WD 1 TB External Hard Drive Question.... Need new case?

[mrhodes61]

I have a 1 TB WD External Hard Drive. The plug that connects the USB cord to the Hard Drive was broken. I am trying to figure out if I should be able to replace this into a new enclosure? Say if I bought one at Best Buy? If I hold down the small square connection device to the board while the USB cord is plugged in, my computer still reads the information on the hard drive. I am trying to figure out the most cost efficient option to keep the info on the hard drive.


I have pictures

Out of the box

The plug broken off from the board, plus the clip to keep it in place

How the board should look

Side Angle of how the board should look

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am pretty much a technology novice.

Matt

 

[Paperdoc]

That's a standard desktop-type 3½" HDD with a SATA 3.0 Gb/s interface (aka SATA II). You certainly should be able to plug it into an external drive case designed for a common SATA II drive and it should work. The green printed-circuit board containing the broken connector is just plugged into the back connectors of the HDD unit and you'll have to remove that board.

In choosing a new external case, just make sure it has the external connection system you need to connect to your computer. (This is NOT the same as the internal connections to the HDD unit itself, which will have to be SATA II or more properly, SATA 3.0 Gb/s.) How is it doing that now? Is it USB2, or eSATA, or whatever? Look for a case that has the same connection system. Many actually come with 2 or 3 possible connections, and you use only one at a time.

 

[mrhodes61]

I just put this into a Rocketfish case and it is working perfectly. Thank you for your help. My computer has a USB 3.0 connection so the cable the case came with attached perfectly. It was fairly simple! Thanks again!

 

[mrhodes61]

Best answer selected by mrhodes61.