Turning an External HD to internal

[xtremeclowny]

Hello,

I broke off the usb port on an external HD. I opened the box and noticed that the disk looks just like an internal HD. This was a long time ago btw. I tried to plug it in on machine but nothing interesting happened.

Anyways, I'm guessing that I could make it my primary, reformat and install windows on it. Problem is that I have files in it that I would like to hang on to. Is there anyway to attach the drive to the machine and keep the old files?

Thanks,

I.R

 

[nukemaster]

As long as you have the needed port (SATA or IDE) you can just connect it to any computer to get the files off first.

After you can do what ever you want with it. Please note that many external drives run at a slower speed compared to high performance internal drives. You may notice some performance drop(something that is not an issue for a storage drive).

 

[xtremeclowny]

That's what I thought but it didn't work when I tried it ( nearly a year ago). I'll give it another try whenever I have the time.
Thanks.

 

[nukemaster]

I have pulled many drives from dead external drives to recover data.

Now some of the newer drives have started to place the USB controller on the drive's pcb, those can not be just moved over because they lack the IDE/SATA connector.

Also, a drive with encryption(put in place to prevent the drive from being taken out and data recovered in the first place) may not work right unless it is reformatted or initialized(thus loosing all data).