Hard disk plug in to USB

External hard disk plug in to USB

If you have an old hard disk (of course new) spare you can convert it in to an external hard drive with minimal investment. Just plug it in to the USB port and it will get recognized as a mass storage device. You no longer need to open the cabinet to hook up the hard drive to copy data, songs or video.

What you need to is a hard drive and an IDE to USB converter. IDE to USB converters are available in the market for the standard 3.5 inch desktop internal drive as well as the 2.5 inch laptop drivers. Fort this purpose be sue to buy a 3.5 inch form factor converter. The converter has an IDE and a Molex power cable that connect to the hard disk and a USB cable to connect to the USB port of the PC. There is an external circuitry that converts the IDE interface to USB interface. The power supply for the hard disk is bundled with the kit.

Connect the IDE and power cable of the converter to the hard disk .Plug in the USB cable to the USB port (USB 2.0 for fast read/write).Under windows 2000 or windows XP the driver will be recognized as a mass storage device, just like a thumb drive. If, incase the drive is not detected, unplug and plug it again. If prompted to, restart the PC

To prevent damages of data loss, do not disconnect the hard disk while data is being written to it. For a better safety, stop the drive from the system tray before unplugging it.

There is more to an IDE to USB converter that making an external hard disk. If your laptops CD Rom drive is not working and you need to install software from a CD urgently, you can plug in a CD Rom drive just like hard disk! Windows may need to restart after seeing a’ no hard disk USB device’. If your PC has a USB 1.1 only interface, you can still connect your hard disk to it, but the reed/write speed will be slow.