Got an external to use an internal? Not so fast, proprietary interface

[alexruiz]

I posted in one of the threads about hard drive prices that I got a WD Elements SE 750GB with the intention to take out the bare hard drive and use it as internal in a laptop.

Well, not so fast!

Opening the drive was a breeze (just a bottom cover) and no tools are even needed, just your nails. What is inside explains the easiness to crack the case:

Yes, the SATA-USB bridge is integrated in the PCB of the hard drive, so there is no SATA connector! Only the USB3 connector.

Does anyone know of any portable external drive that is still regular SATA connected to an external bridge?

Thanks


Alex

 

[lsv]

Your best bet is to purchase a hard drive compatible internally with your laptop and an external enclosure compatible with the hard drive. No problems then.

 

[greenhawk]

they have been doing this for quite a while IIRC. I know one of the other forums I visit started a list of which ones did and which ones could not have the HDD pulled. It was nearly a year back when I spotted it last, but at the time the common thread was the drive needed to be small (older stock generally) and large (ie: not the ultra small portable drives you see on offer). The second part to allow space for the usb-sata bridge to be located.

The 1TB external I purchased a few months back (have not opened it as did not intend to) is bearly larger than a normal laptopdrive, so I suspect it is a integrated offering.

 

[Emulex]

yup 3rd party drive packagers like acomdata still push old drives in.

btw the external drives are the lowest quality possible. the D stock junk. do not want to put internal

 

[0roo0roo]

sad...

the externals i did do this to when on sale had to have a few tweaks anyways though, u gotta set the sleep timer on the things to a more normal schedule or else they spin down like every couple seconds or whatever...cycling the drive to death.

there was some dos utility for changing it.

 

[darckhart]

The WD My Passport series seem to still use "standard" sata connector 2.5" drives. The usb-ability came on a separate pcb when i tore it apart. got mine from amazon 2-3 months ago.