How Do You Build An External Hard Drive?
One of the simplest ways to give your laptop more hard drive space, or backup all of your important files without burning them to CD or DVD, is to build your own external hard drive. This hard drive would be able to connect to any computer with a spare USB port. You can easily and quickly transfer large files between computers, and also have a form of backup in the event something ever happens to your computer. This external hard drive will work on computers running Windows 2000/XP, OS X, or Linux. • You must obtain an internal hard drive (from now on referred to as an HDD). The first step is to decide on one of the standard physical sizes for any HDD. If you already have a spare HDD laying around for this project, skip to step 3. There are basically 3 HDD sizes: 1.8″, 2.5″, and 3.5″. 1.8″ and 2.5″ are the standard sizes for laptop HDD’s. Laptop HDD’s can be powered by the USB cable, so there is no AC adapter needed. Laptop HDD’s are however more expensive than internal PC HDD’s, so if
• You must obtain an internal hard drive (from now on referred to as a HDD). The first step is to decide on one of the standard physical sizes for any HDD. If you already have a spare HDD laying around for this project, skip to step 3. There are basically 3 HDD sizes: 1.8″, 2.5″, and 3.5″. 1.8″ and 2.5″ are the standard sizes for laptop HDD’s. Laptop HDD’s can be powered by the USB cable, so there is no AC adapter needed. Laptop HDD’s are however more expensive than internal PC HDD’s, so if you are not worried about size or another power cord, a desktop PC HDD may be the way to go. • Choose and purchase a compatible enclosure. Take into consideration the physical size of your HDD, as well as its interface (ATA100, ATA133, Serial ATA150, Serial ATA II, etc.). Decide on a connection type that suits the needs of all computers that will be connected. USB2.0 is currently a good standard, and it will work on any computer or laptop with a free USB connection. FireWire (IEEE1394) is even faste
