Internal HD inside External Enclosure?

[Wfrick]

I have noticed that the prices of external hard drives have not followed the recent uptick in internal drives. If I were to buy an external, 7600 RPM 1TB drive, would the drive inside be a standard, internal SATA drive? In other words, would I be able to remove the drive from the enclosure and use it as an internal drive in my case?

My son is trying to build his first PC on a 13-year-old's budget, and I'm trying to help him get the most he can through Christmas gifts. If he can use one of these external drives, he can get a HD for half the internal price, and pop something back into the enclosure down the road.

All help and advice is appreciated!

Thanks,

Wayne

 

[BadBigBen]

yes, most external drives use standard drives, meaning you can use it inside a PC case with out problem...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[rclarke250]

Try to find a breakdown of the inside with pictures of the model you would like, as some drives, do not have internal sata connectors, just the USB header soldered on the drive controller.

 

[vacunita]

Agreed, while its completely possible to do so, some of the newer type drives will not have the standard connections but rather the USB connection soldered directly to the underside of the drive.

Additionally some external drives are not a single unit, that is for a 1TB drive its possible to find two internal drives of 500GB a piece.



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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
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[goombawaho]

I'm going to agree that you can't be sure until you get it home and get it apart. That's not the time you want to say "uh oh". So, I'd almost say buy a used drive on Craig's List or Ebay and run it until the price of drives go down.

Do a FULL or LONG manufacturer's test on the drive when you get it home. Then, I would say backup your data, but I would say that anyway. You might buy the external drive anyway for THAT purpose (backup) to be fully CYA'ed.

 

[Wfrick]

Thanks to all for the advice!