upgrading hard drive, can I use old one in an enclosure?

[AgentUnknown]

Thinking about getting a WD Black 1TB. MY old Seagate 320gb 16mb cache 7200 has been used for about 4 years. Could I put it in an enclosure and transfer my files over? I plan on upgrading to Win 7 with the new one.

 

[Puppies04]

You can, but why not just leave it internal and boot from the other drive?

 

[corkyg]

External has some advantage in that it can be turned off when not needed, and used with other machines.

 

[0roo0roo]

these type of cheapies work
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OORN06
under 10 dollars shipped, not something you leave plugged in 24/7, just for the transfer its good enough.

 

[dma0991]

Yes you can use it in an external enclosure but as with all 3.5" drives they need an external DC brick to power it. I usually attach laptop HDD which is 2.5" and is able to power up from the USB port itself and does not require any external power source.

If you're not carrying it around you could get one of those toaster style HDD dock as an alternative to an enclosure. It fits any SATA HDD 2.5" and 3.5" and you can just swap out the drive for more storage.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...matek%20secure