External Hard Drive. Or is it?

Ok, is an external hard drive just a normal ATA hard drive with some special wires and a fancy case? If so, then this plan would work wouldn't it?

Ok, so external hard drives are pretty expensive compared to their counterpart, I mean you can get a 250gig internal for like 150.00, while you can get a 160gig external for the same price..that is about 100gigs less for the same price. Well, here is a method (if my question above was true) that you can get a huge fat hard drive and have more memory for your pc, for a lot less. Here it is.

First, you buy a cheap external. We are goiing to get a 100gig for 60 bucks.
Then, you need to get a really big internal, we will go with 150 bucks.
Now, lets get to work.

Firs, you would want to take apart ur external, and like I asked above, if it's true... you should see a normal 100gig hard drive, with special wires connected to the ATA connection. Then, get the 250 gig hard drive and put it in the external casing, connect the wires, and put it back together. Now, you have a 250 gig external hard drive, and 100gigs for your computer.

So, what is the point of this, why not just buy a 250 gig external hard drive.
this is wy...

100gig external hard drive 60.00
250gig internal hard drive 150.00
Wit that, you have 210.00. Now...here is this
250 gig external hard drive is about 300.00, we have one that is 210.00, plus we now have more storage inside our pc.

See how this is useful, it's cheaper, and has same space, wit the added bonuse of more internal storage.

So if my first question is true, then would this work? Becuase I think my hard drive won't connect to my usb for some reason, covered in.. http://cellphoneforums.net/computers...-forehead.html So I would be able to put my hard drive inside my pc.

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I know with the old external Printer port ones this used to work, but i'm not sure with the usb, i doubt it, but i'll have a look and see if its possible.

I would take my current one apart, but I don't have the right screws. But as soon as payday rolls around, i will get a bigger one, and save my stuff on it, then I will see. Other than that, go ahead.

The internal hard drive and the external hard drives will be the same, for the most part. The only difference in MOST cases, is the case with it's own power supply and maybe the ablity to change it from slave to a boot drive on the case itself, rather than needing to do it on the HD.

In the case of the more spendy external drives, their made to be moved around and bumped a bit more than one you'd normally put in a computer that sits under or on a desk. Some are even rated for a 4 to 5 foot drop off a desk. In those HD's it's the construction of the drive itself as well as the case that makes it cost more for less storage space. Something you could not get away with with most internal hard drives.

Yeah, that makes sense too. I mean, getting a stainless steal case for your ipod so you can drop it from 5 feet, will cost more than it being just the way it normally is. But yeah, I will give this a try when I can (the external hard drive thing)

I have to do some research on the prices.

As it is now, I won't say external hard drive are expensive. In fact, I think it's quite cheap.

The reason the external hard drive cost more than internal is becuase you also paying for the case for it.

Long time ago, I would have said external hard drive is expenisive because during that time, the price difference between Mp3 players and external hard drive with same size is very little.

In fact the last 2 mp3 players I have, I use it for storage.

I will soon replace it with a external hard drive after seeing how cheap it is going for now.

If you want to save money on external hard drive, I recommend getting it online. Use Froogle Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Products Online, Compare, Shop & Save Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more .

Another way is, they also sell cases to make your internal hard drive into a external hard drive.

As far as I know, the hard drive inside the external hard drive is the same ones found in the desktop PC or laptop computers.

Well, due to some problems with my external I took it apart. And, come to find out, it's true, an external hard drive is really just a normal hard drive with funky casing. So, I can get a 250gig hard drive, and make it external and save about 30 bucks. Not bad deal. And, I am curently using my external hard drive, inside my pc! It works, perfectly. So yes, it's true, but, I wouldn't trust all manufacturers to have it the same. I was using a SeaGate external hard drive.

you could also just buy a hd case which turns internal hds into externals.

Originally Posted by BlkBear

In the case of the more spendy external drives, their made to be moved around and bumped a bit more than one you'd normally put in a computer that sits under or on a desk. Some are even rated for a 4 to 5 foot drop off a desk. In those HD's it's the construction of the drive itself as well as the case that makes it cost more for less storage space. Something you could not get away with with most internal hard drives.

Yep, very very true. Internal hard drives are not designed to be moved around, much less in a notebook carrying case with a mouse and power supply.

It's not worth saving the extra $90.