use a seperate SSD with a USB 3.0 converter as a external storage drive, so I should avoid all that, right?

 

[WyomingKnott]

I'm going to put windows on the new internal SSD I get.
I'm going to use a seperate SSD with a USB 3.0 converter as a external storage drive, so I should avoid all that, right?

Yes. I thought you were planning to install Win7 on the external SSD. Misread on my part.

 

[jsrudd]

Why are you going to use the SSD with a USB connection? This will severely bottleneck your drive and will give you transfer speed similar to a mechanical drive.

 

[RetiredChief]

No problem using it as an external drive as I have done that. Just need to initialize/partition/formate the Drive. And Yess it will run at the same speed as a External HDD.

However, you would probably be better served by just adding it internally and use it as a "temp" drive. You could stick files that you most offen use and files that you want to work with on a temp bases.

 

[betterley]

Why are you going to use the SSD with a USB connection? This will severely bottleneck your drive and will give you transfer speed similar to a mechanical drive.

I'm going to use it as an external because I'm going to get another SSD, whille I'm waiting for this one to return. I need my PC right away and don't want ot wait for the RMA process. I'm not to worried about the speeds on the SSD if I use it externally.

 

[betterley]

Best answer selected by betterley.