Questions about adding a second hard drive 1

[hmunster123]

I have an old Western Digital MyBook external hard drive. It doesn't work so I want to remove the hard drive inside and turn it into a second internal hard drive. I have two questions:
1. Can this be done
2. It's important that I retrieve the data that is on the drive, can someone advise me if this can be done also and how. Thanks.

 

[xit]

1st off, why do you say the drive will not work, is it a cable problem or what, does the drive spin up? Next some of these were wired directly to the usb connection which would make it difficult to utilize, need more information about the drive, then a solution may be found.

 

[hmunster123]

When I plug it in the green light on the case blinks on and off and it is not recognized on my computer. I really need the data on the drive.

 

[goombawaho]

Cross-post. Please don't do that.

 

[BionicJohn]

There are many lengthy threads on the Western Digital Community Forums. Several solutions are offered, though there's no guarantees.

Does your drive have its own power supply, or does it draw power from the USB port?

And yes, you can dismantle the case, take the drive out and hook it up directly to your PC. I hope the drive is working OK.




Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[hmunster123]

So I can install it as a second drive? How does that work, the computer reads it the same as it would say a flash drive?

 

[vacunita]

Depending on how the hard drive is wired, you may or may not be able to do this.
Since we know very little of the drive all we can do is guess.

For many external drives, the internal hard drive in them is a regular desktop or laptop hard drive, with the adequate connectors.

If you can successfully disassemble the external enclosure and remove the drive, the next point is to see what type of connectors the actual physical drive has. If it has the USB connections directly on it, then it won't make a difference whether it is in the enclosure or not.

If it has regular SATA connectors on it, then you will have to open your PC, and connect it to a free drive bay.

The drive will show up as a regular hard drive on your PC, say if your current HD is C: and your DVD drive is D: it will possibly show up as E: if it can be read and mounted. It will work like your current HD.

It will not be removable while the PC is turned on and of course the PC must be turned off before you attempt to attach it without the enclosure.



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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[goombawaho]

Not sure the OP is skilled enough to perform this task based on the questions + no guarantees that the drive is not encryped or toasted per his other post.

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1702521

 

[hmunster123]

Added it as a second drive, works great. Thanks for all input, much appreciated.