How to convert internal disk into an external hard drive?

Every computer user requires additional storage capacity sooner or later. And that’s why most of the people replace their internal hard drive with a new drive which is much more efficient in terms of quality and obviously storage too. If you are also one of them, then the major problem that emerges for you is what should you do of that old hard disk? Well, with the advancement in technology you can convert it into an external hard drive. Although it sounds something strange, but thanks to revolutionary experiments it’s true. Now, undoubtedly you must be eagerly waiting to know how you can turn your old internal hard drive into an external storage media.

Well, in order to do this task, first of all you have to determine the correct external hard drive enclosure. The selection of an enclosure depends upon your old hard drive. So, first of all you must determine whether your hard drive is IDE or SATA. If your computer is an older one, then probably your hard drive may be IDE. But, in case you have purchased your computer a few years ago, then undoubtedly the hard drive you have handy belongs to SATA. However, you must recheck the interface of your drive before you proceed to next step.

Once you have identified the type of your hard disk, the next step is to find out which sort of connecting cable will be suitable for you. For instance, you can go for Firewire enclosure if your computer’s hardware supports this sort of connectivity. And in case, it is USB hub, that you computer’s hardware supports then there is no benefit for looking anything except USB enabled enclosure. Well, these were the basic factors which you must bear in mind while choosing enclosure for your hard drive.

Apart from this, there are some other factors which don’t matter for an external hard disk enclosure, but can add immense functionality to it. Looking around in the market, you will find many hard disk enclosures that come with built in back up buttons which can be used to launch additional software etc. After selecting the correct enclosure, it’s time to adjoin your old internal hard drive into it.

Well, this is a process which will require nothing more than a screwdriver. Just check the jumpers on the back side of your hard drive and set them according to master/slave settings as mentioned into the manual of your hard drive’s enclosure. From here, the only task that remains for you to do is secure the drive into the chassis, plug-in the power cable and connect it to the interface cable. And then you can close the external hard drive enclosure.

Now, let’s consider the last but not the least issue which is testing the functionality of your newly built external hard drive. Just connect this drive to the computer and wait for the operating system to install a driver for it. As soon as the drive is installed, the operating system will assign a drive letter for it, which you can easily rename. But, in case the driver is not installed by the computer itself, you have to do this manually by a CD. After that, just copy a few files from your local hard drive to this external one and repeat the process vice versa. If the files are copied regularly, then congratulations! You have successfully turned your old hard drive into an external hard drive.